Directed by Roman Polanski
Starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, Perry Lopez, Burt Young, Roy Jenson and John Huston
I love the mystery genre. There's something about hard-boiled detectives, sex jazz music and sultry dames that I've always loved. This love reached an apex with the early-to-mid-'90s Joe Eszterhas "Murderotica" thrillers. Basic Instinct, Jade, Sliver, the Silk Stalkings television series, I love that stuff. Why did this particular little sub-genre die out, anyway? Is it because of Hollywood's general aversion at a certain point when it came to selling sex appeal to audiences? Some of the most profitable movies of all time fit this mold, so it's hard to believe that it was purely a business decision.
My love for mystery is what brought me to Chinatown, a movie that I was more than familiar with via a few parodies and magazine articles but had never seen before. It also marks my third film by director Roman Polanski. For the record, the previous two were Repulsion, which I initially disliked and later loved upon rewatch; and Rosemary's Baby, which I also initially disliked and still disliked the second time around. Where does this film rank? Somewhere in the middle. I liked it, but didn't love it. It was certainly entertaining and even riveting at points, but overall I found Chinatown to be lacking the depth present in Walkabout or Picnic at Hanging Rock that blew me away earlier in the project. By my estimation, everything in this film is essentially on the surface. Fortunately, that surface has some pretty good stuff, so without further adieu let's get to looking at what it has to offer from a plot standpoint.
The setting of Chinatown is prime film noir territory. It's the late 1930s in Los Angeles, with a private detective whose office looks like the space that my dentist still has to this day. The private detective the movie centers on is Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson), and the first time we meet him he has just proven to a suspicious husband (Burt Young in his pre-Paulie days) that his wife is having an affair. It's a quick scene that establishes in show-don't-tell fashion the kind of character this man is and the kind of clientele he happily takes on. Not soon thereafter, Jake is hired by a mysterious woman to tail the L.A. head honcho of water under suspicion of adultery. Cue moody music. It's all the sort of stuff that lends itself to late nights reading pulpy novels, and Polanski has a field day with all of it. From an atmospheric standpoint, we've got an A+ on our hands here.
While Jake Gittes is the protagonist of Chinatown, the heart of the movie is Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway), the soon-to-be-widowed wife of the L.A. water honcho. Yup, the guy that Jake was following turns up dead from apparent accidental drowning. I noticed immediately upon watching that Evelyn doesn't seem terribly bothered by her husband's sudden passing, but this is an intentional move; everything gets explained in due time. While Nicholson is aces in this movie as always, the movie really does belong to Dunaway, whose performance carries a ton of emotional weight. These were two actors here who had recently become superstars and, amazingly, they were still at the top of their game.
The script throws us tons of paths, riddles and red herrings for Jake and Evelyn to uncover throughout the story. The motive for the murder is linked to a proposed dam that the city wants to build in the midst of a severe drought, and this dam has no shortage of people linked to it. First and foremost is Evelyn's own father Noah Cross (John Huston in a great slimy performance), a guy who also happened to be her deceased husband's old business partner. There is security chief Walter Mulvihill (Roy Jenson), who slashes Jake's nostril open in the first act in a fairly bloody scene. There are the various shady police officers involved in the story, first and foremost an old coworker of Jake's named Escobar (Perry Lopez). Even Evelyn herself isn't beyond suspicion. The writer didn't put her in the story just to be a love interest, folks.
By the end of the film, we do get definitive answers about just what led to the initial murder and why all of the various dangerous people are now after Jake Gittes. It does not necessarily lead to a conclusion that wraps up into a nice little bow and a sunset ending. Like many popular, acclaimed films of the 1970s, Chinatown is deeply cynical, suspicious of everyone and everything that holds power. Regardless of how much I may or may not like them, it really is exciting to watch films from this time period, when cinema was proudly anti-everything. It's such a juxtaposition to today, with Presidential First Ladys appearing like Big Brother's proverbial face at the Oscars to a thunderous ovation and the overpowered Christ-like Marvel superheroes lording over gracious civilians no matter how many times their actions lead to their deaths. We are now told to shut up and just be thankful that such smart, capable people are in charge. Give me '70s paranoia any day.
Let's get to what I liked about the movie. First and foremost were the performances by Nicholson and Dunaway, who both dive right into their characters and, for brief moments, made me forget that I was watching two of the most celebrated actors of all time and gave the story a documentary feel. Polanski seemed to view it that way, as well, as long shots follow Nicholson from just over a shoulder, granting the audience a voyeuristic look into the life of this sharp, somewhat crude detective. In recent years there has been more than a little controversy about Polanski's personal life (just type his name into Google if you don't know). If you can separate the art from the artist, there is a lot to admire about his film-making style. The score by Jerry Goldsmith is also fantastic, radiating danger at all the right moments and setting the tone in scenes where characters simply talk and smoke cigarettes. Which happens quite frequently, by the way.
I actually felt like this was rather pedestrian as a mystery. It definitely does leave the viewer wondering whodunnit, but the Columbo-style flow of logic, the moments of discovery, and the genuine shocks that the genre is noted for are noticeably lacking. No doubt this was an intentional subversion by the screenwriter; the '70s was the decade of subversion, after all. But it does baffle me why this is considered an outstanding mystery. My takeaway from this film was that it is a serviceable mystery elevated by some truly great elements - the performances, the directing, the score. The elements are almost as great as those found in this undisputed masterpiece:
Rating time: *** out of ****. For Nicholson, Dunaway and the music alone, this movie is definitely worth a watch. All other enjoyment you get out of Chinatown is gravy.
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