Elias Koteas, Anthony Edwards and Mark Ruffalo interrogate a suspect in ZODIAC.


originated with the Zodiac watch but it’s actually a fairly common astrological symbol that signifies the center of the universe. Some of the film’s most damning cir- cumstantial evidence against Arthur Leigh Allen is presented without question, when, in real- ity, there is more than reasonable doubt surrounding this same evi- dence. The most flagrant ex- ample of this is the “birthday” call supposedly made by the killer to Melvin Belli, which is used by Graysmith to incriminate Allen even though it was actually traced to a mental patient who had nothing to do with either Allen or the crimes (but who, believe it or not, crashed a press conference held at San Francisco TV station KQED in 1965, during which he asked Bob Dylan some memo- rably odd questions about the musician’s latest album). And, although it is technically not an error, Fincher’s failure to clearly show any of the composite sketches made of the killer be- trays the bias of his film, since showing these sketches would make it obvious that his primary suspect in no way resembles them. While the circumstantial evidence against Allen may ap- pear to be impressive, there is


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harder evidence pointing away from him, which the film barely touches upon. The simplest ex- planation is that the late Allen, who was no doubt a reprehen- sible human being, probably en- joyed making people think that he was the Zodiac, which is something he would later regret, when many refused to believe he was not the Zodiac.


While it may seem folly to criticize a motion picture for fail- ing to be a slavishly accurate “true story,” the folly to some extent belongs to Fincher and Vanderbilt, who set an impossi- bly high standard of accuracy for themselves and then proceeded to break it when they found it necessary for their story. (Despite an obsessive eye for period de- tail that went so far as to need- lessly require the accurate reproduction of stacks of period newspapers, Fincher sees noth- ing wrong with having Graysmith drive his young son to school in August, or having his characters order a meal he personally likes even though it was not yet in- vented.) At the same time, how- ever, the filmmakers made some anti-climactic dramatic choices in the name of verifiable accu- racy, such as excluding the first


definite Zodiac attack (because there were no witnesses), a rec- reation of what may have been his first murder in 1966 (the con- nection only came to light years later), and what could have been a real nail-biting depiction of the Kathleen Johns abduc- tion (her version of events changed over time). The re- fusal of the film to indulge in flashbacks and RASHOMON- like recreations of events (the approach used so effectively by Oliver Stone in his monumen- tal JFK) is arguably a millstone that ties it to one specific—and thus necessarily flawed—inter- pretation of events. As it is, ZO- DIAC occupies a gray area between “truth” and fiction, de- priving its audience of vicarious (if admittedly ghoulish) thrills on the one hand, and the closure enjoyed by a constructed drama like DIRTY HARRY on the other, all in the name of an historical accuracy that’s simply not pos- sible for any movie to achieve. Having said that, ZODIAC is an excellent and assured film, well worth seeing. It offers no clo- sure, but that’s the point. The truth cannot always be known with certainty and lives can be ruined in its quixotic pursuit.


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