Chinatown

UPC: 097361551647

Studio: Paramount

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Not For Children]

Summary: "You may think you know what you're dealing with, but believe me, you don't," warns water baron Noah Cross (John Huston), when smooth cop-turned-private eye J.J. "Jake" Gittes (Jack Nicholson) starts nosing around Cross's water diversion scheme. That proves to be the ominous lesson of Chinatown, Roman Polanski's critically lauded 1974 revision of 1940s film noir detective movies. In 1930s Los Angeles, "matrimonial work" specialist Gittes is hired by Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) to tail her husband, Water Department engineer Hollis Mulwray (Darrell Zwerling). Gittes photographs him in the company of a young blonde and figures the case is closed, only to discover that the real Mrs. Mulwray had nothing to do with hiring Gittes in the first place. When Hollis turns up dead, Gittes decides to investigate further, encountering a shady old-age home, corrupt bureaucrats, angry orange farmers, and a nostril-slicing thug (Polanski) along the way. By the time he confronts Cross, Evelyn's father and Mulwray's former business partner, Jake thinks he knows everything, but an even more sordid truth awaits him. When circumstances force Jake to return to his old beat in Chinatown, he realizes just how impotent he is against the wealthy, depraved Cross. "Forget it, Jake," his old partner tells him. "It's Chinatown." Reworking the somber underpinnings of detective noir along more pessimistic lines, Polanski and screenwriter Robert Towne convey a '70s-inflected critique of capitalist and bureaucratic malevolence in a carefully detailed period piece harkening back to the genre's roots in the 1930s and '40s. Gittes always has a smart comeback like Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, but the corruption Gittes finds is too deep for one man to stop. Other noir revisions, such as Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973) and Arthur Penn's Night Moves (1975), also centered on the detective's inefficacy in an uncertain '70s world, but Chinatown's period sheen renders this dilemma at once contemporary and timeless, pointing to larger implications about the effects of corporate rapaciousness on individuals. Polanski and Towne clashed over Chinatown's ending; Polanski won the fight, but Towne won the Oscar for Best Screenplay. Chinatown was nominated for ten other Oscars, including Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Cinematography, Art Direction, Costumes, and Score. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Category: Mystery

Awards: Best Actor – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Director – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Picture – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Screenplay – British Academy of Film and Television Arts U.S. National Film Registry – Library of Congress 100 Greatest American Movies – American Film Institute Best Director – Directors Guild of America Best Picture - Drama – null Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama – null Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama – null Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – null Best Director – null Best Screenplay – null Best Original Score – null Best Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Actress – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Art Direction – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Art Direction – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Art Direction – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Cinematography – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Costume Design – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Original Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Original Dramatic Score – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – National Board of Review Best Actor – New York Film Critics Circle Best Director – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Original Score – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Screenplay – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Screenplay – Edgar Allan Poe Awards Best Actor – National Society of Film Critics

Features: Widescreen version enhanced for 16x9
Dolby Digital: English 5.1 Surround; restored English mono; French mono
English subtitles
Dynamic interactive menus
Scene selection
Theatrical trailer
Retrospective: interviews with Roman Polanski, Robert Towne, and Robert Evans

Chinatown

Format: DVD

Release Date: 11/23/1999

Audio: 5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1, 1 USA & territories, Canada, 2 PCM stereo

Runtime: 130 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French

Subtitles: English

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Side #1
0. Scene Selection
1. J.J. Gittes [1:54]
2. Hollis Mulwray [3:51]
3. Evelyn Mulwray [3:20]
4. Bad for Glass [7:07]
5. Dry As A Bone [:05]
6. "C" for Cross [7:26]
7. Find the Girl [:52]
8. The Valley [6:08]
9. The Albacore Connection [5:20]
10. Maid's Night Off [1:55]
11. Mulwray's Girl [7:06]
12. Witholding Evidence [7:32]
13. The Truth [7:12]
14. Eluding Escobar [6:30]
15. Capable of Anything [:32]
16. Chinatown [5:36]

Mark Deming

By 1974, a lingering national malaise spawned by the killing of John F. Kennedy and fed by the national debate over the Vietnam War, the continued wave of political assassinations, and the sudden rise and slow collapse of the counterculture movement had finally come to a head with the revelations of the Watergate scandal. Chinatown, a glossy variant on the hard-boiled film noir detective pictures of the 1940s, suggested that none of this was new, and that ugly battles over power and profit touched every area of our lives...even the water we drink. In Chinatown, elected officials are the easily purchased pawns of corrupt power brokers whose appetites know no check or balance (ranging from simple greed to the violation of natural law through incest), and the closest thing we have to a honest and moral guide through this fallen world is a private detective -- a man whose career dictates that his loyalty can be purchased for a relatively small fee. While Roman Polanski's expert pacing and the superbly modulated performances of Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston would have made Chinatown memorable regardless of its political and cultural contexts, the intelligent but relentless cynicism of Robert Towner's screenplay reflected the dark tone of '40s noir while updating it for a California-fed '70s culture. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Paul Jenkins  Actor 
Beulah Quo  Actor 
George Justin  Actor 
Jerry Fujikawa  Actor 
Charles Knapp  Actor 
Allan Warnick  Actor 
Roman Polanski  Actor 
Elliott Montgomery  Actor 
Burt Young  Actor 
Elizabeth Harding  Actor 
John Rogers  Actor 
Fritzi Burr  Actor 
John Holland  Actor 
James O'Reare  Actor 
Denny Arnold  Actor 
Frederico Roberto  Actor 
Bruce Glover  Actor 
Noble Willingham  Actor 
Jesse Vint  Actor 
Claudio Martinez  Actor 
Cecil Elliott  Actor 
Roy Jenson  Actor 
Roy Roberts  Actor 
Dick Bakalyan  Actor 
Jim Burk  Actor 
Nandu Hinds  Actor 
Joe Mantell  Actor 
Bob Golden  Actor 
Lee de Broux  Actor 
Rance Howard  Actor 
Belinda Palmer  Actor 
James Hong  Actor 
Doc Erickson  Actor 
Robert Evans  Producer 
Jerry Goldsmith  Composer (Music Score) 
Roman Polanski  Director 
Robert Towne  Screenwriter 
Jack Nicholson  Actor 
Faye Dunaway  Actor 
John Huston  Actor 
Perry Lopez  Actor 
John Hillerman  Actor 
Diane Ladd  Actor 
Darrell Zwerling  Actor 

Country: USA