Chinatown

Media:	DVD
Directed by:	Roman Polanski
Starring:	Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston
Release date:	09 August, 2005
List price:	~~$12.99~~
Our price:	$10.22 that is 21% off!

Chinatown

Average rating: Stars

A real film noir gem

This film sums up what film noir is all about. Style and form takes your eye and misleads you into thinking you know what's going on. Nicholson's Gittes character is fantastic - sure he plays the tough hard boiled PI but when it boils down to it - he is caught in a game far far greater than he can understand and the reality of the stakes involved only dawn on him at the very end. John Huston gives a lesson in how to be evil - that is you never show it on the surface. And Polanski's direction is as good as anyone in the history of cinema - his composition, his attention to detail and knowledge of how each character would play out the story.

this is what great cinema is all about

Chinatown - Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway and more

What's all the fuss about?

I don't get why Chinatown is such a well respected movie. It is slooooow. Jack Nicholson plays Jack Nicholson. Every scene is long and drawn out often with no dialogue to keep it interesting. Half an hour could have been shaved off this with no real loss. I mean do we really have to watch him climbing over a chainlink fence for 5 minutes. No! But the biggest beef I have is with the direction. The filming of the ending scene which everyone always says is so great is all jumbly and amateur looking.
I never really got to form an attachment to any of the main characters, they seemed more like modern actors self-consciously trying to embody certain film noir types.
If you really want film noir go to the true source-- forties and fifties films like Panic in the Streets, the Asphalt Jungle, An Ace in the Hole or Laura.
The only true heir to the film noir mantle in modern cinema is "The Usual Suspects." (Damn I wish Bryan Singer would make another movie like that one, but I digress)

Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway and more - Chinatown

One Of The All-Time Greats

After "The Godfather", I'd have to rank "Chinatown" as the second best film of the 1970's. This is a masterpiece of acting(Nicholson and Dunaway brought their "A" game); writing(Robert Towne makes one forget how bad his "Shampoo" was); and, Polanski never made a better picture in his life.

If you see no other film from the 70's, make sure you see "Chinatown". You won't be disappointed.