Chinatown (1974)

User Rating:

8.5/10   

Director:

Roman Polanski

Writer:

Robert Towne (written by)

Release Date:

20 June 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

A private detective investigating an adultery case stumbles on to a scheme of murder that has something to do with water.

Plot Keywords:

Great Depression | Rape Victim | Dark Past | One Word Title | Secret Past

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 17 wins & 22 nominations

Cast

Jack Nicholson	...	J.J. 'Jake' Gittes
Faye Dunaway	...	Evelyn Cross Mulwray
John Huston	...	Noah Cross
Perry Lopez	...	Lieutenant Lou Escobar
John Hillerman	...	Russ Yelburton
Darrell Zwerling	...	Hollis I. Mulwray
Diane Ladd	...	Ida Sessions
Roy Jenson	...	Claude Mulvihill
Roman Polanski	...	Man with Knife
Richard Bakalyan	...	Detective Loach (as Dick Bakalyan)
Joe Mantell	...	Lawrence Walsh
Bruce Glover	...	Duffy
Nandu Hinds	...	Sophie
James O'Rear	...	Lawyer
James Hong	...	Kahn

Runtime:

131 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Singapore:NC-16 | Argentina:16 | UK:15 (video rating) | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Brazil:12 | West Germany:16 (f) | Australia:M | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | Canada:R (Ontario) | Finland:K-16 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R16 | Norway:15 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | UK:X (original rating)

Filming Locations:

1972 Canyon Drive, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Rance Howard, who plays the role of an angry farmer at the council meeting, is the father of famed actor and director Ron Howard.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Among the items in Ida Session's pocketbook, which Gittes rummages through is a social security card which is 1970s style with blue and red ink, not the 1937 style which had only one color, and a different look.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Jake Gittes: All right, Curly. Enough's enough. You can't eat the Venetian blinds. I just had them installed on Wednesday.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Action: Love Sucks (#1.13)" (????)

Soundtrack:

Easy Living

The apex of the 1970s American film renaissance.

Some might go with the operatic grandeur of The Godfather, or the gritty psychic trauma of Taxi Driver, as the finest achievement of the Seventies in American film. For my money, though, nothing tops Roman Polanski's masterpiece. A noir thriller that somehow transcends noir, Chinatown becomes a meditation on the bottomless well of human mystery. Robert Towne's legendary script can stand with the best work of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, and Polanski, in insisting on the darkest possible ending for his L.A. story(understandable, given the nightmare Polanski experienced in Los Angeles six years before this film was made), directs with supreme story-telling integrity. Flawlessly performed by its superb cast, with an especially terrifying piece of underplaying from the great John Huston as Noah Cross, a man who could never say what he really wants, even to himself. Easily one of the six or seven best films ever made.