Plot: What’s it about?
Quite possibly one of the most respected films to come around in the last 30 years, Chinatown holds up as well now as it did when it came out in 1974. Starring a then “star” on the rise, Jack Nicholson and an already established female lead, Faye Dunaway, Chinatown wasn’t exactly an ‘art house’ movie. Mostly it’s associated with director Roman Polanski who also directed the critically acclaimed “Rosemary’s Baby”. Now I’m not sure what the thing with Roan Polanski is, he was banned from the United States after the Sharon Tate murders of something along those lines, and has remained somewhat of a recluse since then. Nevertheless, he plays a small part in this film and it’s probably the most memorable scene from this movie (when Nicholson’s Gittes’ gets his nose sliced). Among the other cast members is the great director John Huston (father to actress Angelica) who plays the villian or tycoon Noah Cross. Chinatown’s roots a a movie aren’t new to Hollywood, as it deals with greed, power, money and corruption…
Set in the 1930’s, Chinatown focuses on the still growing town of Los Angeles. Small time private investigator Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is hired on by a “Mrs. Mulrae” to investigate if her husband is cheating on her. Of course, he finds more out tha he wants to. It’s not long before another Mrs. Mulrae shows up, Evelyn (Faye Dunaway) and things start to go from bad to worse. It seems that after a little more investigating, Jake starts finding out that there’s more to this whole ordeal than someone chaeating on someone’s wife. The city of Los Angeles is between a desert and an ocean, so water is a problem. We learn that tycoon’s are buying up all the supposedly “worthless” land outside of Los Anglese in the Valley…but why? The citizens of Los Angleles are voting on a bill to bring the water to Los Angeles, but this won’t happen. By bringing the water to the Valley instead, it will force the city to grow that way, hence all that once worthless land is now gold.
With great performances by nearly everyone in it’s cast, Chinatown is a movie that isn’t really made anymore. Even in the retrospective interviews, it’s said that if the movie were made today, it wouldn’t be the same. Maybe it’s the atypcial Hollywood ending, maybe it’s the classic film noir attitude of the whole thing. One things is for sure, as Jake Gittes, this cemented Nicolson’s reputation for not only a movie star, but as a leading man as well. Faye Dunaway, as always puts in another great performance and it was interesting to hear Polanski’s comments about how methodical she was with her part (it was almost scary). One things is for sure, Chinatown has certainly never looked and sounded better, so if you haven’t already treated yourself to one of the finer films around…this is the best way to experience it.
Video: How does it look?
For a film that’s 25 years old, the picture on Chinatown is flat out amazing. From the opening credits to the closing, I expected the picture to foul up somewhere, but it didn’t. Presented in a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, the colors and fleshtones are purpsely muted, due to the whole nature of the film. Detail is very sharp and it’s a shame that more movies from this era can’t look this good. Being the “dark” movie that it is, the color palette is very bleak and the image maintains it’s consistency throughout. A top notch transfer from Paramount.
Audio: How does it sound?
Remastered in a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix from it’s original mono, Chinatown sounds very good. It has a kind of “dry” effect to it, so there is also a restored English mono track as well (nice touch). The range is very impressive, even for a movie that sound should not be the primary concern. Dialogue is clean and there is very little distortion, and I found myself switching to the mono track about halfway through the movie, it just had a more natural feel to it.
Supplements: What are the extras?
Paramount has advertised “Dynamic Interactive Menus” on this and “Titanic” and I have no idea what that means. They are animated and very neat, but if there’s some other feature someone let me know. Other than the menus, we are treated to a theatrical trailer and a very interesting 15 minute retrospective interview with none other than the great Roman Polanski. Also included are Robert Townel, who won an Academy Award for his script and Robert Evans, at the time the President of Paramount who gave the movie it’s “go”. All in all, this is the most definitive edition of Chinatown that exists, and I see no reason why it shouldn’t be on any serious collector’s shelf.
