David Fincher's Zodiac: Cinema of Investigation and (Mis)Interpretation (The Fairleigh Dickinson University Press Series in Law, Culture, and the Humanities) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1683933265 ISBN 13: 9781683933267

Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2022

Synopsis

David Fincher's Zodiac (2007), written by producer James Vanderbilt and adapted from the true crime works of Robert Graysmith, remains one of the most respected films of the early 21st century. As the second film featuring a serial killer (and the first based on fact) by Fincher, Zodiac remains a standout in a varied but stylistically unified career. It similarly stands out among a new wave of crime cinema in the early 2000s, including the modern classics Inside Man, Michael Clayton, and Academy Award winner No Country for Old Men. While commonly described as a serial killer film, Zodiac also hybridizes the policier genre and the investigative reporter film. And yet, scholarship has largely ignored the film.
This collection, edited by Matthew Sorrento and David Ryan, is the first book-length study dedicated to the film. Section One focuses on early influences, such as serial and spree killer films of the 1960s and 70s and how their treatments helped to shape Fincher's film. The second section analyses the film's unique treatment of narrative with studies of rhetoric onscreen, intertextuality, and gender. The book closes with a section on media studies, including chapters focusing on game theory, data and hegemony, the Zodiac's treatment in music, and the use of sound in cinema. By offering new avenues in Zodiac studies and continuing a few established ones, this book will interest scholars of cinema and true crime along with fans and enthusiasts in these areas.

About this title

About the Authors

Christopher Weedman is Assistant Professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University, USA, where his research focuses on mid-twentieth century British and American cinema. His scholarship has appeared in Film International, Jewish Film and New Media, Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, Senses of Cinema, and multiple edited scholarly collections. He is co-editor of the collection Liminal Noir in Classical World Cinema (forthcoming 2023, with Elyce Rae Helford).

Andrew M. Winters is professor of philosophy and Chair of Humanities at Yavapai College.

Edition details

• Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1683933265
• ISBN 13: 9781683933267
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 274
• Editor: Sorrento Matthew, Ryan David