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  3. The challenge of making a serious film about the Zodiac, a serial killer who

The challenge of making a serious film about the Zodiac, a serial killer who

游客2025-01-13  24
问题    The challenge of making a serious film about the Zodiac, a serial killer who terrorised northern California in the late 1960s and early 1970s, is that he was never caught. By focusing on the men who tried to catch the murderer and the effect the investigation had on their lives, David Fincher weaves a potent spell.
   James Vanderbilt’s intelligent, factual script is based on a book by Robert Graysmith, who became intrigued by the letters the Zodiac wrote to the San Francisco newspaper where he worked as a political cartoonist. Played by Jake Gyllenhaal, Graysmith is that familiar figure, the earnest amateur sleuth solving crimes that baffle the authorities. Dave Toschi(Mark Ruffalo), a San Francisco homicide detective, and Paul Avery(Robert Downey junior), a star reporter, are also hunting the Zodiac. The three men stay on the case for two decades, during which the embittered Avery sinks into substance abuse, Toschi is transferred from the homicide department under a cloud, and Graysmith’s marriage comes to grief.
   Obsessed investigators are common in films about serial killers, a genre in which Mr. Fincher scored a notable success in 1995 with "Seven". But what was a melodramatic device in that film becomes gripping drama in "Zodiac", which has also seen a refining of his visual style. "Seven" was flashy: "Zodiac" is sober and ravishingly elegant.
   Instead of dwelling on gruesome images, Mr. Fincher sets our nerves on edge with three brutal crimes, then mesmerises us with a mystery—just as the Zodiac did. After an initial killing spree, he continued to hold the Bay Area in thrall with threatening letters accompanied by blocks of cipher code, which newspapers printed like the morning crossword. During one sequence the words of the taunting messages even seem to float in the air around the frustrated investigators.
   Mr. Fincher aims to tell a fascinating story, not to exorcise a collective obsession. Jack the Ripper, who was never caught, became an industry, whereas the solution "Zodiac" proposes is convincing enough to forestall a stream of books and films in which the Zodiac turns out to be Spiro Agnew, say, or Janis Joplin. That should at least put a dent in the undying notoriety this particular psychopath killed to achieve. [br] What does the word "mesmerise"(Para. 4)mean?
选项 A、Enchant.
B、Delude.
C、Dilute.
D、Entrench.
答案 A
解析
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