Pitch-Perfect

Rating: Null/10 (3 November 2004)

As a high school student, I grew enamored with the cult of Jack Nicholson. To me, he encapsulated everything I wanted to be: aloof, rebellious, and, above all, wicked cool. Of course, I was basing my perception of him on the roles he played on screen - not the best judge of a man, as he was 'acting.' Nevertheless, the idea of Jack appealed to me, even if it was mythic.
In any event, he represents the first actor over whom I became obsessed. I've seen, I think, all of his movies from Easy Rider on and have watched a handful of those old B-movies (The Terror, some random westerns) in which he appeared as well. Though my older self often finds his performances grating (sometime in the early 80s he decided to play each role the same way), I still find his work in the 1970s fantastic - among the greatest work by any American actor.
The apogee of his acting career, for me, has always been his portrayal of Jake Gittes in Chinatown. Yes, he's astounding in Easy Rider (in comparison to Peter Fonda's wooden performance it'd be difficult to appear otherwise), Five Easy Pieces, the Last Detail, Cuckoo's Nest, King of Marvin Gardens, Prizzi's Honor, and About Schmidt (his best performance since Prizzi's), but as J.J. he truly amazes.
He provides his detective the one thing Bogie never gave Marlowe or Spade - a softness. Yes, Jake Gittes is for the most part a sexist, violent, egotistical man (as all detective have been since the Black Mask started printing Hammett's stories), but there is a Romantic under-current to his character that hits the audience from the title screen onward.
Jake Gittes' machismo, unlike that of Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe (the filmed version - Chandler's Marlowe has more depth and is ), is a put-on - a cover that helps him ignore his pain, his emotions. Spade was a reprehensible womanizer and terrible friend. Marlowe wasn't much better. Neither of them, though, had a reason. Gittes does and Nicholson does a tremendous job showing the audience that below the masculine sheen something troubles Jake. He compensates for the pain of what happened in Chinatown by slapping Evelyn around and by taking on her father.
The look upon Nicholson's face in the famous 'sister/daughter' scene is priceless. As he slaps Ms. Mulwray, he grimaces and we see that Jake hates what he is doing - he loves Evelyn, can't bear to hurt her, but feels he must in order to conform to stereotypical gender behavior and hide away his pain. Jake Gittes is the most conflicted and tortured private eye in film history and, I think, only Nicholson could give that performance.
The other performances are equally memorable. Faye Dunaway is fantastic as Evelyn Mulwray, managing to make her sympathetic without allowing Mulwray to be cloying. John Huston, as her father, though, amazes nearly as much as Nicholson. In the film, Huston somehow manages to create one of the most terrifying villains of all time. His Noah Cross seems perfectly civilized on the surface but Huston gives Cross an edge. When he discusses eating fish with the heads still attached you cannot help but cringe; there's simply something so evil and slimy about him as he hunches over and eats the fish. We never see him act evil, but, through Huston's performance, we know.
However, wonderful performances never create a great movie; they are only part of a great movie. Chinatown contains every component that makes a great film. The script never misses a beat, paying homage to and updating the detective movie (not necessarily the film noir, though, but that's another story). It also creates a perfectly realized and fascinating world through its cinematography and set design. Watching Chinatown, the audience feels as if they are in 1930s Los Angeles and can taste the dusty streets and feel the grimy heat on its neck. Moreover, Polanski's direction infuses the film with a certain European, existential dread that only an Eastern European could concoct.
Chinatown would not be so fantastic, so perfect had another director helmed the project. No one else could have made a movie that is as paranoid and as pessimistic about our place in the world as Polanski did. It makes me happy that he made one great movie before being run out of town as a pedophile.
*Spoilers* I probably stand alone in the belief that Chinatown is the greatest movie ever made, but I do not stand alone in saying this film is absolutely brilliant. Some may find the sour ending too glum, but think for a moment - would a happy ending ever have worked? Doesn't the movie's tragic mode require Gittes to endure yet another Chinatown? I believe it does and therefore must ignore complaints about the movie's ending; it could not end any other way.