Review of Chinatown (1974) by Brandon W — 19 Oct 2011

It's a shame Roman Polanski had to soil his image and commit statutory rape because this movie made him one of the greatest and most intimate filmmakers of all time. A throwback to Noir from the Golden Age of Cinema, starring pal Jack Nicholson and bitter enemy Faye Dunaway, this was Polanski's last great film in that impassioned period between his wife's horrible murder and his own shameful crime. With all due respect to the Pianist. This stemmed from a producer wanting brilliant screenwriter Robert Towne to write a script for an adaption of the Great Gatsby. He wasn't interested, but would write a piece set about that time loosely inspired by the 1937 California Water Wars, a planned Noir trilogy about greedy oligarchical groups stealing natural resources and butting heads with cynical Private Investigator JJ Gittes. Unfortunately, the trilogy didn't pan out it took nearly twenty years for the sequel to be released and it bombed, however this film was a huge success. It was actually written with Nicholson in mind, and he's the one who brought Polanski on board which the producers supported feeling a European would make the film more cynical and dark. Perhaps a little too much, Polanski had to be persuaded to move back to LA having not returned since his wife's brutal murder and his bitterness and disillusionment with the city and life in general shown through, a little too forcefully for the producers tastes. Polanski rewrote the ending of the movie at the last second which was bleaker and much darker than the original script which caused a falling out between the two. That's not all he rubbed the wrong way, though he pushed for Dunaway being cast over Jane Fonda they legendarily clashed on the set culminating in Dunaway tossing a cup of urine in his face. But despite it's tumultuous creation it's considered one of the best movies of all time, cementing Jack Nicholson as a bankable star, Robert Towne becoming a screenwriting legend and actually bringing awareness to the real water crisis that had occurred in LA. That being said it's worth examining this movie. Let's take a look, as little as possible.

Our undisputed as he is ever present protagonist is local Private Investigator Jake "J.J." Gittes (Jack Nicholson, who is likeable interesting and charismatic without just being Jack Nicholson it's quite remarkable) who's job consists of running around catching unfaithful spouses. Unfortunately he gets in over his head when he exposes the affair of local Water Department Head Hollis Mulwray (Darrell Zwerling, he doesn't say much) at his wife's behest and suddenly discovers the woman had no relation to Mr. Mulwray at all and his real wife Evelyn (Faye Dunaway, who starts out a typical femme fatale, black widow character and steadily gives a staggering, breath taking and heart breaking performance) plans to sue him. Things steadily get out of hand as both Ms. Mulwray and Jake find themselves caught in a web far greater than previously imagined, a web of corruption from a greedy man trying to regain control of the cities water supply. Butting heads with Evelyn's father and Mulwray's old partner Noah Cross (John Huston who is quite the scene stealer), and old colleague from his Chinatown days Lieutenant Lou Escobar (Perry Lopez, who's one of my favorite characters in the movie) Jake will discover an underbelly far darker and more depraved than he could have imagined.

If it seems like I'm being very vague in my descriptions that would be because I am, I went into this movie knowing nothing and seeing as how this one of the best written movies of all time I don't plan to ruin the mystery for those of you who haven't seen it. The movie is beautifully directed, every shot masterfully captured and never once seeming dated. Not all of his work was of this caliber but here Polanski far outstrips his contemporaries Coppola and Scorsese no mean feat. The action scenes are visceral and feel real partially due to the fact the brilliant script never requires more than is reasonable from the movie. This movie's has one of my all time favorite car chases and it takes place in under two minutes in an orange grove but it's pretty damn intense. The movie is a sick and dark modern take on a dark and depressing genre to begin with. Polanski's influence is felt everywhere, a deeply depressed man with a lot of buried demons laid bare here even in his humorous cameo where he cuts open Jake's nose. The performances are all brilliant and all the characters even the many who are not spent much time with are fully realized. The movie is a shining example of Chekhov's gun with nearly every seemingly irrelevant piece of information or observation made by Gittes coming back into play in surprising ways. Most of the credit for this is probably due to Polanski however, apparently the original script called for Gittes to have a voice over narration the main point of which was to outline clues and tie things together for dumber members of the audience which Polanski removed. It's amazing how perfect that is, one of the things I loved and admired about this movie was it didn't feel the need to beat you over the head with the clues and such Jake discovered or his plans it trusted you to either put two and two together or wait until everything fell into place. Thank god for Polanski.

This is one of my all time favorite movies a tale of self destruction, ultimate corruption and the malleability of the truth. It is one of the bleakest and most despairing movies to make it to the big screen and actually have a point rather than just self pityingly wallowing in it. It is one of those rare perfect collaborative movie efforts where director, writer and actors all mesh to a lush and beautiful 30s orchestral score by Jerry Goldsmith that fans of Rockstar Games LA Noire should recognize...along with a lot of the themes and imagery. Polanski would go on to do other good movies and Towne had a few more decent scripts in him but with the exception of Nicholson no one involved in this ever reached those heights of perfection again. This is a truly enjoyable and emotional movie that demands more than one viewing which you are usually more than happy to facilitate.