As good as American film gets.

Rating: 10/10 (11 January 2019)

A boatload of major Hollywood talent is on their game in this intricately complex tale of murder and corruption in 30s LA. Featuring a multi layered script of sub plot and deception by Robert Towne, impeccably translated by the florid cinema syntax of director Roman Polanski.
JJ Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is a successful snoop dealing mainly in marital discord. When he's hired by a woman posing as the wife of the Water Commissioner, things immediately get ugly as prevarication runs rampant and people get hurt.
Chinatown is a perfect blend of form and content. Every shot counts, every camera movement precise and for a reason. All characters resonate no matter how insignificant they may seem. For two hours he keeps both the audience and protagonist Gittes in the dark as he offers up one outstanding set piece after the next in a park, restaurant or a morgue brilliantly transitioning both place and mood as he does in one that starts out in a barbershop. Bloodletting is brief and minimal but about as brutal and jolting as any you will find in film. Leads and misleads are subtle as we literally in some cases tale Jake throughout the whole film since he is in every scene allowing us to watch things unravel in real time.
The sardonic Nicholson is tailor made for the role, his smart ass remarks fitting like a glove as he takes his lumps and stumbles upon evidence inadvertently doing more harm than good. Faye Dunaway's fatale is magnificently ambiguous, her icy exterior deceptive enough to allow the mystery to deepen even further into the film's running time. John Huston is tour de force avuncular creepy and Polanski in a cameo an imposing diminutive gimp with a blade.
John Alton's cinematography, Richard Sylbert's production design, Sam O'Steen's editing, Anthea Sylbert's costume design and especially Jerry Goldsmith's plaintive moody score all rise in compliment to Polanski's dark polished vision.
Arguably the finest American film of the last half century no amount of superlatives can convey the challenge, demand and awe to be found in one's first viewing of this cinematic masterpiece. Subsequent viewings will be void of the mystery that is perfectly shadowed from end to end yet the edifying moments of repeated showings will make the experience no less satisfying. Chinatown easily ranks with The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep as the best detective film in history. It's eloquent masterful telling by Polanski as graceful and well spoken as cinema language gets. Chinatown is film done perfect.