Review of Chinatown (1974) by Uttiyo S — 29 Apr 2013

Chinatown- 8/10.

Water, that's the root of all evil in Chinatown which makes it so much more mysterious and enchanting and so ever confusing that at the end you end up wondering and putting all the pieces of the movie together. Chinatown is ever so mysterious, gripping, enthralling and enchanting and backed up by some stellar performences by Jack Nicholson and Co, a gripping and uniquely mysterious story which keeps you wondering about the parts of the movie and putting all the parts of the movie correctly and some powerful yet amazing background music throughout the movie which really sets the tone for the movie, all these things in the movie are superbly put together and presented by the Amazing Roman Polanski who yet again makes a movie which keeps you gripped and wondering throughout the movie and in Chinatown he has made what is one of the best and most thought-provoking mystery movies of all time which needed no action or dramatic fight sequences for it to become a stellar mystery movie by the brilliant Roman Polanski.

The Story which is written by Robert Towne is revolving around the activities of J.J Gittes who is a private investigator and one day he is given the job of following Mr Mulwray and his day to day activities by Mrs Mulwray, and as he does so during which he does find out that Mr Mulwray was indeed having an alleged affair with another woman, he notices that Mr Mulwray is onto something else as well. And As he dies in a alleged suicide near the damn, Gittes gets more inquisitive on what Mr Mulwray was really looking onto. He finds out a bunch of things about the drought and what is causing it, and finds out about a dirty secret about why there is a drought in L.A. While trying to figure out why Mr Mulwray was actually murdered and did not attempt a suicide, he ventures into a dangerous path and while discovering what really happened to Mr Mulwray and what he was trying to protect, he discovers a lot of unexpected things which do not end up well for everyone in the end.

Now This movie has quite a limited cast which do not have many characters in the story and definitely do not have many widely reknown actors other than Jack Nicholson, and considering that the cast was small everyone of them did a great job in creating the atmosphere throughout the movie and portraying their characters as well as anyone could. Jack Nicholson leads the cast portraying as the inquisitive, bold and foxy private investigator Mr J.J Gittes around whom the story is based upon, and Nicholson shows us why again he is reknown so much for perfectly portraying every role he chooses and again shows the variety of ability in him to portray all kinds of different characters. His Portrayel as Gittes was his usual amazing calm self, and his speciality is that he does not need any action scenes or any powerful catch dialogues for him to show his presence to the audience. His facial expressions, dialogue delivery and attitude as the investigator J.J Gittes is quite perfect and he again becomes the character itself and having a director such as Polanski by his side, gives yet another marvelous performance which shows the variety in him. Although this movie is mainly based upon Nicholson's character, the actors supporting him have also done a great job in their respective roles. Faye Dunaway especially does well as one of the few female actors in this movie portraying the wife of the victim Mrs Evelyn Mulwray, and her character is mostly scared throughout the movie with a lot of secrets, and she does a great job in portraying and presenting her character very well. John Huston also does a brilliant job in portraying the father of Evelyn Mulwray , Noah Cross who is an arrogant, intelligent rich guy who also wants Gittes services for taking care of his daughter. His character is one of the complicated ones in this movie and neither does he get much screen-time, but he utilizes the most of whatever he does get by giving a memorable performance. The Other remaining actors in the movie also did a really good job in portraying their characters convincingly and helped their Director a lot.

Well, I have'nt seen much of Roman Polanski's movies but of whatever I have seen, I realized that he really gets his audience to really concentrate on the movie throughout its play-time because if you miss any part of the movie it really gets hard to understand it completely and he really gets the audience to absorb themselves into the movie. Chinatown is absolutely this kind of a movie because if you miss parts of it, you wont really understand it completely because its quite mysterious and complicated. Chinatown starts out a bit slowly but right after MulWray's death things begins to become interesting and the base of the movie is put out. Polanski has used his cast to its full-extent and has made sure that all the actors have done the best as they can in portraying the characters of the movie, some of which are quite complicated. He and Nicholson have really worked brilliantly together and Nicholson has done superbly for making this movie so popular and interesting and all credit goes to Polanski for gathering the best for that kind of a role, and also making the less-popular actors act superbly as well. He gives this movie that kind-of an ending that you keep wondering what really happened and putting all the pieces together once again, and are quite confused yet mesmerized at the end of the movie. He has presented this difficult and mysterious story superbly as well with his brilliant direction, and choosing that kind of a background score really amazes you and keeps you hooked to the sequences fully. He has portrayed corruption and greed superbly in this movie Polanski has made a real gem of a thought-provoking mystery movie in Chinatown, one of the very best of all time and because of its subtle and mysterious genre, it may be the best of its particular genre of all time.

The Screenplay which is written by Robert Towne is filled with thought-provoking dialogues which keep you glued to the movie through-out its play-time and some of the dialogues especially from Nicholson and Huston are really interesting and thought-provoking. The Dialogues are delivered superbly by the cast as well and this screenplay was superbly presented by the brilliant Polanski as well, so all credit to Robert Towne for such a brilliant screen-play and story. The Story is a really unique and mysterious one as well with the most interesting topic which is ''Water'' and the style by which the story was presented was brilliant and really keeps you wondering throughout the movie as well as after the movie.

The Cinematography was quite great as well as the early L.A was shown superbly by cinematographer John A.Alonzo did a really good job with the cinematography and camera-work of the movie which were especially convincing and good as well. The Costumes worn by the actors really pleased me as well, and the costume designer Anthea Sylbert has really put a sense of realism and originality to these characters in the movie and all credit goes to Anthea for such good costume design.

The Background music has a lot of part in this being so superbly made, because the background music is the thing which really sets the tone for the movie. It really sets the mysterious and unpredictability to the movie and the different kinds of instruments used for this background music are synchronized so well with the sequences that I was amazed and taken aback a little by how influencial the background music was to this movie and all credit goes to Music Director Jerry Goldsmith for delivering such amazing and influencial music which really helps to create the mysterious tone maintained throughout the movie.

Now, Chinatown is not really the entertaining types or the action-packed type of a movie, It is a really serious and thought-provoking mystery movie which one has to carefully and fully concentrate on because if you miss a scene you could really miss a lot of the movie. Chinatown is really though-provoking and enthralling kind of a mystery movie which keeps you thinking and wondering throughout the course of the movie and Director Roman Polanski with the brilliant Jack Nicholson and his great staff has made one of the best mystery movies of all times which keeps you thinking and wondering throughout the movie and also after it.