Dir. Roman Polanski, 1974, USA, 131 mins
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston
From the moment the opening credits begin Chinatown feels like a film we have seen a hundred times before. The story concerns private detective Jake Gittes (Nicholson) and a simple infidelity case that soon leads to murder and political conspiracy in pre-war Los Angeles. The more trouble Gittes gets himself into the more recognisable his world becomes. It is easy to see production designer Richard Sylbert's sets as more colourful versions of the dark streets walked by Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum a few decades earlier. The ever-twisting plot and authentic period dialogue almost suggest that Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett were dictating Robert Towne's script from beyond the grave. But it is the uniqueness of Towne's central character and Roman Polanski's subtle direction that make Chinatown much more than a nostalgic look back at cinema's darkest moments.
Jake Gittes acts as an extension of the downtrodden, hard-boiled and ultimately flawed heroes of the film noir period. Through the constant references to Chinatown and the past life he will no longer talk about, there is a suggestion that this archetype is what he once embodied. In comparison he sees the rather sleazy occupation of private detective as a step above his past and in one scene insists that he makes "an honest living". Gittes dresses well, occupies a large, organised office, never carries a gun and runs his agency like a high-class business. It is this denial of the past that made him that leads Gittes to a much worse fate than any of his predecessors ever had to face.
Another major departure from the genre occurs in the plot itself. Gittes may have clawed his way out of the noir shadows but through his investigation finds a much greater corruption in the civilised world he longs to be part of. He also comes face to face with one of cinema's greatest monsters in the form of Noah Cross (Huston). Cross seems to corrupt everything he touches and yet at the same time remains forever rich and respectable. Not only has he ruined the life of his daughter, Evelyn Mulray (Dunaway), but also his corruption stretches out to envelope the whole city through a plot to control the water supply. Like the classic Chandler detective, Gittes often seems as bewildered by each twist and turn in the plot as the audience, only exerting some form of control over the situation at the end of the film when he arranges for all the major players to come together in Chinatown.
It is the ending of Chinatown that pushes the genre past its limitations and makes the film much more than just another period detective story. The film spends nearly two hours playing with our supposed knowledge of the genre and exploiting our expectations then shatters them completely in the final minutes. It is a scene that definitely changes and in some cases completely destroys the lives of the characters involved while at the same time challenging the perceptions of the audience. Chinatown is very much a Hollywood film and even in its presented form would easily have suited a Hollywood happy ending, but the ending it has is perhaps more true to real life than we would like to believe.
Cynicism has always been central to the film noir world but for most of its heroes there has always been some form of redemption. Here there is none, and even with last year's Oscar for The Pianist it looks like there will be no redemption for Roman Polanski either. Although in 1974 the events that led him to be exiled from America had yet to happen this was still a man who had been haunted by cruelty and tragedy since childhood. On the subject of his characters he says, "I don't make films about admirable people. Probably weakness gives you more material for description." In the world that he and Jake Gittes occupy bad guys are not defeated, the hero does not get the girl and there is no sunset to walk into - only darkness.
Chris Regan
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