Review of Chinatown (1974) by Richard D — 10 Jul 2016

I have seen this film dozens and dozens of times and I never tire of it. There are a lot of films that are variations on Raymond Chandler (some of them direct adaptations too, like "The Long Goodbye"), but few of them both capture the essence of Chandler and expand on his themes this effectively.

Jack Nicholson's J.J. Gittes is Philip Marlowe expanded on and accentuated a bit. An effective detective who's probably too well educated and sensitive for his line of work. He knows he can't actually make a difference against rampant corruption, but it still bothers him.

John Huston's Noah Cross is probably my favourite screen villain. He's genial and completely evil in a fatherly way. He's a man who does not care about what anybody thinks or does because he simply doesn't have to (note how he casually gets Gittes name wrong, says it right once when corrected, and then gets it wrong every time going forward).

The way he seems to absorb Katherine during the film's climax is one of the most quietly chilling images ever committed to film.