Chinatown

Rating:
Summary: One of the Greats
Review: One of the greatest film mysteries of all time is CHINATOWN, and this DVD finally presents a video version worthy of the film. In sparkling clear and colorful film noir, we see Robert Towne's masterful story acted by a stupendous cast of performers, none of whom has ever been better.

No need to go into the specifics of the mystery. Ace detective Jake Gittes is on the trail of a murdered water commissioner whose wife has her own series of mysteries she's covering. In true mystery-fashion, the plot is labyrinthine on first viewing, but it all flows together beautifully once the resolution is presented and one has a chance to review all the twists and turns.

The DVD features the movie's first anamorphic widescreen presentation, and it's a joy to behold. Seriously saturated colors and a sharp picture make the previous laserdisc incarnation (up until the DVD release the only widescreen version available) insupportable. Sound is clear and balanced with a newly mixed Dolby Digital 5.1 track replacing the original mono of the laserdisc. All the better to hear Jerry Goldsmith's mournfully brilliant score.

Lovers of mysteries won't need my recommendation to snap up a copy of this one pronto!

Rating:
Summary: My #1 of All-Time
Review: Simply the best piece of cinematic art ever produced. The intracies and subtlety demand repeat viewings. For anyone that appreciates Film Noir, this is a magnum opus.

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.

Rating:
Summary: A remarkable masterpiece
Review: It's too bad that Chinatown and Godfather II were both released in the same Oscar year, because both films are the two greatest in the post-WW II era. Godfather II gets the edge as the better of the two, i.e., the best film of our times.

That said, none of this takes away from the pure brilliance of Chinatown. Like Godfather II, its understated script is a model of great writing, advancing the characters and the plot with every word. "I tried to keep someone from being hurt," Nicholson says, in the middle of the movie during its sole love scene, "and, instead, I made sure she was hurt." How many movies have a bedroom scene with dialogue that haunting in its ability to foreshadow? Chinatown remains the greatest of film noir by far because it extends the genre's possibilities while still remaining respectful of its traditions. The standard, thematic foundation remains true: A film noir protagonist enters a situation and assumes he's in complete control. But the situation actually has control of him - reality that the protagonist eventually recognizes, only far too late. Polanski's tone and legendary attention to detail are dead-on: Water emerges as not only an effective scene and mood setter, but an essential character, a symbol of purity corrupted. Chinatown is a labyrinth, not only because of its remarkably complex but perfectly executed plot, but with respect to mood and image. Mysterious gives way to murky, then melancholy. Cynicism gives way to hope, then to irreversible loss. Is the ending too dark? In today's 'artistic vision dictated by Hollywood marketing' world, yep. ('Waitaminute, lemme get this straight: The chick gets a slug in the eye and the little girl ends up with the old pervert? Honey, get me rewrite ...') But Polanski's conclusion is really the only way the movie should have ended, as opposed to Towne's preference to provide a glimmer of optimism. Acting wise, a brilliant ensemble, even down to a one-scene cameo by great character actor Charles Knapp as a hacking, engaging mortician. ("In the middle of a drought, a bum drowns. Only in L.A. ...") Dunaway was never more sympathetically conflicted. And it could be Nicholson's best performance ever. Save for a slight detour in a confrontational barber shop scene (in which he assumes his broad, 'rebel Jack' persona), it's easily his most subtle and multi-layered. His Jake is troubled by something, but Nicholson and Polanski leave it to the audience to discover what it is. Stack this alongside Nicholson's 1990s 'work' and you'd question whether it's the same actor. It isn't. Which is why film enthusiasts should savor Chinatown. Repeatedly.

Rating:
Summary: "Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
Review: This is probably either the best or of of the best movies since World War Two. The plot was beautifully portrayed through the brilliant direction of Roman Polanski and there's couldn't be anyone who could act out the part of Jake Gittes batter than Jack Nicholson. This movie should've won Best Picture at the Oscars but was robbed by The Godfather Part II.

Rating:
Summary: : )
Review: Jack sought back end cut

But tightfisted Polanski

Just gave him a slice

Rating:
Summary: the ending...
Review: i've read a lot of customer reviews saying that they didn't like the movie, it was overrated, and the ending was lame. I disagree disagree disagree! i read a review saying something like "why was it even called chinatown, it wasn't about chinatown?"

this is simple. the story is about jake gittes. jake gittes saw some horrible things while working in chinatown; what he saw and participated in while working in chinatown contributes heavily to what he does in the film, and also his reactions to what happens around him. this is a guy who was forced to sit back and allow things to happen before, and he'll be damned if he lets that happen now. the ending is not horrible. the ending is perfect. look at the symmetry to it...this horrible bloody end occurs IN CHINATOWN, of all places.

as for "overrated"...that's a horrible word. how can something be "overrated"? whether you like a movie or not should be based on what you bring to it. if you don't like it, you don't like it. you're not going to see why other people do like it. chinatown is a fine film, and the dvd transfer isn't too bad. i'd like to see it on a better transfer; it's not even a cut above the vhs transfer, but such is life.

Rating:
Summary: A weird, wonderful mindblower!
Review: Chinatown doesn't only hold up because of the excellent story. Because of the excellent DVD quality it's really hard to identify the time it has been made. Off course we know it's from the seventies because it's daring, weird and highly original and accompanied by one of the best soundtracks ever written (Jerry Goldsmith). Not daring & weird in a far fetched Polanski kind of way, but really believable and disturbing.It's one of the top 5 masterpieces ever made.The film also has a couple of kneeslapping 'unneeded' hilarity, for instance the scene where Jack Nicholson inspects one of the waterpipes with a couple of policemen, (we are now 1 h 39m 30 s into the film) when suddenly one of the cops makes a loud hickuppy kind of sound. They look at him and do not react. It's so sweet! I rented this copy but i'm going out tomorrow to buy it. The interview with Polanski & writers is far to short, but it's there, so that's good. The 5.1 surround sound is adding to the mood brilliantly. Wow!

Rating:
Summary: Ultimate film noir or ultimate film?
Review: The seventies provided us with three examples of Hollywood product that all but transcended the commercial circumstances of their making: Altman's "Nashville," Coppola's "Apocalypse Now," and Polanski's "Chinatown." Nothing since has come close to the vision, criticism of life, and even social/cultural verisimilitude of these three courageous, individualistic enterprises. "Chinatown" is closest to being commercial because of its genre type, but a comparison to any of the film noirs of the forties or to the more recent "L.A. Confidential" should reveal why the film succeeds at a much deeper level than any of these superficially related entertainments. Like T. S. Eliot, Polanski uses the image of water to portray first the cultural wasteland of a heartless, materialist landscape and second the sterility of human relations that are as lustless as they are loveless. Like Oedipus, the incestuous perversion of the story's "fisher-king" brings a curse upon a fallen land where all that remains, finally, is cynicism (Jake: "What do you expect? It's Chinatown.")

Rating:
Summary: chinatown deserves a place in your affections
Review: Chinatown is one of the greatest films ever made. It presents us with a twisted version of the already twisty film noir genre. Polanski recalls the classics of the forties (the Big Sleep, the Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity) but does not allow this movie to become either homage or pastiche. It is a film that splices the style and subtleties of Hays' era American cinema, with the integrity that the more lax censorship rules of the colour era allow.

It is a marvel, combining the best elements of two eras of film-making.

It has one of those wonderfully complex noir plots, which benefits from repeated viewing. And it grips throughout. Polanski handles the material with incredible accuity, and this is plausibly his best US film.

Nicholson is superb as Jake Gittes, the private eye who takes a simple 'infidelity' case, and winds up in a weird, seedy maze of corruption that cuts to the very heart of Los Angeles's political and criminal world. He shows a subtlety and restraint he has in recent years eschewed in favour of self parody. This is Nicholson at the very height of his powers.

Faye Dunnaway is likewise excellent as the detective's troubled and reluctant client.

This is a film that seems to get better and better with every passing year. The more easily it can be seen in the context of contempory cinema, the more special it appears to be.

Look out for Roman Polanski himself, 'doing a Hitchcock', and taking a cameo role in his own movie. And, with Chinatown, Polanski deserves the comparison with the great fat master of suspense.

Has to be seen - twice - to be believed.