Chinatown (film)

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Chinatown is a 1974 film directed by Roman Polański featuring many elements of the film noir genre, particularly a multi-layered story that is part mystery and part psychological drama. The movie is highly regarded and won several high-profile awards, including an Academy Award in 1975 for Best Writing and Original Screenplay for Robert Towne.

Chinatown stars Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston and also features a cameo appearance by its director, Roman Polański.

Chinatown has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

A sequel, called The Two Jakes, was released in 1990. Jack Nicholson directed and starred in it. The screenplay was also written by Robert Towne.

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Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

A Los Angeles Private Investigator named Jake 'J.J' Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is hired by a woman claiming to be Mrs. Evelyn Mulwray to spy on her husband. When Gittes's photographs of Mr. Mulwray, revealing an apparent affair, are published in the papers, another Mrs. Mulwray, the real one, appears and threatens to sue if Gittes 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.

The plot is based in part on real events that formed the California Water Wars, in which William Mulholland acted on behalf of Los Angeles interests to secure water rights in the Owens Valley.

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Possible Interpretations

Image:Chinatown jake & evelyn.jpg



Chinatown is a thematically rich film that holds up remarkably well on repeated viewings. The movie, released in the heyday of the New Hollywood era, was at the time considered a homage to the Film Noir genre, especially since its cast included John Huston, who directed several great noir films, particularly The Maltese Falcon. However, some film historians consider Chinatown a genuine film noir in its own right despite the fact the film is in color and was released well outside of the classical film noir era.

Roger Ebert in particular shares this view; in his Great Movie review he states, "Chinatown was seen as a neo-noir when it was released -- an update on an old genre. Now years have passed and film history blurs a little, and it seems to settle easily beside the original noirs. That is a compliment."




The film follows many famous and archetypal conventions of the noir movies, such as:-

  • Convoluted, complex plot.
  • Cynical and pesssimistic world view.

However, the film also provides many departures from the noir conventions. Unlike the typical hard-boiled detective, Jake Gittes is incapable of seeing the broader aspects of the case and ends up reaching the wrong conclusions by focusing on individual clues. The core of the case, which involves incest and LA's water and power system, is another departure from the usual noir cases of fabulous treasure or a crime of passion.


Also, for a "noir," few scenes are shot at night, and none in deep shadow. Image:Chinatown Gittes.jpg

Finally, the tragic ending to the film, though reminiscent of The Maltese Falcon in the separation of the detective and the femme fatale, provides a dramatic departure from classic film noir in the triumph of the forces of evil, Noah Cross, over the forces of good, Evelyn (and to some extent, Gittes). Despite having solved the case, no one will listen to Gittes' explanation, and the film's final line, "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown" implies that Cross will never be brought to justice.

Image:Cross & Gittes.jpg

Besides the homage to the noir movies, Chinatown can be seen, and often is, as a tragedy in the Greek sense. Certain portions of the film are allegorical, reminiscent of the works of Sophocles, especially Oedipus Rex, in that well meaning characters fight against a cruel fate but are unable to change it and their struggle against fate leads to their own doom or to the doom of those in their care.


The movie is also seen as an attack on the corruption of the people in power and the corruption of officials. The movie, released during the Watergate era, struck a nerve. The ending, considered by many one of the most powerfully tragic in the history of film, illustrates and incorporates both the above interpretations. one Image:Are you alone.jpg



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Trivia

  • Director cameo: Roman Polanski portrays the hood who slits Jake's nose.
  • The scene where Polanski slits Jack Nicholson's nose was extremely complex to film, and the two men involved got so tired of explaining how it was done that they began to claim Nicholson's nose was actually cut.
  • Jake Gittes was named after Jack Nicholson's friend, producer Harry Gittes.
  • The original script was over 300 pages.
  • At one point, Roman Polanski and Jack Nicholson got into such a heated argument that Polanski smashed Nicholson's portable TV with a mop. Nicholson used the TV to watch L.A. Lakers basketball games and kept stalling shooting.
  • Because this film was the first of a planned trilogy, Jack Nicholson turned down all detective roles he was offered so that the only detective he played would be Jake Gittes.
  • Roman Polanski eliminated Jake Gittes' voiceover narration, which was written in the script, and filmed the movie so that the audience discovered the clues at the same time Gittes did.
  • The last movie Roman Polanski filmed in the US.
  • According to Roman Polanski's autobiography, he was outraged when he got the first batch of dailies back from the lab; due to the success of The Godfather (1972), producer Robert Evans had ordered the lab to give this movie a reddish look. Polanski demanded that the film be corrected.
  • Among the items in Ida Sessions' pocketbook, which Jake Gittes rummages through, are a $2 bill and a Screen Actors Guild membership card.
  • The name of Water and Power engineer Hollis Mulwray is likely a play on the real-life head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, William Mulholland (1855-1935). A man obsessed with an engineering challenge of epic proportions, Mulholland brought the Owens River to Los Angeles--which turned the previously lush Owens Valley into a virtual desert--through a combination of determination and deceit.
  • Chinatown was the first part of a planned trilogy written by Robert Towne about J.J. Gittes and L.A. The second part, The Two Jakes, about the natural gas business in Los Angeles in the 1940s, was directed by Nicholson and released in 1990, and was such a commercial and critical failure that the supposed final chapter of the trilogy, Cloverleaf, about the development of the area's freeway system, was never filmed.
  • The term "Cloverleaf" (which was supposed to be the next sequel of "Chinatown") was the name of a bus company used in the animated comedy "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988), which contained references to "Chinatown". The same Cord automobile used by Faye Dunaway's character Evelyn in "Chinatown" was used in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", as well.
  • Robert Towne originally intended to have a happy ending. However, during pre-production Roman Polanski and Towne argued over it, with Polanski insisting on a tragic ending. Polanski won the argument and, when the picture was re-released in 1999, Towne admitted that he had been wrong.
  • Screenwriter Robert Towne based his famous exchange--Evelyn: "What did you do in Chinatown?" Jake: "As little as possible."--on a joke a LAPD officer friend told him. This was because there were so many different Chinese dialects floating around that an Anglo cop would only get himself into trouble by misinterpreting anything said by the Chinese residents.
  • Faye Dunaway and Roman Polanski were notorious for their on-set arguments; during filming, Polanski pulled out some strands of Dunaway's hair.
  • After several takes that never looked quite right, Faye Dunaway told Jack Nicholson to actually slap her. He did, and this is the scene which made it into the movie.
  • Writer Robert Towne was originally offered $125,000 to write a screenplay for The Great Gatsby (1974), but Towne felt he couldn't better the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, and accepted $25,000 to write his own story, "Chinatown," instead.
  • The prop knife used to cut Jack Nicholson's nose had a special hinged blade that would only bend in one direction. If it were inserted the wrong way, it would have really cut Nicholson, who was understandably nervous during the filming of that scene.
  • Jack Nicholson had the name "Jake Gittes" written on the shirts he used in the movie. Though this is not shown, it was done so Nicholson could enter in character more easily.
  • Cameo: (C.O. Erickson) the banker in the barbershop who starts an argument with Jake.
  • Phillip Lambro was originally hired to write the film's music score but it was rejected at the last minute by producer Robert Evans, leaving Jerry Goldsmith only ten days to write and record the new score.
  • Roman Polanski forced Robert Towne to sit and re-write the script with him. Towne was so opposed to this idea that he would argue with Polanski non-stop.
  • Faye Dunaway's distinctive look was inspired by Roman Polanski's memories of his mother, who in the pre-WWII era would fashionably wear penciled-on eyebrows, and have her lipstick shaped in the form of a Cupid's bow.
  • Producer Robert Evans was pushing for Jane Fonda for the part of Evelyn Mulwray but Roman Polanski insisted upon Faye Dunaway.
  • Peter Bogdanovich turned down the chance to direct. He later regretted his decision.
  • The haunting trumpet solos are by the respected Hollywood studio musician Uan Rasey.
  • After Ali MacGraw left the project, Robert Evans approached Jane Fonda for the role of Evelyn Mulwray but Fonda turned it down without discussion.
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Selected Quotations

From the first meeting between Jake and Mrs. Mulwray:

Jake, to Mrs Mulwray: "There's no point in getting tough with me. I'm just..."
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."

Noah Cross on "respectability":

"Politicians, ugly buildings and whores all get respectable if they last long enough."

After Gittes bluffs his way past a policeman:

"So, tell me Gittes, how'd you get past the guard?"
"Well, to tell ya the truth, I lied a little."

Mrs. Mulwray, conversing with Jake in the restaurant:

"Look, Hollis seems to think you're an innocent man."
"Well, I've been accused of many things Mrs. Mulwray, but never that."

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?"

Loach (Escobar's assistant):

"What's the matter with your nose, Gittes? Someone slam a bedroom window on it?"

Japanese gardener:

"Bad for glass."

Mrs. Mulwray, after Jake slaps her around:

"She's my sister AND my daughter! Understand? ...or is it too tough for you?"

Final lines:

"As little as possible."
"Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."
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Awards

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Bibliography

  • Easton, Michael (1998) Chinatown (B.F.I. Film Classics series). Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 0851705324.
  • Towne, Robert (1997). Chinatown and the Last Detail: 2 Screenplays. New York: Grove Press. ISBN 0802134017.
  • Tuska, Jon (1978). The Detective in Hollywood. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company. ISBN 0385120931.


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See also

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External links

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