The use of rock music in the film 'Zodiac.'

I have to say that I was impressed with the end result of Zodiac. I thought it would be tough, if not impossible, to create an engaging film about a criminal investigation that is not finished but I was wrong. Zodiac was very engaging and that was in no small part to the soundtrack selection.
I will not be doing a song by song analysis of the soundtrack and its place in the movie. To be honest, I would find doing such tedious and, as I am still sick, I do not feel up to writing that much more today. So, to eliminate such issues I will pick two songs to briefly analyze.
The first song I would like to analyze is Donovan’s The Hurdy Gurdy Man. This song occurs during the first murder in the movie. The scene is a man and woman sitting in a parked car in the wilderness. The scene is very quiet with the only non-sound effect audio we hear being The Hurdy Gurdy Man playing quietly on, what we assume, is the car radio. The song remains in the background as merely an addition to the scene until, when the Zodiac Killer enters and kills his victims; the song overrides all other audio and helps to drive the scene.
This is an interesting song to have placed during this scene. There is some tone painting. However, this is not in support, but in contrast, to the visual imagery. Donovan’s smooth melodies and quieted vocal style create a muted or sublimed audio scene while the cinematic scene we are given is very violent and dynamic.
The song is a good selection chronologically because it was released around the time of the Zodiac murders. This reinforces the chronology of the movie and helps keep the audience immersed in the idea of a different time.
The song is also used over the end credits; which is a great way to wrap up the film. Strangely though, this song does not appear on the official soundtrack.
The second song I would like to analyze is Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street. The song occurs near the end of the film when the protagonist approaches the suspect he believes is the Zodiac Killer. Again, we see tone painting in contrasts. This song, with its upbeat tempo and major chord progressions, seems to be the antithesis of the epic song we would expect for such a monumentus moment in the film.
However, the use of this song allows for allusions to something very poignant. Baker’s Street is the street that the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes resided on. By using this song, the director is showing that our cinematic Holmes has seemed to have met his nemesis.
It is interesting to see the lengths that the makers of this film went to with their soundtrack selection. Each track seems carefully selected for being chronologically correct and being especially poignant.