Chinatown (1974)

Chinatown (1974)

7/10

Starring

Jack Nicholson

Faye Dunaway

John Huston

Directed by Roman Polanski

Chinatown is a crime mystery psychological drama film; the screenplay in this 1974 classic is way beyond its time, and it will take years before another masterful screenplay can match the Academy Award-winning script of Chinatown. The screenplay was written by Robert Towne (who you might know for his work on the Tom Cruise movies The Firm in 1993, Mission: Impossible in 1996, and Mission: Impossible II in 2000). Towne decided not to adapt the novel The Great Gatsby (1974), which was handed to him by producer Robert Evans. Instead, he wrote his own script, and Chinatown was the result.

The movie has a tragic ending. Producer Robert Evans intended the screenplay to have a happy ending, but Polanski stuck to his guns for a tragic conclusion. He is quoted as saying, "I knew that if Chinatown was to be special, not just another thriller where the good guys triumph in the final reel, Evelyn had to die."

Director Roman Polanski (who won the Oscar for Best Director for the 2002 movie The Pianist) won a Golden Globe for Best Director for this film. Polanski shot the entire movie from the perspective of J.J. "Jake" Gittes (Jack Nicholson). Gittes is in every scene of the movie, and when he’s knocked out, the whole screen goes black until he wakes up.

The movie’s plot follows private investigator J.J. "Jake" Gittes (Jack Nicholson), whose main job is tailing clients suspected of having affairs. He’s hired by a woman to find out if her husband, Hollis I. Mulwray, is cheating. Gittes tails Mulwray, catches him with another woman, takes pictures, and releases them to the papers—only to get sued the next day by the woman Mulwray was with. Gittes discovers that the woman who hired him was a phony and that the woman he thought was Mulwray’s mistress was actually his real wife.

Polanski also appears in the movie in a cameo as the gangster who cuts Gittes' nose.

A sequel to this classic, titled The Two Jakes, was released in 1990. Jack Nicholson reprised his role as J.J. "Jake" Gittes and also directed the movie, with Robert Towne returning to write the screenplay. Unfortunately, the sequel was a total failure.

Chinatown is one of the few mystery films that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end. You’ll eagerly wait to see how all the threads tie up, as the movie weaves together plots and subplots leading to a grand and memorable ending.