Chinatown Review

 

Chinatown

Director: Roman Polanski

Stars: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Diane Ladd, & Darrel Zwerling

Running Time: 130 Mins

Release: 20^th June 1974

The film is set in 1937 LA and the story focuses on Jake Gittes (Nicholson) a young ambitious gumshoe who deals with marital cases. One day a woman Evelyn Mulwray (Ladd) comes into his office and asks him to investigate her husband Hollis Mulwray (Zwerling) who's the head of building LA's water supply system of having an affair with a young woman. The story is later published in the press and is a complete scandal and Gittes finds out he was hired by an imposter, at this time the real Evelyn Mulwray (Dunaway) comes into his office to tell him that that she is suing him for defamation.

Clues suggest a scandal in LA's government, despite there being an ongoing serious drought and a expensive proposal to build a new dam, The Water and Power department is dumping fresh water into the ocean during nightfall. The dam proposal is opposed by Hollis himself who cites a potential disaster because of the weak geological formations in the rocks embedded into the land of where it is going to be constructed. It is laughed at and ridiculed at a public hearing and later Hollis's body washes up on the shore and is suspected of drowning. What starts off as a simple murder case becomes so much more and to say anymore would simply spoil the plot though you can say the typical tropes of a noir film are involved, deceit, corruption and murder.

I have not seen Jack Nicholson in all that much the only thing I have really seen him in is the 1989 Tim Burton 1989 Batman film of which he stole the show and in this he's much younger and Nicholson is absolutely brilliant in the role he's everything a gumshoe on film should be: ambitious, self assured, determined, intelligent and like many others be in way over his head. He brings real conviction to Jake Gittes, he makes Jake feel like a real a person, sometimes you like him sometimes you don't he's very authentic and really makes you think that you know him and he even has a regular guy charm to him, he's gotten lost in the role and it's amazing to see, he steals every scene he's in. It should be noted we see the film from his perspective so he's never not in a scene.

Granted too I have not seen Faye Dunaway in much either, in fact I have not seen her in anything before. Like Nicholson she's perfect in this. At first you think she's a femme fatale but there's so much more to her than that, she has that unique property of mesmerizing and encapsulating you as Evelyn, she glues your eyes to the screen whenever you see her, she is a very complex character and Dunaway really does her best in this, you can tell she gave it her all.

Also we have Noah Cross, played by John Huston, Evelyn's father who was Hollis's business partner who fell out with him over there different opinions of the dam, he's a charismatic character but also whom's very creepy and controlling and know's how he gets what he wants, I think he looks a bit like Max Von Sydow and his performance reminded me of Sydow's performance in Minority Report, it's quite easy to make comparisons.

There's a lot of supporting characters but there's too many to list but they each add there own element to the film the one i'll point out is Burt Young's Curly, Jake's client from the start of the film whom knows he's wife is cheating and later in the film when we see Curly again, we see his wife with a black eye. There's also you fair share of dirty corrupt cops in Roy Jenson's Mulvihill and Perry Lopez's Escobar.

This film does not try to gloss over the theme's in this noir film like classics did which only suggested at the acts, this one shows them and it's incredibly raw and for it's time when it was released in 1974 it was pretty controversial. With this film being a neo-noir film (being made after the B&W period) it really fits in with the all time greats like Double Indemnity, Murder my sweet and The Killers.

The film is incredibly authentic and they really went into detail in the costumes, sets, interiors and cars it's outstanding that they went to all this effort to convey that the film is set in 1937. If you have not heard or recognised any of the actors or knew of the film's release date you would think it would have been made much earlier then again with the language and the themes in the film and some of the violence would break that illusion as it would be censored at that time, but if it was not they would be like Chinatown.

I see Chinatown as what noir could have been in it's heyday if it was not censored and as I said before it's up there with the greats and demands a repeated viewing.

I really have to say this film looks incredibly beautiful, this is my first time seeing it and on Blu-Ray to boot and the image looks incredibly sharp and subtly vibrant it looks simply outstanding and Polanksi has done an absolute brilliant job filming this, he really knows how to shoot a film and every shot is beautifully done right from the beginning shot in Jake's office to the final shot in Chinatown at the end, I have never been this impressed by a film visually since I saw The Master. I particularly love the shots of the seafront in the film it's spectacular.

I cannot wrap up this review without commenting on the absolutely beautiful and spellbinding soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith who's music evokes the golden period of Noir from the opening of the Paramount logo and the intro credits I was hooked it really sweeps you in and it's oh so beautiful, I really do need to own it.

I will surely watch this film many times in the future it's perfect in every way; superb acting, a brilliant well thought out story, a cracking script, brilliantly shot for it's time it really blew my mind, superb production values, a brilliant albeit dark perfect ending and a spectacular soundtrack.

This film is an absolute classic neo-noir I have fallen in love with it, Noir is the best un-hollywood-ending genre there is and this one is one of the best it stays with you long after the credits roll your jaw is on the floor and the final line sums up the film completely 'Forget about it Jake, it's Chinatown'.