Chinatown is a 1974 American neo-noir mystery film, directed by Roman Polanski from a screenplay by Robert Towne, starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. The film was inspired by the California Water Wars, a series of disputes over southern California water at the beginning of the 20th century, by which Los Angeles interests secured water rights in the Owens Valley. The Robert Evans production, a Paramount Pictures release, was the director's last film in the United States and features many elements of film noir, particularly a multi-layered story that is part mystery and part psychological drama.
In 1991, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for films that are "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" and it is frequently listed as among the best in world cinema. The 1975 Academy Awards saw it nominated eleven times, with an Oscar going to Robert Towne for Best Original Screenplay. The Golden Globe Awards honored it for Best Drama, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Screenplay. The American Film Institute placed it second among mystery films in 2008.
A sequel, The Two Jakes, was released in 1990, again starring Nicholson, who also directed, with Robert Towne returning to write the screenplay. The film failed to generate the acclaim of its predecessor.
Plot
A woman identifying herself as Evelyn Mulwray (Ladd) hires private investigator J. J. "Jake" Gittes (Nicholson) to surveil her husband, Hollis I. Mulwray (Zwerling), who is the chief engineer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Gittes tails him, hears him publicly oppose the creation of a new reservoir, and shoots photographs of him with a young woman (Palmer), which are published on the front page of the following day's paper. Upon his return to his office, Gittes is confronted by a beautiful woman who, after establishing that the two of them have never met, irately informs him she is the real Evelyn Mulwray (Dunaway) and that he can expect a lawsuit.
Realizing he was set up, Gittes figures whoever did it wants to get Mulwray. Before he can question him, however, the man's body is found in a freshwater reservoir by Lieutenant Lou Escobar (Lopez). Suspicious of murder, Gittes investigates and notices that the land is almost dry, although huge quantities of water are released from the reservoir every night and the corpse was declared dead from drowning there. Gittes is confronted by Water Department Security Chief Claude Mulvihill (Jenson) and a henchman (Polanski). The henchman slashes Gittes's nose and threatens him to prevent further investigation. Back at his office, Gittes receives a call from Ida Sessions, an actress whom he recognizes as the bogus Mrs. Mulwray. She is afraid to identify her employer but provides a clue: the name of one of "those people" is in that day's obituaries.
Gittes learns that Mulwray was once the business partner of his wife's father, Noah Cross (Huston), so he meets the latter for lunch at the wealthy man's personal club. Cross offers to double Gittes's fee to search for Mulwray's missing mistress, plus a bonus if he succeeds. Gittes visits the hall of records, where he discovers that a large amount of acreage in the "north-west valley" has changed ownership. While investigating there he is attacked by angry landowners, who believe he is an agent of the Water Department and attempting to force them out by sabotaging their water supply. Evelyn comes to his defense and the two leave together.
Gittes's review of the obituaries uncovers that a former resident of the Mar Vista Inn retirement home is one of the valley's new landowners, although he died a week before "buying" the property. Once they bluff their way into the Mar Vista, Gittes concludes that Cross is drying the lands in the valley to dramatically lower their value and buy them anonymously using the name of Mar Vista residents. He also infers that Mulwray was murdered when he learned that the new reservoir would be used to irrigate the newly purchased properties. They are forced to flee the Mar Vista by Mulvihill and his thugs. While hiding at Evelyn's house, they nurse each other's wounds and end up in bed together.
Early in the morning, Evelyn has to leave suddenly after warning Gittes that her father is a dangerous, crazy man. Gittes follows her car all the way to a safe house and spies on her from the windows; she is with Mulwray's mistress, calming her in the wake of Mulwray's death. Gittes then confronts Evelyn about it, who confesses that the woman is her sister.
The next day, an anonymous call draws Gittes to Ida Sessions's apartment. He finds her murdered, with Escobar waiting for his arrival. Escobar pressures him because the coroner's report found salt water in Mulwray's lungs, indicating that the body was moved after death. Escobar suspects Evelyn of the murder and insists Gittes produce her quickly or he'll face charges of his own.
When Gittes returns to Evelyn's mansion, he sees her servants packing her bags and notices the pond in her garden is salt water. He fishes out an object he saw earlier in the pond: it is a pair of bifocals, which he assumes to be Mulwray's. His suspicions aroused, he further confronts Evelyn about her involvement with the mistress, whom she then claims is her daughter, Katherine. Gittes slaps her repeatedly, demanding the truth, until she tearfully confesses that she is both her daughter and sister. She had an incestuous relationship with her father and gotten pregnant; she could not take care of the child before but now wants to start a new life with her. Gittes, who had previously told Escobar to meet him at the safe house, lets the two women go before Escobar arrives. Evelyn points out that her husband did not wear bifocals, so the glasses found in the pond were not his.
Gittes tricks Escobar into taking him to the home of a client who owes him money (Young), asks his help to drive him to Evelyn's mansion so he can escape Escobar, and hires him to help Evelyn and her daughter leave the country. He then instructs Evelyn to meet him at her butler's home in Chinatown. Gittes summons Cross to the Mulwray home to settle their deal for the girl. Cross admits his intention to annex the north-west valley to the City of Los Angeles, then irrigate and develop it. Mulvihill appears and confiscates the glasses from the pond â€" as they are the only evidence against Cross â€" then forces Jake to drive him and Cross to the women.
When the three reach the Chinatown hiding place, the police are already there and detain Gittes. Evelyn will not allow Cross to approach Katherine, shoots him in the arm, and drives away with Katherine. As the car speeds off, the police open fire. Escobar is aiming at the sky and wheels, trying to scare them from escaping, but an unaware Gittes wrestles him. Another policeman, more sincere with his firing, fatally shoots Evelyn through her head and eye. As everyone gathers around the car, Gittes is reminded that one should do as little as possible to help people in Chinatown, Cross clutches a horrified Katherine and leads her away, and a guilt-ridden Escobar orders Gittes released, along with his associates. One of them urges Jake to let go of the injustice and to move on from the whole case. He says Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown, claiming that in the end, what happens in Chinatown is never fair.
Cast
- Jack Nicholson as J.J. "Jake" Gittes
- Faye Dunaway as Evelyn Cross Mulwray
- John Huston as Noah Cross
- Perry Lopez as Lieutenant Lou Escobar
- John Hillerman as Russ Yelburton
- Darrell Zwerling as Hollis I. Mulwray
- Diane Ladd as Ida Sessions
- Roy Jenson as Claude Mulvihill
- Roman Polanski as A man with a knife
- Richard Bakalyan as Detective Loach
- Joe Mantell as Lawrence Walsh
- Bruce Glover as Duffy
- James Hong as Kahn
- Roy Roberts as Mayor Bagby
- Noble Willingham as Councilman
- Rance Howard as Irate Farmer
- Burt Young as Curly
- Belinda Palmer as Katherine Cross
Production
Background
In 1971 producer Robert Evans offered Towne $175,000 to write a screenplay for The Great Gatsby (1974), but Towne felt he could not better the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. Instead, Towne asked for $25,000 from Evans to write his own story, Chinatown, to which Evans agreed.
Chinatown is set in 1937 and portrays the manipulation of a critical municipal resourceâ€"waterâ€"by a cadre of shadowy oligarchs. It was the first part of Towne's planned trilogy about the character J.J. Gittes, the foibles of the Los Angeles power structure, and the subjugation of public good by private greed. The second part, The Two Jakes, was about another grab for a natural resourceâ€"oilâ€"with a thicker-torsoed Gittes in the 1940s. It was directed by Jack Nicholson and released in 1990, but the second film's commercial and critical failure scuttled plans to make Gittes vs. Gittes, about the third finite resourceâ€"landâ€"in Los Angeles, circa 1968.
Origins
The character of Hollis Mulwray refers to the career of William Mulholland (1855â€"1935), the superintendent and chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. He was the designer and engineer for the Los Angeles Aqueduct, which brought Owens Valley water to Los Angeles. For reasons of engineering and safety, Mulwray opposes the dam that Noah Cross and the city want, arguing he will not repeat his previous mistake as when his dam broke, resulting in the deaths of hundreds. This alludes to the disaster of the St. Francis Dam, personally inspected by Mulholland on the day of its catastrophic failure just before midnight on March 12, 1928. As many as 600 people (including 42 school-aged children), died that day and the Santa Clara River Valley, including the town of Santa Paula, was inundated with flood water, the result being the end of Mulholland's career.
Script
Towne wrote the screenplay with Jack Nicholson in mind. He took the title (and the exchange, "What did you do in Chinatown?" / "As little as possible") from a Hungarian vice cop who had worked in Chinatown and explained to the writer that the complicated array of dialects and gangs in Los Angeles's Chinatown made it impossible for the police to know whether their interventions were helping victims or furthering their exploitation.
Polanski learned of the script through Nicholson, with whom he had been searching for a suitable joint project. Producer Robert Evans wanted Polanski to direct for his European vision of the United States, which Evans believed would be darker and more cynical. Polanski, a few years removed from the murder of his wife and unborn child in Los Angeles, was initially reluctant to return but was persuaded on the strength of the script.
Evans wanted Cross to die and Evelyn Mulwray to survive. The producer and director argued over it, with Polanski insisting on a tragic end. "I knew that if Chinatown was to be special," Polanski said, "not just another thriller where the good guys triumph in the final reel, Evelyn had to die." They parted ways over this dispute and Polanski wrote the final scene a few days before it was shot.
The original script was more than 180 pages and included a narration by Gittes; Polanski cut that and reordered the story so the audience and Gittes unraveled the mysteries at the same time.
Characters and casting
- "J. J. Gittes" was named after Nicholson's friend, producer Harry Gittes.
- "Evelyn Mulwray" is, according to Towne, intended to initially seem the classic "black widow" character typical of lead female characters in film noir, yet is eventually made the only selfless character in the film. Jane Fonda was strongly considered for the role; but Polanski insisted on Dunaway.
- "Noah Cross": Towne said that Huston was, after Nicholson, the second-best-cast actor in the film and that he made the Cross character menacing, through his courtly performance.
- Polanski appears in a cameo as the gangster who cuts Gittes' nose. The effect was accomplished with a special knife which indeed could have cut Nicholson's nose if Polanski had not held it correctly.
Filming
William A. Fraker accepted the cinematographer position from Polanski when Paramount agreed. He had worked with the studio previously in Polanski's Rosemary's Baby. Robert Evans was not consulted about the decision and insisted that the offer be rescinded, since having produced Rosemary's Baby, felt pairing Polanski and Fraker would complicate the production, since they would be a team with too much control over the project. Fraker was replaced by John A. Alonzo.
In keeping with a technique Polanski attributes to Raymond Chandler, all of the events of the film are seen subjectively through the main character's eyes; for example, when Gittes is knocked unconscious, the film fades to black and fades in when he awakens. Gittes appears in every scene of the film.
Soundtrack
Jerry Goldsmith received an Academy Award nomination for his score, which he wrote and recorded in ten days, after producer Robert Evans rejected Phillip Lambro's effort at the last minute. Portions of the Lambro effort can be heard in the original trailer for the movie. Phillip Lambro felt he deserved the rights to his work after it was rejected. Paramount granted his wish, on condition that he could not use the title 'Chinatown'. This resulted in the 2012 release, Los Angeles, 1937. One may notice that it tries to evoke the 1930s more than Jerry Goldsmith's score, something Robert Evans envisioned. Today the score ranks ninth on the American Film Institute's top 25 American film scores. Terry Teachout of the Wall Street Journal and filmmaker David Lynch have both praised it. Goldsmith's score, with haunting trumpet solos, by Hollywood studio musician and MGM first trumpet Uan Rasey, was released through ABC Records and features twelve tracks at a running time just over thirty minutes.
- "Love Theme from Chinatown (Main Title)"
- "Noah Cross"
- "Easy Living"
- "Jake and Evelyn"
- "I Can't Get Started"
- "The Last of Ida"
- "The Captive"
- "The Boy on a Horse"
- "The Way You Look Tonight"
- "The Wrong Clue"
- "J.J. Gittes"
- "Love Theme From Chinatown (End Title)"
Reception
The film earned $17 million at the box office outside North America, which Evans said was a million dollars more than it earned in North America.
Legacy
Towne's screenplay has become legendary among critics and filmmakers, often cited as one of the best examples of the craft. Polanski decided the fatal final scene, changing Towne's idea of a happy ending.
Chinatown brought more public awareness to the land dealings and disputes over water rights, which arose while drawing Los Angeles' water supply from the Owens Valley in the 1910s. Margaret Leslie Davis, in her 1993 book Rivers in the Desert: William Mulholland and the Inventing of Los Angeles, says the sexually charged film is a metaphor for the "rape" of the Owens Valley and notes that it fictionalizes Mulholland, while concealing the strong public support for Southern California's water projects.
The film holds a 98% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes with 60 reviews. Metacritic assigned a rating of 86/100 based on 10 critic reviews.
Awards and honors
Academy Awards â€" 1974
The film won one Academy Award of the eleven total nomination categories:
- Wins
- Best Original Screenplay â€" Robert Towne
- Nominations
- Best Picture â€" Robert Evans
- Best Director â€" Roman Polanski
- Best Actor â€" Jack Nicholson
- Best Actress â€" Faye Dunaway
- Best Film Editing â€" Sam O'Steen
- Best Art Direction â€" Richard Sylbert, W. Stewart Campbell, Ruby Levitt
- Best Costume Design â€" Anthea Sylbert
- Best Cinematography â€" John A. Alonzo
- Best Sound Mixing â€" Bud Grenzbach, Larry Jost
- Best Music Score â€" Jerry Goldsmith
Golden Globes â€" 1974
- Wins
- Best Motion Picture â€" Drama â€" Robert Evans
- Best Actor in a Motion Picture â€" Drama â€" Jack Nicholson
- Best Director â€" Roman Polanski
- Best Screenplay â€" Robert Towne
- Nominations
- Best Actor in a Supporting Role â€" John Huston
- Best Actress â€" Motion Picture Drama â€" Faye Dunaway
- Best Original Score â€" Jerry Goldsmith
Other awards
- 1975 â€" BAFTA, Best Actor (Nicholson), Best Direction, Best Screenplay (male)
- 1975 â€" Edgar Award, Best Motion Picture Screenplay â€" Robert Towne
- 1991 â€" National Film Registry
- 2010 â€" Best film of all time, The Guardian
American Film Institute recognition
- 1998 â€" AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies â€" Ranked 19th
- 2001 â€" AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills â€" Ranked 16th
- 2003 â€" AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:
- Noah Cross â€" Ranked 16th Villain
- J.J. "Jake" Gittes â€" Nominated Hero
- 2005 â€" AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
- "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown." â€" Ranked 74th
- "She's my sister! She's my daughter!" â€" Nominated
- 2005 â€" AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores â€" Ranked 9th
- 2007 â€" AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) â€" Ranked 21st
- 2008 â€" AFI's 10 Top 10 mystery film â€" Ranked 2nd
References
- Bibliography
- Easton, Michael (1998) Chinatown (B.F.I. Film Classics series). Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 0-85170-532-4.
- Thomson, David (2004). The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood. New York, New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-375-40016-8.
- 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.
External links
- Chinatown at the Internet Movie Database
- Chinatown at AllMovie
- Chinatown at Metacritic
