"When you talk about obsession, you have to talk about the toll," says Fincher. "Toll is not something you can explain. It's something you have to feel. Can you make a movie -- will you ever set out to make a movie where people's necks hurt? I will, I like that."
The film delineates clearly between the two cops -- who at the end of the day knew they were doing a job and could go home to their lives -- and the civilians: the journalist and the cartoonist whose lives slowly deconstruct as they willfully throw themselves into the pursuit of a killer, which Graysmith believes he's found, although he can never bring the suspect to justice.
"This movie is a whole metaphor for men and how we all go assertively into the world and how we countermand our own personal chaos by trying to impose order on external events," says Ellroy.
His assessment at first sounds a little high-brow to Fincher, who goes on to explain, "I was interested in this whole notion of justice. At what point do you achieve justice? A therapist friend of mine had a great quote: 'You don't have to kill all the rattlesnakes in the world, but you have to know where they are and avoid them.' At the end, Graysmith has identified the rattlesnake and knows where he lives. He's able to go, 'I can't take you to court. I can't get a grand jury convened, but I know it's you.'
"When you look at obsessive characters -- my father was a little bit like that -- there is going to be something that fuels that. I look back on my 20s and go, 'Thank God there was no PlayStation, because I would never be what I am today.' I would have lost years off my life because it is dangerously fascinating to me."
Indeed, as Ellroy points out, obsessives just need to find an arena to exercise their personality. "A guy like that -- and I am obsessive on two marked fronts -- I'll find it. Wherever I am, whether I'm in Moosefart, Mont., ... or Los Angeles, Calif. This is Avery and Graysmith -- they were looking to take a fall, and they found it."
They're not trying to simply self-destruct, says Fincher. "You're talking of people who are looking for something to feed this part of the makeup. They have to get to the bottom even if it means swimming to it. Got to get to the bottom of the case. Get to the bottom of the bottle. You get to the bottom. That's what they did."
