Chinatown

Rating:
Summary: I cut my nose shaving
Review: Not since Otto Preminger's LAURA had filmgoers the pleasure of watching a classic film noir, until Polanski's CHINATOWN. The plot and characters are complex but chillingly believeable. I can't find anything wrong with this film. It is well-paced for a fairly long movie. The lighting, cinematography, setting, costumes... everything is as should be. The performances by John Huston and Faye Dunaway are eerie and tragic, respectively. Then of course there's Nicholson. Mad Jack was already firmly established on the Hollywood map having already won acclaim for EASY RIDER, THE LAST DETAIL, and FIVE EASY PIECES. This film however fixed him permanently in the constellation of Hollywood stars. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST would soon follow. In any event, his portrayal of an aloof, world-weary gumshoe who stumbles in over his head into an intrigue involving crooked politicians and the money-slobbering wealthy still holds up 30 years later. This is an incredible film.

Rating:
Summary: THIS IS WHAT FILM IS SUPPOSED TO BE
Review: The mid-1970s saw a spate of "government conspiracy" films, all with liberal themes that emanated from Watergate. None of them were about Kennedy stealing the 1960 election. Hmm.
"Chinatown" (1974) may be the best screenplay ever written. A historical look at 1930s Los Angeles, it actually condensed events from the 1900s with events that, uh, never happened but made for good drama. Written by L.A. native Robert Towne, directed by Roman Polanski, produced by Evans and starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunnaway and famed director John Huston, it told the story of how Los Angeles became a metropolis. In Towne's version, Huston "owns" the L.A. Department of Water & Power with a character based on actual L.A. City engineer William Mulholland. Mulholland had orchestrated the political deal which built the aqueduct that brought water from the Owens Valley into the L.A. Basin, allowing millions of Southern Californians to keep their lawns green to this day.
The Mulholland character is "sacrificed" at the altar of greed, embodied by Huston, who secretly buys the San Fernando Valley, knowing that once the water deal is set, it will be incorporated into the city, making him a gazillionaire. It is rather cynical, although nobody suggests the L.A. "city fathers" were boy scouts. The same old theme is that capitalism and American political power are corrupt. To make sure the audience is convinced the corruption is beyond redemption, Huston is in the end found out be an insatiable, incestual monster. He plays the role so well it brings up minds-eye imagery of his real daughter, Angelica. The film is utterly beyond any criticism, regardless of political colorization. For decades, film students and screenwriters have studied it. It spawned an artistic quest to lace the screen with symbols, metaphors, backstory, and twists.
"Chinatown" seems to be the apex of the American film period, the mid-1970s. The period from 1960 to 1979 is unparalleled, but the backstory of the people who created these classics is a telling tale of why the genre leans to the Left. In the 1960s, film schools became popular. Four schools emerged, and have held their place as the place to learn the craft. In Los Angeles there was the USC School of Cinema-Television. Their first big alumnus was "Star Wars" director George Lucas. UCLA combined their film school with their drama program, so as to bring actors, writers, directors and producers together. Coppola went to UCLA along with a future rock star named Jim Morrison, who would form The Doors with another UCLA film alumnus, keyboardist Ray Manzarek.

STEVEN TRAVERS
AUTHOR OF "BARRY BONDS: BASEBALL'S SUPERMAN"
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Rating:
Summary: A Master Screenplay, A Perfect Film
Review: Many writers consider Robert Towne's screenplay for 'Chinatown' as the perfect screenplay. It is, and is also in fact the example of how important good writing is in the art of cinema. It is perfection and in the hands of Roman Polanski it became a film masterpiece. But it all goes back to the writing. Robert Towne has taken the true story of how Los Angeles stole water to grow and wound around it the fictional story of Jake Gittes, Evelyn Mulwray, and Noah Cross and made them major participants in an ugly little tale of lust and greed. Towne's screenplay is layered like a decaying Dahlia with twisting mysteries and taught suspense. There is not a loose end in sight and a few well placed red herrings are added to the mix to delight any fan of this type of story.
The attention to detail from vintage cars, sets, real L.A. streets and alleys to the excellent score by Jerry Goldsmith and the golden cinematography of John A. Alonzo contribute to all the aspects of this classic of the post 60's film noir.
Faye Dunaway as Evelyn Mulwray is at the top of her game creating a neurotic exotic hothouse flower that carries death within the heart of her dark and dirty secret. Lacquered and veiled in the most perfect black widow getup of the genre she is superbly brittle and vulnerable at the same time. She is fascinating to watch as she slowly unravels along with the mystery until she is naked in the horror of what her past and present prison is. This is a great performance by a great artist.
As Evelyn's father Noah Cross, John Huston is the debauched cancerous center of evil and greed captured within the crumbling casing of a seemingly charming old man. He too gives the performance of a lifetime and his soliloquy on what a man is capable of is chilling.
The center of this masterwork is Jack Nicholson who became a star with this, the best of his early work. His J. J. Gittes is hardboiled and ruthless in getting to the bottom of why he is being used to take the fall for a murder. He embodies the soul of Bogart and the heart of a romantic fighting to stay tuff in a rotten world. He is drawn with such skill that he seems not to be acting but simply existing the real world of L.A. in the late 1930's.
"Chinatown" is seminal in its place in film history. It bridged and old and forgotten genre with a new Hollywood in its post studio infancy and laid the groundwork for later films of equal ambition such as "Mullholland Falls" and "L.A. Confidential".
This is one of the best film ever made and a must have for any serious film collector.

Rating:
Summary: Great film. Rotten transfer.
Review: This is one of the all time great mysteries, perhaps the most superb of all the neo-noir films. Personally, I have never liked the ending (where is Bogie when you need him?), but nevertheless, it is brilliantly written, brilliantly acted, and brilliantly directed. The original is visually gorgeous - but you might as well buy the VHS version. This DVD is really awful. The focus is fuzzy. It looks like someone took an aging, washed-out copy, upped the color saturation, and called it remastered. The skin tones are almost too bright, but the colors while still faded, are too dark and murky. I still remember the subtle use of color from when I first saw the film, the beautiful pinks and blues and yellows playing against the cool neutrals. The rich darks giving gorgeous contrast. And I remember the perfect LA light. Only the brightest sunlit scenes come even close to the way it should look. This is a Hollywood masterpiece, and deserved great love and care in its restoration. It didn't get them.

Rating:
Summary: A knockout, a masterpiece, one of the greatest, a classic
Review: First of all, it is hard not to just rave about how great this movie is. Discussions of its finer points aside, you are really missing something if you don't go out and see this movie. It is not a martial arts movie. It is a flawless, polished gem of a film- a rare treasure of unequaled technical mastery, unrivaled performances by both Nicholson and Dunaway, and screenwriting excellece of course too.
Chinatown is arguably the greatest movie ever made. But to understand this, and thus to understand why you really should watch it, it is perhaps useful to understand where it fits. Chinatown is certainly not the most "important" film, as it is essentially a rehashing of the film noir genre, but it terms of absolute and unequivocal success as BOTH a work of art and entertainment, Chinatown is without rival. Critics may have written much more about other movies of the period, and certainly for instance "Taxi Driver" is more of a cultural monument, but nothing can touch the staggering richness of this film. It still hits me like a locomotive every time I see it.

Rating:
Summary: DVD Definitely Worth Buying
Review: I bought the DVD at Amazon.com as part of an upgrade to my old VHS collection.

As most know, this is one of the best movies ever made starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and with John Huston. It had some bad luck in that it came out the same year as Godfather II - so it won just a single Oscar. It is an entertaining detective story set in Los Angeles circa 1937. The plot centers on the LA city department of water and power while the movie derives its name from the chaos encountered by LA detectives in Chinatown, and the Nicholson character if a former detective. The present movie has a certain amount of chaos and evil - even if subtle - hence the connection to Chinatown.

The movie is written by Robert Towne, who got $25,000. for the script, and directed by Roman Polanski, who also has a cameo appearance as a knife wielding security man working for the Huston character in the film - who cuts the nose of the Nicholson character. It was produced by Robert Evans at Paramount. This is a classic and outstanding Hollywood film and is excellent even after multiple viewings years later. The actors and the plot mesh like a hand and glove. The sets and period autos and clothes are all excellent, as is the music.

I am reviewing the movie to comment on the DVD. I had previously owned the VHS version. The DVD is of high quality with excellent color and essentially flawless pictures. The extras are outstanding and I was extremely happy with the purchase.

In addition to the normal trailer that one finds on most DVDs, there are interviews with Towne, Polasnski, and Evans who give their thoughts on the development of the movie, the production, the writing, and some of the scenes. Polaski guides us through what he thinks are memorable scenes while Townes tells us about his inspiration for certain lines and conversations.

Simply an outstanding DVD.


Rating:
Summary: Perfect
Review: In only several minutes of screen time John Huston is one of the best movie villains of all time. "I don't blame myself." He is unforgettable delivering that line. Roman Polanski, Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway and Robert Towne have never done better work than this. Polanski and Towne could have softened the film's final revelation, but when Faye Dunaway forlornly shakes her head "no" they leave us nowhere to morally hide. Intelligent, complex, beautifull, this is a wonderfull, wonderfull film. It could never be made today, and that's a shame.

Rating:
Summary: Throwback to an Older Style of Filmmaking
Review: Jack Nicholson is totally captivating in his role as a private detective who specializes in tracking down stray spouses. But his latest case leads him to uncover greed and corruption that involve men in the highest levels of government, along with the wife and daughter (Faye Dunaway) of two such men, who also struggles to keep her terrible secret from coming to light.

Chinatown does such a fantastic job of capturing the mood and feel of the pre-World War II era that it actually seems like the film had to have been made back then. You may think it's a bit slow in the beginning, but rest assured that every little detail is significant to the story, which ultimately builds to an unforgettable climax. This critically acclaimed film is deserving of every accolade that has been bestowed upon it.

PS - for a great double feature, watch Chinatown and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest back to back !

Rating:
Summary: Film Noir Reinvented Into Cinematic Masterpiece
Review: The title of this movie does not refer to the story's setting, at least not until the very end. Rather it is a metaphor for a complex and confusing place that is best left alone lest one ends up getting hurt. It's hard to imagine a better period crime drama than "Chinatown". In what remains his career-best film (in spite of his recent and amazingly first Oscar win for "The Pianist"), Roman Polanski made a neo-noir masterpiece in 1974 full of elaborate plot twists, morally ambiguous characters and moody, authentic-feeling atmosphere. This movie is not a tribute to film noir as has been concluded by casual viewers, it's a complete reinvention of that genre into a more complex mindset thanks to Robert Towne's superbly written script.

Having just completed the crudely funny "The Last Detail" and going next to his Oscar-winning "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", Jack Nicholson was on a career-high roll when he played Jake Gittes, a struggling private eye in 1937 Los Angeles. Even in the midst of such an accolade-laden career, this is my favorite of his performances probably because he plays the role so against expectation. Bogart has so clearly etched the world-weary, dame-slapping gumshoe in our collective memories that Nicholson decided to take a less obvious approach here. He plays the detective as a relatively decent guy, who treats his often unsavory job as an honorable profession, even if he has to grub around to serve his clients. In walks Evelyn Mulwray, a mysterious woman with many secrets, who also happens to be the wife of the LA County water commissioner. But is it the real Mrs. Mulwray? What seems like a straightforward adultery case becomes much more as Gittes gets involved with the then-scandalous San Fernando land buying conspiracy, corruption around water politics and of course, murder. In what has to be her career-best performance as well, Faye Dunaway is picture-perfect as Evelyn with her pencil eyebrows, iron-shingled coiffure and cool aura of heightened glamour and deceit. The surprising element to her character is that she looks so right as a femme fatale, and yet she exposes herself as a much more complex person full of emotional scars and trembling self-denial. As her backstory is divulged to both Gittes and the viewer, it becomes clear that her sophisticated veneer has shattered into a desperate scramble to escape her fate and exposes the purest of motives. It's a memorable transformation. In fact, the real core of evil in the story emanates from her father, Noah Cross, a charmer who hides a deeply disturbing soul. Polanski chose director John Huston to play Cross, and it's an inspired choice as he, of course, directed several classics of the same ilk - "The Maltese Falcon", "Key Largo", "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre". This in-depth understanding of the genre allows Huston to imbue Cross with the right spirit, enabling him to essay the part perfectly - a thoroughly amoral individual whose apparent good nature can't conceal the stench of corruption that clings to him.

The main plotline has Cross and some others planning an elaborate scam to dry up the San Fernando valley by diverting water away from it, then buying up the land cheaply, then re-diverting the water back to the valley, so the property becomes fertile and the price skyrockets. Evelyn's husband has the misfortune to figure out what's going on, and now Jake, following the dead man's trail, comes to the same conclusions. A young girl enters the picture, originally thought to be Cross' mistress, but her identity is far more convoluted. Of course, the disclosure of her identity becomes the point of one of cinema's most unforgettable confrontation scenes between Jake and Evelyn. At the end of the film, Gittes stands by helpless as the woman he has tried to save dies violently despite his best efforts because there are no sure things in the world of "Chinatown" and certainly no predictable endings. All the period flavor is impeccable from John A. Alonzo's burnished gold-and-brown-hued cinematography to Jerry Goldsmith's moody, insinuating musical score to W. Stewart Campbell's spot-on art direction. A monumental achievement strongly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Greatest Movies Ever Made!
Review: This film noir about a woman with a terrible secret is great. I have seen it so many times I've lost count. Good thing I bought it on DVD. It was the first video I ever bought, a long, long time ago! The DVD contains a really great interview with Roman Polanski and Robert Evans. I highly recommend it.