***SPOILER ALERT*** (don't know how to do the blackout thingy like the guys above!!)
The police couldn't put together a complete timeline of both Allen and Zodiac as each jurisdiction had different parts of the puzzle that were not shared between them. Graysmith's research concludes information from each jurisdiction and thus completing the timelines of both Allen and Zodiac for complete comparison.
I think it's a wonderful film, especially on a second viewing as when Allen is questioned you know it's him! and the tension is unbearable as you know they have to let him go as it's all circumstantial. The police departments at the time are ill-equips in the sharing of evidence across jurisdictions, communication is minimal and the newspapers print everything that all jurisdictions receive without each of the departments communicating and thus giving a much deeper, contorted and confusing number of facts. Zodiac used the press to hide his actions by confessing to murders he hadn't even committed jumbling up all the evidence and at the same time goading the police into making poor decisions, rushing to ill conceived evidence and really just getting into a terrible mess! It makes me think that by the end of the 60s definitely by the end of the 70s if they had all sat down at a table and gone through all the evidence together they would have come to the same conclusion the Graysmuith comes to.
The movie could have ended up going down the 'Silence of the Lambs' route and made up a fictional ending where Graysmuith is in the basement of the killer and an attack ensues ala Buffalo Bill - Clarisse Starling and I bet the studio wanted that too! So good for David Fincher..... Anyway that's my take on the events. Cheers x
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