They should built a shrine for this classic, so that every cinephile can worship it every day in honor of its brilliance...

Rating: 10/10 (8 June 2018)

Every movie lover knows about the brilliance of Roman Polanski's "Chinatown". If you are reading these reviews you havent seen it yet, which positions you in a place at the gates of heaven. You have not entered heaven yet, but you will once you decide to walk through the gates and watch "Chinatown". I am rather jealous of you, because the first time is special, although the great thing about movies is, that the most wonderful stories CAN be relived time and again. "Chinatown¨ is up there with the all time greatest movies of american cinema history. The absolute pinnacle of genius.
That must be enough praise to get you curious. My real advice would be not to read any further. Not my review, nor anyone elses. I just wanted to make sure with my first paragraph that you wont make the unforgivable mistake of passing this movie by. You havent lived without having seen it...
The story takes place in L.A. in the thirties, in the middle of a period of drought there is a big conflict about how to get more water to the city. A previous water reservoir had collapsed and killed 500 innocent L.A. citizens and now they plan to built another one with the same faults that were present in the earlier disaster. Enter Jack Nicholson as a private investigator who at first gets an assignment that seemingly has nothing to do at all with this disaster which cost so many people's lives. He just has to research if a husband is cheating on his wife. What seems an innocent and tedious job, soon becomes a life threatening case, when Jack Nicholson finds out more than he is supposed to know about the powers that be, that want to build this risky dam, come hell or high water...
The story truly is very intelligent, suspenseful and emotionally devastating and has won many awards. The number of awards is mindboggling so I wont start listing them here, but it suffices to say that everything, and I truly mean everything, could be and has been awarded about this movie. I just want to restrain myself, in order to limit the length of this review. No I cant. I just GOT TO mention everything. I'll keep it "short".
The acting. Let's start with that. Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway and John Huston truly play the roles of their lives. Images so pure and intense that I can see them by just mentioning the name "Chinatown". The photography by John A. Alonzo (Scarface) is breathtaking. Almost every scene is shot in the magic hours, when the sun rises or sets and delivers shadows and golden colors that only last for some 30 minutes every day. All the images are bathing in this glow of early sunset. Almost every scene could be a poster, that is how gorgeous the photography is. Finally the music score by Jerry Goldsmith, who is a music genius. With a minimum of instruments he creates another "leading role", because his music is intertwined with the heart of this movie. Yes, his music score is so powerful and sublime that it is unimaginable to think of "Chinatown" without these dissonant piano string chords and gorgeous dreamlike trumpet themes. Jerry Goldsmith's music scores are even being used after his passing, every year till this very day, movies are released with themes from earlier scores by this brilliant composer.
In the end we have to thank Director Roman Polanski for his genius in bringing all these talents together and creating something which will be seen by generations to come. In a time capsule of movie history Roman Polanski's masterpiece will shine as a star among the very greatest that american cinema has ever achieved.