The late 1960s was a tough time in California. In 1969, Charles Manson and his family systematically murdered seven people, including actress Sharon Tate. Around that same time, during an eleven month period in 1968-69, an individual who identified himself only as the “Zodiac,” murdered at least seven people in Northern California. Given the location and the subject matter, it is not surprising that Hollywood has had a fascination with the Zodiac killer from the start. The case spawned the 1971 low budget thriller The Zodiac Killer and is said to have been, in part, the inspiration behind Dirty Harry (1971).

David Fincher, the director of such psychological dramas as Fight Club and Se7en, was the perfect person to helm a film about the Zodiac killings. He has created a portrait punctuated by realism, even though true-crime fans know the outcome from the start. Many already know that the Zodiac was never caught and the case never officially solved. Instead, Fincher turns his attention to a thorough analysis of the investigation of the case done by young, Eagle Scout San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist, Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) and gruff, veteran police inspector David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo.) Zodiac, based on two books by Graysmith as well as Fincher’s own extensive research, unfolds as a haunting portrait of crime and obsession.

Zodiac’s attention to minute facts and theories corresponds with both Graysmith and Toschi’s obsessive need to catch the killer — who petrified the Bay Area with murders and taunting letters to newspapers and police (complete with strange ciphers) that, per the killer's demands, were published on the front page — but also Fincher’s own need for perfection (which reportedly required up to seventy takes for a single scene). It seems appropriate that a perfectionist like Fincher should take on a project like this, given the obvious influence film had on the killer and vice versa. In one of his first letters to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Zodiac makes reference to The Most Dangerous Game, a 1932 film about an insane hunter who arranges for a ship to be wrecked on an island so he can engage in a killing spree. Later on, life imitates art when someone calls Toschi “Bullitt” — reportedly, the inspector was the inspiration for Steve McQueen’s iconic character. In a late letter, the Zodiac himself opines: “Waiting for a good movie about me, I wonder who will play me.” Obviously films played a big part in the Zodiac case from the beginning.

Through numerous letters to the press, the Zodiac cunningly manipulates the media to achieve his own duplicitous goals. At the same time, the press latches on to the story, not just for informational purposes but for personal gain. “He’s [Zodiac] in it for the press,” exclaims San Francisco Chronicle reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr. in his best performance since 1992’s Chaplin). By the end of the film it is clear that everyone from the Zodiac to the police detectives and the press all attempted to use the case for their own personal gain.