Movie Club Edition Two: Chinatown - SPOILERS

RanzB

RanzB

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The discussion starts 16th March 2015


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.
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**A review is encouraged, and a star review out of 5 is preferred over a /10 score.

0 - Couldn't finish it was so bad
1- Horrible
2 - Very Bad
2.5 -OK <- just to be in the middle
3 - Good/Very Good
4- Excellent
5 - Perfect
 
Another 4/5 for me.

Nicholson and Dunaway were great. They make a fantastic on-screen duo.

I'm a big fan of the neo-noir genre in general (literature and film), so I found it very appealing from that perspective. The soundtrack (which Jerry Goldsmith had to write and record in 10 days!) does a great job of enhancing the atmosphere without intruding too much.

The plot itself I found great, because it's an almost universal phenomenon, the rich being able to manipulate and scam their way to their goals. Couple of twists, with the big one seemingly coming out of nowhere. Still trying to figure out why they went with the incestuous relationship. Maybe to show Noah Cross' depravity stretching beyond the normal powerful guy typecast.

And I'm always a fan of a good catchphrase - "Leave it Jake, it's Chinatown.". This theme was reinforced multiple times, and came in at the end strongly again. Leaves you with sympathy for Jake, Evelyn and Katherine.

Anyone see the sequel - "The Two Jakes"? Apparently it wasn't very good.
 
4/5 for me as well. Enjoyable to watch Nicholson playing a role that is almost understated (or at least understated compared to some of his later roles.) Reminded me a lot of LA Confidential - I guess LA Confidential took many queues from this movie considering the style and setting.

Enjoyable movie with a bit of a bleak ending that fits in well with the movie as a whole
 
I haven't been able to see it yet :( Summited the Amphitheatre and camped the top of the Tugela Falls this weekend. Thought I'd be back early enough yesterday. Will watch it during the day today.
 
Got about halfway through yesterday. Will try and get the rest done today and update my review.
 
3/5 for me. Was contemplating a 2.5 directly after I watched it yesterday.

I think it was a little too long for me. The story told at the end felt a little stretch out of me. But the movie had its moments. The incestuous relationship came as a bit of a shock to be honest.

I liked Jack's character though, think he played the role well as a private eye.

Did like score a lot better than that of Vertigo. A lot less intrusive and added to the overall experience.

Overall it was a little above average for me, but like I said before, too long. If it was shorter covering the same point, I probably would've scored it better.

Faye don't have nice boobies.
 
I enjoyed the movie, but it was just an average whodunit with a twist. JN's character was a nice and interesting combination of vulnerability and toughness. FD, brought something interesting to the screen, mainly as she was not your typical beautiful leading lady. Sometimes her robot-like stoniness was a bit off-putting, but it's main purpose, I think, was to reflect her terrible childhood under a psychotic father.

I don't think the plot was that great: even Jake, who made a few glaring mistakes, eventually could figure it out.

Generally and enjoyable movie that was easy to get through, but by no means a classic IMHO.

3/5
 
4/5
The gorgeous Faye Dunaway shows herself as excellent actress only towards the end and it was strange to watch a young Jack Nicholson (perhaps intentionally) wooden, before developing his crazy style.

The movie has and an excellent storyline including avarice, intrigue and sex, with added shock value in the form of incest and brutality towards women. Shocking as that is today, it must have been even more controversial in those days. I’m guessing scenes like those contributed to Roman Polanski’s reputation.

I jumped with fright once or twice, although the cinematography didn’t blow me away and I found it all a bit dark. Effective music.

Like our first movie Vertigo, Chinatown features a cameo by the director. The chap who cuts Jack Nicholson’s nose is Roman Polanski. Is he a very short guy or was that just my perception?
 
Also will be posting a review later today, early tomorrow...had to spend Sunday reviewing vendor responses to an RFP. Not fun.
 
Roman Polanski is short, 5"5.

My score - 5/5 (see what i did). That was only possible with the final scene, which is absolutely devastating.

The plot is brilliant - intricate and convoluted, but you never feel lost in the details, and it unravels logically and wraps up everything at the end (even though I feel like I'd need to see it again to understand the finer points).

Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway and John Huston all offer top performances - Dunaway's acting seems artificial until you understand that artificiality and coldness is a part of her character's makeup, and it contrasts beautifully with Nicholson's sardonic grit. John Huston is about as venal and warped as I've seen in any movie. Nicholson of course, commands every scene he's in - transforming in our perception from amoral self-sufficient Raymond Chandler style PI to the most moral anti-hero in a thoroughly corrupted (including as far as the police) environment.

The environment is equally well rendered, but I can't say too much about that. It appears that an enormous amount of attention went into reproducing the 1930's LA setting, and none of it comes across ostentatiously.
 
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4.5/5 for me. Like OD, I'm a big fan of noir done right.

Full review tomorrow :)
 
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When I was a kid, we used to sleep over at my grandparents' place a lot. Us being kids, and them having a one bedroom flat, we'd sleep in the TV room. More often than not, we'd be told to sleep with our backs to the the TV so they could watch not-suitable-for-kiddies movies before they also turned in. For some reason, the hard boiled detective was popular on TV2/TV3 in that era. We'd fall asleep to the staccato cries of the detective in over his head, and the strains of the trumpets decrying what was wrong with the world.

I think it was for this reason that I was hooked from the opening seconds of this movie. Within five minutes we have all of that and more. I was always going to like this movie. But it was so good I ended up loving it. I won't go into too much details about the look and feel of the movie, about the foreshadowing and the clues building up, but I want to mention the final scene.

I love the way Polanski changed the camera from a passive bystander to active witness. That change in direction heightened the tension immeasurably, and made me think of Nightcrawler in the way it includes the audience as a witness to all these horrible crimes. You can see the change in Jake, he finally realises there is no Chinatown.

The world is Chinatown.
 
Randhir said:
4.5/10 for me. Like OD, I'm a big fan of noir done right.

Full review tomorrow :)
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Eina...

Randhir said:
When I was a kid, we used to sleep over at my grandparents' place a lot. Us being kids, and them having a one bedroom flat, we'd sleep in the TV room. More often than not, we'd be told to sleep with our backs to the the TV so they could watch not-suitable-for-kiddies movies before they also turned in. For some reason, the hard boiled detective was popular on TV2/TV3 in that era. We'd fall asleep to the staccato cries of the detective in over his head, and the strains of the trumpets decrying what was wrong with the world.

I think it was for this reason that I was hooked from the opening seconds of this movie. Within five minutes we have all of that and more. I was always going to like this movie. But it was so good I ended up loving it. I won't go into too much details about the look and feel of the movie, about the foreshadowing and the clues building up, but I want to mention the final scene.

I love the way Polanski changed the camera from a passive bystander to active witness. That change in direction heightened the tension immeasurably, and made me think of Nightcrawler in the way it includes the audience as a witness to all these horrible crimes. You can see the change in Jake, he finally realises there is no Chinatown.

The world is Chinatown.
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Loved this.
 
OrbitalDawn said:
The plot itself I found great, because it's an almost universal phenomenon, the rich being able to manipulate and scam their way to their goals. Couple of twists, with the big one seemingly coming out of nowhere. Still trying to figure out why they went with the incestuous relationship. Maybe to show Noah Cross' depravity stretching beyond the normal powerful guy typecast.
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I think it's there to show how deep the corruption and evil goes even in the upper-echelons of society. At the Albacore Cross mentions to Jake that he has a 'nasty' reputation, and Jake tells Cross that he (Cross) is too respectable to want his name in the papers. At the end of the movie we know better.

Cray said:
4/5 for me as well. Enjoyable to watch Nicholson playing a role that is almost understated (or at least understated compared to some of his later roles.
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It was great hey? Almost like comparing early Pacino to the overactor he's capable of being too often now.

faniedry said:
I think it was a little too long for me.
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I think this is my only gripe, the editing could have been tighter. We got a lot of transitional scenes we didn't really need.
 
maumau said:
The movie has and an excellent storyline including avarice, intrigue and sex, with added shock value in the form of incest and brutality towards women. Shocking as that is today, it must have been even more controversial in those days. I’m guessing scenes like those contributed to Roman Polanski’s reputation.
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It's interesting to wonder how such things were taken in different eras. Nowadays no one would bat an eye, but maybe in the 70's this was taken as just a film and wasn't too shocking. In terms of actual things that people get offended by, there isn't a ton of violence, and the 'sex scene' isn't even that.

cerebus said:
John Huston is about as venal and warped as I've seen in any movie.
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Huston was very effective. Even when he's being chummy with Jake at the Albacore, you can see he expects his orders to be followed, even when they're framed as requests.

OrbitalDawn said:
Eina...

.
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:erm: My bad, meant /5.
 
The shocking effect of violence isn't quantitative, it's qualitative, and the impact of the violent scenes in Chinatown is very powerful. The nostril slicing scene is very effective, for instance. Even the implied violence works - like when he knocks on the door and the wife opens with a black eye, and it's never addressed directly in the script but there's a whole culture of domestic, codified violence against women that's being constantly exposed. And of course, the final scene culminates all of that.
 
cerebus said:
The shocking effect of violence isn't quantitative, it's qualitative, and the impact of the violent scenes in Chinatown is very powerful. The nostril slicing scene is very effective, for instance. Even the implied violence works - like when he knocks on the door and the wife opens with a black eye, and it's never addressed directly in the script but there's a whole culture of domestic, codified violence against women that's being constantly exposed. And of course, the final scene culminates all of that.
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That's a good point. It actually reminds me of a video I watched a while ago regarding The Wire. The author argued against the common narrative that The Wire was visually boring, and said that because it maintained a calm veneer for the most part, the parts that did include flashes of action or camera movement were all the more exciting. Basically, the action is heightened by the lack of action at most other points. It's similar here. The violence, when it does come, is all the more visually shocking because it isn't common to the entire film.
 
cerebus said:
The shocking effect of violence isn't quantitative, it's qualitative, and the impact of the violent scenes in Chinatown is very powerful. The nostril slicing scene is very effective, for instance. Even the implied violence works - like when he knocks on the door and the wife opens with a black eye, and it's never addressed directly in the script but there's a whole culture of domestic, codified violence against women that's being constantly exposed. And of course, the final scene culminates all of that.
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Randhir said:
That's a good point. It actually reminds me of a video I watched a while ago regarding The Wire. The author argued against the common narrative that The Wire was visually boring, and said that because it maintained a calm veneer for the most part, the parts that did include flashes of action or camera movement were all the more exciting. Basically, the action is heightened by the lack of action at most other points. It's similar here. The violence, when it does come, is all the more visually shocking because it isn't common to the entire film.
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Agree with both of these.

I found the nose-slicing scene quite hectic. Polanski makes a good thug (with small-man syndrome).

Hollis Mulwray' corpse reveal was cheesy as hell, though. That sound effect especially.
 
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