Culturedog Sam Hatch has been a major David Fincher aficionado since first tripping across that director’s maligned, yet visually intriguing Alien3 back in the early 90s. It took a while for the mainstream Hollywood press to jump onboard the Fincher bandwagon, but the path to his current status as an award-worthy director was largely paved by the 2007 “true crime” serial killer picture “Zodiac”. Ostensibly a fact-driven retelling of the terrifying events of the 60s and 70s as an elusive masked killer stalks residents of the greater San Francisco area, Fincher’s “Zodiac” is also a character study about obsession. Following detectives from the San Francisco Police Department and members of the staff at the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper, the film spans decades as the sensational buzz of danger gives way to an ongoing investigation and a constant state of conjecture and unresolved questions. Thankfully, the 2-Disc Blu-Ray of Fincher’s Director’s Cut doesn’t leave anyone hanging. From some insightful commentary tracks and newly added scenes to an onslaught of documentaries about both the making of the film and the real-life series of murders that it was based on, one will find that it’s easy to get lost within the labyrinthine special features of this great home video release of a modern crime cinema classic. Zodiac: 2-Disc Director’s Cut. Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment. Released January 27, 2009. Two 50GB MPEG-4 AVC discs. 1080p Resolution. Original Theatrical Aspect Ratio 2.35:1. 162 minutes. Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (24-bit, 48kHz). Disc 1 includes audio commentary with David Fincher and secondary commentary track with actors Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr., producer Bradley Fischer, screenwriter James Vanderbilt and celebrated crime novelist James Ellroy. Disc 2 includes the making-of feature “Zodiac Deciphered”, a featurette on “The Visual Effects of Zodiac”, a split-screen comparison of previsualization animatics and the finished film, the feature-length “This is the Zodiac Speaking” documentary about the real Zodiac investigation, and the documentary “His Name Was Arthur Leigh Allen” about the man suspected by some as being the actual Zodiac killer. English, English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles. Original MSRP $36.99. Directed by David Fincher. Produced by Arnold Messer, Bradley Fischer, Ceán Chaffin, James Vanderbilt, Louis Phillips. Written by James Vanderbilt, adapted from the book by Robert Graysmith. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Chloë Sevigny, Anthony Edwards, Brian Cox, John Carroll Lynch, Elias Koteas, Donal Logue, and Dermot Mulroney. Rated R. U.S. theatrical release March 2, 2007. Listen to "Culture Dogs" Sunday nights at 8pm EST on WWUH, 91.3 FM in CT. Also streaming live (and then archived via StreamRewind) on: http://www.wwuh.org WNPR: http://www.cpbn.org/profile/sam-hatch 96.5 TIC FM: http://965tic.cbslocal.com/tag/sam-hatch/ Intro music: "Anger Mgmt." by Sever the Drama. http://www.severthedrama.com This episode is brought to you by the word "amazing” and the phrase "revel in the awesome".

• published: 22 Oct 2015
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