Chinatown (1974)
“As little as possible.” – Jake Gittes
Roman Polanski’s Chinatown plays with classic film-noir conventions, mostly via Jack Nicholson’s character, Jake Gittes. He is a private detective hired to spy on the Los Angeles water department. The woman who hires him claims to be the wife of the department’s top engineer, but Gittes soon uncovers that she is not who she says she is. And neither is anybody else, really. He eventually uncovers a deeply wound web of deception, corruption, and murder. Gittes is advised to leave it be, but his stubbornness prevails, even after almost losing his nose.
The dialogue is full of wit, sarcasm, and is never afraid to push the limits of political correctness. The mystery is well crafted, and the film works by never letting Jack or the audience get one step ahead of the puzzles: the discoveries occur concurrently. But what is Chinatown? It is a place that the characters refer to only by memory or by mere hearsay. It is a place where illicit activities bear much less consequence, as many characters will warn others to do as little as possible when you are passing though. And that’s where Nicholson’s Jake Gittes fails. The whole film involves Gittes pursuit of the truth regarding a mystery that is constantly threatening his life with increasing danger. During the final confrontation in Chinatown, Gittes did not adhere to the advice to do as little as possible, and while the mystery is solved, it is his own intervention that inevitably results in the film’s final tragedy. But hey Jake, it’s Chinatown.
“As little as possible.” – Jake Gittes
Roman Polanski’s Chinatown plays with classic film-noir conventions, mostly via Jack Nicholson’s character, Jake Gittes. He is a private detective hired to spy on the Los Angeles water department. The woman who hires him claims to be the wife of the department’s top engineer, but Gittes soon uncovers that she is not who she says she is. And neither is anybody else, really. He eventually uncovers a deeply wound web of deception, corruption, and murder. Gittes is advised to leave it be, but his stubbornness prevails, even after almost losing his nose.
The dialogue is full of wit, sarcasm, and is never afraid to push the limits of political correctness. The mystery is well crafted, and the film works by never letting Jack or the audience get one step ahead of the puzzles: the discoveries occur concurrently. But what is Chinatown? It is a place that the characters refer to only by memory or by mere hearsay. It is a place where illicit activities bear much less consequence, as many characters will warn others to do as little as possible when you are passing though. And that’s where Nicholson’s Jake Gittes fails. The whole film involves Gittes pursuit of the truth regarding a mystery that is constantly threatening his life with increasing danger. During the final confrontation in Chinatown, Gittes did not adhere to the advice to do as little as possible, and while the mystery is solved, it is his own intervention that inevitably results in the film’s final tragedy. But hey Jake, it’s Chinatown.
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