Chinatown
Tags: comedy, dark, depressing, murder, neo noir, mystery, bleak, cult, violence, plot twist, atmospheric, humor, suspenseful

Plot synopsis:
Set in 1937 Los Angeles, a private investigator named Jake "J.J." Gittes (Nicholson) is hired to spy on Hollis Mulwray, the chief engineer for the city's water department. The woman hiring Gittes claims to be Evelyn Mulwray, Hollis' wife. For unknown reasons, Mulwray spends considerable time looking at dry riverbeds and water outlets. Mulwray is photographed while having a heated argument with an elderly man on the street. Gittes photographs Mulwray from a roof top when he kisses a young blonde, and the photo is published in the newspaper the next day, causing a scandal. After the story is published, Gittes is visited by the real Mrs. Evelyn Mulwray, who threatens to sue him for defamation.Gittes uncovers information that despite a serious drought and an expensive proposal to build a new dam, the Water and Power Department is dumping fresh water into the ocean at night. The dam project is opposed by Mulwray himself, who cites a potential disaster because of weak geological formations in the rock where the dam is to be constructed -- Mulwray had previously supported the building of another dam that had failed due to similar geological conditions. When he addresses a public hearing on the project, wbich Gittes attends, Mulwray is ridiculed by several farmers who want the reservoir and water the dam will provide.Jake goes to Mulwray's mansion to speak to him but is only able to talk to Evelyn Mulwray. While he waits for her, Mulwray's Japanese gardener cleans a small decorative pond. He casually says "bad for the glass" in broken English, a comment that Jake dismisses. Jake notices a shiny object in the pool and tries to retrieve it, stopping when Evelyn appears. She tells him that Mulwray usually takes afternoon walks at a reservoir and that he should look for him there.Gittes goes to find Mulwray at the reservoir but instead watches the police haul Mulwray's body out of the reservoir. They believe Mulwray died from drowning. Gittes used to work with the lead investigator, Lt. Lou Escobar. When the police interview Evelyn Mulwray about her husband's death, they assume she hired Gittes, and Gittes corroborates the lie for her. She thanks him and hires him to investigate what happened to her husband. Later, at the county coroner's department, Gittes learns from the coroner that Mulwray's lungs were filled with salt water, although he had been found in a freshwater reservoir. Gittes also learns that a local drunk was found dead from drowning in a dry riverbed that Mulwray had been inspecting.Later that night Gittes climbs the secure fence around the reservoir's and, after he is shot at, is nearly drowned when the culvert he is hiding in is suddenly filled with running water. Two water department security thugs detain him; a large man named Claude Mulvihill and a short thug (Roman Polanski), who slashes Jake's nose for being a "very nosy fella." Gittes, forced to wear a large and ridiculous bandage, receives a call from Ida Sessions, the woman who originally impersonated Evelyn Mulwray. She admits she was hired to trick Gittes, but refuses to come to his office. She tells him to read that day's obituaries. At the water department, Gittes sees photographs of the elderly man Mulwray quarreled with a few days before his death, and he turns out to be Noah Cross (John Huston), Evelyn Mulwray father. He used to own the water utility in partnership with Mulwray, but Cross ended his association with the department when the partners sold it to the city, as Mulwray had long desired.Cross invites Jake to lunch at his home and hires Jake to find the blond girl Mulwray had been seeing, saying that she might know what happened to him. Gittes goes to the Hall of Records and looks in a large plat book of the valley. He learns that a considerable portion of the valley has been bought up in the past few months by a few new land owners who have purchased large tracts of land. When the attendant in the room refuses to let Jake borrow the book, Jake surreptitiously tears the column out of the book and pockets it.Acting on another tip from Sessions, Gittes begins to unravel an intricate scandal involving LA's fresh water supply. Gittes first travels to an orange farm to talk with the owner about how his land is being irrigated. As he drives around he is shot at by the farmer and a few of his farmhands and crashes his car into a tree. Jake is dragged from his car, beaten and searched. The farmer explains that the Department of Water & Power has been harassing him by sending agents to run him off his land and poison the water in his wells. While he tries to show the farmer documentation of his investigation, the farmhands claim that Mulwray is responsible for harassment of late and attack Jake. When Jake tries to fight back, he's knocked unconscious. He wakes up to find that the farmer and his wife have called Evelyn, who has come to the farm.While they drive back to LA, Jake explains the scandal to her: her father and his partners have been forcing farmers in the rural areas surrounding the city off of their land so they can buy it cheap, after which a newly-built (and controversial) dam and water system would start redirecting much of L.A.'s water supply to that land, dramatically increasing its real estate potential and value.Since Cross wants no record of such transactions, he has partnered with a retirement home community, using the identities of the eldest residents within (one of whom is mentioned in the obituary column): they would legally, but unknowingly, own the land. Jake, having matched one of the obituary names to one of the names in the list he stole from the plat book, has Evelyn drive him to the retirement home and pose as a married couple trying to find a place for Jake's father to live. The host tells them they can tour the facility. They come across an activities board with the names of the people from the plat book. Jake talks to a group of women working on a quilt. One of the pieces of fabric they've sewn into the quilt bears the emblem of the Albacore Club, the yacht club owned by Noah Cross. Jake is confronted by the host who has figured out Jake's ruse. The man takes him out to the lobby where Mulvihill is waiting. Jake tells Evelyn to bring the car around and then severely beats Mulvihill and barely escapes when the short thug who slashed his nose shows up.Back at Evelyn's house, Gittes and Evelyn share a romantic interlude. As they lie on the bed afterward, Evelyn asks Jake about his past as a cop. He tells her he worked in Chinatown and was responsible for a woman "being hurt", possibly killed because of his actions. The phone rings and Evelyn has a cryptic conversation with someone, then informs Jake that she has to leave for a little while. She gravely asks him to trust her.Gittes takes Mulwray's car and follows Evelyn to a middle-class house and sees Mulwray's girlfriend crying. Evelyn claims the young woman is her sister, who was crying because she had just learned about Mulwray's death in the newspaper. Later that night, Jake receives a call at home from a detective named Loach, Escobar's partner, telling him to meet him at a specific address. When he gets there he finds that Ida Sessions is murdered and Escobar and Loach are waiting for him. When Jake asks how they knew to call him Escobar shows Jake his phone number written near the phone. Escobar also points out that he knows the coroner's report proves that salt water was found in Mulwray's lungs even though the body was found in a freshwater reservoir, a fact that Jake had discovered earlier but withheld. He demands that Jake turn over any incriminating photos that may reveal Mulwray's murderer's identity. Escobar's chief suspect is Evelyn herself.Under pressure from Escobar threatening to revoke his PI's license, Jake returns to Evelyn's mansion looking for her. Evelyn's Japanese gardener is working in the backyard and drops a minor comment about "salt water being bad for the grass". Jake has the man fish out the shiny object he'd noticed in the pool before: it's a pair of eyeglasses.Gittes confronts Evelyn at the small house where she'd been keeping the young girl. Evelyn reveals that the blond girl, Katherine, is both her sister and her daughter, born from an incestuous relationship she had with her father years before. Gittes asks Evelyn if her father raped her and she shakes her head no. It remains unclear whether the act was consensual or not. It is apparent also that Evelyn resents her father for taking advantage of her in a relationship considered unnatural. Gittes then chooses to help Evelyn escape. Evelyn also states that the eyeglasses Jake found in her back yard pond could not have been her husband's because they are bifocals. Gittes arranges for the two women to flee to Mexico on a fishing boat owned by another of Jake's clients and instructs Evelyn to meet him at her butler's address in Chinatown. Evelyn leaves, and Cross arrives with Mulvihill under the pretext that Gittes has found the girl; however, Gittes confronts Cross with the accusation of murder and the glasses. Cross had Mulwray drowned in the saltwater pond at his own house and lost his own glasses in the pond during the act. Jake asks Cross about the water scandal; Cross tells him that he plans to create a community in the desert with an abundant fresh water supply. The real estate revenues from the sales of the land will generate many millions of dollars for him. Cross considers the plan a way of buying the future, essentially insuring that his family will reap the benefits from such a deal for many years. When Jake pointedly asks Cross about the relationship with his daughter, Cross confidently says "Most people never have to face the fact that, at the right time and the right place, they're capable of anything". Cross then orders Mulvihill to seize the glasses, the only physical evidence Jake has and forces Gittes to take him to the girl. When Gittes arrives at Evelyn's hiding place in Chinatown, the police are already there and arrest Gittes on conspiracy and withholding evidence. Jake vainly tries to explain Cross' plan to Escobar, who won't listen.Evelyn appears with her daughter, trying to drive away in her car. When Cross approaches Katherine, demanding custody of her, Evelyn pushes him back, shoots him in the arm with a small pistol and starts her car. As Evelyn is driving away, the police open fire and Evelyn is shot and killed. Cross clutches Katherine, taking her out of the car, as a devastated Gittes is comforted by his associates, who urge him to walk away: "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."The plot is based in part on real events that formed the California Water Wars, in which William Mulholland acted on behalf of Los Angeles interests to secure water rights in the Owens Valley.

Review: He continues his investigation into the murder only to find a conspiracy involving thousands of gallons of water being wasted during a drought and the mysterious presence of Mrs Mulwray's father, Noah Cross.As a fan of film noir and tough detective movies, I am too often put off by modern entries into the genre that try to replace atmosphere and intelligence by just having nudity and swearing; the genre managed atmosphere without these in the forties and fifties but yet modern films seem to rely on them.
Unlike some other "classics" of the genre, Chinatown manages to do this without ever losing the audience and I found the plot to be both rewardingly complex but yet still very easy to follow.Needless to say, things are very dark and the script is convincingly dark and miserable, leading to an ending that is as depressing as I've seen  not so much in what actually happens but also in the wider implications for the characters that the credits prevent us from seeing.
Director Polanski does a great job of putting this story in a lush setting that produces a real strong sense of period but also manages to always be showing us the darkness coming through subtly throughout the movie.
Director Roman Polanski (his last film in America, and the first he made in America after the murder of Sharon Tate), stars Jack Nicholson & Faye Dunaway, and writer Robert Towne, all come together to create a detective story classic.
Add to it some good cameos (Burt Young as a driver, Polanski playing the little guy in the infamous 'knife' scene), and a smooth soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith, Chinatown comes out as strong piece of movie-making, and arguably one of the greatest in the crime/mystery genre..
In addition, the film itself received nominations for Best Picture and Best Director for Roman Polanski (Who has a cameo in the movie as the knife-welding thug who cuts Nicholson's nose), but those Oscars would be lost to The Godfather, Part II.
It's a great reminder of how utterly engaging cinema can be without the special effects, flimsy plots and outrageous stunts of many major studio productions now, not evening mentioning the obvious marketing tie-ins.The cinematography and screenplay could be considered almost economical in its minimalism as it is really the story, script and characters that drive this movie forward.
Chinatown tells the story a detective, confidently played by Jack Nicholson, who gets embroiled in an investigation involving the mysterious murder (suicide?) of the head of the Water Board.
During the investigation, he gets involved with Evelyn Mulwray, the wife of the murdered man who appears to want to get to the bottom of the mystery but during the course of the movie demonstrates that she is not telling the whole story and has something to hide.Everything in this movie works from already mentioned tight editing down to the costumes and sets.Nuff said!10/10.
Set in late '30s Los Angeles this 1974 film opens with a woman, identifying herself as Evelyn Mulwray, asking private detective Jake Gettes to find out whether her husband, chief engineer of the LA Water and Power Company, is having an affair.
A film about LA and water set in the l930's during a drought with a dark incestuous subplot and some stunning performances by Faye Dunaway and Jack Nicholson, and superb cinematography that seemed to capture the essence of LA.
I recommend this film to anyone who enjoys film noir, watching Jack Nicholson in perfect shape in a role that was tailor-made for him, a good mystery, Roman Polanski's direction and just a good movie with a more adult tone that many others.
This was the movie that started it all.Jack Nicholson graduated from star to superstar playing a gumshoe in this marvelously intricate film noir of the 70's directed by Roman Polanski,who has a memorable cameo as a sadistic hood,gives Nicholson the most famous nose job in motion picture history.
"Chinatown" was the apex of what the cinema of the 1970's was about to become,and this was the prime factor of that as well.The film was nominated for 11 Oscars including Best Picture and won three for Best Original Score(Jerry Goldsmith),Best Screenplay(Robert Towne),and Best Supporting Actor(John Huston)..
The term "film noir" has itself loosened up to include almost any moody 1940s-style film with crime in it, which starts lose it's descriptive usefulness.But Jack Nicholson is, really, a great detective in the Raymond Chandler mode--sassy, fearless on the surface but actually wary and a little scared in the end, playing by his own set of rules, and working mostly alone.
Even though Gittes is trying to find the killer, the picture is more about an insight into the characters and their profiles to provide a definitive explanation of this gruesome story.All in all, I highly recommend Chinatown as one the best avant-garde crime movies ever directed and one of the finest, freshest takes on the pristine noir genre.
The film features a phenomenal cast with Jack Nicholson as Jake Gittes, the beautiful Faye Dunaway as femme fatale Evelyn Mulwray and the excellent director John Huston in an acting role as one of the most horrifying villains in the history of cinema: Noah Cross.
And typical of movies that feature gumshoe detectives, the stories of both "The Big Sleep" and "Chinatown" are confusing and convoluted."Chinatown" combines power and corruption with sex and murder into a needlessly complex plot, written perhaps deliberately to confound viewers, in keeping with traditional noir doctrine, which espouses that confusion equals arty sophistication.So who did kill Ida Sessions, and how did she get possession of those pictures?
This movie just drips with Los Angeles film noir atmosphere: a rich-looking piece of cinema with great period detail.What stands out in most people's memory of this film is another odd thing: a man's nose getting sliced.
"Chinatown" is not the most beloved, best-known, or most remembered of the films, but ironically, it is one of the most important films of the 70's, "chinatown" is not a kind film, and it's not even the best movie of Polanski, but his narrative capacity is absurd, even to this day there is a maxim in entertainment that is not true, that all the stories have already been told, it is up to the interlocutor to tell them in different ways, and that is precisely what this movie does, inspired by the great noir films of the 1940s, it is not a novelty, and at the same time it is unlike anything we have seen, such as "the unforgivable" of '92 is the last great act of the western genre in cinema - even out of season, "chinatown" does the same thing with the noair genre.
The great point that draws attention to "chinatown" is his script, he is completely magnificent, I would say, which is a complete synthesis of the perfection of how to script a movie, in 2 hours we have complete development of all the characters, we have a simple plot which gains layers of depth every minute, we have problems that mix with the city, turning into a political and social plot while bringing a classic story of a detective full of twists, who at one point surrenders to the cliché, but then surprises the all showing that in "chinatown" there are no spaces for the obvious.
With a great photo, extremely clear and brings new york life together with an assembly that joins the script to bring a great rhythm to the film, and a soundtrack that combines but is not marked in technical parts, the film has no much to criticize, is not perfect, but is not far behind the artistic part of the film, part that brings jack nicholson who is incredibly in a centered role, and alias, doing a great performance, and the stunning Faye Dunaway, who we love and hate her throughout the film, and she makes the whole story run around her, and she succeeds in behaving like the guiding thread of the script, interpreting many facets.
Boasting one of cinema's all-time greatest screenplays by Robert Towne and a powerful lead performance by Jack Nicholson, you are in for a fantastic time.As I mentioned briefly, the film's plot can be complex as the film will turn down a completely different path in a heartbeat.
No matter what, Robert Towne written one of the best screenplays of all time and that will endure for many, many years into our future.Even though Chinatown is a fictional movie, it's based of the Los Angeles water grab of 1908.
The mystery of what's going on has several layers that are slowly revealed as the story unfolds, Dunaway and Nicholson are brilliant playing off one another, and the ending is truly memorable and perfectly reinforces the theme of the movie.
Film Review: "Chinatown" (1974)Character J.J. Gittes, the private eye for tricky matrimonial cases with the usual "inflagranti" finish note to a case, performed to picture-carrying excellence by actor Jack Nicholson at age 36, trusting director Roman Polanksi, at the height of his powers in Hollywood, to wear two third of the film bandaid noise after investigations get all-too-messy concerning a major struggle for the water-supply dominion in Los Angeles county.Producer Robert Evans, in close excutive action with legendary as prestigious Hollywood Major Studio "Paramount Pictures", opens doors for director Roman Polanski, who gets filmmaking freedoms to find classic 1940s hard-boiled film noir homages, when screenwriter Robert Towne's Academy-Award-given original script out of total eleven nominations at the Oscars on April 8th 1975 in its 47th edition, losing all major categories to equal as comparable "The Godfather: Part II" starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro as Young Vito Corleone directed by Academy-Award-winning Francis Ford Coppola.Nevertheless "Chinatown" strikes an even darker note than its direct competitor, when street-thug-behavior gets respectable due to the shear non-stop endurance and elevated to excellence impersonated by haunting as impeccably-written character of "Noah Cross", portrayed in fine-beat-acting by highly-successful director in his own right John Huston (1906-1987), who shares the highest suspense moments with Jack Nicholson getting seemingly sucked deeper into L.A.'s underworld of contract-making, funds-shifting with iron-fist for the so-called "Future" of mankind with running water in an unless desert city.
Director Roman Polanski makes sure that the 125-Minute-Editorial does not fail once to lose its grip onto the audience with additional atmospheric scoring by supreme composer Jerry Goldsmith (1929-2004) and supporting grace and classic-beauty-indulging actress Faye Dunaway as notorious character Evelyn Mulwray, who carries a family that deep hiding in female's spirit that every scene she appears becomes unbearable for tension points that have not been done better in Hollywood-filmmaking ever since.Copyright 2018 Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC.
Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston and a Great Supporting Cast Deliver the Robert Towne Script Effortlessly.Bathed in a Sun-Baked Glow of Burnt Brown and Yellow with Highlights of Bright Red/Orange, the Cinematography of John Alonzo was an Attractive Anomaly for its Time.
Roman Polanski's 1974 Neo-Noir Chinatown is a film that helped define both the genre and the era in which it was made.Chinatown centers on a '30s Los Angeles private investigator, Jake Gittes (who turned to the profession after being unable to work as a police officer in the corrupt environment present in his assigned district of Chinatown), who is tricked into digging up dirt on the head of the department in charge of the city's water (a hot issue as Los Angeles was experiencing a drought).
Do not go into this film too focused on the minutiae of the plot, but rather look at what the picture as a whole, and particularly its ending, is trying to say about American greed.The acting is terrific, with three great performances by Nicholson, Dunaway, and Huston.
This is one of those rare productions where every element seems to fall into place, from Robert Towne's exciting, original screenplay to a definitive performance by Nicholson to John Huston's unlikely but effective portrayal of what must be one of the most depraved villains in screen memory, a man who, by his own chilling admission, "is capable of anything." Music, art direction, editing and photography are all first class, but the true test of any classic is longevity, and in this regard the film passes with flying colors by actually improving with each viewing..
Ever so unfalteringly, he sticks to his guns, renders the whodunit mystery with an unadulterated tragic ending, as an acerbic retort to a patriarch society inundated with dyed-in- the-wool corruption both morally and economically, in memory of those innocently victimised.J.J. Gittes (Nicholson), a copper-turned-private-eye, is swindled to investigate the hanky-panky of Hollis Mulwray (Zwerling), the chief engineer of L.A. Department of Water and Power, will soon discover something much bigger and sinister than that, after Hollis' sudden death and the involvement of Hollis' wife Evelyn (Dunaway), Gittes is intrigued to unearth the truth, which also implicates Evelyn's father Noah Cross (Huston), a magnate once was the business partner of Hollis.
The soul-shattering upshot is a rarely seen defiance in the mainstream cinema where a director holds sway of the final say, and its aftershock hangs around, that's why CHINATOWN is so unique and groundbreaking.Uniformly, the film is hailed as one of the finest productions out of Hollywood, Robert Towne's Oscar-winning script delineates a conspiracy theory based on the true story which grants the story a tangible relevance, but also dives into a more personal matter of shocking taboo, to establish cinema is really a voyeuristic projector of all the dirty corners in our universe, A minor bellyaching is that, Gittes' function in the plot feels somewhat contrived, if Noah is so intent on locating what he is looking for, why on earth he would leave Evelyn out of his sight?
Starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and somewhat hilariously, John Huston, it is the story of a private investigator sent to snoop on a cheating husband only to later find that husband turned up dead, setting off a chain of events that leads to the top being blown off a major conspiracy that runs deep into the roots of early 20th century Los Angeles.
Robert Towne's labyrinthine script keeps the proceedings thrilling, humorous and disturbing at the same time, pepped up greatly by the crackling dialogues.The film also boasts career best turns from its star-cast led by Jack Nicholson, who is absolutely charismatic as Jake Gittes, as we find ourselves solve the mystery alongside him as he follows lead after lead through a labyrinth of sticky situations.
Roman Polanski directed this complex but fascinating story of corruption that stars Jack Nicholson as private detective J.J. Gittes, who is hired by a woman named Evelyn Mulwray to see if her husband(a water department official) is cheating.
A classic example of its genre(s) that packs in a taut screenplay which is transitioned on the film canvas in a seamless manner by a skilled filmmaker in complete control of his craft and is further bolstered by strong performances from its entire cast, Chinatown is considered by many to be one of the best offerings in the mystery genre and it is indeed difficult to dispute its legacy.Inspired from true events, the story of Chinatown is set in Los Angeles and follows a private detective specialising in matrimonial cases who's hired by a woman to investigate & confirm her suspicion of her husband having an affair but soon finds himself caught in a bigger web when the client turns out to be an impersonator.
Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway are perfectly cast, the background score is sublime and the dark detective story is consistently engaging and very, very classy.A well-crafted film-noir, albeit a bit slow but if you don't mind the pacing it's rather riveting in places, especially the second half.Thumbs up for this mysterious suspense-drama if you're in the mood for a good slow-burner.
Chinatown is undoubtedly one of the finest films to emerge from the 1970's, starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunnaway, Roman Polanski has delivered a Noir masterpiece for the ages.
Chinatown is a drama about a private investigator Jake (Jack Nicholson) who gets hired by a Mrs. Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) because she believes her husband is having an affair.
Experiencing older Hollywood films, films made in the era when script, direction, cinematography, lighting, musical scoring and acting became melded together in an intricate but cohesive escapist adventure, is like visiting a fine art museum - masters at work creating a living work of art that time only enhances in respect.Such is the case for Roman Polanski's 1974 film noir CHINATOWN.
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.
One of the most revered and famous films from this great decade is Roman Polanski's 1974 crime thriller "Chinatown".Set in the 1930's, "Chinatown" stars Jack Nicholson as Jake Gittes, a private detective who with two associates, seems to specialize mostly in adultery cases.
The film is highly stylized and seems to draw the classic old detective formula perfectly into the downbeat, sometimes depressing, but artistic style of the 1970s.The story is that Jake Gittes (Nicholson) is an LA private investigator hired by Mrs. Evelyn Mulwray to investigate whether her husband, the head of Water and Power for the city, is having an affair.
Chinatown is neo-noir's finest work of film art, fueled by Polanski-Nicholson synergy, anchored by one of film's greatest original screenplays (written by Los Angeles native Robert Towne), and brought to movie-life via PanaVision by cinematographer John Alonzo.