Comments on the film Chinatown

Comments on the film Chinatown Guy Kortsarz October 9, 2017 Guy Kortsarz November 26 2015 1 The film creators 1. Director: Roman Polanski 2. Script writer: Robert Town and Polanski 3. Three main actors: Jack Nicholson as Jake Gittis Faye Dunaway as Evelyn Mulwray John Huston as Noah Cross 4. Production of Paramount Pictures, 1974 1

2 The plot 2.1 A short description Jake Gittis is a detective specializes marital infidelity. He takes incriminating photos for the clients. Hollis Mulwray is the chief engineer of the water department of LA. The films starts when a woman claiming to be the wife of Hollis Mulwray comes to his office and hires Jake to find if her husband cheats on her. At first his assistant follows Mulwray and sees him in a bitter argument with an old man. Jake asks: what did they argue about? The assistant says they argue about apple core. Then Jake follows Mulwray by himself. Hollis goes to many water sites. He talks in a public meeting on some dam that they asked him to build. Hollis says: I made the mistake once. But will not do it twice. This dam will not hold. The above is unrelated to fidelity. But next Gittis finds the incriminating evidence against Hollis Mulwray he needed. He finds Mulwray with a young woman mistress. In a lake. But he got duped. The lady was a fake. Not Evelyn Mulwray. Jake takes photos of Mulwray and his young mistress. The one who took the photos, sells then to newspapers. The real Evelyn finds out her identity has been used, without consent. She shows at the office of Jack and hands him a law suit. She never hired him for 2

anything. Later she drops the law suit. Now we have the pride issue. Jake will never let go before he finds out who made a fool of him. Gittis goes to the reservoir, thinking Hollis may be there only to surprisingly find Escobar his ex-partner from the time Jake was a policeman. They were partners at Chinatown a dangerous place in L.A. and went trough a significant trauma together. Another surprise, is that Hollies Molray is found dead. He drowned. In the pure water reservoir. Gittis finds out that the city dumps part of its water supply into side channels, even though they claim LA is in a drought. Jake visits the place Mulwray died in, and nearly drowns in water suddenly cascading down an aqueduct. He learns that the father of Evelyn is called Noah Cross. The people his assistant saw were Cross arguing with Hollis. The husband and the father of Evelyn, engaged in a heated fight on the infidelity. Noah Cross, the father of Evelyn, owns the water department. Jake meets Cross in a social club own by Cross called Albacore. This club owns a home for the elderly names Vista Club. Hence, Cross owns both places. Ida the lady that identifies herself as the one that acted the part of the bogus Evelyn Mulwray calls Jake and tells him to look at the obituary column. Jake has no idea what is she talking about. But he takes a look. He sees that dead people are buying the San 3

Fernando valley for some unknown person. He uses dead people and people from Mar Vista as a proxy. In fact most of the San Fernando valley was sold in the last two months. The drought is artificial, created by the city. The land in the valley is owned by Orange growers. The city tries to bully them and to make them sell their land at low prices. When water returns, the place will be worth a fortune. Evelyn and Jake go to visit Mar vista home for the elderly. Jake finds a excuse and they let them in. He finds out that those who bought the land have no idea that their name was used. Mulvihill, the goon, arrives to the club, intending this time to kill Jake. But Jake gets the better of him. Going back to the house of Evelyn, Jake and Evelyn make love but then Evelyn gets a telephone and she quickly leaves, begging Jake to stay behind. Jake does not do that. He follows Evelyn and catches her comforting the mistress of Mulwray. It turns out her name is Katherine. After an argument Evelyn tells that Katherine is her sister. Jake find out that there is no place that registers that Evelyn HAS a sister. Why did she lie to him? At his home again, someone calls Jake and tells him to go in the morning to the house of the bogus Evelyn Mulwray. Jake does just that. At her house he finds out that her real name is Ida. She is found there dead. Was murdered. Escobar is there. He sees that the phone number of Jake is on the wall. He starts to suspect Jake saying: This lady hired 4

you not Evelyn Mulwray. She hired you to extort money from Mulwray because you had photos of him being unfaithful. Jake tells Escobar that he is more stupid than he thinks if he believes that. I do not extort people, Jake maintains. This is where I draw the line. Jake finds out that the coroner found salty water in Mulwray s lungs, indicating that the body was moved to the freshwater reservoir where it was found. Jake returns to Evelyn s home and makes a fatal discovery. He finds out that there is a pond at Evelyn s house that has salty water. He discovers a pair of men eyeglasses in the pond. He thinks that these glasses belong to Hollis. Jake concludes that Evelyn Mulwray killed her husband. Its her house after all. Jake confronts Evelyn and says: Let me try to help you. You got into an argument over the infidelity. He fell by accident and died there. Katherine saw this so you are holding her against her will so she will not testify. And you forgot the glasses of Mulwray that remained in the pond Evelyn denies she killed Hollis. If so who is Katherine? They get into a heated debate over Katherine. Jake says: dont tell me that she is your sister because you have no sister. Evelyn does not know exactly what to say. She says first: she is my daughter. Then : She is my sister and so on. It turns out that Katherine is both the daughter and the sister of Evelyn. Her father Noah Cross raped her when she was 15. Evelyn says that the eyeglasses do not belong to Mulwray, because they are bifocals. 5

Hollis did not wear bifocal glasses. Jake understands that they belong to Cross. Bifocals are for people that cant see from very close and from far. The glasses of an old man. The glasses of Noah Cross. In the rest of the film Jake tries to help Evelyn to escape to Mexico. Because Cross and Evelyn both want to control Katherine. At a fatal ending, they all meet in Chinatown in LA. Jake finds out that Cross bought the police. Evelyn tries to escape in a car but the police shoots her dead. Cross won. He now takes a hold over Katherine. His water con act, will go trough. 2.2 Clearing the evil scheme of Cross What is the big deal with the San Fernando Valley? I will quote Ebert, the critic. The valley has long been seen as a key to California fortunes: I remember Joel McCrea telling me that on his first day as a movie actor, Will Rogers offered two words of advice: Buy land. McCrea bought in the valley and died a rich man, but he was in the second wave of speculation. sense. We have to accept the importance of the valley as a given. Otherwise the film makes no Cross has a complex evil scheme. This section is used to explain it. 6

Cross wants to create an artificial drought in the San Fernando valley, so that the price of the land in San Fernando valley will sharply go down. He manages to achieve that by dumping water into the sea. This is very dangerous. People caught in the middle of the cascading water may drown. Indeed, we see later that the village drunk does drown there. The land is owned by orange growers that are pushed to the limit by the city. The city even poisons their water. The orange growers had to rely on the rain in the valley and on the water supply of the valley. No water reached the valley from an outside reservoir. This turns to be important. Jake visits the orange growers suffering from the drought. To see what they know. They tell him about the poisoning of the water. Jake has another evidence that some dirty scheme that is going on. When the orange growers find out that he is working for Evelyn Mulwray, they become very angry: Hollis Mulwray is the one causing our problems! They treat Jake very badly. As we know Jack does not take shit from anyone. He fights. Jake calls them dumb Okies saying that Hollis Mulwray is dead. The fight ends badly for him. They knock him down cold. Evelyn is called comes with her car and saves him for the first time. The Orange growers did not grasp the complex scheme. Hollis was tying to help them. Its Cross the one doing that to them. 7

Why does Cross need a new dam and a new reservoir? No water from a reservoir not in the valley, is arriving at the time to the San Fernando valley. Cross wants to make the valley blossom and needs much more water to float to the valley. You can only do it with a dam, that will create a reservoir, and using irrigating methods the water can be transferred, from the reservoir, to the San Fernando Valley. Thus Cross badly need the dam and the new reservoir to achieve his scheme. We are not told which water will be diverted to the San Fernando valley. But in real life, Eaton, the LA mayor, wanted to build an aqueduct that will steer the water from the Owens valley to Los Angeles. He was ruthless and used methods similar to the one used by Noah Cross. He managed to do it. The Owens valley is quite dead today. No water. Hollis, the head of the water department disagreed to the extreme as building this dam is dangerous. Thus Cross killed him. With water, especially additional water from the new reservoir, the valley will cost a fortune. Cross intends to make a huge personal profit. He bought the entire valley with proxy names of people from the Mar-Vista club. Some of whom are dead. In fact Cross personally owns all the valley. And it costed him very little because of the drought. Jake shows Evelyn a certain person bought some land in the San Fernando Valley. Evelyn: What is unusual about that? 8

Jake: (shows her the obituaries) he died two weeks ago and bought a land a week ago. This is unusual. There is a detail that Jake does not get yet: Cross still has to convince the city officials to build the dam and create the reservoir. Building a dam is too expensive even for Cross. Its about 8 million dollars. Cross wants L.A. to pay for it. Eight million dollars in 1937 is equivalent to some unimaginable sum, today. But at this time the San Fernando Valley is not part of LA. And the problem is that this is money of LA citizens. How can Cross convince LA to irrigate a place that has nothing to do with LA? Jake finds out later that Cross has all these details figured out. At one time there is hope. Jake finds the glasses left by Cross in the salty pond. This is evidence against Cross. It has its finger print all over them. And Hollis had salty water in his lunges. Armed with the glasses, and the obituaries Jake makes an appointment with Cross in a dark corner at house of Evelyn. As its dark, Cross takes of a pair of glasses and Jake sees it is identical to the ones he found in the pond. The evidence is valid. Cross: what is the meaning of all that? Jake: It means that you killed Hollis right here, in the salty pool. And then you took him to the reservoir. And you left this (shows him the glasses). Cross stays completely calm, not even denying the allegations. He is more focused on his 9

plans and explains that he will make the valley blossom. Gittis: That is what you were going to do in the valley? Cross: That is what I am DOING. If the bond issue passes Tuesday, there will be eight million dollars to build an aqueduct and reservoir. I m DOING it. Gittis: Gonna be a lot of irate citizens when they find out that they are paying for water that they not gonna get. Jake discusses the difficulty I mentioned before. The water is going to go to the valley and not to LA. And LA citizens will become upset as their tax money is used outside LA. Cross: Oh, that is all taken care of. You see, Mr. Gits. Either you bring the water to LA or you bring LA to the water. Remark: See how egocentric is Cross. Till the end of the film Cross cant get the name of Gittis right! He always calls him Gits. After correcting him a few times, Jake gives up. Gittis: How you gonna do that? Cross: By incorporating the valley into the city. Simple as that. He has it all planned. To the last detail. If he makes valley is part of LA then nobody can complain that they irrigate the valley with taxes of LA citizens. At that moment,, the goon of Cross, Malville, appears and takes at gun point the glasses from Jake. The evidence is lost. Noah Cross bought the police. Even honest people like Escobar can not do anything 10

against that. Cross probably bought the judges too. Cross is untouchable. He breaks the law at his will. He kills Hollis and Ida, the fake Evelyn Mulwray. He bribes for passing his evil scheme for personal profit. He committed rape and incest. And he gets away with it. it. I know that Cross reminded the USA citizens of Nixon. But Nixon did not get away with 2.3 Chinatown as a modernistic neo-noir A city film. Based in LA. As neo-noirs should. The private detective always has a hat. Respecting the tradition of the pulp fiction books, the narrative is situated in 1937. No contempt as in The long goodbye. There are conspiracies in the film as we expect of a neonoir. Especially conspiracies on water. Chinatown the film is multi layered. As a neo noir should. It can be described as a mystery film and a deep character study, as in a psychological drama. The details are complex and make a masterful script. Film noirs or neo-noirs should be complex. But here are some modernistic touches. 1. Polanski makes Chinatown looks like a film of Polanski. Discussing the films of Polanski later, I will show that this looks like a typical film of Polanski. 2. Jake is much softer than the hard boiled detective of the past that were ruthless. Jake answers the phone gently and does not bark: Gittis. He is gentler for at least half 11

the film, much more than Spade, that is quite violent and even from suave Marlowe. Thus, he is also much more influenced by the tragic ending. Jake is kind at heart. Trying to help Evelyn escape her father. Almost sentimental. Spade and Marlowe would not even have admitted they know what a sentimental thought was. 3. In a modernistic move, Polanski cites the history of L.A. and its true water wars. I will speak on the real water wars later. But its nice to see the film basing itself on the history of Hollywood. 4. Chinatown remarks on the Watergate affair and the he Vietnam war. No noir or neonoir did in such a blunt way the politics of its day. This is clearly modernistic. A new thing. Americans were losing faith in the government. The year was 1974. A president is caught in a web of lies. He abused his power and has to resign. Nixon also promised to end the war and instead expanded it to Cambodia. The war was sold as a thing that must be done, to avoid the demise of the USA. It turned out that this is a complete lie. The war was senseless and the soldiers died for nothing. It was time of paranoia and the neo-noirs saw a comeback. They are fit for such times. 5. An innocent Femme fatal: Jake has a long talk with Evelyn (Mulwray) about the affair of her husband. She hides all details. She lies throwing Jake off. She says she did not 12

mind the affair, because she was having one at the time as well. Well thats a lie. There was no affair of the part of Mulwray, nor from her part. Gittis has a wrong idea on who the young lady he saw with Mulwray is. She is certainly not his mistress. Jake, most of the time, is just clueless. In the old film noirs, usually the detective does not get it wrong all the time. We saw that Evelyn lied. But does she follow the old path of dangerous lying Femme fatal? Absolutely not. Jake tells Evelyn at some point: I still think you are hiding something. And she does. But lying does not make her a fatal woman. At the end it turns out that Evelyn is completely innocent. Her father raped her. He killed Hollis and Ida (the fake Evelyn Mulwray). An innocent fatal woman. Thats new. 6. A scene with strong cruelty: The way that Jake finds out that Evelyn is innocent, is highly violent, and probably could not be done today. Recall that Evelyn told Jake that Katherine is her sister. Jake looks at the records. In no place does it say that Evelyn has a sister. When Evelyn claims innocence, Jake wants to corner her for lying about Kathrine. Jake: dont tell me that she is your sister because you have no sister. Evelyn says: She is my daughter. 13

Jake, that at this stage is worried that his licence will be revoked, slaps Evelyn badly. In the cheek. Evelyn enters into a frozen state in which she interchanges She is my sister and She is my daughter like a frozen machine. After each answer Jake hits her in the left cheek. And at one time, even on the other cheek. At the end Evelyn breaks: She is my sister and She is my daughter. It turns out that her father raped her at age 15. Interestingly, Evelyn says her father did not rape her. But we the viewers know better. A 15 years old girl can not fight her father. It was a rape. After the rape she run to Mexico and Hollis came and took care of her. She was not able to take care of Katherine back then at 15, but wants to take care of her now. Cross wants to get a hold on Katherine. Of course, only a modernistic film noir can have such things. Getting even close to that in film noirs was not possible due to the code. 7. The film is a philosophical film, an achievement hardly ever done in a neo-noir. Inserting philosophy is a great achievement, in a formula film. The film discusses fatalism Greek Tragedy style. And the film dares give an answer to one of the oldest questions: are we born evil? Another philosophical question is: can it be that a person is evil but this person does not know that? 14

3 Jake: Black humor 3.1 I do not take shit from no one: Jake the funny guy The black humor jokes in Chinatown are designed to show that Jake is a classy guy. And they serve as a comic relief in the middle of the bleak film. He is a small time detective, but has pride. He tells his associate, that in order to be a detective you need some finesse. Certain class. He think of himself (and is) a classy guy. The joke that Jake tells is not some unimportant joke. Avoid the cliche. The joke is on a Chinese man, and so is related to the place at the end Chinatown. Jake: So there was this guy is tired of screwing his wife... So his friend says to him, Hey, why don t you do it like the Chinese do? So he says, How do the Chinese do it? And the guy says: Well, the Chinese, first they screw a little bit, then they stop, then they go and read a little Confucius, come back, screw a little bit more, then they stop again, go and they screw a little bit... then they go back and they screw a little bit more and then they go out and they contemplate the moon or something like that. Makes it more exciting. So now, the guy goes home and he starts screwing his own wife, see. So he screws her for a little bit and then he stops, and he goes out of the room and reads Life Magazine. Then he goes back in, he starts screwing again. He says, Excuse me for a minute, honey. He goes out and he smokes a cigarette. Now his wife is getting sore as hell. He comes back in the room, he starts screwing again. He gets up to start to leave again to go look at the moon. She looks 15

at him and says: Hey, whats the matter with ya. You are screwing just like a Chinaman! Jake laughs with all his heart after this. Just to find Evelyn behind his back. When the true Evelyn arrives, handing in the law suit, Jake says: there is no need to be tough. And later says: I am not the one who should be caught with his pants down. Gittis realizes the first woman that came to him is a phony. He manages to calm Evelyn that drops the lawsuit. But Gittis is by now furious he was duped, and wants to investigate who is this mystery woman that tricked him. Later in a barbershop a person makes fun of Jake for chasing husbands and wives, hinting that he is a low type of detective. Jake gets very angry. I make an honest living Jake says. When meeting Mulvihill in the Resevior facing real danger Jake asks: Where did you find the Midget? The midget is Roman Polanski, the one who cuts Gittis nose. Indeed Polanski is the midget. Polanski makes fun of himself for not being a tall person. Jake is cool in face of danger. The above funny question shows a very self aware collected cool classy guy that does not take shit from no one. The movie is filled with such jokes. The only time Jake looses his cool is after Evelyn is murdered and Katherine is given to Cross (and slightly at the barber shop). One of the funny lines of Jake is when he eats with Cross. In a lunch between Cross and Jake they serve the fish with the head. 16

Noah Cross: I hope you don t mind. I believe they should be served with the head. Jake Gittis: Fine... long as you don t serve the chicken that way. Jake makes fun of Mulvihill once more, claiming that he is corrupt. Jake is talking on the time of prohibition: Jake says that When Mulvihill was a Sheriff of Ventura County, the rum-runners (people who smuggle alcohol) landed hundreds of tons of booze on the Beach and never lost a drop. Namely Mulvihill turned his head the other way. A moment of black humor with Jake meets a mortician called by the appropriate name: Morty. Morty is overweight smokes all the time and jokes about the death of Hollis. He makes fun of Hollis: in the middle of the drought, the water commissioner drowns! Morty tells Jake that another person drowned beside Hollis. The city drunk. Jake is surprised and says Come again? Morty: Yes he got drunk. Passed out in the bottom of the riverbed. Jake: The LA river? Morty: Yes right under Hollenbeck Bridge. What is wrong with that? Jake: Its dry as a bone Morty. Morty: Its not completely dry. Jake insists that this person could not have drowned there but Morty simply says: We got water out of him. He drowned. The entire character of Morty is comical, including his name and the over the top personality he has. Jake complains to Evelyn: Mrs. Mulwray, I goddamn near lost my nose. And I like it. I like breathing through it. Or Escobar and Jake square off again in the house of Ida. Escobar: Is this your phone 17

number written on the wall? Jake Gittis: (sarcastic) Is it? I forget. I don t call myself that often. A rapid line exchange between Jake and a policeman that tries to make fun of his nose. Loach (the policeman): What happened to your nose, Gittis? Somebody slammed a bedroom window on it? Jake Gittis: Nope. Your wife got excited. She crossed her legs a little too quick. You understand what I mean, pal? Gittis jokes again with Evelyn: Evelyn Mulwray: Hollis seems to think you are an innocent man. Jake Gittis: Well, I have been accused of a lot of things before, Mrs. Mulwray, but never that. Next funny scene is when Jake and Yelburton speak. Yelburton raises the cut nose of Jake. My goodness, what happened to your nose? Jake Gittis: I cut myself shaving. Yelburton: You ought to be more careful. That must really hurt? Jake Gittis: Only when I breathe. When Jake appears in the reservoir Escobar asks him: How did you pass the guard? Jake (sarcastically): To tell you the truth I lied a little. In another occasion Escobar tells Jake. You must really think I am stupid? Jake: I don t think about it much. But give me a day or two and I will get back to you. 18

3.2 Resourceful Jake In a clever maneuver Jake that wants to know when Mulwray will leave, puts watches under the tires of Mulwr s car. When Mulwray finally takes off, his car stepped on the watches. One of the watches stopped. Thus, the time of departure becomes known. After looking at the time Jake points out: He has been there all night! He takes the calling card of Yelburton even though, we clearly see he will never call him. His plan is revealed when at the water reservoir he presents himself as Yelburton and is allowed to enter. Taking the calling card was a clever idea. Then there is this ripping of a page scene. Jake want to rip this page off from the archive that shows a lot of land was recently bought. He tells the librarian that he needs a ruler because he has bad sight and putting the ruler on the next line will help him.. He is lying. He uses the ruler as follows. He puts the exactly before the page he wants to rip off. This is a way that makes him cut the page he needs perfectly. Still he has to hide the noise of the page ripping. So he coughs strongly and covers the noise. In Mar Vista home for the elderly, Jake wants him and Evelyn to talk to the residents of this club. But its not allowed. So Jake says: Do you accept Jews? The manager says that Jews are not welcome. Jake says its OK since his father does not welcome Jews either. Then he says that he wants to go over the list of people that live there just in case. 19

The manager refuses. He tells him that he will give him the list of names. Jake insists he must to look around the manager gives up, and lets him. He enters the home for the elderly and finds out that those who bought the land do not know it. Note that Polanski manages to show that the society of that time is highly bigoted. Does not accept Jews for example (the film takes place in 1937). When Jake wants to tail Evelyn (that is going to meet her daughter) he smashes one of the rear lights so he will be able to trace the care in the dark. The single light will be of big help as its so dark. 4 John Huston, The Maltese Falcon, and The big sleep. In what seems to be an almost sentimental gesture, Noah Cross is played by John Huston. He directed the first film noir: The Maltese Falcon with Sam Spade played by Bogart, In this film Bogart as Spade is short tempered, bully, that has a clear tendency towards violence. The film is a city film, located at San Francisco in 1941. The year the film has been made. Spade and Archer are partners private eyes. The evil fatal woman is Ruth Wonderly. She hires Spade to find her sister. But everything she says turns out to be a lie. Her real name seems to be Brigid O Shaughnessy. She tells Spade that she has a partner named Thursby. In a rare twist Archer the partner of Spade is murdered. Thursby is murdered as well 20

for some unclear reason. Before his death Thursby was the main suspect of the murder of Archer. The police naturally suspects that Spade killed Thursby. The film is filled with Shady characters such as Mr Cairo (Peter Lure) and a The fat man that are partners, and have a muscle boy named Wilmer. They all search for a priceless black figure of a bird statue, called The Maltese Falcon. We find the fatal woman. Brigid O Shaughnessy killed Archer (the partner) to deflect the blame to Thursby. Spade fell in love with Brigid but she killed his partner. He says that loyalty to the partner is more important than love, and turns Brigid in to the police, in a cold act. The film had several ingredients of the film noir, like the hats, the private detective, the fatal woman and more. We also see for a first time that Spade has a loyal secretary that would do anything for him. This was repeated again and again later. They find The Maltese Falcon but it turns to be fake. Asked by the police what is this statue, Spade says: It the thing dreams are made off. Much more related to Chinatown is the film The big Sleep with Raymond Chandler s private detective Philip Marlowe. For one thing, like Jake Philip Marlowe used to work for the district autherny, and is no longer working there. He is a private investigator like Jake. Like The long goodbye The big sleep means death. The film tells us it is about sex. The first shot is a man and a woman 21

completely in the dark. They guy starts smoking and then lights a cigarettes to the woman, and then they smoking together. Finally they put the cigarettes side by side on an ash tray. More clear reference to sex is hard to find. In The big sleep Marlowe. is hired for one task that turns out to be irrelevant. The deprived plot is completely unrelated. This is like in Chinatown. The films has jokes, like in Chinatown. For example: The general: How do you like your brandy, sir? Marlowe: In a glass. Later there is a very funny phone call to the police. The fatal woman Vivian Rutledge (played by the future wife of Bogart Lauren Bacall) is completely innocent. The murders were done by her super seductive young sister Carmen. The real fatal woman of the film. The similarities end there. The plot of The big sleep can not be understood. Its very hard to enjoy the movie. You should read the book. Many scenes were cut from the movie, due to the Hays code, making the film incomprehencable. 5 Cinematic tools in Chinatown Using the history of Hollywood: He used in a wonderful way the history of Hollywood. Hollywood, when started almost failed because it is built in the desert. At the end and with great difficulty the box office overtook the costly water. The real history of Los Angeles had 22

true water wars as I shall describe later. With all the above, for the first time, a detective film talks on the political situation in the USA at the time (1974). The colors: Usually colors are divided into warm (strong red strong yellow) and cold, like brown, pale gray, black and even very dark blue. Polanski uses in the vast majority very cold dark brown black or dark blue colors, a parable to the darkness of film noir. Moreover it feels like the colors have been drained of their power and it almost looks like a black and white movie. Draining colors of the frame is done by using appropriate filters. Polanski achieves darkness, paranoia. And via the colors, he imposes this feeling on the viewers. The acting: Nicholson uses extreme underacting in Chinatown. Later (and even before) Nicholson is famous for strong acting roles such as Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, One Flew Over the Cuckoo s Nest, and The shining, a film in which Jack overacts. scene. This is intentional, gradually building the emotions until Jake looses his cool in the last Additionally, see how Evelyn is stuttering when she talks about her father. An interesting tool we do not notice but that works on us in the subconscious. The music score The soundtrack is crucial in this film. When it was first shown the audiences hated it. Jerry Goldsmith, wrote a new score that seem to have had a large part in making the film a hit. Can a score do that? Oh yes. Chinatown is an experimental film with respect to soundtrack. The instruments used were a dominating trumpet, but also 23

four pianos, four harps, two percussionists and a string section. Chinatown score sounds at times like an orchestra playing. For me the trumpet has the most effective affect. And it spelled Melancholia. For example this is used in the few minutes Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway make love. How can you explain things by your score? Chinatown contains only 23 minutes of music, but its in the important parts. This is an interesting way of explaining us (if we pay attention) what are the crucial in Chinatown. The score is intense and concentrated. It even came out as a separate album and sold well! Today all critics are aware of how effective was the score of Chinatown. Special shots: At start: The film starts with a very unusual shot. An extreme close-up of man and a woman having sex. We even hear sounds of moaning that clearly should not have been there. The film cuts to a more explicit sex scene. Then the camera slowly pulls back a little and we see fingers of someone. Its clear that we see some black and white photographs. The camera continues moving back slowly. We meet Jake and Curley. At a typical private eye room. Its easy to understand that Curley is a client Jake. The photographs show the wife of Curley having sex with another man. This is very unusual way of presenting things. Usually films start with an establishing shot. Not here. 24

In fact there are other places in the film that are shot this way. The face of Hollis: We see Mulwray s face half dark. Representing his dual nature. He sinned in the past, built a dam that broke. But does not want to build the new dam now. A nice reflection: In the lake, the image of Mulwray and Katherine is reflected in the stills camera held by Gittis. A very careful shot. The symbol of the social club: A nice medium shot shows Jake looking on an Albacore fish on a hook. It makes Jake know what is the symbol of the club. But also, we know that Jack knows the symbol of the club. Deep Focus frames and cigarette: The most stylized shot is before the final confrontation between Gittis and Cross. Gittis is outside the frame of the film. But we know he is present. He smokes a cigarette as in so many of the other noir film. Due to the smoke we know he is there. When Cross enters the house we see him inside the door, framed, and shot in deep focus. A homage to film noirs or more precisely to Welles. The things he liked: deep focus and frames. Camera angles: Polanski wants to show that Gittis is on the wrong foot during the movie. He shoots Jake from the back quite systematically. When he shoots Jake from the front, he looks terrible most times because of the nose patch he is wearing. Or, Polanski may shoot Jake in corners of the frame, a things that does not allow Jake to be seen at his best. 25

Zoom in: My favorite shot in Chinatown is when it turns out that Evelyn and her daughter must hide in Chinatown. Upon hearing that, we get a fast zoom to the face of Jake. And what does Jake do? He tries very hard, and managed to keep his composure. For him Chinatown spells disaster. 6 The meaning of the names The meaning of the names and the original sins. All characters sinned in the past. 1. Noah Cross. is taken from the old testament and the story of the flood. This name is very fitting. Cross causes in Chinatown artificial floods, and wants to build a dam that will not sustain and may cause a flood. The Cross part is associated with the holly Christ. But to cross also means to betray. And indeed Cross will step on you if you Cross (anger) him. In the bible it says that Noah was a righteous person. Yet after the flood god states one of the most terrible things written in the old testament. Here is what god says: God smelled the pleasing aroma and said to his heart: Never again will I cause such a terrible flood. It will not help. Because the urges of the heart of the humans, is evil from its childhood. Evil from its childhood. God says no less that we are born evil. Chinatown claims exactly the same. Coincidence? Too unlikely. 26

There is a Jewish saying: No one declares himself evil. No one admits he is evil. Renoir said it in another way: Everybody has reasons. Even Hitler thought he was doing the right thing. Making the race more pure. Cross certainly has reasons. The reasons of Cross: I have a wonderful vision, for the future of LA. Sure, a few people will be killed here and there. But this is for the greater good. In the future LA will flourish with the blooming valley as part of LA. The excuse of Cross is a bit hard to dismiss since this is exactly what happened to LA. Cross has true vision (that came through in real life.) And Cross has true pathos and belief in what he does. He is a true believer. And a true believer with such good intentions is not completely evil. Cross is partially good. 2. The first name of the son in law of Cross, and the husband of Evelyn is Hollis. Hollis Mulwray. But, Mulwray is not holly: he once was convinced by Cross to build the first faulty dam that broke down. The character of Hollis is based on a person that really existed: William Mulholland, the General Manager of LA s Bureau of Water Works and Supply. Without knowing this you can not understand the name Mulwray that is a variant of Mulholland. The name has land in the end which is more fitting, but using the same name exactly is a cliche that Polanski avoids. 3. Jake: This name comes from the old testament. In the old testament the name is 27

Yaakob, and in English it is Jacob. This has several reasons. In Hebrew Yaakob means The one that will follow others. In other words, the meaning of the name of Jake in Hebrew is basically A private Eye. Jacob also sinned terribly in the biblical story. One day Jacob was cooking some stew. Esau the oldest son of Isaac and the one to inherit Issac fortune (Isaac we know was very rich) came in from the open country. He is very hungry. He tells Jacob:,Quick! Let me have some of that red stew! Jacob has sinister plans. He tells Esau: Before I give you anything to eat, sell me the rights that belong to you as the oldest son in the family. Esau is so hungry that for one bowl of stew he does give up his birth rights. But Jacob still needs to convince his father Isaac who is blind. Jacob tricks his old blind Isaac, to think he is Eseu, thus granting Jacob the rights of the elderly son. Thus, the Hebrew tribes are called the sons of Jacob and not the sons of Esau. As if Jacob really was the oldest son. Jacob used bribe and deception to get what he wants. 4. Evelyn: The source of the name is Eve, or Hava in Hebrew. The first woman. Hava (in Hebrew) means a woman the feels things happening around her. As we know, in the bible story she lured Adam (Adam simply means: man) to sin. Eve talks to a serpent, that convinces her to defy god and eat (with Adam) from the tree of knowledge. Then Adam (that has reasons) says its not his fault and blames 28

Eve, and Eve (that has reasons) says its not her fault and blames the snake, and god expels them from the garden of Even. The original sin was born. The names show very clearly that all major characters in the film have some original sin. Jake, that had a woman killed when he worked as a cop in Chinatown, Evelyn that was raped and must lie about it, Hollis that built a faulty dam, Escobar that worked with Jake when the woman above was killed, Yelburton that knows the secrets of Cross, the wife of Curley that sleeps around and Curley himself that is highly violent. Almost every character committed some original sin in their past. 7 Two horrendous events in the USA in the seventies Chinatown was made in 1974. Two events dominated the early seventies in America: 1. The effects of the Vietnam war that ended in 1973 in practice, and formally ended in 1975. 2. The Watergate affair. Polanski cites these two event. But he cites them for people that are willing to think. Not directly. Both events were based on political lies. The war started based on a lie. In August 1964 the president L.B Johnson falsely claimed that North Vietnamese forces have attacked twice 29

an American destroyer ship in the Gulf on Tunkin. The Vietnam war was allowed to start based on this lie. A classic colonial war. Vietnam war started with Colonial France occupying Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh and his soldiers fought against the French occupation for years. The involvement of the American was first by financial aid to France in 1953. Later, America started to directly being involved in the war in 1961, with combat advisors in the Kennedy era. This involvement was enhanced by the silly Domino theory that feared the taking over by communism one country after the other. In 1963 Kennedy says that if we will withdraw from Vietnam, the communist will later control Thailand, and Cambodia, and Laos and Malay... Well, the USA pulled out of Vietnam and non of these countries are communist now. Many American troops started arriving to Vietnam at 1965. And it was the first American war to be opposed to in masses. Big rallies against the war started at 1965. It came to mass demonstrations with 250000 protesters. It was times of Hippies, and rebellion in America. Influenced by the student rebellion in France at 1968. It was the first war, too, to be shot by television, thing which brought the tragedy closer. Reports were uncensored and painful. By the way, the generals have learned something since then: dont give the media access. This descent is important to put the film in context. 30

The people who fought the war where mainly low-class and colored people. From the musical Hair: The white people are sending the black people, to kill the yellow people, to defend the land they stole from the red people! In the same way we see that Jews are discriminated against in the time, 1937, that Chinatown was made. Not to mention blacks. The war started with Kennedy, but was largely escalated during the Johnson presidency. As we know, the Americans love conspiracy theories. This gave them a good reason to develop a few. Kennedy was killed since he opposed the war. This is conspiracy theories. This is paranoia. This is perfect for the return of neo-noirs. Later we got the Nixon administrations. Nixon promised to end the war. He lied. Nixon in fact invaded Cambodia as well. Chinatown is filled with countless lies, like the Vietnam war. America started loosing the war: In 1968 during the Tet attack the North Vietnam soldiers get even into the American embassy, and are driven out. Walter Cronkite, the trusted reporter spoke against the war (this is out of character for him). Many historians claim that Lyndon Johnson said, If I ve lost Cronkite, I ve lost Middle America. Those who watch Chinatown will leave the cinema feeling horrible. Its not a film about justice. Its a film about the lack, and in fact the opposite of justice. As was this war. 31

Chinatown is way more violent than the old noirs. The scene in which Evelyn says She is my daughter, She is my sister has such intensive violence that is goes outside the normal realms. The terrible shooting of Evelyn in her eye is over the top violence. In addition, a scene like the cutting of the nose of Jake was not seen before. But these were highly violent times. Let go back a bit to perhaps on of the most dammed years from political perspective 6 years before Chinatown. These memories were fresh. The year 1968 was a dammed year. The murder of M.L King (April 4 1968). Bobby Kennedy was the anti war candidate of the Democrats. But he was assassinated shortly after M.L. King namely in June 5. After such two assassinations of top profile people, you know that paranoia and conspiracy theories will soon follow, making the land fertile for a film such as Chinatown. Continuing with the violence theme, consider the 1968 Democrat convention. Everybody remembers the demonstrators against the Vietnam war. Large number of demonstrators outside the convention were fighting police. Mike Wallace and Dan Rather were roughed that day. The convention itself was violent. The two candidates were Eugene McCarthy the anti war candidate and Hubert Humphrey, that wanted the war to go on promising victory. The democrats elected the pro war candidate in a very violent (inside the room) convention. 32

Nixon on the other hand promised to end the war. But this was another big fat lie that brings upon films such as Chinatown. The violence picked. In a demonstration in Ohio, students are killed by the police. It known today as the May 4 massacre or Kent State massacre. Like in Chinatown this injustice should not have happened and was basically covered up. The next big fat lie was revealed when against of all promises, the American lost the war. When you start a war be careful. It can lead to a chain reaction: A million and a half people from south Vietnam were butchered after the American left with their tail between their legs. Even the film Chinatown is way less cruel than that. 7.1 The Watergate affair Coming to the Watergate affair. Nixon did not do the spying. But wanted to protect those who did the crime. Nixon was a certified paranoid schizophrenic. President Richard Nixon s orders to fire independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox. This action was later known as the Saturday Night Massacre. A highly inappropriate name given that nobody died. The congress held hearings culminated in votes for impeachment. Nixon,misused the FBI and the CIA. Lied on TV. Only when you understand what was going on, since 1968 till 1974, can you really understand what the film Chinatown signified to the population and what made such an anti Hollywood film such a hit. 33

8 Conspiracy films in the seventies Conspiracy times bring conspiracy movies. This was the last golden age of the American cinema: the seventies of the previous century. Some seventies films were directly on the war. In Apocalypse now, Coppola tries to understand why a normative brilliant commander, becomes a monster. This film is based on the book The heart of darkness. You can speculate at your will, who does Colonel Kurtz represents. The army sends a soldier named Willard to kill this rouge officer, Colonel Kurtz that seem to have gone mad. He builds his own empire of terror inside the jungle. He charges the government with treason. They don t let us win the war he says. Kurtz shows Willard some bad news printed by papers and claims that the government does not allow good news to be printed. He also says that we should use fascist means to win the war. Become as cruel as the Vietnamese. Kurtz: Some years before he was with the special forces and they went to some village and inoculated all the children of the village against polio. An old man called them back to the village in tears. The Vietnamese cut all the hand of the children of the village, just because these arms contained American vaccinations. This is horror he Kurtz talks about and says we should embrace. Otherwise the horror is an enemy to be feared. If we do not behave like animals, it means that we are weak. Willard at the end kills Kurtz and the last words of Kurtz are: The horror... The horror. 34

Deer-hunter was a film that used the war as a pretext. This film did not comment even slightly on the war. The things seen in the film never happened in the war. The film was misunderstood. Ciminoa s wants to show that we always were hunters and killers from deep within. Even when people with no power whatsoever are involved. Cimino portrays the life of people from rural Pennsylvania. near the Monongahela River. A very conservative place. Alabama in the middle of Pennsylvania. These are people that vote republican, love to hunt, loved their god, and love their America, as it was in the fifties. The people lived according to the rituals of their religion. The Russian-Slavic religion. The film begins with a ritual. A big ceremony in the beginning before marriage. A second and crucial ritual is done by the men alone and is going deer hunting. Later in the war the films shows the ritual of the Russian Roulette. Nick becomes crazy and stays in Vietnam and keep playing Russian Roulette. Mike goes back to Vietnam to bring Nick back. But Nick is so crazy that he does not even recognize Mike. Feeling powerless, Mike hopes that if he plays Russian Roulette against Nick, Nick will remember who he is. They play Russian Roulette and Nick Blows out his brain. Mike takes dead Nick home, we have another ceremony. They bury Nick. The last ritual is when all of them sing Good bless America. They saw how malfunctioning the USA is. How evil the war was. It did not affect their patriotism. This is clearly a film on how Republicans behave. One of the only masterpieces that is on the so called 35

God, Gun, (anti) Gay people at their best. The silly issue with the Russian Roulette. should not have been a tool against Cimino. He knows that the scene of the Russian Roulette is bogus. A film does not have to be loyal to life. Now we get to a clear neo-noir: Taxi driver. Taxi Driver, is a film of a highly religious person: Scorsese. In Christianity, hell is relevant as much as heaven. For religious reasons Scorsese displays New York as void of any morals. Hell on earth. He uses many things but most effectively child prostitution to convey hell. The conversation (Coppola) deserves to be called a neo-noir (in my opinion). It is one of the most paranoiac films ever done. About a surveillance expert called Caul, a paranoid schizophrenic person. Caul is tormented by guilt. He recorded a couple talking and thinks a powerful person is about to kill them. He takes the blame for what will happen to the couple, on himself and desperately tries to stop that. To his horror, it turns out that the couple are the evil ones, and they kill the powerful person. Now he really thinks his apartment has been bugged. In a frantic search, tearing up walls, tearing out floorboards, basically destroying his apartment, he finds nothing. The last shot with him seating in his destroyed house playing the saxophone is a great one. Another notable paranoia film is the neo-noir The parallax view by the fine director 36

Alen J. Pakula (Sophie s Choice). Some people see a politician murdered. They start to die one after the other by a government plot. Until the main character is killed as well. The political situation brought all the above neo-noir, as it happened in the past. 9 The true water wars The water wars of LA began way back. All I say here seem to be historical facts. Mayor Eaton of LA had a vision of a Los Angeles that would become far bigger. This was in the beginning of the new century. The problem: growing requires more water. There was the so called Owens Valley but North to it, there was the more relevant to Chinatown : The San Fernando Valley. Eaton wanted to build an aqueduct that will steer the water from the Owens valley to Los Angeles. He was ruthless and used methods similar to the one used by Noah Cross. In the turn of the century, the federal government was planning on building an irrigation system to help the farmers of the Owens Valley. Eaton had inside friends so he bought land (dry land is cheap, land with water is expensive. Like in Chinatown ). By dirty methods, the city of LA was able to build an aqueduct whose aim was to divert the water of the valley to LA. 37