{"id":4121,"date":"2009-04-05T18:31:21","date_gmt":"2009-04-06T02:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=4121"},"modified":"2009-04-06T05:35:30","modified_gmt":"2009-04-06T13:35:30","slug":"chinatown-roman-polanski-1974-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=4121","title":{"rendered":"Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974): U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reviewed by <a href=\"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?author=49\">Kathleen Amboy<\/a>. Viewed on DVD.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; float: left\" src=\"https:\/\/www.filmposters.it\/imgposter\/grandi\/chinatown.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"230\" height=\"325\" \/>\u201cShe\u2019s my daughter, she\u2019s my sister, she\u2019s my daughter, my sister\u2026,\u201d are the haunting words erupting from Evelyn Mulwray as Jake Gittes slaps her around, forcing the truth from her lips.<\/p>\n<p>If ever there was a moment in screen history when the stars were aligned correctly, \u00a0this was it. <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0071315\/\" target=\"_new\">Chinatown<\/a><\/em>, a neo-noir classic, epitomized New Hollywood Cinema at its best, and its production was a perfect melding of creative genius; producer Robert Evans, writer Robert Towne, director Roman Polanski, and a terrific pairing of Jack Nicholson as the inimitable gumshoe and Faye Dunaway as the atypical femme fatale.<\/p>\n<p>The film is loosely based on realistic accounts of the history of the Los Angeles aqueduct, the\u00a0corrupt acquiring of water rights, and the secretive diversion of water into the San Fernando Valley. Hollis Mulwray is the lead engineer for the Los Angeles Water Department and accused of being a philanderer.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>While Gittes is hired to tail him, Mulwray\u2019s body is discovered drowned in a fresh water reservoir, but with saltwater in his lungs.<\/p>\n<p>Gittes is jerked around continually by the water department, the LAPD, two Mrs. Mulwrays and the creepy but wealthy Noah Cross.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Jake eventually falls for the real Mrs. Mulwray, but not knowing who to trust, he is forced to rough her up a bit until she divulges her dirty little secret and he then\u00a0gains a better understanding of the situation.<\/p>\n<p>With a harrowing finale in which Evelyn is killed and her sister\/daughter is left in the comforting hands of the incestuous Noah Cross, Jake is told to \u201cForget it\u2026it\u2019s Chinatown.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In true film noir fashion, the setting is in and around Los Angeles, peppered with perfect dialogue and accompanied by a poignant musical score, yet in true 1970s fashion, the story is bleak with no happy resolve for any of the main characters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy. Viewed on DVD. \u201cShe\u2019s my daughter, she\u2019s my sister, she\u2019s my daughter, my sister\u2026,\u201d are the haunting words erupting from Evelyn Mulwray as Jake Gittes slaps her around, forcing the truth from her lips. If ever there was a moment in screen history when the stars were aligned correctly, \u00a0this was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dvd","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}