Posted in
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Faye Dunaway
Jack Nicholson
John Huston
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Genre
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Crime
Mystery
Thriller
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Media
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DVD
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Studio | Paramount Home Entertainment | ||
Language | English | ||
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Reviewer
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Gareth
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Description
Roman Polanski's brooding film noir exposes the darkest side of the land of sunshine, the Los Angeles of the 1930s, where power is the only currency--and the only real thing worth buying. Jack Nicholson is J J Gittes, a private eye in the Chandler mould, who during a routine straying-spouse investigation finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into a jigsaw puzzle of clues and corruption. The glamorous Evelyn Mulwray (a dazzling Faye Dunaway) and her titanic father, Noah Cross (John Huston), are at the black-hole centre of this tale of treachery, incest and political bribery. The crackling, hard-bitten script by Robert Towne won a well-deserved Oscar, and the muted colour cinematography makes the goings-on seem both bleak and impossibly vibrant. Polanski himself has a brief, memorable cameo as the thug who tangles with Nicholson's nose. Chinatown is one of the greatest, most completely satisfying crime films of all time
Review
This is the benchmark for all detective thrillers should be based against. Razor sharp script & plot; honed and polished acting with exemplary performances by Jack Nicholson; Faye Dunaway and John Huston. This film keeps you guessing with its many winding turns - the final twist of the knife is devastating and the last line of dialog just hangs in the air: "Forget it, Jake - it's Chinatown." This film was made during the Sharon Tate / Charles Manson massacre and there is a feeling of creeping darkness and despair perpetuating the narrative. It's about the corruption of innocence where the truth is just another murky grey area and the final truth is often too much to bare.
There is a feeling of detachment as well, as if the audience are just observers in the drama, just like the private eye Jake Gittes so we are actually implicated in the murder and intrigue and, at the end, are just as helpless to make things right as Gittes.
This is a fascinating film, one of the few thrillers that can be called brilliant and is certainly one of the films you need to see before you die!
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