Zodiac - The Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)

Zodiac, helmed by killer director David Fincher (Fight Club, Se7en), follows a tight-knit, overly-obsessed group of tenacious would-be crime-solvers who are on the taunting trail of a serial slayer who dubbed himself "Zodiac" and made horror history.

Based upon the true memoirs of San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), this sprawling and ambitious film focuses on the minutia of everyday life and downplays the sensational and salacious. Spanning three decades and running nearly three hours, Zodiac also stars Mark Ruffalo, Chloe Sevigny, and Robert Downey, Jr., each putting in an Academy Award worthy performance.

While I will admit that I admire this smart, mature film a lot more than I actually like it (read the Horror.com review of the original theatrical release here), I do recommend this new DVD for both diehard fans of Fincher's film, and the curious uninitiated. The movie may not be among my favorites of '07, but I can't deny it's worth a look.

A no-frills disc was released four months after the movie's March 2007 theatrical release, but here is the ultimate collector's item (you can pick it up on January 8, 2008). What's more, if you (like me) found the theatrical experience interminable, I promise: Zodiac is indeed more easily absorbed from the comfort of home and the convenience of a pause button at your fingertips.

• Commentary by: Director David Fincher - Fincher's soft-spoken solo commentary is pretty technical and rather dry (a jokester, he is not), but it's interesting enough. He talks about having grown up in the San Francisco area, and his recollections are amazingly clear. One thing Fincher talks about early on in the commentary is his attention to period detail; although the movie was shot in L.A., it was made to look like S.F. with the use of subtle but important digitally-added clues (like showing the Embarcadero  — which no longer exists — in the background).

• Commentary by: Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., James Vanderbilt, Brad Fischer, and James Ellroy - It was difficult for me to tell how many of these people were in the room at once during the recording. Surely there is some splicing, but it comes together nicely. It's not an obvious audio cut-n-paste job, like so many of these tend to be. Since I do not own the first Zodiac DVD, I don't know if there was a commentary by author Robert Graysmith; but this time around we get another true crime author, James Ellroy. He really has nothing to do with the case, book, or movie — but nevertheless he is absolutely, totally, and completely entertaining. Ellroy declares Zodiac as "one of the greatest American crime films" of all time, and admits that in spite of his well of knowledge, he's never been terribly familiar with the Zodiac's killings. "I was 21 in 1969," he says, "and this case slipped by me." He reveals he saw the movie, and learned all about it that way. When one of his fellow speakers expresses his surprise that Ellroy didn't know about the serial slayer, Ellroy deadpans, "I was bombed out of my mind [at the time]. I'm surprised I didn't wind up as one of the cocksucker's victims."

• Zodiac Deciphered: A behind-the-scenes documentary - This exhaustive look behind the scenes succinctly covers everything from costume design (they went by crime scene photos to get every victim's attire just right) to how the bloodletting scenes were achieved so flawlessly (all CGI, not a drop of fake blood was spilt on set).

Also on the DVD

• The Visual Effects of Zodiac

• Pre-Visualization: Split-screen comparisons between animatics and finished film

• This is the Zodiac Speaking: All-new feature-length documentary covering every aspect of the investigation

• His Name was Arthur Leigh Allen: The truth about the prime suspect in the Zodiac case from people who knew him and the police who investigated him

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