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8.6/10
FilmFascination Rating
Chinatown is one of those mystery movies where things reveal themselves but they confuse you even more. You just have to trust it will work out and, in the end, everything makes sense.
Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is a charming, smooth and witty private investigator. He is intelligent which is evident from the intriguing methods he uses. He keeps a pocket clock just behind the rear tires of a parked car to find out when the car leaves the place from the time we see in the broken watch. Even when he was following a car at night, he broke one of the tail lights to clearly understand which car to follow. He is hired by Evelyn Mulwray to follow her husband Hollis Mulwray, the chief engineer at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power whom she suspects is cheating on her. The character of Hollis Mulwray was loosely based on William Mulholland who was the chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and power who oversaw the construction of an aqueduct that carries water from Owens Valley to Los Angeles. Gittes with all his skills and his two competent associates captures pictures of Hollis with a young woman, which are published in the next day’s newspaper.
Gittes realizes that he has been set up when he finds the real Evelyn Mulwray in his office the next day who threatens to sue him. While trying to figure things out, it is not long before he finds the body of Hollis Mulwray, and his old police associate, Lieutenant Lou Escobar is assigned to this case. Gittes understands that he is trapped in something big and wants to decipher this complex enigma. It is certain that Mulwray was killed. But who killed him and why? There are many suspects. It could be his wife Evelyn who always seems to hide something from Gittes. It also could be Evelyn’s rich shady father or let’s not forget the woman Hollis was having an affair with. Telling anything more would be unfair as one of the main things of the movie that makes it exciting is all the revelations, wrong turns and sometimes the misleading directions we are led to. Jake and the audience unravel the mystery alongside.
When I first saw Chinatown, I did not quite get why the name Chinatown. For one thing, the movie wasn’t even taking place in Chinatown and is merely a place where Gittes priorly worked at. But Chinatown actually resembles the entire system of how things work in the world. In the Collector’s Edition of Chinatown, Towne (screenwriter) said he was inspired to write the script after hearing an exchange involving a Hungarian vice cop saying “What did you do in Chinatown? / “As little as possible”. That is the same answer Gittes gives when Evelyn asks him the question. He tried to do as little as possible as everything there was so foreign and corrupt. “I was trying to keep someone from being hurt. I ended up making sure that she was hurt” says Gittes when he recalls his time at Chinatown.
The score of the movie composed and recorded by Jerry Goldsmith sets the tone of the movie. With the memorable trumpet solos and thrilling piano pieces, it is, in my opinion, one of the best movie scores I have heard. Uan Rasey who played the trumpet solos told that Goldsmith “told to play it sexy – but like it’s not good sex!”. Supporting actors like Faye Dunaway (Evelyn Mulwray) and John Huston (Noah Cross) have given good performances. But Nicholson above all plays the character with finesse. Gittes in a scene literally beats a guy violently but still, when things get tense, we feel for him and care for him. We want to know what happens to him. That is how delicately Nicholson portrays his personality. In scenes like that of “I make an honest living” and even when Gittes tells the Chinaman joke (you might not get these references if you haven’t seen the movie but you will understand them after watching it), more than the dialogues it is how Nicholson does it, that describes much more of how the character is and about his personality. Another thing is that there is a bandage that covers Nicholson’s face most of the time. Covering the protagonist’s face is a daring thing to do as it might hide his expressions. But Nicholson has never let the audience even notice it.
While I talk about the daring things the movie does, how can I forget its end? I have always thought that I hated ends that were, not negative per se, but not upbeat. But Chinatown changed that perspective of mine. Chinatown does have some nice twists in the movie. But if it wasn’t for the ending and Nicholson’s acting, it would have ended up being just another crime and mystery genre movie. It is not sad as such but helpless where you just can’t do anything. People don’t like mysteries that are completely solved because it just stops your imagination there. But Chinatown lets you ponder over it, which is something I love about it. Some reports suggest that Polanski (director) changed the Chinatown ending against Towne’s wishes. The end result was genius.
In an interview with critic Michael Sragow, Towne said “Roman and I never really had any arguments except one, and that was over the ending. And it wasn’t that I wanted a happy ending; I had felt that his was excessively melodramatic.” In the end, Towne admitted that Polanski’s revised ending was the right choice. He made the movie just five years after his wife, Sharon Tate, was one of the victims of the Manson gang, and hence probably thought to tilt towards despair. I loved the ending. I froze with shock for a second just like Gittes until the famous dialogue “Forget it, Jake; it’s Chinatown” comes in.
Favourite Quotes
Ida Sessions: Are you alone?
Jake Gittes: Isn’t everybody?
Loach: What happened to your nose, Gittes? Somebody slammed a bedroom window on it?
Jake Gittes: Nope. Your wife got excited. She crossed her legs a little too quick. You understand what I mean, pal?
Morty: Isn’t that something? Middle of a drought and the water commissioner drowns. Only in L.A.
Walsh: Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.
[Fish is served with the head]
Noah Cross: I hope you don’t mind. I believe they should be served with the head.
Jake Gittes: Fine… long as you don’t serve the chicken that way.
Jake Gittes: Mainly that you’re rich, too respectable to want your name in the newspapers.
Noah Cross: Of Course, I’m respectable. I’m old! Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough.
Jake Gittes: I was trying to keep someone from being hurt. I ended up making sure that she was hurt.
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