Chinatown (1974 movie)
Chinatown is a 1974 film directed by Roman Polanski and written by Robert Towne, starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston. It uses many elements of the film noir genre to present a multi-layered story, part mystery and part psychological drama. It won several high-profile awards, including an Academy Award in 1975 for Best Writing, Original Screenplay (awarded to Robert Towne).
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
Plot
In the film, a Los Angeles detective named Jake Gittes (played by Jack Nicholson) is hired by a woman claiming to be Mrs. Mulwray to spy on her husband. When Gittes' photographs of Mr. Mulwray, revealing an apparent affair, appear in the papers another Mrs. Mulwray, whom we discover is the real one, appears in his office threatening to sue if he doesn't drop the case immediately. Gittes pursues the case nevertheless, slowly uncovering a vast conspiracy around water management, state and municipal corruption, land use and real estate, and involving at least one murder, further complicated by the tangled emotional relationships between the primary characters in the film.
Critical reputation
The film was an intersection of many great talents - Roman Polanski's directing, Robert Towne's writing, Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway and John Huston's acting, and the moving theme composed by Jerry Goldsmith for the film, were not only high points in their respective individual careers, but also among the major contributions to Hollywood and to cinema in general. The film is consistently in the top 50 on the Internet Movie Database's list of top 250 films and has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
In 1990 a sequel, called The Two Jakes, was released. Jack Nicholson directed and starred in it. The screenplay was written by Robert Towne, who also wrote the script for Chinatown.
Many consider Chinatown the finest screenplay ever written.
Selected Quotations
From the first meeting between Jake and Mrs. Mulwray:
- Jake, to Mrs Mulwray: "...Don't get tough with me..."
- Mrs. Mulwray to Jake: "I don't get tough with anyone Mr. Gittes... My lawyer does."
Russ Yelburton, observing Jake's bandaged nose:
- "You've got to be more careful; that must really smart."
- "Only when I breathe."
Excerpt from a phone conversation:
- "Hello, Miss Sessions. I don't believe we've had the pleasure."
- "Oh, yes we have. Are you alone?"
- "Isn't everyone?"
Bibliography
- Chinatown and The Last Detail: 2 Screenplays by Robert Towne
- Chinatown (B.F.I. Film Classics series) by Michael Eaton (brief critical analysis)
