An unforgettable masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (19 June 2006)

Though in my opinion "Chinatown" deserved both director and picture Oscars over "Godfather II," the movie still remains one of the most memorable and cinematic movies ever created. Director Roman Polanski (who makes a cameo in the movie as a short mobster who cuts Jack Nicholson's nose) creates a film noir so tense and so brilliant, that it makes any 70s detective drama pale in comparison. "Chinatown" paved way for a tremendous respect for Roman Polanski, Faye Dunaway and Jack Nicholson.
The movie takes place in the 1940s where detectives and private investigators were the biggest thing. Jack Nicholson plays Jake Gittes (pronounced Git-teas) who takes on a job for a woman by the name of Mrs. Mulwray. The job is to find out if her husband is cheating on her. As Gittes spies on her husband he soon realizes that there is much more to the story than just an affair as he finds Mr. Mulwray dead and Mrs. Mulwray is not really his wife. Faye Dunaway shows up as Mr. Mulwray's real wife, Evelyn Mulwray, in one of the best femme fatale characters ever put on the screen. Gittes soon finds himself in a mayhem of murder, betrayal, incest, and greed while uncovering Mr. Mulwray's suspicious death in a backtrack of a place in Los Angeles called Chinatown.
Roman Polanski beautifully directs this film to portray the character of Gittes as both ambitious, charming and unafraid. He designs an ongoing feud between the law and criminals to show the life in the '40s. Showing just how brilliantly creepy a storyline can turn out, Polanski sways us into a subtle affair of wrongdoings by carefully illustrating a step-by-step process of a film noir terror. He chooses a brilliant score for the film that helps us feel both the 1940s and the '70s film noir. The cinematography is also great. Each scene is lit with subtle coloring, making it both cinematic and dark.
"Chinatown" represents a typical classic film noir at its finest. Every minute of the movie keeps you in complete suspense and challenges your values and ideas about society. More than just a detective story, "Chinatown" digs deep into the political and social agenda and picks out what seems to be a masterpiece.