Too many names= hard to keep track

Just you.


Smart people who do not think Pacific Rim is clever or Avatar is original have zero issues with smart films that expect you to pay attention instead of playing on a cell phone.

Never watch Inception or Interstellar or Memento.

Cheers.

I love this film.

I think they relied on people having some knowledge of the crimes prior to watching. I did and I know it helped me.

I'm pretty bad with names myself, and there were a lot in this movie...but outside of the main characters, isn't it kind of incidental?

For instance George Bawart was a big part of the Zodiac case and he became pretty much the main investigator in the 80's and he was the one who arrested Arthur Leigh Allen. He appears in a couple scenes in the movie as a background character, and I don't know if they ever say his name.

You are correct that the scene showing followup information is indeed Bryan Hartnell, the surviving victim at the lake. It's a short scene and they don't do a lot to highlight him in general. Maybe viewer's would miss it, at least on the first viewing. Another scene that people sometimes get confused about is the very end scene featuring Mike Mageau, the first victim shown. At that point he had only appeared once about two hours ago so viewer's might have already forgotten about him.

But don't you think attention to detail makes a good movie? I like that you can watch a movie again and notice things that you didn't notice before.

It is overwhelming and you get a headache the first time or two you see this. Too many names, agree...too much information. However, perhaps that was part of the message of the film,...how overwhelming the info out there was to both the public and police force.

Some things in the film could have been more linear, without making me a Michael Bay film fan. I found it frustrating at times, yet alluring. Keep coming back to it, and subsequent viewings improve the experience.

"Get the point...get the point!" Terry Silver Karate Kid III

I agree, it spins your head around keeping track of all of those people. But having watched Zodiac numerous times, I can hoenstly say, that it all sticks! There isn't any name just thrown up in the air that doesn't land where it's suppose to! What a puzzle it must have been making this movie!

Prepare to evacuate soul.

There's plenty of "easy" movies
This film is like a puzzle. Confusion and a sense of overwhelming is part of its brilliance

In a way I'd have to agree with you. There were a lot of names/places to keep track of. But I also feel that they used repetition to a sufficient degree that you eventually picked up on important stuff.
Some of the names/characters that "fall through the net" aren't necessary to keep the narrative going, and you can actually kind of forget about them - as long as you are able to keep the main story in focus. But for the most part they appear enough times for you to be able to keep them in the net.

It's like Jean Pierre Jeunet's 'Amelie', where the viewer is introduced to about 15 different characters (their name, what they do, what they like and what part they play in the story) all during the first 15-20 minutes of the film. It feels completely overwhealming, but then Jeunet spends most of the rest of the film hammering that in - so that when the film is over you almost feel like you know them all personally. :)

-If made by George Lucas, this would be re-released 3 times - and by now be mostly cgi.

There were a lot of characters in this and difficult to keep up. Great movie though, Fincher is really good.