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Chinatown

Porkchopexpress

Junior Varsity
10 Year Member
Am I missing something with this movie? I've heard so many great things, and while the acting and setting were both great, the movie fell flat for me. I was anxious to see how Jake Gittes was going to unravel everything to the cops as the big climax, but then it just kind of goes haywire at the end, and ends with a thud. At least for me it did. Jack Nicholson puts in a Jack Nicholson performance, and it's an interesting and unique subject matter (focusing on water issues and the power and money behind that in LA/SoCal), but it felt like there was no payoff for all the work Jake Gittes put in. Maybe that was the point? Anyways, it won't be a movie I make time to watch when it's on TV.
 
Am I missing something with this movie? I've heard so many great things, and while the acting and setting were both great, the movie fell flat for me. I was anxious to see how Jake Gittes was going to unravel everything to the cops as the big climax, but then it just kind of goes haywire at the end, and ends with a thud. At least for me it did. Jack Nicholson puts in a Jack Nicholson performance, and it's an interesting and unique subject matter (focusing on water issues and the power and money behind that in LA/SoCal), but it felt like there was no payoff for all the work Jake Gittes put in. Maybe that was the point? Anyways, it won't be a movie I make time to watch when it's on TV.
You cannot be more wrong. This is arguably the best Original Screenplay in Movie History (Casblanca with an argument). In the early 1970's (like Psycho did with Matricide and cross dressing etc) a subject dealing with incest as a plot twist was great filmmaking and writing.

The movie ended the way it did because , well that is the idea ..."Chinatown". Corruption, lawlessness it had it all.

Although unlike other great films of the era (Godfather1 and 2 as an example)
it is probably not as watchable over time to go back and see over and over but I would say give it another try. This is flim Noir at its finest.
 
In the 1970's ending were untidy, father Karras and Merrin are killed in the/exorcist.

Rosemary accepted her role as the mother to the offsping of the devil himself.

McMurphy gets lobotomized in Cuckoos nest ...

It was a depressing time in our history (vietnam war/ Civil rights / Watergate) so the bleakness and such were reflected in film.
 
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You cannot be more wrong. This is arguably the best Original Screenplay in Movie History (Casblanca with an argument). In the early 1970's (like Psycho did with Matricide and cross dressing etc) a subject dealing with incest as a plot twist was great filmmaking and writing.

The movie ended the way it did because , well that is the idea ..."Chinatown". Corruption, lawlessness it had it all.

Although unlike other great films of the era (Godfather1 and 2 as an example)
it is probably not as watchable over time to go back and see over and over but I would say give it another try. This is flim Noir at its finest.
In my opinion, it’s as close to perfect as a film can get.
 



I agree with Poke-chop. It was on tv about a week ago and I tried to watch it, but I shut it off before the end because I thought it was boring and the incest subject matter was unsavory.

For those of you who like it, great, it just goes to show how different people have different cultural tastes.
 
In my opinion, it’s as close to perfect as a film can get.

Neo Noir classic

I am a big fan of film noir from the 40s and 50s

Neo Noir cropped up for awhile in the 70's and thus was hands down the best homage to the original noir while taking the it and making it it's own

Great film
 
In the 1970's ending were untidy, father Karras and Merrin are killed in the/exorcist.

Rosemary accepted her role as the mother to the offsping of the devil himself.

McMurphy gets lobotomized in Cuckoos nest ...

It was a depressing time in our history (vietnam war/ Civil rights / Watergate) so the bleakness and such were reflected in film.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!
 



Count me on the thumbs up team. That, Casablanca and the Third Man are at the top of my lists of that genre.
 
Count me as someone that would say Chinatown is a decent movie, but I would never say it is close to perfect. I liked LA Confidential as film in the same vain a lot better.
 
I never watched it. I’m probably still not going too. Unless I read something that makes a compelling argument that I should.
 



Being a History Teacher, in SoCal.... I have a different perspective. Im a Nebr Transplant, but have lived here in SoCal for about 20 years.

The movie only begins to tell the story of the murder, fraud, corruption and lots more done by many different organizations to gain some control of the water to Southern Calif. Including what is today the LA Dept of Water & Power.

The Eastern Sierra Mountains sheds snow which today drains to feed LA. LA would be only Omaha size had they not accumulated the rights to that water. Farmers along the Eastern Sierras were bankrupted and pushed off their land, on a daily basis, through threats, extortion, you name it, to get control of the water rights. People disappeared in the middle of the night. What was done to those folks who lived in those counties, was every bit as bad as done to the American Indians, 60 years prior, it was just a bit more subtle.

The movie certainly means more to Calif folks who know the history of what happened there. I didnt know, til I moved here. I make that 300 mile drive up to Mammoth Ski Area about 3 times a year, and you can see the Aqueduct system in place, you can see what there was once a massive lake, that is now drained out, because all that water went south, but the dry lake bed remains there now, 90 years later.

William Mulholland, was the engineer that designed the aqueduct system to provide the water to SoCal, he designed and built lots of dams, that created huge lakes to store the water. Sadly, one failed in 1928 or 29 if I remember, and an entire lake of approx 2000 acres roared thru a valley, killing approx 500 people. In actuality, It killed 3x that many, because they werent counting the undocumented migrant workers who lived there, and still do in that area today. Mulholland pretty much crawled into a whiskey bottle after that, he was never the same.
 

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