Chinatown
released 1974
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“Chinatown” is an American neo-noir, detective, action, fiction film produced by Robert Evans, written by Robert Towne and directed by Roman Polanski. It stars a brilliant cast which includes Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Hillerman, Perry Lopez, Burt Young, John Huston, Darrell Zwerling, Diane Ladd, Roy Jenson, Roman Polanski himself as the hoodlum with a knife, Richard Bakalyan, Joe Mantell, Bruce Glover, Belinda Palmer, Beulah Quo, Nandu Hinds and the prolific James Hong. It has been nominated for several Academy Awards and won for Best Original Screenplay and it also won four Golden Globe Awards, BAFTA, Edgar Award, National Film Registry and was voted best film of all time by he Guardian. This is a very good film and is definitely worth seeing.

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“Chinatown” is the story of corruption, shady dealings, identity fraud, infidelities and much more in the Los Angeles, California of the late 1930s. Private investigator J.J. “Jake” Gittes, played by Jack Nicholson, is hired to investigate a man named Hollis Mulwray, played by Darrell Zwerling, by a woman claiming to be his wife. When a scandal erupts (from the photos Jake took Of Hollis with a young woman hit the newspapers) he realizes that things run much deeper then a simple adultery case. A woman claiming to be the real wife of Hollis named Evelyn Mulwray, played by Faye Dunaway, shows up in Jake´s office and Hollis is later fished out of a canal. What starts as a simple husband watching case devolves into scandal, deception and murder with Jake at the center of it all. As Jake investigates Hollis´murder we´re taken down a very seedy road of corruption that goes from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to the newspapers to the police. At the center of this whole web of criminal activity is a man named Noah Cross, played by John Huston. “Chinatown” is basically the story of a private detective navigating the treacherous web of crime and corruption that has engulfed Hollis Mulwray. Needless to say that jake is a capable private detective who navigates this world skillfully. Jake is a lecherous man who, somehow manages to follow his moral compass and arrive at the truth.

Robert Towne wrote a brilliant script in “Chinatown”. Many have called it the best detective script ever written and one of the best scripts ever written in American cinema and I can understand why. This film is in many ways the anatomy of corruption. Corruption really is like an infection. So many people take part in subtle ways and as the movie progresses we see more and more just how deeply the infection runs.

If you like detective movies or just want to see a film with a great story then check out “Chinatown”. It´s a classic for a very good reason and it has withstood the test of time for a very good reason. So enjoy!

( Commentary by  www.ink2quill.com )
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