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Chinatown is a 1974 film directed by Roman Polanski featuring many elements of the film noir genre, particularly a multi-layered story that is part mystery and part psychological drama. The movie won several high-profile awards, including an Academy Award in 1975 for Best Writing and Original Screenplay for Robert Towne.
Chinatown stars Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston and also features a cameo appearance by its director, Roman Polański. The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. A sequel, called The Two Jakes, was released in 1990, starring Jack Nicholson (who also directed it), with a screenplay written by Robert Towne.
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Plot
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A Los Angeles Private Investigator named Jake 'J.J' Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is hired by a woman who claimed to be Mrs. Mulwray to spy on her husband, Hollis Mulwray, the chief engineer for the city's water department. Mr. Mulwray spends most of his time investigating dry river beds. Mr. Mulwray also has a heated argument with an elderly man. Finally Gittes catches Mulwray having an outing with a young blonde and photographs the pair in a kiss, which becomes a scandal in the press.
When the real Mrs. Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) appears at Gittes's office and serves him with a lawsuit, Gittes is concerned for his professional reputation and pursues the case further. Clues suggest a scandal in the city government: 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.
Gittes tries to find Mr. Mulwray but finds the police there instead investigating Hollis Mulwray's death from drowning. When the police speak to Mrs. Mulwray about the death they assume she hired Gittes, which Gittes corroborates. She thanks him and hires him to investigate what happened to her husband.
Later that night, Gittes is confronted by a thug who slices part of his nose for being a "very nosy fella." Gittes receives a call from Ida Sessions, the woman who was hired to pretend to be Mrs. Mulwray, who suggests that Gittes look at the obituary column. At the water department Gittes notices photographs of the elderly man Mulwray quarreled with a few days before his death, Noah Cross (John Huston). Cross, who is Evelyn Mulwray's father, used to own the water department as Mulwray's business partner. Cross ended his association with the department when the partners sold it to the city.
Cross hires Gittes to find the blonde Mulwray had been seeing, saying that she might know what happened to him. Acting on a hint from Ida Sessions, Gittes traces the dynamics of the water scandal. Cross and his partners have been forcing farmers out of their land so they can buy it cheap, afterwhich a newly-built (and controversial) dam and water system would start redirecting much of L.A.'s water supply to that land to increase its value. Since Cross wants no record of such transactions, he has partnered with a retirement home community in such a way that many of the eldest residents within (one of whom is mentioned in the obituary column) would legally own the land, unbeknownst to them.
Gittes follows Evelyn to a middle class house, and sees Mulwray's girlfriend crying. Evelyn claims this is her sister who was crying because she had just learned about Mulwray's death. Later that night, Ida Sessions is murdered. Gittes points out to the police that the coroner's report proves that salt water was found in Mulwray's lungs even though the body was found in a freshwater reservoir.
Gittes returns to Evelyn's mansion, where he discovers a pair of eyeglasses in a saltwater pond. Gittes confronts Evelyn, who reveals that the blonde girl is her daughter. Evelyn's father had raped her when she was fifteen years old afterwhich Mulwray rescued Evelyn. Mulwray's actions when Gittes spied on him with the girl could have been fatherly affection. Evelyn remembers that the eyeglasses could not have been her husband's because they are bifocals. Gittes arranges for the two women to flee to Mexico and instructs Evelyn to meet him at her butler's address in Chinatown. One of Cross's men takes away the eyeglasses that are the only physical evidence. When Gittes arrives at Evelyn's hiding place in Chinatown the police are already there with Cross.
When Cross approaches Evelyn, she shoots him in the arm and starts her car. The police arrest Gittes and as the car moves away, they open fire and Evelyn is mortally wounded. Cross clutches Evelyn's shrieking daughter as a devastated Gittes is "comforted" by his associates, one of them saying, "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."
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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.
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Possible interpretations
Chinatown was released in the heyday of the New Hollywood era, and at the time was considered a homage to the film noir genre, since its cast included John Huston, who directed several noir films, most notably The Maltese Falcon. Roger Ebert's review states, "Chinatown was seen as a neo-noir when it was released -- an update on an old genre. Now years have passed and film history blurs a little, and it seems to settle easily beside the original noirs. That is a compliment."
The film follows many famous archetypal conventions of the noir movies. It features a cynical "Private Eye" with a shady past and a "femme fatale." As well, there is are several MacGuffins (plot twists that help to keep the story moving along): the fake Mrs. Mulwray and the water scandal. In addition, the film has a convoluted, complex plot and a cynical and pessimistic worldview.
The film also departs from the noir conventions. Gittes is incapable of seeing the broader aspects of the case and ends up reaching the wrong conclusions by focusing on individual clues. The plot, which involves incest and LA's water and power system, is another departure from the usual noir cases of treasure or a crime of passion. Another departure is that the leading lady, who is typically a villain in this genre, ultimately proves to have acted from selfless motives throughout the story. Also, for a "noir," few scenes are shot at night or in deep shadow.
Finally, the tragic ending to the film, though reminiscent of The Maltese Falcon in the separation of the detective and the femme fatale, provides a dramatic departure from classic film noir in the triumph of the forces of evil, Noah Cross, over the forces of good, Evelyn (and to some extent, Gittes). Despite Gittes having solved the case, no one will listen to his explanation, and the film's final line, "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown" implies that Cross will never be brought to justice. The final line also carries an allusion to Jake's previous description of his experiences in Chinatown, in which he tried to help a woman but only failed and worsened the situation. This is the same thing that happens in his relation to Evelyn.
Besides the homage to the noir movies, Chinatown can be seen as a Greek tragedy. Certain portions of the film are allegorical and reminiscent of the works of Sophocles, especially Oedipus Rex. Well-meaning characters fight against a cruel fate, but are unable to change it and their struggle against fate leads to their own doom or to the doom of those in their care. The movie, released during the Watergate scandal era, has also been seen as an attack on the corruption of officials.
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Notes
Chinatown was the first part of a planned trilogy written by Robert Towne about J.J. Gittes and L.A. The second part, The Two Jakes, about the natural gas business in Los Angeles in the 1940s, was directed by Nicholson and released in 1990. However, this film's commercial and critical failure scuttled plans to make Cloverleaf, a film about the development of the area's freeway system. Because this film was the first of a planned trilogy, Jack Nicholson turned down all detective roles he was offered so that the only detective he played would be Jake Gittes. Jake Gittes was named after Jack Nicholson's friend, producer Harry Gittes. The original script was over 300 pages. Roman Polanski eliminated Jake Gittes' voiceover narration, which was written in the script, and filmed the movie so that the audience discovered the clues at the same time Gittes did.
Robert Towne intended the screenplay to have a happy ending. Polanski and Towne argued over the ending, with Polanski insisting on a tragic ending. Towne was originally offered $125,000 to write a screenplay for The Great Gatsby (1974), but Towne felt he couldn't better the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, and accepted $25,000 to write his own story, "Chinatown," instead.
The name of Water and Power engineer Hollis Mulwray may be an anagram for the name of the actual head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, William Mulholland (1855-1935). Mulholland brought the Owens River to Los Angeles, turning the previously lush Owens Valley into a virtual desert through a combination of determination and deceit.
This was the last movie Roman Polanski filmed in the US. Polanski was outraged when producer Robert Evans ordered the film lab give Chinatown a reddish look. Polanski demanded that the film be corrected. Polanski has a cameo role, portraying the hood who slits Jake's nose.
Phillip Lambro was originally hired to write the film's music score but it was rejected at the last minute by producer Robert Evans, leaving Jerry Goldsmith a short period to write and record the new score. The haunting trumpet solos are by the Hollywood studio musician Uan Rasey.
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Selected quotations
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From the first meeting between Jake and Mrs. Mulwray:
Jake, to Mrs Mulwray: "There's no point in getting tough with me. I'm just..."
Mrs. Mulwray to Jake: "I don't 'get tough' with anyone Mr. Gittes; my lawyer does."
Russ Yelburton, observing Jake's bandaged nose:
"You've got to be more careful: that must really smart."
"Only when I breathe."
Noah Cross on "respectability":
"Politicians, ugly buildings and whores all get respectable if they last long enough."
After Gittes bluffs his way past a policeman:
"So, tell me Gittes, how'd you get past the guard?"
"Well, to tell ya the truth, I lied a little."
Mrs. Mulwray, conversing with Jake in the restaurant:
"Look, Hollis seems to think you're an innocent man."
"Well, I've been accused of many things Mrs. Mulwray, but never that."
Excerpt from a phone conversation:
"Hello, Miss Sessions. I don't believe we've had the pleasure."
"Oh, yes we have. Are you alone?"
"Isn't everyone?"
Loach (Escobar's assistant) and Gittes:
"What's the matter with your nose, Gittes? Someone slam a bedroom window on it?"
"Nope. Your wife got excited. She crossed her legs a little too quick. You understand what I mean, pal?"
Japanese gardener:
"Bad for glass."
Final lines:
"Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."
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Academy Awards - 1975
Wins:
Nominations:
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Golden Globes - 1975
Wins:
Nominations
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Other Awards
1975 BAFTA, Best Actor (Nicholson), Best Direction, Best Screenplay (male)
1975 Edgar Award, Best Motion Picture Screenplay - Robert Towne
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Bibliography
Easton, Michael (1998) Chinatown (B.F.I. Film Classics series). Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 0-85170-532-4.
Towne, Robert (1997). Chinatown and the Last Detail: 2 Screenplays. New York: Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-3401-7.
Tuska, Jon (1978). The Detective in Hollywood. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company. ISBN 0-385-12093-1.
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See also
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