review for zodiac

1. Charlie Quirk
Zodiac – Film Review!
Narrative:
Zodiac is a classic example of what a Crime film should be. It gives the audience an immediate
backstory that they can research on either before or after the film which makes it an even more
terrifying experience when watching the film. One thing that this film does really well is the shape
of the narrative and the way the the audience sees the events unfold. All of the main events of the
story take place early on in the film, for example the very first murder takes place minutes into the
film, therefore this straight away gears the audience for the rest of the film and by jumping straight
into the action it wastes no time in telling the story that it wants to convey. The rest of the narrative
mainly follows the people who are interested in the 'Zodiac killer', for example we see Inspector
David Toschi going to the crime scenes and asking witnesses about what they saw, trying to gather
as much information as possible. We also have Robert Graysmith who is a Cartoonist who at the
beginning of the film doesn't seem to be interested in the Zodiac killer but as the film goes on, he
becomes obsessed with finding out the truth of the Zodiac killings. The final main character that
tries to find the true killer is Paul Avery, who starts of by being the main frontier for finding the
killer, he even goes to a meeting place towards the middle of the film and releases huge information
to the public, however he loses his job and plays a less significant role towards the end of the film.
All of these 3 main characters are based of the real life people, as are the events that unfold in the
film. All 3 of these characters have 'their moments' so to speak and all stand out compared to the
rest of the characters in the film, it seems that the responsibility of finding the killer jumps from one
person to the next, which is well done throughout the film.
Shots:
Secondly, in the film we see a range of clever shots that allow the audience to feel even more
uneasy when watching the film. For example when we are with Robert Graysmith when he visits
the man who created the posters, we see a range of shots which are used to create both on-screen
and off-screen tension for the audience. During that particular scene there is also a cut in music, this
is done as it allows the audience to hear the heavy rain that is taking place during that scene, further
creating tension between the two characters.
Mise-En-Scene:
In addition to this, the mise-en-scene in this scene also can indicate the tension in this scene. For
example the lighting used is significant, as the room is fairly dark making Robert vulnerable in this
scene which continues to add tension to this scene. Also the positioning of characters during this
shot above is also important, as Robert is sitting down, the mysterious man, who is called Bob
Vaughn is standing up and is above Robert who is sitting down in this shot, this could suggest that
Bob in this situation has absolute power over Robert, further making this seen very unnerving for
the audience. Another way we can see that Robert is uncomfortable is through his body language, as
you can see from the image, Robert is slouched over and looks uptight, this therefore could be
showing that he feels unsafe in the current position he finds himself in.

2. Conventions:
The next thing I want to talk about is the conventions that there is throughout this film. Their are a
range of conventions that are used, for one convention is the use of guns and knives which are both
common weapons/props that are seen during most crime films. Another convention that is used
during the film is the detective chasing the criminal, which again is commonly seen during most
crime films, in this film the detective goes to the crime scenes and interviews victims, suspects and
witnesses. However there are also a number of conventions that are broken, the main one is the fact
that the good guy never catches the bad guy, nor do we (the audience) see who the actual killer is.
This is what makes this film so good and so unique compared to other crime films since it is based
of true events and in the real life story, the killer is never found and even till this day the killer was
never found out. This may be something we should think about when we create our trailer for our
Crime film, do we really want the murderer to be found out, or do we want to keep the murderer
unidentified and have the audience make their own interpretations about who the killer really is.
Another convention that is broken in this film is the way the film is structured (the films narrative).
As I previously mentioned in the narrative section of this review, I said that most of the action and
murders takes place earlier on in the film, whereas the second part of the film is mostly focused on
Robert trying to find the true identity of the Zodiac killer. Usually in crime films, at the beginning
of the film there is a crime committed, that then leads to the criminal getting caught towards the end
of the film. In this film as I mentioned the murderer does not get caught and most of the action/main
events take place in the beginning of the film.
Film Takeaways:
What can I take away from this film and potentially use in our upcoming Crime film. Well I think
the main thing is to consider whether or not we want to show the face of the murderer in the film, if
we want to show it in the film, it may be worth showing it towards the end of the film for extra
shock and give the audience another twist. If we were to do this, we should not show the face of the
murderer in the trailer so we do not spoil one of the main plot events during the trailer. In addition
to this, I think the other thing we need to strongly consider is the shots used during our trailer. I
believe that the shots can tell a thousand words, therefore we should try and make every shot mean
something and tell a different story compared to the next shot. This is something that is done a lot
during this film, every shot feels different and unique and allows the audience to become engrossed
in the film. Finally I think we should also have a good discussion about what conventions we want
to use in our film, as this can make our crime film feel more unique compared to others if we were
not to include a common convention.