LMU Homework - Chinatown - 1 of 20
Chinatown has pretty much nothing to do with chinatown.
The basic plot as best I can retell it because this story was not predictable and quite unique... goes something like this:
Gitties (Jack Nicholson), a personal spy, is hired to pin Evelyn's husband as an adulter by a woman who we later find out isn't really Evelyn but Ina Sheilds. Anywho Evelyn (Faye Dunaway) later comes files a lawsuit against Gitties, while Gitties tries to figure out who set him up.
His next pursuit is of the husband himself... whom he finds dead. Now that he's dead Evelyn comes back and drops the lawsuit and suddenly the tables turn to where now Evelyn decides to really hire Gitties. As he still tries to unravel the mystery of her husband's death many things unfold coming upon these final facts: Kathrine (who the Husband supposedly had the affair with) is really Evelyn's sister and daughter... her father (who owns all the water supply of Los Angeles County) killed her husband due to disagreements about who should own the water and who should have kathrine... Everything was a huge set up to hide the father's power and money scheme... in the end evelyn is killed by the police (who her father owns) and the father takes the daughter, and Gitties is let free instead of arrested ("as a favor")... corruption and injustice win...
There were some great shots... and as with many movies made on true film the continuous shots have to be made more interesting to keep the story moving and the audience engaged. There is one shot where there is a spot on the lens!!! (even the classics have blunders) The sound is nothing brilliant... everything has a noise... props are more pronounced and sound Fx are seventies cheesy. One thing I noticed was there was hardly music... just when it was getting tense and/or something was about to reveal itself.
Roman Polanski (Rosemary's Baby, The Pianist) is the director and has a wonderful little cameo where he cuts Jack's nose.
Just before watching this movie I watched a documentary on the trial scandal on his conviction: Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired. It was interesting to see footage of this man and here about his life. His mother was killed by the Nazis, his father was sent to a German concentration camp 2 years into the war and was killed... but he survived. From an early age he knew he wanted to have something to do with cinema. He moved out to London, free from the communist life he'd known, he now strove to become what he always wanted and nearly overnight became a sensation. He moved to Hollywood and made huge productions married Sharon Tate and generally was living the lime life. When Sharon, pregnant, was brutally murdered (Charles Manson)... Polanski crumbled and the media twisted it as though he was the murderer. He was able to recover from the slander but he was more insecure than ever. And as the trial unfolded the media never ceased to defame him and print lies. So he fled the country and has yet to return (until recently if he did return he would have been arrested). He is still held in high regard as one of the most influential directors of the time.
They talk in the documentary about how almost every Polanski movie dealt with how corruption and injustice triumphed over the young and innocent... Chinatown is no exception. The corruption of power wealth and greed in man.
Its odd though too that Polanski's life would continually be tortured by injustice specifically in the media.
Thinking about all this has left me with a question... What makes a great person?
Polanski is a star-studded, unique, talented director; but his morals seem to have been lacking greatly... was it just then? was it a lapse of judgment? Or do some people have a dark side?... Do you have to have morals to be great? (I would like to think so... but many could say Hitler was a great man in history for his amazing command over so many people but he had absolutely no morals... I do not know. Maybe its not about greatness... its about how humble you can be while believing in yourself.)
The basic plot as best I can retell it because this story was not predictable and quite unique... goes something like this:
Gitties (Jack Nicholson), a personal spy, is hired to pin Evelyn's husband as an adulter by a woman who we later find out isn't really Evelyn but Ina Sheilds. Anywho Evelyn (Faye Dunaway) later comes files a lawsuit against Gitties, while Gitties tries to figure out who set him up.
His next pursuit is of the husband himself... whom he finds dead. Now that he's dead Evelyn comes back and drops the lawsuit and suddenly the tables turn to where now Evelyn decides to really hire Gitties. As he still tries to unravel the mystery of her husband's death many things unfold coming upon these final facts: Kathrine (who the Husband supposedly had the affair with) is really Evelyn's sister and daughter... her father (who owns all the water supply of Los Angeles County) killed her husband due to disagreements about who should own the water and who should have kathrine... Everything was a huge set up to hide the father's power and money scheme... in the end evelyn is killed by the police (who her father owns) and the father takes the daughter, and Gitties is let free instead of arrested ("as a favor")... corruption and injustice win...
There were some great shots... and as with many movies made on true film the continuous shots have to be made more interesting to keep the story moving and the audience engaged. There is one shot where there is a spot on the lens!!! (even the classics have blunders) The sound is nothing brilliant... everything has a noise... props are more pronounced and sound Fx are seventies cheesy. One thing I noticed was there was hardly music... just when it was getting tense and/or something was about to reveal itself.
Roman Polanski (Rosemary's Baby, The Pianist) is the director and has a wonderful little cameo where he cuts Jack's nose.
Just before watching this movie I watched a documentary on the trial scandal on his conviction: Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired. It was interesting to see footage of this man and here about his life. His mother was killed by the Nazis, his father was sent to a German concentration camp 2 years into the war and was killed... but he survived. From an early age he knew he wanted to have something to do with cinema. He moved out to London, free from the communist life he'd known, he now strove to become what he always wanted and nearly overnight became a sensation. He moved to Hollywood and made huge productions married Sharon Tate and generally was living the lime life. When Sharon, pregnant, was brutally murdered (Charles Manson)... Polanski crumbled and the media twisted it as though he was the murderer. He was able to recover from the slander but he was more insecure than ever. And as the trial unfolded the media never ceased to defame him and print lies. So he fled the country and has yet to return (until recently if he did return he would have been arrested). He is still held in high regard as one of the most influential directors of the time.
They talk in the documentary about how almost every Polanski movie dealt with how corruption and injustice triumphed over the young and innocent... Chinatown is no exception. The corruption of power wealth and greed in man.
Its odd though too that Polanski's life would continually be tortured by injustice specifically in the media.
Thinking about all this has left me with a question... What makes a great person?
Polanski is a star-studded, unique, talented director; but his morals seem to have been lacking greatly... was it just then? was it a lapse of judgment? Or do some people have a dark side?... Do you have to have morals to be great? (I would like to think so... but many could say Hitler was a great man in history for his amazing command over so many people but he had absolutely no morals... I do not know. Maybe its not about greatness... its about how humble you can be while believing in yourself.)
Labels: Chinatown, lmu homework, movie review, Roman Polanski
posted by cinemadolce at
9:53 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home