When in Chinatown, do as little as possible and forget everything

Rating: 9/10 (20 August 2013)

The Los Angeles District Attorney tells cops in Chinatown to do "as little as possible." When detective Jake Gittes was on that beat, the DA used to tell him "you may think you know what you're dealing with, but believe me, you don't." There isn't much doubt about what happened to Jake in Chinatown back then. Trying to prevent it from happening, he explains, had only assured that it would. It would have been better to have done nothing at all. He gives that advice to at least one prospective patron of his private eye business when she comes to him with a concern about her cheating husband. "Go home and forget everything," he says, and for once this sarcastic, confident, inquisitive detective seems sincere and tired and sad. This line of work is how he makes his living, but he isn't out to see anyone get hurt. He takes the case, of course, and follows it where it leads, which is to a place where he can do nothing to prevent those who know too little from doing too much. Maybe he should have just gone home and forgotten everything, but then we wouldn't have Robert Towne's deft, classic screenplay.