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.
Plot
A Los Angeles Private Investigator named Jake 'J.J' Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is hired by a woman claiming to be Mrs. Evelyn Mulwray (Diane Ladd) to spy on her husband. When Gittes's photographs of Mr. Mulwray, revealing an apparent affair, are published in the papers, another Mrs. Mulwray (Faye Dunaway), 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.
Possible interpretations
Chinatown was released in the heyday of the New Hollywood era, and at the time was considered a homage to the film noir genre, especially since its cast included John Huston, who directed several 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 archetypal conventions of the noir movies, such as:
- A cynical "Private Eye" with a past.
- A femme fatale.
- A MacGuffin. (The fake Mrs. Mulwray; the water scandal)
- A convoluted, complex plot.
- A cynical and pessimistic 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.
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 Gittes having solved the case, no one will listen to his explanation, and the film's final line, "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown" implies that Cross will never be brought to justice.
Besides the homage to the noir movies, Chinatown can be seen as a Greek tragedy. Certain portions of the film are allegorical and reminiscent of the works of Sophocles, especially Oedipus Rex. 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.
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.
"Are you alone?" "Isn't everyone?" Gittes' response to Ida Sessions' telephone query, deliberately underplayed as a throwaway line, perfectly captures the tragic essence of Chinatown.
- 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.
- The role of Evelyn Mulwray was originally intended for the producer's wife, Ali MacGraw, but she lost the role when she divorced him for Steve McQueen.
- 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.
- Was voted the fourth-greatest film of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
- Peter Bogdanovich turned down the chance to direct. He later regretted his decision.
- The haunting trumpet solos in Jerry Goldsmith's score are by the respected Hollywood studio musician Uan Rasey.
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."
- "You've got to be more careful: that must really hurt."
- "Only when I breathe."
- "Politicians, ugly buildings and whores all get respectable if they last long enough."
- "So, tell me Gittes, how'd you get past the guard?"
- "Well, to tell ya the truth, I lied a little."
- "Look, Hollis seems to think you're an innocent man."
- "Well, I've been accused of many things Mrs. Mulwray, but never that."
- "Hello, Miss Sessions. I don't believe we've had the pleasure."
- "Oh, yes we have. Are you alone?"
- "Isn't everyone?"
- "What's the matter with your nose, Gittes? Someone slam a bedroom window on it?"
- "Bad for glass."
- "She's my sister AND my daughter! Understand? ...or is it too tough for you?"
- "As little as possible."
- "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."
Awards
Academy Awards - 1975
Wins:- Best Original Screenplay - Robert Towne
- Best Picture - Robert Evans
- Best Director - Roman Polanski
- Best Actor - Jack Nicholson
- Best Actress - Faye Dunaway
- Best Film Editing - Sam O'Steen
- Best Art Direction - Richard Sylbert, W. Stewart Campbell, Ruby Levitt
- Best Costume Design - Anthea Sylbert
- Best Cinematography - John A. Alonzo
- Best Sound Mixing - Bud Grenzbach, Larry Jost
- Best Music Score - Jerry Goldsmith
Golden Globes - 1975
Wins:- Best Motion Picture - Drama - Robert Evans
- Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama - Jack Nicholson
- Best Director - Roman Polanski
- Best Screenplay - Robert Towne
- Actor In A Supporting Role - John Huston
- Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama - Faye Dunaway
- Best Original Score - Jerry Goldsmith
Other Awards
- 1975 BAFTA, Best Actor (Nicholson), Best Direction, Best Screenplay (male)
- 1991 National Film Preservation Board
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.
See also
External links
- [Tim Dirks' analysis of Chinatown, one of "The Greatest Films"]
- [Roger Ebert's complete review of Chinatown]
- [Thrilling Detective's study of the character of Jake Gittes from Chinatown through The Two Jakes.]
- [Andy's Movie Quotes - page for Chinatown]
- [Discussion of characters and themes in Chinatown.]
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