Inspectors71's pick for the best American movie ever made

Rating: Null/10 (18 March 2006)

I showed Roman Polanski's Chinatown to my wife about ten years ago and she hated it. It wasn't entertainment, and evil wins. With this in mind, Chinatown and all the people involved on and off screen should be forever congratulated for creating, quite possibly, the perfect adult story that isn't entertainment.
I have watched this movie two dozen or more times and I cannot find a flaw in its construction, plotting, artistry, or performance. On top of its perfection, the viewer must appreciate what Candace Bergen once pointed out on an AFI presentation of the top 100 films of all time, that the movie is utterly daring and fearless. The whole idea that a major American film studio would tell the (fictionalized?) story of how LA got big is amazing in itself.
Yet, it isn't entertainment, and evil wins.
Polanski's creation, his dark image of Depression-era Los Angeles, governed by the thoroughly-corrupted and populated by near-virtuous, real people is so beautiful in its execution, its performances (where do I start with my kudos?--Nicholson, Dunaway, Huston?), and its daring that my praise may turn off prospective viewers--it's some old movie about a private eye, water rights, and incest.
Yuck. Who wants to watch that?
But if you crave more than entertainment, can stand it when the good guys can only hobble off the field of battle with nothing to show for their bravery but their dignity, and want your time in front of the DVD player to mean something, then accept that Chinatown will deliver to you a meaningful two hours, an appreciation of how good a movie can be.
A masterpiece.