A couple 'o' movies

I watched a couple of films last weekend, “Zodiac” and “Bobby”, the former about the infamous California serial killer, the latter a fictionalized account of the events leading up to Robert Kennedy’s assassination.

I was hoping to like “Zodiac” and expecting to dislike “Bobby”, but the opposite was true.

“Zodiac” was boggggggged dowwwwwnnnnn innnnn unnnnnecesssarrry deeeeetaaailllllll. Holy shit, did you guys lose the password to your editing app.? Based on the Robert Graysmith book of the same name, this film became more about his obsession with meeting the Zodiac killer than about the case itself, which underlines Hollywoods greatest failings of late – it’s not necessary to dramatize something that already has drama; and if you’re going to create an obsessive character at least make the character interesting, because obsession in and of itself really isn’t that attractive, it’s just a human flaw. The greatest unanswered question in films that center on an obsessed figure is “why”? Rule #1 in character writing; give the character a background, otherwise they’re one-dimensional.

Too bad, given that the Zodiac is (a) an unsolved case (b) has been out of the spotlight for almost 20 years, and (c) is entirely unknown to a current movie-going generation, this could have been a really great film.

“Bobby” on the other hand was a collage of personal vignettes about people whose lives would become forever entwined in the assassination June 5th 1968 at L.A.’s Ambassador Hotel. While the first two thirds of the film frequently indulged in sickly sweet sentimentality interspersed with brilliantly written monologue and acting (like watching Shakespeare directed by Steven Spielberg – no matter how hard the director attempts to smother it, the writing occasionally shines through), the film redeemed itself with the actual assassination scenes and the ensuing fallout.

The most interesting aspect of “Bobby” was it’s use of these seemingly “background” characters as metaphors for the personalities and issues that haunted Robert Kennedy’s life – which made it a lot more interesting than simply having actors portraying their real-life counterparts.