Opening Titles and Song: Zodiac (2007)

Since we’ll be piercing the layers of Robert Graysmith’s book that documented the onslaught of a serial murderer in the Bay area during the ’60s and ’70s, and its 2007 film adaptation by David Fincher later in the week, thought it timely to take in the movie’s stellar opening titles sequence and song. Just about a regular attribute for this filmmaker’s features. Perhaps, not as unsettling as Se7en‘s or powerfully pulsing as The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo‘s, yet completely mesmerizing though appearing sedate.

No surprise the Zodiac film took a life at its inception, detailed moodily through dark and shadow. Yet, its opening titles began in supposedly safe daylight, centered around San Francisco and the linchpin of the tale that’ll bring it all together by the end. The start marked by a newspaper cartoonist’s unremarkable morning routine of family and work playing out, which simultaneously established the elements and individuals that will break wide open by the sequence’s finish.

Taking with it any normalcy from that point on for all involved.

The film’s titles drawing the viewer’s eye as they appear in the lower corners of the frame before dissolving cryptically amidst a brief flicker of the “Zodiac”s distinguishing cypher. The killer’s letter and cartoonist traced as the sequence covers their routes to the newspaper newsroom. On an interception course with the public’s perception and more than a few preoccupations. The title cards in idiosyncratic typewriter font that’ll mimic anonymous communication, and the reams of police reports, to come.

Accompanying the scenes, in the contemporary pop music motif already established from the film’s onset, Santana‘s Soul Sacrifice delivered as only it could. A pitch perfect needle dropped tune as one could get to announce the period. Released in August, 1969, which matched the homicidal series, from Santana’s stellar debut album, an example of the striking blend of jazz fusion and latin rock then reaching listeners’ ears. The title sequence’s crescendo built entirely on its steady but intense rhythm and riffs.

To say nothing of what the song’s title announced for the story’s characters.