Rating: 
Summary: Really a 3.5
Review: Not a diamond, but comparing this with L.A.Confidential is like comparing a ruby with paste jewelry. The implausibilities of that film make Chinatown look like a documentary. Great acting, and an intriguing tale. The ambience of the time could have been thicker. Knowing the "secrets" make second viewings not nearly as good as the first, but this is an inherent weakness of all mysteries. The DVD video shows some signs of deterioration of the film, but it is still good. The retrospective interviews are good, but a feature-length commentary would have added considerably to this edition. (Criterion: are you listening?) 4 for the movie, 3 for the DVD.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Film
Review: Chinatown has been my favorite film since first seeing it seven years ago. Over the years, my enjoyment has grown with each viewing. The letterbox edition I recently purchased adds to the already outstanding production quality with which I was previously aquainted.This film succeeds on every asthetic and entertainment level imaginable. The mood, characterizations, and pacing are outstanding. The movie is an omage to a gone, but not forgotten, film style, while the story and setting simulateously pay homage to that lost era. It stands as a hallmark of modern filmmaking, unparallelled. I keep wanting to write more and more about this film I adore so much, but the highest praise cannot do justice to this movie. Not everyone will enjoy it. The ending will alienate many viewers. Each moment draws you into the story, like a hypnotic trance, and then the ending is as unnerving as anything ever put on celluloid. I encourage everyone to see several, "mandatory" films; Casablanca, Citizen Kane, It's a Wonderful Life, The Apartment, Schindler's List, The Seventh Seal. This stands alongside, if not above, any of them. Other greats in this style are The Third Man, The Maltese Falcon, and The Big Sleep. The French Connection is a giant step down in quality, but decent. It carries a similar style with similar themes and is from the same era, the 70's.
Rating:
Summary: Great movie
Review: This movie is really about the divorce between appearence and reality in American life. The John Huston character represents old money and power hiding its flaws under a sheen of nobility. The ending and its "It's only Chinatown" is ironic; the point of the movie is that it is not only Chinatown, instead the seeminess of the ghetto is reflected in mainstream America as well. Gittes remains heroic in the end because he realizes that; tragic in that he can't transform this understanding into action. The water issue is not just a device to move the plot, rather the keystone to a very political movie.
Rating:
Summary: A timeless masterpiece!
Review: One of the reasons I liked "Chinatown" best is that it takes us back to a time when traditional film noir movies were made back in the 1940's. It owes homage to them, from the style of the buildings and to the cars and clothing. I felt like I was stepping into that period of time. Aside from the "have sex the day you meet" cliche which is unfortunately in almost every movie, "Chinatown" is believable and realistic. The ultimate swipe at realism is the ending, which hasn't quite pleased everyone. People need to understand that not only is this the real world were in, but that Chinatown was where the lead character Jack Gittes quit working because of it's corruption. And sadly, that Mrs. Mulray's attempt to protect the daughter met with death when she tried to escape, in Chinatown! "Chinatown" is a metaphor about all that has happened in the film and in the lives of the characters within it. That, I feel, is the film's greatest aspect. As for this DVD, I hate to admit, it is something of a disappointment, for me anyway. It does have some nice things on it: a new Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, production notes, a trailer, and some retrospective interviews with the creators of the film. The film itself has been digitally remastered, making it the ultimate home video experience. However, the last time I saw "Chinatown" was on the big screen, at the 25th Anniversary screening of the film that sponsored the DVD and videotape release of "Chinatown". There, it was huge, big, and beautiful, preserving every tiny detail and taking me to a place that movies today haven't taken me before! When I played the DVD, it, it just seemed so small, quite a contrast from the theatrical experience. At the theaterm the screen was so big, I wasn't just watching the film. I felt like I was really there! I suppose that is the best they can do with a video release of "Chinatown", and you know it's never going to look at good as it did in the theaters. Still, I felt disappointed with it. Oh well, it doesn't take away from it being a really great film. "Chinatown" is still as powerful, as mysterious, and as beautiful a film as it was when it first came out!
Rating:
Summary: Polanski's best
Review: The ending of China Town is Noir perfection. The admonitions of the uncomprehending detectives for Jake to 'just forget it' while Jake has had his world split in two is unforgettable. The movie leading up to this moment is gorgeous, funny, suspenseful and very true to Hammet and Chandler. It's in my top 10 movies.
Rating:
Summary: Overrated but OK
Review: I have to agree with the minority of Amazon customers who found 'Chinatown' overrated. Perhaps that's not fair to the movie on its own merits (hype vs. art), but I remember being very disappointed the first time I saw it in theatrical release around 1974. One of the most horrible endings in film history, as if the screenwriter ran out of gas. And one of the worst ending lines. (In any event, this movie ain't about or set in Chinatown.) Sure, it has a lot to offer, notably the rich sense of time and place, along with Jack Nicholson's laconic performance--but in my opinion it was much ado about not much. Better film noir stories? I'd try 'Out of the Past' with Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas; 'Sorry Wrong Number' with Burt Lancaster and Barbara Stanwyck; 'This Gun for Hire' with Alan Ladd; 'The Killers' with Burt Lancaster; or 'Mona Lisa' with Bob Hoskins and Michael Caine, to name a few.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully scripted and visually captivating
Review: After Chinatown, auidiences have few movies to look up to as classic. Roman Polanski directed Robert Towne's script into becoming the mold for the contemporary classic. For one of the first times in the history of cinema, we have evil becoming the victor over good at the climax. Notice who drives away at the end! We are stunned, as an audience, at what we witness throughout this brilliant commentary on how our society works for those with power(money) and those without. From the characters to the storyline, the truth that Chinatown evidences about the society in which we all live makes this movie great. A must own for all fans of cinema!
Rating:
Summary: an amazing movie
Review: Film noir has all but disappeared from movie screens in the past thirty or forty years, and Chinatown is its magnificent exit. This film is worthy of comparison with the finest of the genre from earlier on. Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway do an incredible job, as well as John Huston's Noah Cross and Roman Polanski in an incredible cameo role ("You know what we do to nosy people?..") This is a classic film and the DVD version that is coming out should be great. Buy it!
Rating:
Summary: the ultimate film noir
Review: Roman Polanski's CHINATOWN is a brilliant achievement in film noir. Do not miss this new edition on DVD in its original 2:35 aspect ratio with a new dolby digital remix quite superior to all other releases. A collector's MUST and certainly one of the greatest American picture of the seventies.
Rating:
Summary: A perfect work of art....
Review: I have seen this film five or six times, and each time is more rewarding than the last. It is so well crafted, so complete, that it's hard to imagine a scene or even a word that could be removed without harming the whole work. It is a masterpiece that I would rank among the 5 best films ever made. To catagorize it as a "Film Noir" is hopelessly inadequate. I only wish more films could be made with such care and attention to detail.
|
