Chinatown

Rating:
Summary: Greed in Thirties' Los Angeles
Review: "Chinatown" arguably represents Jack Nicholson at his very best in his most enduring role, despite not having received an Oscar for his effort. Fortunately Robert Towne netted an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in what film experts consider one of the greatest scenarios ever written. Screenwriting guru Syd Field has used the Towne script as a working model for a generation as a teaching guide.

The muted photography of cinematographer John A. Alonzo along with the neatly selected settings reveal Los Angeles in 1937. Jack Gittes is a Los Angeles detective initially used as a fall guy in a battle for water rights. The longer Nicholson as Gittes investigates, the more convinced he becomes that the man behind the skullduggery, which ultimately results in the murder of Horace Mulwray, the honest head of the Department of Water and Power who does not want to build a new dam and risk a tragedy such as the earlier described Van Lipp disaster, is super wealthy Noah Cross, played by John Huston.

Gittes is a man used to dealing with criminal minds less powerful and less ruthless than Cross. As Robert Towne noted in an interview about the film, a major element of "Chinatown" is the shocking realization on the part of Nicholson, who had formerly worked as a police officer assigned to Chinatown, that John Huston as Noah Cross is a man who will do anything to get what he wants, and is more ruthless than anyone he ever encountered. When an exasperated Gittes asks Cross at one point what he can possibly gain through a big land payoff predicated on accessibility to water, noting that he could buy anything he wanted presently, Cross answers, "The future, Mr. Gittes, the future."

Towne shrewdly used a historical controversy from Los Angeles history, the career of William Mulholland and the tragedy of the Van Norman Dam. History was juxtaposed and the controversy was moved from the first decade of the twentieth century to 1937. It made good sense cinematically since the city was so much more developed by that time.

Another integral element of the film is Nicholson's developing romantic relationship with Faye Dunaway as Evelyn Mulwray, widow of the slain water chief and daughter of Noah Cross. Gittes' romantic progress is slowed by the manner in which he holds Evelyn, an erudite, sophisticated woman in awe, someone removed from his own rough and tumble middle class world. He ultimately learns that the daughter toward whom Evelyn is so protective was sired by none other than Noah Cross.

In addition to adroitly directing the film, maintaining a consistently brisk pace, Roman Polanski also had a small but key acting role. Playing one of Cross' thugs, he tells Gittes, "You've got a big nose, kitty cat." To prove his point, while another Cross hoodlum, a crooked ex-sheriff, holds Gittes, Polanski snips off part of the detective's nose with a knife.

Rating:
Summary: Superlative ¿Noir¿
Review: "Chinatown" is a faultlessly executed rendering of a steamy mix of scandal and corruption that came to be known generically as "West-Coast Politics." The movie is fleshed out with familiar elements: the backstage powerbroker who has a thirst for water, land and, (above all), control; the hard-boiled-but-decent private dick whose hubris ultimately wreaks havoc on the innocent; the beautiful socialite desperately trying to conceal the horrors of the past.

Jack Nicholson as private-eye J. J. Gittes provides us with the hallmark rakish charm and unforgettable gumshoe dialog, ("Mrs. Mulwray, I damn near lost my nose... and I LIKE it... I like BREATHING through it!"). It is through the appealing persona of Gittes, (he is in virtually every scene), that we see an insignificant "matrimonial" job unfold, first into a case of mistaken identity with humorous undertones, then unravel into a political/psychological nightmare.

Faye Dunaway radiates the perfect mixture of strength and vulnerability as Mrs. Mulwray; (notice how she can't pronounce the word "father" without stuttering... a sad foreshadowing of events to come).

John Houston as Noah Cross is one of the most compelling villains in cinema history. A stewy admixture of avuncular charm and loathsomeness, Cross seems to embody what we should recognize intuitively in modern politics: The charming and treacherous liar.

This cinematic gem employs a host of memorable secondary characters - watch how Polanski, in his cameo, wears an expression that quickly shifts from amusement to fury after Gittes refers to him as a midget. Everyone, from Investigating Detective Escobar and his hostile cronies, to Gittes' petulant office secretary, or "Morty," the L.A. County Examiner, (who has one of the movie's funniest lines), provides proper measures of banal levity or self-deception to the story.

As one who has nearly worn-out a VHS copy of this great film, the DVD version was eagerly anticipated. This new version is not disappointing, particularly with the restoration of the soundtrack. This movie is a lesson in great filmmaking.

Rating:
Summary: "CHINATOWN" IS ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES IN THE FILM-NOIR GENRE
Review: "Chinatown" is a film packed of mystery, plot twists, suspense, incredible revelations, great performances, great direction, great storytelling, great...well, in few words, everything is great. Jack Nicholson (as J.J. Gites) delivers one of his best performances, perhaps second only to his performance in "One Flew Over The Cukoo's Nest". Faye Dunaway is also pretty good as Evelyn Mulwray, and John Huston delivers an incredible performance as the corrupt water baron Noah Cross.

The screenplay in "Chinatown" is amazing, you just can't stop watching this great movie, simply because you don't want to miss a single detail. Hollywood doesn't make films as good as "Chinatown" no more.

However, the DVD extras are mediocre, there is a standard interview, a boring trailer that doesn't reflect the true essence of the movie. But the wide-screen presentation of the film is really the reason to get the DVD, "Chinatown" is a must-have for any movie fan collection.

Absolutely Reccomendable.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Homage To Film Noir
Review: "Chinatown" was the signature achievement of Roman Ploanski's career before personal peccadilloes forced his flight from the United States. From an Oscar-winning script by Robert Towne, Polanski crafts an excellent noir set in thirties Los Angeles that evokes the milieu of Chandler and Hammett and also some of the better film noir of the forties. To give away the surprises of this film would be a big no-no. Needless to say it involves a private detective hired for a routine snoop job and uncovers along the way a water diversion plot, a land grab, murder and other nasty business. Jack Nicholson gives an effective performance here as detective Jake Gittes, simultaneous determined and befuddled in his attempts to uncover the truth. Faye Dunaway is equally good as Evelyn Mulwray, the mysterious daughter of an industrialist who is central to Gittes investigation. John Huston gives a towering performance in a supporting role as Noah Cross, the ruthless industrialist who is used to getting his way. Director Polanski also has a cameo here as a knife-wielding punk who confronts Gittes at a reservoir. You would think that a film of this stature would be given some decent extras on it's DVD issue, however, Paramount at the time used to pretty much release all of it's films as vanilla discs and charge $29.99 retail.

Rating:
Summary: "Chinatown"
Review: "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."
A haunting, sordid, beautiful film.
I'm young enough so that the Jack Nicholson I grew up with was from "The Shining" onward. I always admired his charisma, but it wasn't until I watched this film that I grasped what an amazingly subtle and powerful actor he actually was in his prime. He takes a role Bogart would have been proud to play and in some ways redefines the role.
The rest of the cast also rises to the occasion, the script is crisp, hard-boiled and full of memorable lines. Polanski shows us pre-war LA through a jaundiced lens; an uncompromising, rough world where such things as truth, compassion and hope can be ground into dust by power and corruption.
Not to be overlooked by any means is the movie's evocative and memorable score, which sets the perfect tone of film noir at the beginning, and adds unforgettable impact to the movie's tragic ending.
A must for any home collection.

Rating:
Summary: A milestone in film noir history.
Review: "Water is the life blood of every community." With this statement, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's website begins its biography of William Mulholland, the real life model of two of this movie's characters, water department chief Hollis Mulwray (an obvious play on words) and water tycoon Noah Cross. And indeed water, the access to it and the wealth it provides, is what drives everything and everybody in this movie set in the ever-thirsty Los Angeles of the first decades of this century, a budding boom town on the brink of victory or decay ... and whether it will be one or th other depends on the city's ongoing access to drinking water.

"Chinatown"'s story is based on William Mulholland's greatest coup; the construction of the Owen Valley aqueduct which provided Los Angeles with a steady source of drinking water but also entailed a lot of controversy. Splitting Mulholland's complex real-life persona into two fictional characters (the noble Mulwray who thinks that water should belong to the people and who refuses to authorize an unsavory new dam construction project and the greedy, unscrupulous Cross who will use *any* means to advance his personal fortune) creates the movie's one necessary black and white conflict ... other than this, the predominant shades are those of gray.

Into the wars raging around L.A.'s water supply, private eye Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is unwittingly thrown when a woman introducing herself as Hollis Mulwray's wife asks him to investigate her husband's alleged infidelity. Before he realizes what is going on he is drawn into a web of treachery and treason, and fatally attracted to the real Mrs. Mulwray (Faye Dunaway), Noah Cross (John Huston)'s daughter. Soon reaching the conclusion that he has been used, he refuses to drop the investigation, and instead decides to dig his way to the source of the scheming he has witnessed - the classical film noir setup.

To say that this movie is one of the best examples of the genre ever made is stating the obvious ... actually, it borders on being superfluous. Few other films are as tightly acted, scripted and directed, from Jack Nicholson's dapper-dressed, dogged Jake Gittes, who like any good noir detective is not half as hard boiled as he would have us believe, to Faye Dunaway's seductive and sad Evelyn Mulray, John Huston's cold-blooded and corrupt Noah Cross, Roman Polanski's brooding direction and Robert Towne's award-winning screen play, so full of memorable lines and the classical noir gumshoe dialogue, yet far more than just a well-done copy. And throughout it all, there that idea of Chinatown - that place where you do as little as possible, and where if you try to help someone, you're likely going to make double sure they're getting hurt.

"Chinatown" was Roman Polanski's return to Hollywood, five years after his wife (Sharon Tate) had been one of the victims of the Manson gang. Polanski and Towne fought hard whether the movie should have a happy ending or not. Polanski won, studio politics were favorable at the time, and the version we all know was produced. Towne later admitted that Polanski had been right; and in fact, it is hard to imagine what kind of happy ending would have worked with the movie at all - too deep-rooted are the conflicts presented, none of which lends itself to an easy solution. Unfortunately, being released the same year as "The Godfather II" robbed "Chinatown" much of the Academy Award attention it would have deserved; of 11 nominations (best movie, best actor - Jack Nicholson -, best actress - Faye Dunaway -, best director Roman Polanski , best screenplay - Robert Towne -, best original score - Eliot Goldsmith -, best cinematography, and others), the movie only won the Oscar for Towne's screenplay. Generations of fans, however, have long since recognized that "Chinatown" is a milestone in the history of the film noir and in the professional history of its participants, and one of Hollywood's finest hours.

Rating:
Summary: Better Than Ever
Review: "Chinatown" is astonishing, and the new 25th Anniversary DVD edition more than does justice to this masterwork. A beautiful widescreen transfer of both video and sound, this release will be welcomed by fans of Roman Polanski & Robert Towne's triumph. Even after having seen the film at least a half dozen times, the DVD release was like viewing it for the first time (which I did, at a drive-in theatre in Western Pennsylvania in 1974--so you can imagine the quality improvement!). There are not enough words of praise for this film -- acting, direction, script, casting, art direction, cinematography -- first rate in every way. If you have never seen this film, buy a good DVD player and a new TV with component inputs, gather your very best friends and settle in for a treat. And if you've seen it, but not on DVD, ditto. Supplemental material is also good. Worth every penny.

Rating:
Summary: More Style than Substance
Review: "Chinatown" is one of Hollywood's most over-rated films. Yes, it is superbly made, the script is a model of tightness, the actors are wonderful, the sense of Santa Ana heat nearly palpable. It's a well-upholstered bit of craftsmanship, although there's hardly anything unique in that. Hollywood has never lacked the ability to mount elegantly expensive productions. What it has consistently been incapable of is transcending popular forms, of giving us something *more* than just a handsome piece of entertainment. "Chinatown" is no exception.

For, in the final analysis, "Chinatown" is nothing but a meticulously engineered pastiche of a hard-boiled detective story. Don't get me wrong, I love detective fiction. I just don't think it should be sentimentalized into anything more than it is. If the film has any claims to distinction at all, it is for its creamy style, not its slightly atypical focus on the seedy, rotten and hypocritical aspects of American life. Since Hollywood doesn't usually like to show America as anything other than a sunny, adolescent playground, however, the film's mildly critical gestures may seem more insightful than they are.

There is nothing radical or subversive about this criticism. In fact, quite the contrary. Recognizing that money buys power and that the powerful frequently get away with much for which the rest of us are punished is hardly profound. It is a message with which we all could agree before entering the theater. There really isn't much more to "Chinatown's" social critique than spinning this truism into an intricate spider web of complicity. To compensate for genuine insight, Towne and Polanski kink up the story a bit, giving the it the veneer of the new and the specific, while also turning corruption into something safely personal. Such mild criticism in fact *confirms* people's preconceptions by repeating a common sense recognition while conveniently locating it somewhere else. Decadence becomes the problem of a few misguided individuals; the rest of us would be fine if we could just get rid of those bad guys.

Of course, to expect radical criticism of American society from a big-budget, star-studded Hollywood production is, to put it mildly, naive. That is my point: the bottom line is that "Chinatown" is limited by the middle-brow mind set of the industry that produced it, the requirement to make money, the need to please. The very care exercised in its production insures its expense; its expense requires a large return on investment; the requirement for a large audience makes impossible any criticism that might deeply offend anyone. "Chinatown" is posh, sexy entertainment, a very good film to be sure. As it unabashedly caters to people's prejudices, however, it proves it is far from being a great one.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: "Chinatown" is one of the classics, a flawlessly-acted, superbly-written, steadily-directed film noir exposing the underbelly of Los Angeles in the 1930s. Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway are in top form, as is director Roman Polanski. An essential for any serious film collection.

Rating:
Summary: Good Movie.
Review: 'Chinatown' is a good movie. Almost everything about the film is is fantastic, from the acting to the clever dialogue and storytelling. The only problem with it is the ending. The ending will cause alot of debate among people. But, nontheless, it is worth watch.