A Favorite Opening Sequence

David Fincher’s Zodiac (2007), there is an emphasis on the normalcy of the environments and lifestyles of the killer’s victims. The opening sequence orients us to the environment, the streets of the suburban Vallejo, California, with a tracking shot down the street showing us rows of houses on the Fourth of July evening; in his commentary, Fincher remarks that this was to create a “notion of normalcy,” of people “going about their lives before we introduce the violence” (Fincher, 2007). This opening introduces the tendency throughout the film of letting us relate to the characters by showing their familiar, regular activities. Fincher admits that this was his intention, to include “so many things that were oddly personal” (Fincher, 2007). These typical slice-of-life moments seem to precede each of the Zodiac killer’s murders throughout the film; people, usually a couple, going about their normal lives when the serial killer barges in on their ordinariness with his insane and perverse need to destroy them and take their innocent lives.
     The opening sequence continues at an empty parking lot in a rural area this same night. A a young girl and guy are alone together, in a parked car, and they appear to be a couple on an intimate date. We, the audience, are the only ones privy to their intimate conversation- or are we? Suddenly a car drives by in the distance and we are made aware of the killer’s presence.
The audience is privileged because the characters do not know that they are being watched or that danger is upon them. There are only subtle hints of danger, and the pacing is very slow and deliberate as the scene unfolds and the danger becomes more imminent. The girl notices the car only later, when the killer drives by a second time. The car approaches and pulls up behind theirs, with the headlights shedding light on their clandestine activity and making the danger inescapable- this is part of the lighting design which shows how the mis-en-scene can affect our relationship to the fear and suspense of the murder.
    There is also a juxtaposed link between romance and violence which is another common theme throughout the film. In Zodiac, the murders seem to coincide with a male-female interaction, only complicating the relationship further. This occurs in this first sequence, and continues. It points out that there is already an issue, an incompletion or rupture in what should be the normal, prototypical male-female romance. In Zodiac, the murders seem to coincide with a male-female interaction, only complicating the relationship further. Additionally, Fincher chose to include the gender-biased mindset of the Zodiac killer, as in his brutal attacks it is the man whose life is spared, while the woman does not survive; this further underscores the idea of dysfunctional relationships in which there is an unequal, unstable male-female balance. So, in this opening sequence, when the murder occurs, the girl does not survive the shooting while the boy does.

Here is the clip from the beginning scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBu8BdhUnmE