Chinatown

 Year:  1974

Director:  Roman Polanski

Screenplay:  Robert Towne

Starring:  Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Hillerman, Perry Lopez, Burt Young, John Huston

Running Time:  134 minutes

Genre:  Crime, mystery, drama

Los Angeles, 1937:  Cynical private investigator Jake Gittes (Nicholson) is hired to investigate a seemingly simple case of suspected marital infidelity.  However, he soon finds himself drawn into a murderous criminal conspiracy over water rights. As he pursues his investigation, Gittes uncovers secrets far darker than he could have suspected.

Inspired by the real life "California water wars", a series of disputes in the early 20th century over the rights to supply water in Southern California, this is one of the classic American films of the 1970s.  Film noir was a subgenere of American film which flourished during the 1940s and 1950s.  Literally translated as "black film",  film noir featured dark, cynical and bleak stories with often stylish, shadowy cinematography.  Chinatown is an example of "neo-noir"in that it came after the period of film noir, but still hearkens back to it in terms of plot and style, albeit with an updated sensibility. The darkness of the film's content is somehow complemented by mostly taking place in bright sunshine.  Jack Nicholson gives one of his best performances as the cynical detective Jake Gittes, charismatic, tough and sometimes dangerous, but with a moral centre.  Faye Dunaway gives a powerful, complex performance as the brittle femme fatale Evelyn Mulwray, who turns out to be more of a tragic victim.  Legendary director John Huston plays the courtly, avuncular, fabulously wealthy and thoroughly evil Noah Cross, who is terrifying because he is so friendly and polite.  Roman Polanski has a cameo as a henchman who slices Gittes' nose in a memorable scene.  The screenplay by Robert Towne is superbly crafted, with every element fitting together like clockwork, although Polanski apparently rearranged some scenes, and also wrote the film's bleak conclusion.  Polanski, ghastly human being although he may be, was a great filmmaker, and this is one of his finest moments as director.  Despite the title, only the film's final few minutes are set in the Chinatown area of Los Angeles, although it is mentioned in several places that Jake was a policeman in Chinatown, and something terrible happened there which is never revealed, but which made him leave the force and seemingly left him with lasting trauma,  and so Chinatown in the film is less a physical place than a state of mind, as after the devastating climax, which is still shocking even after several viewings, Gittes' partner in his detective agency delivers the film's classic closing line:  "Forget it, Jake.  It's Chinatown."

Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway in Chinatown