Zodiac - The Trail of the Killer
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Zodiac - The Trail of the Killer |
| Original title | Zodiac |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2007 |
| length | Theatrical version: 158 minutes Director's Cut: 162 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 16 JMK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | David Fincher |
| script | James Vanderbilt |
| production |
Ceán Chaffin Brad Fischer Mike Medavoy Arnold Messer James Vanderbilt |
| music | David Shire |
| camera | Harris Savides |
| cut | Angus Wall |
| occupation | |
| |
Zodiac - The trace of the killer is an American crime film of director David Fincher from the year 2007 . The thriller describes the deeds of the serial killer Zodiac , who murdered several people in San Francisco in the late 1960s , as well as the investigations from official and private sources. The film is based on the books Zodiac and Zodiac Unmasked by Robert Graysmith , a cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle , who received several letters from the Zodiac killer.
action
Dave Toschi and Bill Armstrong are investigating multiple murders with the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD), all of which were committed by a person called Zodiac . He sends handwritten letters to several San Francisco newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle, with notes and details that only the killer and the police can know . Charismatic journalist Paul Avery and 24-year-old cartoonist Robert Graysmith start doing research. After a few more announced murders Zodiac takes public contact with the Star-lawyer Melvin Belli , whose attempts to persuade the perpetrators to task are not successful. Although the police officers Toschi and Armstrong have a prime suspect named Arthur Leigh Allen after a while , neither the handwriting nor the fingerprints match, so that Allen has to be released from custody.
Graysmith, who has obsessively followed the case over the years, begins investigating himself. Eagle Scout First Class Graysmith is so obsessed with this case that his wife Melanie leaves the apartment with the children. She had previously expressed concern that Graysmith was acting so publicly. Graysmith also gives up his profession as a cartoonist and instead plans a book project about the Zodiac killer. After it became public that he was looking for the Zodiac killer, Graysmith received weekly anonymous calls, during which he could only hear loud breathing. Graysmith, with the approval of the police station, searches through the open files on the various murder cases, interviews all people who have had contact with Zodiac and even has these interviews certified to the extent that they can be used in court. The police and Graysmith assume that the killer is ambidextrous and wrote letters to the newspapers with his right hand , but uses his left hand in everyday life . He receives one of the crucial clues from Belli's housekeeper, who casually tells him that the Zodiac killer tried to call Belli on December 18th and mentioned that it was his birthday today; Arthur Leigh Allen was born on that day. After Graysmith gives Toschi this information, the investigation resumes in the early 1990s. In the penultimate scene, Graysmith visits Allen at his workplace, a hardware store. Graysmith looks intensely at Allen until he asks: "Can I help you?" After a short silence, Graysmith replies: "No."
In the epilogue the further course is described: Mike Mageau, who survived an attempted murder by the Zodiac, identified Arthur Leigh Allen as the wanted murderer. After Arthur Leigh Allen was identified, the judicial authorities convened a meeting to consider a murder charge against him. However, Allen died of a heart attack before this session could take place. In 2004, the San Francisco police officially closed investigations into the Zodiac case. Graysmith claims she never received anonymous calls again after Allen's death.
Reviews
Lexicon of international film : “The crime film , largely staged from the perspective of two investigators groping in the dark […], captivates thanks to its suggestive formal qualities. It is all the more disturbing because in retrospect it seems to satisfy the real culprit's greed for publicity. "
Prisma Online : "[Fincher presents] a gripping piece of contemporary history, but does not focus on the perpetrators, but on the hunters, without getting tangled up in endless perpetrator theories [...] best entertainment, which, however, also requires a bit of sedentary meat."
Andreas Busche in epd Film 6/2007 p. 37: “Like a neutral observer [Fincher] withdraws discreetly behind the events and lets the story dictate the style - not the other way around, as in earlier films. The apparent lack of personal handwriting becomes the real strength of Zodiac, who [...] is characterized by an almost documentary quality. [...] like all of Fincher's films, cool and mechanical, but this is precisely where the tragedy of his characters lies. [...] a masterpiece of classical storytelling ”.
Georg Diez, Die Zeit 22/2007: “[Fincher] wants to research this time, the late sixties, in which the postmodern world as we know it was formed [...] the sixties rarely looked so old, almost aged [...] basically tries something like an archeology of fear. "
In an essay for the magazine Filmbulletin - Kino im Augenhöhe, Johannes Binotto examined the film in connection with the genre of the serial killer film and the film itself: “The film is not interested in the person of the Zodiac killer, he remains a phantom, not least also visually. [...] Fincher leaves the scenes of the actual murders surprisingly quickly and directs his gaze to the real crime scenes, the media surfaces on which the Zodiac killer spreads: the letters, the newspaper pages, the cinema , which also includes the figure of the killer, like those of the policeman adapted, the television and again and again the overloaded telephone line. "
Rüdiger Suchsland at Artechock : "ZODIAC tells of tracks that get cold."
Fritz Göttler spoke in the SZ of a "truly breathtaking thriller" and a "suspense masterpiece that you can follow in suspense for over two and a half hours".
James Berardinelli wrote on ReelViews that the film looked like a particularly long episode of the television series Law & Order . He took the perspective of the book author Robert Graysmith, which in itself was not a problem. The lack of tension in the scenes dedicated to Graysmith is a problem, however. The performances of the actors are "competent".
Michael Butterfield writes on "Zodiac Killer Facts" critically about the many freedoms the director allowed himself with the facts, so that the suspect Arthur Leigh Allen appears to the audience as a possible perpetrator.
Alternative version
Shortly after the regular DVD release of "Zodiac", David Fincher announced a Director's Cut as a special edition on two DVDs, with several audio commentaries, documentaries and other bonus material on the film. The Director's Cut also contains additional or extended scenes.
backgrounds
- The film is a co-production by Paramount Pictures , Warner Bros. and Phoenix Pictures on distribution by Paramount in the USA / Canada and Warner Bros. GmbH in Germany. It was released in US cinemas on March 2, 2007 and in German cinemas on May 31, 2007.
- Filming began with a budget of around 65 million US dollars on August 8, 2005 and took place in Long Beach , Los Angeles , San Francisco , Vallejo and Walnut in California USA , among others .
- Zodiac grossed about $ 33 million in the US box office and about $ 85 million worldwide.
- Like Michael Mann's Collateral and Miami Vice before, the film was shot with digital cinema cameras in 1080p. Unlike Mann, who shot his films on HDCAM , Zodiac was recorded entirely on hard drive. The Thomson Viper digital cinema camera was used . They used Sony HDCAM cameras and Thomson Viper and a little 35mm film.
- According to Rüdiger Suchsland, Inspector Toschi was not only the model for the characters Bullitt and Dirty Harry , but also less known for Inspector Steve Heller in The Streets of San Francisco .
- In Napa County , Solano County and the city of Vallejo, the investigation into the case of the Zodiac killer continues, according to the credits.
Awards and nominations
In 2007, Zodiac was represented in the competition at the 60th Cannes Film Festival , but came away empty-handed.
The Wiesbaden film evaluation agency awarded the “ rating valuable”.
In 2016, Zodiac was ranked twelfth in a BBC poll of the 100 most important films of the 21st century .
Web links
- Zodiac - The trace of the killer in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Zodiac - The trace of the killer at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- Zodiac - The Trail of the Killer at Metacritic (English)
- List of twisted facts in the film (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for Zodiac - The track of the killer . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , March 2007 (PDF; test number: 109 628 K).
- ↑ Age rating for Zodiac - The Trail of the Killer . Youth Media Commission .
- ↑ Zodiac - The Trail of the Killer. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ^ Criticism at Prisma Online
- ↑ Georg Diez: Archeology of fear. In: The time . May 24, 2007, accessed on August 8, 2008 (ZEIT ONLINE 22/2007 p. 50).
- ↑ Johannes Binotto: Page no longer available , search in web archives: The fear of the blank , published in Filmbulletin - Kino im Augenhöhe, issue 5.07.
- ↑ a b Rüdiger Suchsland: Zodiac - The track of the killer. In: Artechock. Retrieved August 9, 2008 (with another review from Thomas Willmann).
- ^ Fritz Göttler: Zodiac - The track of the killer. (No longer available online.) In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . Archived from the original on May 11, 2008 ; accessed on August 9, 2008 (from Filmzentrale). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Film review by James Berardinelli
- ↑ Fact vs. Fincher
- ↑ Filmbewertungsstelle Wiesbaden ( Memento of the original from August 19, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
