Review of Chinatown (1974) by Reilly J — 24 Jan 2011

Can somebody say wow? This has gotta be one of the best film-noir thrillers I have ever seen.

It's story plays just like any other noir film, a cool private investigator with a witty sense of humour is hired to follow a cheating husband but stumbles upon a bigger conspiracy.

I'm always afraid to watch a classic like this because I'm always afraid that it'll end up being really dated cough* cough* Romeo and Juliet cough* cough*. But as usual this classic has stood the test of time and it doesn't fail to thrill or engage. I thought it was gunna be lame for about 20 or 30 minutes (probably because I got distracted a million times), but then it really kicked in and I couldn't take my eyes off the screen.

The acting is brilliant, some of the best I've ever seen. Wow, Jack Nicholson used to be an amazing actor, what happened to him? Seriously, fuck Batman, fuck The Shining, fuck anything else that he was in, this is him in his prime! Jake Gittes is a brilliant, cool, funny and incredibly well developed character. It's just like watching Al Pacino in The Godfather or Robert DeNiro in Taxi Driver, I doubt he'll ever be that good again. The supporting cast are brilliant too, Faye Dunaway is great as Evelyn Mulwray, she captures you emotionally and makes you feel for her very much she and Nicholson have great chemistry. John Huston plays a very convincing Noah Cross, he's just a repulsive horrible man.

Roman Polanski handles this so well and creates an uncomfortable, sinister and corrupt atmosphere to the extent that I could almost forgive him for sodomising a 13 year old girl (not really). Roman Polanski is just so talented, he does not deserve forgiveness but he does deserve recognition, lots of it.

This only won one Academy Award, which was Best Original Screenplay, which Robert Towne well deserved, his screenplay is just amazing. But as for all the other nominations, a fair few of them, including Best Picture and Best Director were stolen by the The Godfather: Part II, this movie is so much better than The Godfather: Part II, it deserved to win all of them I'll say.

The ending I am not going to spoil for you but I'll just say, it's not so much a "twist" in that sense, it just an unexpected ending. Nevertheless it's totally unforgettable and it made me want to cry.

Roman Polanski's directing, Robert Towne's screenplay and not just the performance of Jack Nicholson but that of the whole cast (Polanski even makes a cameo) all flow together nicely and make this movie really great, I think LA Confidential (another great crime thriller) owes a lot to this film. This will forever be one of my favourites.

5 out of 5 stars right here, this is a true classic.