on 8/17/2018
Here goes another attempt. I prefer Zodiac for the simple reason: it gets more disturbing with each viewing. Even though both films belong to the serial-killer genre, their priorities in regard to themes, tone, atmosphere, approach to the actual procedural work are very different. For starters, I love the dingy setting of Se7en, but it's always had a very fantastical quality to it, making the film feel a wee bit less authentic than Zodiac which, in comparison, feels effortlessly uncomfortable, and not just by virtue of the fact that it's based on real crimes, for even the depictions of the crimes are unalike. Se7en takes you into oppressive, downright disgusting places but lets your imagination connect the dots, because only the lurid details of the aftermath are visible on the screen. In Zodiac, however, the killer quite audaciously invades your personal space and, as a result, your sense of security, with murders shown to be taking place during serene situations of the everyday in which one would traditionally feel quite comfortable: a routine cab ride, a tryst, a nice sunny picnic spot. By bringing attention to these aspects, I'm trying to put emphasis on the way the murders are shot, in addition to their contextual significance. Se7en intentionally portrays the city as a figurative hell in which all kinds of psychos and morally revolting people are the denizens. This is shocking but still makes sense. However, the violence presented in Zodiac works in stark contrast to the mundane and the everyday, in order to reinforce the idea of detached security. For instance, the Lake Berryessa attack is very POV in its construction: you see the Zodiac killer spying on the couple with the latter's subjective line of vision matching the audience's making their subjectivity ours, his diabolic attire slightly blurred by yellow dry grass when, within the blink of an eye, a leisurely afternoon turns into a nightmarish event you won't be forgetting until your dying breath (for the surviving male, of course). These murder scenes in the first half get under your skin without being exploitative, and give you an idea as to how the Zodiac killer became the ultimate Boogie Man. Some more points I would like to add for the sake of this comparative analysis – namely that Se7en is about the search for the killer, whereas Zodiac is about the search for truth, for closure. Deep down, Zodiac's characters probably realize as the years go by that they're not looking for something tangible; and this allows Zodiac to pose existential questions more thought-provoking than Se7en's morally substantial but straightforward do-you-help-others-or-wallow-in-apathy riddle. Furthermore, I really like the dichotomy between truth and fact in Zodiac, as all the facts at the characters' disposal may not be enough to lead them to the truth, and by the same token, knowing the truth may not help in retreading the path to those facts (I mean, how do you prove the killer guilty without facts?). If critiquing the media and information age is the yardstick, then Zodiac absolutely buries every other flick Fincher has ever made, including The Social Network and Gone Girl. Finally, to mention the more subjective/taste-related reasons, I do find Zodiac's take on obsession more relatable, its atmosphere more haunting, and the performances more sincere (although between the two films Spacey is the best performer). My conclusion, Zodiac is Fincher's magnum opus.
