"How do you like them apples?"

Rating: 10/10 (15 February 2008)

Chinatown=Landmark film. It's not only one of the greatest detective films ever, but one of the most perfectly constructed of all films ever.
It all starts off on a quite familiar footing. Jaded Los Angeles Private Eye Jack Gittes ( Jack Nicholson) is hired to investigate Hollis Mulwray (Darrell Zwerling), builder of the city's water supply system, over a possible affair.
Not a pretty complex case, right?............ Gittes simply does what he does best and photographs Mulwray with a young girl. Case closed right? Wrong! From here, Jake is quickly brought into a world of intrigue, corruption, and double crosses as the real Mrs. Mulwray ( Faye Dunaway) makes an appearance, and her husband quickly turns up dead.
With every lead that Gittes comes across, there seems to be a connection with water. So it is here that he unravels the City of Angels scandals one after the next, but the biggest mystery is what, and who, lies at the heart of it all.
Nicholson is absolute magic as Gittes, and his face can tell a thousand stories, with or without the plaster on the nose. His wicked grin softens his character's world- weary cynicism and adds an interesting sympathetic edge to his hard, somewhat aloof at times character.
Dunaway is her typical enigmatic-self. Her whole "sister... daughter... sister... daughter" routine has to be seen to be believed.
I have to say though, that is is John Huston who steals the film though. His Cross is the perfect foil as the disturbing father. Guy just gives me the creeps. Especially, that final scene with Katherine.
Daniel Day-Lewis sure did his homework for There Will Be Blood. The voice and some of the mannerisms he adopted in playing the oil-man Plainview were pure John Huston.
In fact, speaking of the film's ending.... I think the murder of Polanski's wife Sharon Tate goes along way in explaining the tragic conclusion, and certainly the despair the film leaves you with.
One of the things I love most about the film, heck referring to the title itself: is the whole idea of past events haunting and influencing character's actions in the present.
For instance, Jake failing to save the life of a woman he had cared for when he was a detective in Chinatown, Evelyn's own troubled history, etc.
I think my favorite line from the film, is uttered by Cross to Jake when he says, ""You may think you know what you're dealing with, but, believe me, you don't." Easily one of the best lines in a film, filled with em.... You know the situation, Gittes finds himself in goes way beyond murder or scandal. Cross was far above the power of the mayor or even police. As Evelyn cries. "He owns the police!"
Also look for director Roman Polanski as the thug who pokes a switchblade up Nicholson's nostril while uttering the infamous line: "You're a very nosy fellow, kitty cat. Huh? You know what happens to nosy fellows? Huh? No? Wanna guess? Huh? No? Okay. They lose their noses."
I think my favorite scene from the entire film is the one where Jake beats the crap out of that goon in the retirement home. Just something about the way it was filmed......