Fave films of the century - 2007 - Zodiac

Histories of ages past
Unenlightened shadows cast
Down through all eternity
The crying of humanity
It is then when the Hurdy Gurdy Man
Comes singing songs of love
Then when the Hurdy Gurdy Man
Comes singing songs of love

Innocuous enough lyrics but when sang to the music of Donovan over a scene of a necking couple being gunned down by the infamous Zodiac Killer of the late 1960's they take on a very sinister feel.

What a way to start a film. You don't know these characters from Adam yet you are terrified for them. A troubling and disturbing beginning to a troubling and disturbing but brilliant film. Forget Fight Club and Se7en, this is director David Fincher's masterpiece. A film less about a killer and more about the effect he had on an entire city.

Zodiac was the name of a serial killer who murdered his way around the Bay Area of California between 1968 and 1969. He was never caught but his actions became the obsession of many. 3 of them were - Dave Toschi, a cop, Robert Graysmith, a political cartoonist and Paul Avery, a crime reporter. Their days began and ended with Zodiac on their minds. He both ruined them and made them and Mark Ruffalo, Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr all do immense work in their respective roles. Ruffalo especially becomes Toschi. Best known these days for his role as the Hulk and it's easy to forget just how good of an actor he is without all the CGI.

It's drama, thriller & horror (the basement scene, fucking hell) rolled into one and painted across an epic canvas spanning 15 years and like the real life tale the case is never solved but we're left with plenty of information to draw our own conclusions from. Mature, intelligent storytelling that demands our attention and fires our imagination. My favourite film of 2007.

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