One Of The Best Films of the 1970's, possibly of all time

Rating: 10/10 (16 November 2006)

This truly is one of the greatest films of all time, with a plot with such a massive and complex core, which is so well constructed, it is a movie that if paid close attention to will simply take your breath away. Jack Nicholson (in his best role and that says something for one of Hollywood's greats) plays the private detective who is in way over his head when he is hired to spy on the L.A. water commissioner, which leads him to become entangled in a sinister and convoluted case. It is such a complex film I would have to write about a 20,000 word essay before I could really tell you the story, so my advice is just watch it and be fascinated by the story (it may however take two watches before you can fully understand everything). You have a director (Roman Polanski) and a writer (Robert Towne) at the peak of their powers and a film which deserved more awards than the single one Robert Towne receieved (It was just unfortunate to be up in the same year as The Godfather II, another of Hollywood's great films). I just wish films of today were as consistently good today as they were in the 1970's (I wasn't born until 1981 and missed these films on their initial and shock felt release, so I still have a lot of catching up to do)