What We Should Take From David Fincher's "Zodiac"

When talking about the wide-ranging genre of movies about journalism – from “All the President’s Men” to “State of Play” – one film is often left out of the conversation. While journalism movies are generally entertaining (to some, mainly journalists), most also prioritize emotional moments and narrative arcs over ‘truth.’ This applies not only to “based-on-true-events” movies, like “Spotlight” but also to fictional stories, which often fail to capture the reality of what it is to be a journalist.

"Network." 1976 (Courtesy/MGM)

 This is where the disparity between Hollywood filmmakers and journalists lies. While both are at their core storytellers, journalists are constrained by what actually happened. Upon this lies all journalistic credibility. Hollywood has no such obligation.

Enter “Zodiac.”

              

(Courtesy/Paramount Pictures)

This 2007 David Fincher masterpiece, which is equal parts thriller and true crime, recounts the investigation into the Zodiac, a serial killer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960s and early ‘70s. The film follows the efforts of law enforcement and reporters at the “San Francisco Chronicle” as they try to find one of the most high-profile and notorious serial killers in U.S. history.

Spoiler alert: they don’t. Zodiac remains on the country’s most infamous unsolved mysteries.

“Zodiac” boasts an impressive cast, including Jake Gyllenhaal as Robert Graysmith, the “Chronicle” cartoonist whose unending obsession with the case lasted decades after the formal investigation. Graysmith went on to write several books about the Zodiac investigation, which served as the basis for the screenplay. Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo also star, the latter as Detective Dave Toschi, who led the investigation.

            

Jake Gyllenhaal (left) and Robert Downey Jr. (right).
(Courtesy Photo/Paramount Pictures)

However, what sets “Zodiac” apart from other true-crime movies was the dedication of cast and crew to complete accuracy. Before the cameras ever started to roll, Fincher, screenwriter James Vanderbilt and producer Bradley J. Fischer spent 18 months conducting their own investigation into the Zodiac killer.

They gained access to every police file and statement made about the killings, reading everything. They brought on Graysmith and Toschi as technical advisers on the film to make sure the production got all of the details correct.

They talked to anyone who was ever involved in the case – every police officer, emergency line operator and restaurant waiter and recorded their own interviews.

 “We had police reports and we backed everything up with documentation, our own interviews and evidence,” Fincher said in the film’s production notes. “Even when we did our own interviews, we would talk to two people. One would confirm some aspects of it and another would deny it. Plus, so much time had passed, memories are affected and the different telling of the stories change perception. So when there was any doubt we always went with the police reports.” 

They also spoke to any victims who survived the Zodiac’s attacks to recreate the experiences went through as faithfully and accurately as possible. In the production notes, most, if not all of the survivors were brought on as consultants on the film, according to the production notes.

When it came time to film, this dedication to accuracy remained, down to the smallest details. Fincher’s goal was to recreate the crimes as accurately as possible, going to painstaking lengths to do so, as shown in the video below.

 Patrick Scott (second from left), as Bryan Hartnell, who survived being attacked by the Zodiac in 1969.
Hartnell was brought onto the production as a consultant.
“It’s an eerie reproduction of what happened in my vision,” Hartnell said. “I couldn’t have scripted it better.”

The lengths that Fincher and his team went to in order to ensure accuracy is impressive and arguably honorable. If nothing else, the thoroughness of Fincher’s investigation is a remarkable example of investigative journalism.