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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Zodiac (David Shire)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... only if have appreciated David Shire's contribution in
the context of the film, where it adeptly adapts several sources of
inspiration, including his own music of the 1970's, into the tense and
highly challenging environment of suspense and disillusionment.
Avoid it... if forty minutes of atonal ambience meant purely to frustrate the listener with the fear of unresolved mystery is not worth hearing Shire return to the mainstream after two decades.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Zodiac: (David Shire) It was inevitable that a film
devoted to the discouraging search for clues about San Francisco's
Zodiac killer of the late 1960's and early 1970's would be equally
frustrating, but that did not stop director David Fincher from torturing
audiences with a story as unresolved as its real life inspiration.
Despite a string of murders and the tormenting of the San Francisco
press and police with a series of cryptic letters, the identity of the
Zodiac killer has never been discovered. The only suspect, and a central
figure in Fincher's Zodiac, died in the early 1990's and DNA
testing in 2002 eventually exonerated him anyway. Tremendous care was
taken by the director, screenwriter James Vanderbilt, and producer Brad
Fischer to expand upon the accounts of the investigation published by
cartoonist Robert Graysmith. As the lead character in Zodiac,
Graysmith was long obsessed with his own search for clues about the
killer, eventually supported by reporters and, indirectly, by the police
as he continued his investigation for decades. Everything in
Zodiac was extremely painstakingly undertaken, the locale using
special effects to complete the San Francisco of the era and the facts
of the case very carefully assembled and presented so that the film
would not convict any one person. As the studios had feared, however,
Fincher's finished product ran too long to sustain audience interest,
and between that length, the lack of a resolution, and very few action
sequences, Zodiac was a financial failure. It did, however,
receive very respectful and/or positive reviews, however, as did David
Shire's score for the film. The story of Shire's involvement in
Zodiac is itself a lengthy topic, but one satisfying for film
score collectors who fondly recall the composer's strong contributions
to the genre in the 1970's. Fincher originally gained studio approval to
utilize no original score material at all for the project, instead
assembling source pieces ranging from vintage rock songs to the quiet
loneliness of Shire's piano theme from the classic 1974 espionage film
The Conversation. As production progressed, however, Fincher and
his sound designer agreed that Zodiac would require 15 to 20
minutes of music, and eventually they came to hire Shire himself to
write what essentially amounts to an adaptation of his own works and
other modern American sources.
The 1980's were the last time that Shire was active composing for films, and the assignment forced him to adapt into a new age of film scoring procedures that he ultimately praised, mainly in the technical arena. His contribution to Zodiac amounted to almost forty minutes of music by the end, though with roughly 34 minutes of that material utilized in the 157-minute picture. With two hours of the film left silent or with source usage, Shire's music is little more than pinpointed ambience, a technique that those familiar with the director's films will recognize. Fincher is no fan of melodic film music in the context of his works, and Shire originally wrote more lyrical material for Zodiac that was rejected by the director, who in turn dictated very clearly the instrumentation and sounds he desired. A small assembly of string players was joined by solo trumpet, horn, piano, and electric guitars for the occasion, though the horn and guitars only make cameo appearances. Shire's score is arguably just as intelligent as the other aspects of the film, tastefully adapting the temp track pieces while also manipulating twelve tones in the structures of the score to represent the twelve signs of the Zodiac. While you do hear influences from Shire's music for The Conversation and All the President's Men (and mainly the former) in Zodiac, the more notable inspiration comes from textures in Charles Ives' 1906 piece, "The Unanswered Question." Not surprisingly, the strings that comprise the "question" portion of that work are adapted while the woodwind answers are dropped, and when combining this decision with the atonal challenges in Shire's more original contributions, the score is unquestionably a depressing experience. As the composer says, it's an embodiment of "irresolution," with none of its harmonies developing in a way as to achieve tonal peace. The perpetually unsettling experience alternates between three primary identities while occasionally breaking off in an interesting deviation. The first "theme" (though it's a stretch to call it such) belongs to the killer, and his difficult, atonal string layers can be heard in "Aftermaths" (on album essentially an artificial merging of the three post-murder sequences) and "Law & Disorder," and with the actual action scenes left without any score, this material is meant to accentuate the sinking feeling of unresolved deaths and the potential for more indiscriminate attacks. The solo piano portions in Zodiac that pull from The Conversation are dedicated to Graysmith's persistent investigation, and while he receives a distinct theme from Shire, don't expect the melody to be any more inviting than the others in the score. This idea is heard at the forefront in three of the album's tracks, and the noir element inherent in their desolate performances carries over to the final theme in Zodiac, the one that accompanies the solaces of lead police inspector David Toschi. For this character, Shire goes the outright noir direction of the solo trumpet, meandering aimlessly in an equally unresolved theme of sparse despair. Given that the character's personal life was doomed in part because of this case, Shire treats him to little respect with this identity. Sprinkled throughout the score, the Toschi theme is a faint cry from the far more elegant and cohesive, tonal identity that he original wrote for the character (and graciously included on the album, along with a spotting session recording not to be missed). All of these three themes share a disillusioned vision of reality, and the score relies upon its few moments of unique instrumental character or greater depth of keep the listener involved. Foremost in this regard are the electric guitars exploring the detective's theme in "Trailer Park" and uniquely intense plucked strings alongside Bernard Herrmann suspense in "Graysmith Obsessed." Dark strokes from the same players at the end of "Closer & Closer" and the addition of a French horn to the Zodiac theme during the suspenseful, eerie interaction in "Confrontation" are also highlights. To say that there is any singular "highlight" in the music for Zodiac, however, is very deceptive, because the entirety of the score is meant to make you fill ill at ease. Shire's task was well accomplished despite the clear adaptation approach, but because we're talking about Fincher here, don't expect any single redemptive moment in this music. It's a significant challenge to enjoy this score outside of a collector's ability to appreciate it. On the latter front, it's very easy to admire the filmmakers' choice to involve Shire and the composer's ability to still provide a very effective contribution in while facing challenging circumstances. Shire's voice is one long missed, and Zodiac is an outstanding technical reminder of his skills (and therefore a favorite among some film music critics because of this point alone). But whereas Marvin Hamlisch's return to plunder his previous glory in The Informant! a few years later yielded a highly enjoyable listening experience, Shire's music for Zodiac is damn near intolerable out of context. Like the setting, the gloom of the fog is never far.
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 39:57
* contains spotting session dialogue at the end
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes a list of performers and a long note from
the composer about his approach to the score.
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