Roman Polanski's brooding film noir exposes the darkest side of the land of sunshine, the Los Angeles of the 1930s, where power is the only currency--and the only real thing worth buying. Jack Nicholson is J.J. Gittes, a private eye in the Chandler mold, who during a routine straying-spouse investigation finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into a jigsaw puzzle of clues and corruption. The glamorous Evelyn Mulwray (a dazzling Faye Dunaway) and her titanic father, Noah Cross (John Huston), are at the black-hole center of this tale of treachery, incest, and political bribery. The crackling, hard-bitten script by Robert Towne won a well-deserved Oscar, and the muted color cinematography makes the goings-on seem both bleak and impossibly vibrant. Polanski himself has a brief, memorable cameo as the thug who tangles with Nicholson's nose. One of the greatest, most completely satisfying crime films of all time. --Anne Hurley
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
CRISP, CRACKLING, AND DARK CHINATOWN is, to state the obvious, one of the great Hollywood classics, featuring fabulous dialogue, a sensational story, incredible acting from Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway ( at the top of their game ), and stiletto-sharp direction from Roman Polanski. This is the kind of dark, steamy, pot-boiler that defined noir, and very few films have ever done it as well- and none better. This is an excellent product with great sound, and a sharp transfer. There are also plenty of extras. An absolute must for... more info
Can there be anything more noir than that? This film is a masterpiece because it is nothing but what we expect and we expect something different at every single moment of it, so that we are disappointed and surprised and held breathless every fifteen minutes when one of our expectations goes down the chute. At first we think it is one more private eye's business or investigation in some kind of affair with some married man. But it does not fit at all with the professional dedication of the suspected unfaithful man. He is obviously looking for... more info
Great Noir But Too Bad About the DVD! "Chinatown" represents an updating of the great noir films of the past such as "Double Indemnity" and especially of "Maltese Falcon" which happens to be together with "Sunset Boulevard" my favourite representatives of the genre although "Chinatown" more closely resembles the "Maltese Falcon". Nicholson parallels Bogart here and Dunaway does Astor and ironically John Huston, the director of the "Maltese Falcon" has an acting role here. "Chinatown" does a great job in bringing the noir genre into the... more info
Chinatown Chinatown is a unique film in many ways and is considered a classic. It is generally deemed to be a film noir but i have to admit I had a little trouble seeing it. Many of the plot elements fit the film noir genre but visually it was a little harder for me to see. I enjoyed watching the film but the ending changed my opinion a bit. First of all, the plot and dialogue was very intelligent and I really like that about it. I'm not surprised that script won an academy award; it certainly deserved it. The... more info
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