One of the classiest movies ever made. Jack Nicholson plays Jake Gittis, a private eye who specializes in matrimonial infidelity cases, who stumbles upon a big fish: a murder and a plot to divert LA's water rights for private gain. Faye Dunaway plays a character who has incest to hide. The plot is intricate and multi-layered, and best appreciated after many viewings. Everything works perfectly here - the storyline, the intrigues, even the mystique of Chinatown which figures prominently in Jake's past. Roman Polanski directed and does so with great care and attention to details. Nicholson is riveting throughout, even with that bandage on his nose most of the movie. And that haunting theme music over the closing credits - exquisite! Possibly the best movie in the last 30 years, and I doubt in this age of forgettable trash that Hollywood will ever make as good a movie again. A true masterpiece.

Chinatown, in my view, is one of those rare movies in which just about everything works. And not only is it a first-rate mystery, it's a first-rate drama. Some of the things I like about it:

1. The acting trio of Nicholson, Huston and Dunnaway. Nicholson can be a very dominating actor, and in most of his pictures, regardless of the other stars, I tend to pay attention primarily to him. But Dunnaway and Huston each balances him out and provides a lot of tension on the screen. Not just in their characters, but in their personalities as actors. Dunnaway often in her prime seemed always teetering on the brink of well-groomed, slightly self-aware unease. This quality she brings to Evelyn Mulray with an unhinged intensity. Probably no one was ever better than John Huston at playing charismatic old monsters (see him in Winter Kills). Noah Cross is a force of unprincipled nature, yet even when we know and rather admire his monstrousness, we still aren't prepared for just how much of a monster he is at the conclusion. It's something like having a charming grandfather you secretly admire for being such a rogue, and then discovering his enthusiasms include small children. Nicholson does a great job, I think, because he holds back much of the Jack-the-lad stuff he brings to many roles (and to his own life). Jake Gittes isn't the smartest guy around, but he's persistent and curious and just tough enough. The three of them make great dance partners.

2. The look and style of the movie. It often has a kind of golden haze about it that helps evoke the sense of Los Angeles and Southern California as some sort of golden playground. (See the same look in Mulholland Falls.) This, for me, sets things up for just how ruthless and unnatural some of the actions in the movie prove to be. And as for style, you can't beat that knife-in-the-nostril scene. There are a lot of things that little creep and his goons could have done to Jake Gittes. In most movies, Gittes would have been beaten with close-ups of bloody spittle flying from his mouth. That knife and that nostril, however, is one of the most wince-inducing scenes I've ever watched in a movie. For me, that clever, almost leering knowledge by Polanski the director of how the scene will be received by the audience is the difference between great style and just violent show-boating.

3. The ending. The final revelation and the recognition that a man as rich and powerful as Noah Cross can do what he wants and get away with it is unsettling. Suddenly Evelyn Mulray's neuroticism is not just irritating but believable and understandable. I felt a wave of sympathy for her and a fading hope that she and her daughter would somehow, with Gittes' help, manage to break free. When she was shot and Cross swoops down to take the young girl in his arms and take her away, I felt two emotions. First, that while Gittes did his best, once life sets things in motion there's not a lot anyone can do to change things. How bleak life can be. And second, that I'd just seen a helluva movie.

Look at the cast (Nicholson, Huston, Dunaway). Look at the director (Polanski). I will be so bold as to call Chinatown a classic. It fits the bill.

This is another movie that I had wanted to see for a long time that I never got around to renting.

I am having a hard time articulating what I liked so much about this one, but believe me when I say that I really liked it.

I love the mysteries throughout which you are constantly trying to sleuth along side the main character(s). My favorites, however, are the ones that take you in circles. I want plot twists. I want to be led in directions that end up being dead ends. I want to be left surprised at the ending, admitting that I never saw it coming.

Though I was not surprised at the ending of Chinatown, there certainly were plenty of twists in the plot. A longer movie, at more than 2 hours, that never dragged; Chinatown did not disappoint.

The movie was also extremely aesthetically pleasing. No, I am not referring to Faye Dunaway...entirely. The style chosen for the film was using muted colors and accenting a few greens, blues, yellows and pinks. The stark contrast between the dull scenes and strategically placed vivid colors was great.

A great movie at a great price. I will certainly be adding Chinatown to my collection.

This is one of the all time great mysteries, perhaps the most superb of all the neo-noir films. Personally, I have never liked the ending (where is Bogie when you need him?), but nevertheless, it is brilliantly written, brilliantly acted, and brilliantly directed. The original is visually gorgeous - but you might as well buy the VHS version. This DVD is really awful. The focus is fuzzy. It looks like someone took an aging, washed-out copy, upped the color saturation, and called it remastered. The skin tones are almost too bright, but the colors while still faded, are too dark and murky. I still remember the subtle use of color from when I first saw the film, the beautiful pinks and blues and yellows playing against the cool neutrals. The rich darks giving gorgeous contrast. And I remember the perfect LA light. Only the brightest sunlit scenes come even close to the way it should look. This is a Hollywood masterpiece, and deserved great love and care in its restoration. It didn't get them.

First of all, it is hard not to just rave about how great this movie is. Discussions of its finer points aside, you are really missing something if you don't go out and see this movie. It is not a martial arts movie. It is a flawless, polished gem of a film- a rare treasure of unequaled technical mastery, unrivaled performances by both Nicholson and Dunaway, and screenwriting excellece of course too.
Chinatown is arguably the greatest movie ever made. But to understand this, and thus to understand why you really should watch it, it is perhaps useful to understand where it fits. Chinatown is certainly not the most "important" film, as it is essentially a rehashing of the film noir genre, but it terms of absolute and unequivocal success as BOTH a work of art and entertainment, Chinatown is without rival. Critics may have written much more about other movies of the period, and certainly for instance "Taxi Driver" is more of a cultural monument, but nothing can touch the staggering richness of this film. It still hits me like a locomotive every time I see it.