Chinatown

1974’s “Chinatown”, directed by Roman Polanski.

Starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Perry Lopez, John Hillerman, and Roman Polanski.

Winner of an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay (Robert Towne).

Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Actor (Nicholson), Best Actress (Dunaway), Best Director (Polanski), Best Cinematography (John A. Alonzo), Best Art Direction/Set Decoration (Richard Sylbert, W. Stewart Campbell, Ruby R. Levitt), Best Costumes (Anthea Sylbert), Best Sound (Charles Grenzbach, Larry Jost), Best Editing (Sam O’Steen), and Best Original Score (Jerry Goldsmith).

“Cadillac Desert” by Marc Reisner, described the ambitious work overtaken by the US core of engineers to dramatically reshape the flow of fresh waters to the more arid areas of the Western United States. Often, land rights and resource allocation logistics involved the use of chicanery by corrupt officials, inspired by wealthy individuals contributing to their bank balances. “Chinatown”, is a fictionalized movie operating from this premise. Based in 1937 Los Angeles, we meet degenerate private eye Nicholson, who runs an investigation firm. With his former job as an district attorney in the Chinatown district, he knows the ins and outs of the justice system. He’s initially hired by a woman to follow a waterworks official against the damming of the region- who quickly turns up dead. This is just the beginning of a labyrinthian plot that keeps us spinning until things come to a brutal halt.

Director Polanski, who has had one of the more traumatizing lives that I know of, fought for the film’s sombre ending against Paramount’s ego maniac and sexual weirdo head producer, Robert Evans, and thankfully won. It’s perfect, like all of the other elements in this film. Nicholson’s role is masterful here, playing a cynical detective who believes in the worst of people- but who wants to physically fight people who suggest he’s a scam artist. His detective is smooth and purposeful, but working in shades of subtlety that would almost completely disappear by his third acting Oscar two and a half decades later. Equally great is Dunaway, who continually reveals more to the character that deepens it’s depth while always leaving yet more questions to be answered. Finally, Huston is devastating here, as a powerful magnate who’s greed and deception is matched only by his perversions and creepiness.

This is an intoxicating neo noir mystery, perfectly written by Robert Towne- while what we originally thought about some of the characters changes, it just keeps burrowing deeper and deeper. It’s best not to reveal the plot, so that one can enjoy the ride it takes you on. At 2:11 hours long, it seems to have no end in sight, with the impeccable script spinning in circles, until the credits roll too soon. It’s been said that Towne based some of Chinatown’s ideas on vice cops’ experiences who worked in LA’s Chinatown. Due to the influence of a variety of non English dialects and gangs, it was unclear to police if their presence helped, or further exploited the people living there. As Nicholson says, when working there he did as, “little as possible”. It’s difficult to change things when your salary depends on you not changing them. As we see in the dust bowl of Southern California, we all swim in the same water that’s owned by the privileged few.

5/5

Trailer: Click Here.