Movie: Chinatown
Director: Roman Polanski
Rating: ****
The suspense of a film is not only in the story, but in the viewer, who is intensely curious about what’s about to happen next in the film. Roman Polanski’s ‘Chinatown’ starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway is a perfect mishmash of mystery and psychological drama that keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout. The film entices and gives you an opportunity to step in to the shoes of the investigator.
Inspired by the California Water Wars, Chinatown takes us through the story of a private investigator ‘Jake’ Gittes and his encounter with a murder plot in which the state’s big names may be involved.
Evelyn Mulwary appoints Mr. Gittes (Jack) to perform a matrimonial surveillance on her husband Hollis, the chief engineer for Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Mr. Hollis recently turned down the construction of a dam, citing grounds of safety. Jake follows Hollis to discover that he’s been cheating over his wife with a woman named Katherine. Jake exposes Hollis’s bigamy on the cover page of local newspaper with photographs. Upon seeing the news in the paper, the original Evelyn shows up inquiring about the matter and that’s when Jake realizes that he was duped initially.
‘Chinatown’ proceeds at a very gradual pace, giving the viewer every room of opportunity to don the hat of the investigator. I know sitting through two plus hours of a film these days is little too much to ask for but considering the fact that this film’s so good it deserves the original runtime. Look at few slow, very slow suspense thrillers such as Zodiac, Seven and Bone Collector were all equally slow and long but never compromised on the plot. Such is the case with this film too.
Polanski gave this film something that I doubt any director could’ve given – human darkness. The characters in the film can’t be easily discarded as they’re dark too as much as the film. You have to listen to every word the character speaks, understand his/her motives and only then can you decide whether to discard or not. In any which case you still can’t discard any character. Polanski’s exit from horror genre seemed to have done the magic however there’s some horror element in this film too. Horror here can be referred to as the anonymity of the killer that’s left undisclosed till the end. And finally when you’re shown the face of the killer, you’re shocked to find out it’s actually someone you hadn’t anticipated at all.
Despite the presence of so many characters, never do you feel that any character was wasted or under used. With so many twists and turns, Polanski excellently crafts one of the best storylines of all time. Polanski made this film with the mind of an investigator I suppose as he didn’t even compromise on even the slightest detail.
Robert Towne was paid $1, 25,000 to write the screenplay for ‘The Great Gatsby’ but he declined as he felt he couldn’t do justice to it as much as Fitzgerald and instead wrote his own story, Chinatown for $25,000. Music by Jerry Goldsmith deserves a special mention and he received an Academy award nomination though lost to Nino Rota for Godfather II. Roman Polanski’s appears in a cameo. He confronts Jack in a scene and slits the tip of his nose.
A sequel to ‘Chinatown’ titled ‘The Two Jakes’ was released in the year 1990, directed by Jack Nicholson but the film bombed at the box office.
In essence; ‘Chinatown’ is a film that carries an eerie aura throughout the film which manages to keep everybody engrossed.
