From the author of the intriguing âGameâ, the canonical thriller âSevenâ and the classic movie âFight Clubâ at the 60th Cannes Film Festival, surprisingly, they did not expect any special nervous shock or impressive artistic delights and revelations. And after the premiere, they received one and the second. "Zodiac" (2007 film) reviews of filmmakers who attended the festival screenings, right after the premiere, were elevated to the rank of iconic paintings of our time.
Unsolved riddle
The history of the existence of mankind is much more inventive than any screenwriter, film playwright and director. Therefore, the unsolved mysteries of the past still hinder creative minds, prompting filmmakers and writers to return again and again to individual episodes - heroic or shameful, in the history of human civilization. One of the main unsolved cases of American justice is a series of horrific crimes of a serial killer maniac, nicknamed the Zodiac, whose twelve years of bloody harvest killed thirty-seven people.
Going to begin work on the production of the next project, director David Fincher, with enviable scrupulousness, studied all archival documents for a year and a half, tried to conduct his own investigation to understand the zodiac phenomenon. The 2007 film, with a high IMDb rating of 7.70, is considered one of the visionaryâs best works.
The brightest "rookie" Hollywood 90s
Many viewers, watching the film "Zodiac", left comments with cynical comments, in which they argued that the director suffers from childhood post-traumatic syndrome based on urban folklore about the terrible Zodiac. Indeed, the effect of viewing the tape is easily comparable to reading a beautiful anti-utopia, in which the present and the past are indivisibly mixed, and there is no future at all. The director managed to create a real quiet nightmare. Fincher does not comply with standard genre schemes, ignores personal characteristics, in his research he goes much further, therefore the evil in his picture is the highest and generalized. He does not demonstrate evil, which in itself is not simple, he shows his manipulations with the consciousness of the masses, the emergence of mass hysteria and a strange interest in evil. That is why David Fincher is called - the master of suspense, and the film "Zodiac" reviews of reviewers are positioned as the most virtuoso work of a visionary. In the movie, which is based on real police reports, the director skillfully maintains tension for two and a half hours of timing, inviting the viewer along with key characters - a journalist, police officer and cartoonist - to delve into the process of understanding the personality of a serial killer.
The main characters of the picture
By the way, with key characters Fincher got an interesting thing. In front of the viewer is not just a policeman, artist and journalist - they are archetypal journalist, policeman and author, similar to peculiar coordinate axes, along which the director lays out the moments of the story, separately they are one-dimensional, but in general they create a harmoniously balanced composition. Each of the heroes personifies a different attitude to the zodiac, and from his perspective illuminates the history of the âelusiveâ sadist and the process of the formation of a sociocultural myth about him. Naturally, the wonderful central acting ensemble of the film "Zodiac" contributed to this visionary, the reviews of which are mostly laudatory.
Leading actors
Indeed, in the film "Zodiac" the actors are selected impeccably. Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain, Prisoners) played the role of Robert Graysmith, Mark Ruffalo (Avengers, Island of the Damned) masterfully reincarnated as Inspector Dave Tosca, and Robert Downey Jr. (âIron Manâ, âSherlock Holmesâ) appeared before the viewer in the image of the journalist Paul Avery. The actors (especially Downey Jr.) Play just fine. But in the movie, as in real life, there are no heroes. All are potential victims, and evil has no image. It is filled with unique Fincherâs suspense throughout the entire narrative of the film.
For the imaginative viewer
It is not surprising that the film "Zodiac" reviews of viewers evaluate differently. For the public with the presence of exuberant imagination - it is wonderful, beautiful, bright and memorable. Although the shape of the tape is similar to the art chronicle, full of episodes of police and reporter investigations. This art criticism artifact, which is a curious film screen.
From the point of view of other inhabitants, the picture of Fincher is a dry account, a routine retro detective without a hint of creative sophistication, expression and fatal denouement in Hollywood.
Directorial pedantry
The script of the âZodiacâ is based on the works of Robert Graysmith, a realist once practicing caricaturist who tried to independently investigate the Zodiac for several decades, after having written several articles and books. Nevertheless, the script is not executed according to the canons of fiction, it is well tailored to the truth of life recorded in real documents, because the directorâs everyday life is much more important than all the generally accepted cinematic principles of âembellishmentâ. Everything that is displayed in the movie is even too authentic, although finnish pedantry is not a know-how in the movie, it is rather the authorâs subjective vision.
Chamber tape
The film "Zodiac" received critical reviews from film critics. In the list of films of the first decade of the XXI century, he occupies an honorable fifth position. Despite the fact that he did not cause much hype at the box office, Fincher's project entered the Top250 at IMDB. The picture is really quite worthy, it was created professionally, but it is unlikely to cause delight among a wide audience, it is more of a camera tape, which was not liked by every layman.
"Awakening of the Zodiac"
By the way, the Zodiacâs name has not been called by the police to this day, and the echoes of those murders still reach the public with mysterious postcards without signing the return address and other mysterious keys. History continues to excite society, although it is better for it to remain only on the screens of movie theaters. In early June 2017, the Canadian film by British director Jonathan Wright, entitled âAwakening of the Zodiacâ, will be released at the world cinema distribution. In the new project, the narrative is twisted around a married couple with an unstable financial situation, which falls into the hands of old films, chronicles that the Zodiac himself shot. The 2017 film is unlikely to repeat the success of the brainchild of Fincher, although it is premature to build any guesses. As planned by the authors, the family couple does not contact the police, does not give the evidence found, as it receives an offer in which the stranger promises a huge amount in exchange for the find. As a result, the heroes, enlisting the support of a friend - the owner of a pawnshop, begin their own investigation, obsessed with the idea of ââidentifying the legendary killer.
The film is starred by diverse actors: Shane West (âHeights of Freedomâ), Leslie Bibb (âIron Manâ, âParts of the Bodyâ) and Matt Craven (âCrimson Tideâ, âJacob's Staircaseâ).
"Mission Zodiac"
In the history of the world film industry there are several more films to one degree or another that exaggerate this exciting topic, for example: Alexandra Balkley's âZodiacâ and the French mini-series of the same name. However, individual paintings simply have similar names and a completely different semantic load, like the third part of the âArmor of Godâ franchise under the heading âZodiac Missionâ. The 2012 film is significant in that it is the absolute brainchild of Jackie Chan, who managed to perform in it in 15 roles: director, screenwriter, producer, artist, director of combat choreography, cameraman, stunt performer and, of course, actor. Although the next sequel to the film âArmor of Godâ, the Chan project was made by domestic distributors, in the original the tape is called CZ12 (Chinese Zodiac 2012). The project can be positioned as a rethinking of the original idea, since the cinema has no direct connection with the previous parts. There is a dashing Asian Hawk treasure hunter, aka Jackie Xi (Jackie Chan), who was given the task of finding and returning 6 bronze heads of animals that had previously adorned the Beijing Summer Palace and disappeared without a trace. Also in the cinema there are a lot of spectacular episodes: racing in a suit equipped with roller wheels, hand-to-hand fights in the sky, on the ground and underground, in the jungle and water, an unobtrusive romantic line, spatial moral in the finale.