Chinatown

Chinatown, USA 1974

Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway

Every once in a while I will come across a movie like Chinatown that is beloved by critics and audiences alike, but for some reason I've never seen it. Thanks to this blog project I now have no excuses for avoiding these types of films. Chinatown was nominated for Oscars for best director, actor, actress, and eight other categories, but it only won for best screenplay. The director, Roman Polanski, made a film that paid homage to the "film noir" genre of the 1920s and 30s. Film Noir typically includes dark subject matter (Noir is french for black) and a multi-layered story that is part mystery and part psychological thriller. Chinatown displays all of those characteristics. The story grows deeper and more confusing as the film moves along. New characters get added as the plot develops and we are constantly discovering new motives for the characters we've already met. The darkest element of the film concerns a revelation about one of the main characters near the end of the film. This revelation caught me by surprise, but it seemed artificial and not very believable. I think that most modern audiences would feel the same way, but perhaps it was more impressive when this film was first released nearly forty years ago. Overall I liked this movie and would encourage anyone who hasn't seen it to do so. It's still considered one of the best mystery films of all time.

This was the last film Roman Polanski made before fleeing the US for legal reasons. He supposedly had a sexual relationship with an underage girl. His supporters in the US, have for years been trying to get the charges in his case dismissed so that he can return to the United States without having to serve prison time. They claim that the Judge who was hours away from delivering his sentence had personal motives for wanting Polanski behind bars, and would have handed down an unfair sentence. Personally, I don't think that was any excuse to flee the country. His sentence would have concluded probably thirty years ago and all of this would have been behind him. Even if the judge was going to be harsh, didn't his crime warrant the punishment? I would also imagine that someone accused of a similar crime in today's underage sex scandal plagued society that the punishment would be far worse from anything handed down in 1977.