Chinatown

In the Fathom Events classic series, Chinatown, listed as a top 10 movie was showing.  The time conflicted with the Memorial v. San Benito football game, and I couldn't do both, so I decided on football and to watch on DVD.  I even checked it out from the library for free.

I made the right decision to go to the football game.  Memorial won 13-12.  And Chinatown lost.

Made in 1974, it's hard to imagine the effect a 1930s neo-noir film starring a young Jack Nicholson as the Sam Spade of his day would have on the audience.  It's also hard to a modern viewer as to what cop movie cliches might have been original ideas when this movie was made:  the private investigator previously kicked off the police force, the interaction with his old police buddies, the love affair, the Law and Order  "You could be arrested for [fill in the blank with your choice of offense] threats, the corruption at the highest levels, and so on.

Good points are the snappy dialogue and the light/dark cinematography which is very evocative of Southern California.  Many of the scenes were set either in the morning or in the evening, giving it an extra sense of time passing.

The story involves P.I. Jake Gittes who is hired to investigate an affair by Hollis Mulwray by Mrs. Mulwray.  He investigates and found what appears to be some hanky-panky.  But then he finds out that the person who hired him is someone other than the real Mrs. Mulwray (Faye Dunaway).  Rather than calling off the chase, he dives deeper to figure out who set him up and decides that he has uncovered a big scam involving the water rights affecting all of SoCal.

Much of the movie Gittes wears a ridiculous bandage on his nose after a famous scene of getting his nose cut by an assailant (cameo by Roman Polanski).  Perhaps this is to humanize him or to remind the audience of what a great threat he is facing (no pun intended :)

Jack Nicholson reminded me of another actor who played a wise-cracking, funny tough guy who made a reliable but not great leading actor:  Michael Keaton.  In the end, that's the review of Chinatown:  Good, not great.