Water Water Everywhere

Rating: 10/10 (12 March 2013)

I was so glad to see that this great film of almost forty years ago is still being reviewed at the IMDb site. Great film critics have given this film its due credit over the years. I saw it when it first came out in 1974 and then again recently on a friend's home theater screen. And many times in between. Viewers should read what else they can about Chinatown to gain further insights to its mastery, but one of the great masterstrokes is the way the script weaves "water" into the film...and water is what the key crime is all about...the one Jake Gittes has to solve. Lack of water (an L.A. drought) is the setting; one of the characters is named Noah; water is the murder weapon; and water is characterized as the builder of a great city. Shaping a key image like this is just one of the ways this script excels. A great film.