1. What section of the chapter did you find most interesting and why?
I found the whole chapter interesting! Even though pictures are usually prior to dialogue or narration in a movie, screenplay is definitely one of the most important aspects of a film. This chapter discusses about how directors benefit from the sound-film technique. This made think about the recent movie I saw—Alice in Wonderland, Tim Burton version. In my whole-life-long memory, Alice in Wonderland has always been a mysterious, somewhat creepy but extremely interesting and attractive children fairy tale. But in the new 3D movie, I think Tim Burton adds some serious adult relationship into the story, and makes both adults and children identify with the main characters in it. I couldn’t help but wonder, if there were no dialogue in the movie, only the original soundtrack existed, we could probably get the story perfectly. Of course different people will have different interpretations, but for me, love would be the last theme that comes to my mind. Screenplay can totally change a movie. And I like the example of Andrew Sarris’ on how different shots change the meaning of the same picture. It reminds me many scenes I never really analyzed before. Besides, I totally agree with “some commentators” with the idea that if a work of art has reached its fullest artistic expression in one form, an adaptation will inevitably be inferior. I never saw a movie adapt a successful novel successfully.
2. What is your reaction to Chinatown? You should offer at least a paragraph analysis/reaction (which is not the same as a summary). What praise can you give the film? What negative criticism?
Chinatown is not a typical 70s film to me. The music use is just right. I remember there are lots of effects are created by the music in Hitchcock’s films. More often than not, the music scares audience rather than the pictures do. However, as a crime film, Chinatown doesn’t have the typical strong soundtrack in the movie, which impressed me. And later on when I re-watched it, I found myself enjoy the music in the movie a lot. I think the plotting is fantastic. Having the most direct cause, Hollis Mulwray, die in the very early part of the movie creates a mysterious atmosphere. And finding the murderer becomes the main task in the movie. However, different from ordinary crime/investigation movies, Chinatown has more than one single task. Who arranges the prostitute to pretend as Mrs. Mulwray? The second mystery occurs. Why would Noah Cross care so much about Hollis’ “lover”? Under the big task, there are so many mysterious questions. And when some of them are solved, like when Jack knows who asks the prostitute to pretend as Mrs. Mulwray, new problems appear. Why would Noah investigate Hollis in the name of “cheating on her wife”? I think the plotting is the best part of this movie. You never really understand until the last minute.
3. For many people, Chinatown is the best screenplay ever written. Based on what you’ve learned about screenwriting in this chapter, explain why critics have arrived at this conclusion.
Unlike most practical screenplay, Chinatown creates many mysteries at different time. Once a problem is solved, another appears. And this cycle goes on and on until the end.
The storytelling is great. The plotting makes audience deny themselves now and then. For example, the movie makes us believe that Mrs. Mulwray must have something to do with the death of her husband, but later we know there’s nothing. Then we believe that Mrs. Mulwray is a evil person for locking up her husband’s “lover”, and again we are misled. This is the most interesting part of the screenplay I think. Besides, there are a lot of implications in the process of the storytelling. For example, when Evelyn and Jack are in bed, she asks him about his work in Chinatown, and he mentions a woman. But when Evelyn asks: “did she die?” The phone rings preventing Jack from answering the question. This indicates Evelyn’s death in the end. And the most dramatic scene is when Jack asks who the mysterious girl is. Evelyn says “my sister”. A slap. “My daughter”. A slap. “My sister”. A slap. “My daughter”… The perfect combination of words and action, creates the most dynamic and dramatic scene. I couldn’t say the metaphor use of Chinatown is a great one, but it’s very effective. And I think the point of view in this film is objective point of view. There is no judgment on anyone. But the screenplay neglects a lot of unnecessary plot like how Jack investigates some of the background information. We are just directly told when he reveals those to people in the film. This is great, I think, because a lot of other movies are made too slow by giving all the unimportant details. And above all, I think this screenplay is very realistic, which is very important.
4. Is Jack Gittes a hero? Why/why not?
It’s hard to say. Gittes is not like the usual hero in other movies. He is the moral guide in Chinatown, but his moral standards seem to crash in the end when he sees Evelyn dead in the car. The movie left us another mystery here. Will Jake really forget about his moral disciplines and accept the “Chinatown rules”? Or will he go on sticking to his moral beliefs? And this is why it’s hard to say he’s the hero or not. In this sense, I see no heroes in this movie. Some of the characters are somewhere in between, like Jake, Walsh, and others are absolute evil, like Noah. The only person who seems to be a complete hero is Hollis Mulwray, who keeps his own belief completely. But he died in the begging. He can’t really be the hero for the movie. Throughout the early part of the movie, Gittes has always been the moral guide of the movie. Given this, I think he can be the hero. And in then end when his beliefs are smashed by the reality, he can no longer be the moral guide. But I think that’s more realistic in our true life. There are not many people sticking to their beliefs, and that’s why there are not many heroes. In general, I think Gittes falls somewhere in between, but if there must be a hero, that would be him in this movie.
5. How does Chinatown establish its generic conventions? What are those conventions? Does it confirm or frustrate expectations?
Chinatown has a very realistic theme, but the story tends to belong to formalistic category. But on the whole I believe Chinatown falls into realistic films. The movie begins in Jack Gittes’ office, where there are natural lights, natural sound and no distorted space. This movie emphasizes on the corruption of life rather than the world of imagination or beauty, which shows its realistic features. What makes Chinatown different is other realistic movies often have a certain cyclical structure, but in this film, the structure is rearranged based on the story. It’s like there are several small circles in this movie, we get off on and get into another, whereas other movies only have one. Another convention of realistic movies is that the narrator avoids making judgments. We can see in this movie that judgments are not the most important thing. There are no judgments on anyone in this movie. Other conventions like a fondness for expose, with “shocking” or “low” subject matter that is often criticized for its grittiness and “bad taste”, an avoidance of melodrama and exaggeration in favor of understatement and dedramatization and a scientific view of motivation, with a corresponding rejection of such romantic concepts as Destiny and Fate. Chinatown confirms all above expectation, except for its unusual structure use.
6. What figurative techniques occur in Chinatown? What is their significance?
The most obvious and important one is metaphor. Director uses Chinatown to show a symbolic meaning of Chinatown: no justice. Because of the different culture background, it must be hard to judge the accident or something. You never know exactly what is right and what is wrong. This indicates the corrupted society at that time. The future is controlled by the few people, like Noah. Police can’t do anything to change the situation in Chinatown, and it’s the same way with LA. And Jake thinks as long as he leaves Chinatown he can live his way, but the thing is Chinatown is just part of LA—he can’t do things his way in LA, either. This metaphor exists throughout the whole film. Another metaphor detail I found in the movie is their names. Noah as a name with some kind of authority and he is almost unbeatable like a superhuman, whereas Jack as a normal man’s name represents the ordinariness of Jack. He tries to defeat the superhuman with his human power. It’s destined to fail.
I agree with Kyle about the bandage on Gittes’ nose as a symbol. It shows the differences between Gittes and other people in the film. The comments he receives about his bandage imply the evil people in the film, and that how much they want to get rid of Gittes.
I also found the Owens Valley rape is an allusion used in the film. And there is an obvious homage to Chandler and Hammett. Other things like Manson kills Tate can also be found in this film. Director Polanski creates an extremely violent and bloody death of Evelyn, giving audience so much to think about.
7. Only one scene takes place in Chinatown – why is it the title of the film?
I think in this movie, Chinatown means “the less you know, the better”. Even though there is only one scene taking place in Chinatown, the implying meaning of Chinatown is haunted all over the movie. In the middle part we know that Jack used to work in Chinatown as a policeman, and he left for some unknown reason. However, ironically the movie ends in Chinatown, and Jack lost the game. The movie gives me the feeling that Chinatown is the place where there is no law, no justice, no future. Through the symbolic meaning of Chinatown and the Jack’s failed investigation, director Polanski reveals the problems of LA at that time. When we see the contrast between Jack’s frightened and desperate look and the blank and numb faces of the surrounded people in Chinatown, the theme reveals itself. There is no justice in the world. The past Jack had in Chinatown, and the lesson he should have learned there dominate the whole film. Also I think this is the reason why Polanski let the bad guy win. Another scene shows why Chinatown dominates the movie is when Noah Cross and Jack are have a conversation like this: “You may think you know what you’re dealing with, but, believe me, you don’t.” “That’s what the District Attorney used to tell me in Chinatown.” The grin Jack then has and the look he has in the end again construct a strong contrast, indicating the hidden rules of the situation. Another reason occurred to me at one point, but this may get too far. As a Chinese girl, I understand a lot of Chinese people are superstitious and believe in fate. What happened to Evelyn, Noah and Catherine somehow reminds me of Oedipus the King and some other ancient Greek mythologies. So Chinatown gives me the feeling of the irresistible power of fate. And that just something the movie reveals. The society is like a wild jungle—the rich kill the poor, the strong beat the weak.
8. Why would Roman Polanski create a film in which the bad guy wins?
I believe the reasons for this are various. For one thing, Roman Polanski is a person with very tragic background. He once said that the death of Sarah Tate totally changed his personality from a "boundless, untroubled sea of expectations and optimism" to one of "ingrained pessimism ... eternal dissatisfaction with life". This might be the reason why, as people said, Polanski had a fight with the writer about the ending. Another reason I think is based on the realistic background, a single person, like Jack, has no possibility to change the big picture. Only an organized group like the police can do something to stop the “monopoly” of people like Noah. However, the police are controlled by people like Noah. They serve for Noah, not against him. In real life, there are not many heroes. That’s why heroes are called heroes. The bad-guy-wins ending reveals how the world works. It’s more realistic. Maybe this is not quite right, but I suddenly have the feeling that this ending resembles some of the famous ancient drama/mythologies, where heroes died after experiencing a full circle of rise and fall. Noah is like the unquestionable god. He always wins, no matter what.
9. What mythic connections does this film have?
The very obvious one is the connection between Oedipus the King and this film. Apart from the fact that Evelyn is a woman and her father raped her, other key elements are very similar. There is an interesting detail that Jack say there is a green flaw in Evelyn’s eye iris. And in the end, Evelyn’s eye is shot. I guess it’s probably the same spot mentioned by Jack earlier. Interestingly, when Oedipus finds out the truth of his birth and that his daughters are actually also his sisters, he poked his eyes blind. I remember the description is really terrifying. There are literally two bloody holes on his face. And when the police straighten Evelyn’s body, her face frightened me, too. The importance of blindness in both plays I think is the metaphor meaning. In Chinatown, Evelyn is the only one who knows the truth after Hollis’ death. Only she can see things clearly, but her eye is totally ruined in the end. It strengthens the meaning that all people are metaphorically blind now. No one will stand up and fight against the evil now. And it more or less implies that even Jack knows the truth, because everyone else is blind, no one would believe him or support him.
Another connection I can think of is the fall of Jack. He is the moral guide and hero in the movie before the end, but he falls at last. This reminds me of some of the heroes in ancient epics, like Homeric epic and some others, where the heroes go through a full circle of rise and fall, but in the end almost all of them are doomed to death. It’s the fate. In Chinatown, it’s the reality.
Finally the connection of the name Noah with the Noah who saves lives on a ship ringed a bell with me. This is ironic. Both Noah have something to do with water. However, one fights against the flood and save people, while the other controls water in order to control the future and do whatever brutal things to please his own.
10. What are the themes of Chinatown? To which films that we’ve seen are these themes the most similar? The most different?
The main theme we see in Chinatown is that justice does not always work in our real life. Sometimes those who control the most important industry or who have the most power in economy or politics rule the society base on their own interest. Those who defeat them and “sue them to shit” successfully become heroes, but most of the time, there are no heroes. Women in this movie have really low status. They are totally controlled by the Mr. Big.
I think Apocalypse Now has the most similar themes to this one. No matter how reluctant people don’t want the war, as long as the authority is with the war, people have to fight. Kurtz’s mind is crashed by the war, so does Jack’s, the only difference is Jack is smashed by the reality. And most of the soldiers in the war don’t know why they have to fight, and their minds are all refreshed by the authority. Therefore they would do things like shoot people first and then send them to hospital. Similarly, in Chinatown people’s minds are numb. “As less as possible”. People are threatened by the hidden power, like the “monopoly” of certain industry and certain force.
On the contrary, Some Like It Hot has the opposite theme. Jerry and Joe successfully escape from the Spats group in the end. And women’s role is very high in this film. Run Lola Run is another film I feel the theme is really different. In Chinatown, no matter how hard Jack tries to change the situation, he failed, for the reality is too strong to defeat. However Lola can really change the situation based on her will. Reality is not that powerful in this film—you can even have the second and the third chance to change things to what you like.
11. Who is telling the story of Chinatown? How do we know? Is this narrator reliable?
I think Jack is telling the story of Chinatown. We see things from his perspective and make the same assumptions as he does. We analyze people through his assumptions, too. Like when Hollis is investigating the water, we watch him as how Jack watches. And some background information we don’t know are told through Jack when he is questioning others. For example, it is the co-worker of Hollis’ that directly hires the prostitute to go to Jack. We know these things from him.
The narrator is not very reliable throughout the movie, because he is the one who knows almost as much as we do in the begging. We gradually know more as he knows more, but much of those are some assumptions based on the proof we all have. As Noah says: “you may think you know what you’re investigating, but you don’t”, we don’t really know the truth. And the identity of a personal detective lowers his credibility, too. He is not the direct-related person in the whole thing. So he is not that reliable.
12. Do we understand this film differently in light of Polanski’s recent stretch in the news?
After checking the recent news about Polanski, I feel that he does not take police really seriously. He went to another country right before his sentence day. And in the movie we see that the real policemen are somewhat weak and they are just like decorations. Given that Polanski’s wife Sarah Tate and some others were murdered by Charles Manson, he is probably very disappointed with the police. It is said that they didn’t find out who was the real murderer until Charles Manson admitted it himself. I used to think about this movie based on the power of Noah, but ignored the real power of the police. If there is some people who can change the situation, it would be the police and the force whose power is entitled by the law. Why all of them are so weak even outside Chinatown? Justice is enacted by men. There is no justice, because there is no people want to take on the responsibility. One person is not enough. I see the disappointment Polanski has towards the police and his mockery on them.
I found the whole chapter interesting! Even though pictures are usually prior to dialogue or narration in a movie, screenplay is definitely one of the most important aspects of a film. This chapter discusses about how directors benefit from the sound-film technique. This made think about the recent movie I saw—Alice in Wonderland, Tim Burton version. In my whole-life-long memory, Alice in Wonderland has always been a mysterious, somewhat creepy but extremely interesting and attractive children fairy tale. But in the new 3D movie, I think Tim Burton adds some serious adult relationship into the story, and makes both adults and children identify with the main characters in it. I couldn’t help but wonder, if there were no dialogue in the movie, only the original soundtrack existed, we could probably get the story perfectly. Of course different people will have different interpretations, but for me, love would be the last theme that comes to my mind. Screenplay can totally change a movie. And I like the example of Andrew Sarris’ on how different shots change the meaning of the same picture. It reminds me many scenes I never really analyzed before. Besides, I totally agree with “some commentators” with the idea that if a work of art has reached its fullest artistic expression in one form, an adaptation will inevitably be inferior. I never saw a movie adapt a successful novel successfully.
2. What is your reaction to Chinatown? You should offer at least a paragraph analysis/reaction (which is not the same as a summary). What praise can you give the film? What negative criticism?
Chinatown is not a typical 70s film to me. The music use is just right. I remember there are lots of effects are created by the music in Hitchcock’s films. More often than not, the music scares audience rather than the pictures do. However, as a crime film, Chinatown doesn’t have the typical strong soundtrack in the movie, which impressed me. And later on when I re-watched it, I found myself enjoy the music in the movie a lot. I think the plotting is fantastic. Having the most direct cause, Hollis Mulwray, die in the very early part of the movie creates a mysterious atmosphere. And finding the murderer becomes the main task in the movie. However, different from ordinary crime/investigation movies, Chinatown has more than one single task. Who arranges the prostitute to pretend as Mrs. Mulwray? The second mystery occurs. Why would Noah Cross care so much about Hollis’ “lover”? Under the big task, there are so many mysterious questions. And when some of them are solved, like when Jack knows who asks the prostitute to pretend as Mrs. Mulwray, new problems appear. Why would Noah investigate Hollis in the name of “cheating on her wife”? I think the plotting is the best part of this movie. You never really understand until the last minute.
3. For many people, Chinatown is the best screenplay ever written. Based on what you’ve learned about screenwriting in this chapter, explain why critics have arrived at this conclusion.
Unlike most practical screenplay, Chinatown creates many mysteries at different time. Once a problem is solved, another appears. And this cycle goes on and on until the end.
The storytelling is great. The plotting makes audience deny themselves now and then. For example, the movie makes us believe that Mrs. Mulwray must have something to do with the death of her husband, but later we know there’s nothing. Then we believe that Mrs. Mulwray is a evil person for locking up her husband’s “lover”, and again we are misled. This is the most interesting part of the screenplay I think. Besides, there are a lot of implications in the process of the storytelling. For example, when Evelyn and Jack are in bed, she asks him about his work in Chinatown, and he mentions a woman. But when Evelyn asks: “did she die?” The phone rings preventing Jack from answering the question. This indicates Evelyn’s death in the end. And the most dramatic scene is when Jack asks who the mysterious girl is. Evelyn says “my sister”. A slap. “My daughter”. A slap. “My sister”. A slap. “My daughter”… The perfect combination of words and action, creates the most dynamic and dramatic scene. I couldn’t say the metaphor use of Chinatown is a great one, but it’s very effective. And I think the point of view in this film is objective point of view. There is no judgment on anyone. But the screenplay neglects a lot of unnecessary plot like how Jack investigates some of the background information. We are just directly told when he reveals those to people in the film. This is great, I think, because a lot of other movies are made too slow by giving all the unimportant details. And above all, I think this screenplay is very realistic, which is very important.
4. Is Jack Gittes a hero? Why/why not?
It’s hard to say. Gittes is not like the usual hero in other movies. He is the moral guide in Chinatown, but his moral standards seem to crash in the end when he sees Evelyn dead in the car. The movie left us another mystery here. Will Jake really forget about his moral disciplines and accept the “Chinatown rules”? Or will he go on sticking to his moral beliefs? And this is why it’s hard to say he’s the hero or not. In this sense, I see no heroes in this movie. Some of the characters are somewhere in between, like Jake, Walsh, and others are absolute evil, like Noah. The only person who seems to be a complete hero is Hollis Mulwray, who keeps his own belief completely. But he died in the begging. He can’t really be the hero for the movie. Throughout the early part of the movie, Gittes has always been the moral guide of the movie. Given this, I think he can be the hero. And in then end when his beliefs are smashed by the reality, he can no longer be the moral guide. But I think that’s more realistic in our true life. There are not many people sticking to their beliefs, and that’s why there are not many heroes. In general, I think Gittes falls somewhere in between, but if there must be a hero, that would be him in this movie.
5. How does Chinatown establish its generic conventions? What are those conventions? Does it confirm or frustrate expectations?
Chinatown has a very realistic theme, but the story tends to belong to formalistic category. But on the whole I believe Chinatown falls into realistic films. The movie begins in Jack Gittes’ office, where there are natural lights, natural sound and no distorted space. This movie emphasizes on the corruption of life rather than the world of imagination or beauty, which shows its realistic features. What makes Chinatown different is other realistic movies often have a certain cyclical structure, but in this film, the structure is rearranged based on the story. It’s like there are several small circles in this movie, we get off on and get into another, whereas other movies only have one. Another convention of realistic movies is that the narrator avoids making judgments. We can see in this movie that judgments are not the most important thing. There are no judgments on anyone in this movie. Other conventions like a fondness for expose, with “shocking” or “low” subject matter that is often criticized for its grittiness and “bad taste”, an avoidance of melodrama and exaggeration in favor of understatement and dedramatization and a scientific view of motivation, with a corresponding rejection of such romantic concepts as Destiny and Fate. Chinatown confirms all above expectation, except for its unusual structure use.
6. What figurative techniques occur in Chinatown? What is their significance?
The most obvious and important one is metaphor. Director uses Chinatown to show a symbolic meaning of Chinatown: no justice. Because of the different culture background, it must be hard to judge the accident or something. You never know exactly what is right and what is wrong. This indicates the corrupted society at that time. The future is controlled by the few people, like Noah. Police can’t do anything to change the situation in Chinatown, and it’s the same way with LA. And Jake thinks as long as he leaves Chinatown he can live his way, but the thing is Chinatown is just part of LA—he can’t do things his way in LA, either. This metaphor exists throughout the whole film. Another metaphor detail I found in the movie is their names. Noah as a name with some kind of authority and he is almost unbeatable like a superhuman, whereas Jack as a normal man’s name represents the ordinariness of Jack. He tries to defeat the superhuman with his human power. It’s destined to fail.
I agree with Kyle about the bandage on Gittes’ nose as a symbol. It shows the differences between Gittes and other people in the film. The comments he receives about his bandage imply the evil people in the film, and that how much they want to get rid of Gittes.
I also found the Owens Valley rape is an allusion used in the film. And there is an obvious homage to Chandler and Hammett. Other things like Manson kills Tate can also be found in this film. Director Polanski creates an extremely violent and bloody death of Evelyn, giving audience so much to think about.
7. Only one scene takes place in Chinatown – why is it the title of the film?
I think in this movie, Chinatown means “the less you know, the better”. Even though there is only one scene taking place in Chinatown, the implying meaning of Chinatown is haunted all over the movie. In the middle part we know that Jack used to work in Chinatown as a policeman, and he left for some unknown reason. However, ironically the movie ends in Chinatown, and Jack lost the game. The movie gives me the feeling that Chinatown is the place where there is no law, no justice, no future. Through the symbolic meaning of Chinatown and the Jack’s failed investigation, director Polanski reveals the problems of LA at that time. When we see the contrast between Jack’s frightened and desperate look and the blank and numb faces of the surrounded people in Chinatown, the theme reveals itself. There is no justice in the world. The past Jack had in Chinatown, and the lesson he should have learned there dominate the whole film. Also I think this is the reason why Polanski let the bad guy win. Another scene shows why Chinatown dominates the movie is when Noah Cross and Jack are have a conversation like this: “You may think you know what you’re dealing with, but, believe me, you don’t.” “That’s what the District Attorney used to tell me in Chinatown.” The grin Jack then has and the look he has in the end again construct a strong contrast, indicating the hidden rules of the situation. Another reason occurred to me at one point, but this may get too far. As a Chinese girl, I understand a lot of Chinese people are superstitious and believe in fate. What happened to Evelyn, Noah and Catherine somehow reminds me of Oedipus the King and some other ancient Greek mythologies. So Chinatown gives me the feeling of the irresistible power of fate. And that just something the movie reveals. The society is like a wild jungle—the rich kill the poor, the strong beat the weak.
8. Why would Roman Polanski create a film in which the bad guy wins?
I believe the reasons for this are various. For one thing, Roman Polanski is a person with very tragic background. He once said that the death of Sarah Tate totally changed his personality from a "boundless, untroubled sea of expectations and optimism" to one of "ingrained pessimism ... eternal dissatisfaction with life". This might be the reason why, as people said, Polanski had a fight with the writer about the ending. Another reason I think is based on the realistic background, a single person, like Jack, has no possibility to change the big picture. Only an organized group like the police can do something to stop the “monopoly” of people like Noah. However, the police are controlled by people like Noah. They serve for Noah, not against him. In real life, there are not many heroes. That’s why heroes are called heroes. The bad-guy-wins ending reveals how the world works. It’s more realistic. Maybe this is not quite right, but I suddenly have the feeling that this ending resembles some of the famous ancient drama/mythologies, where heroes died after experiencing a full circle of rise and fall. Noah is like the unquestionable god. He always wins, no matter what.
9. What mythic connections does this film have?
The very obvious one is the connection between Oedipus the King and this film. Apart from the fact that Evelyn is a woman and her father raped her, other key elements are very similar. There is an interesting detail that Jack say there is a green flaw in Evelyn’s eye iris. And in the end, Evelyn’s eye is shot. I guess it’s probably the same spot mentioned by Jack earlier. Interestingly, when Oedipus finds out the truth of his birth and that his daughters are actually also his sisters, he poked his eyes blind. I remember the description is really terrifying. There are literally two bloody holes on his face. And when the police straighten Evelyn’s body, her face frightened me, too. The importance of blindness in both plays I think is the metaphor meaning. In Chinatown, Evelyn is the only one who knows the truth after Hollis’ death. Only she can see things clearly, but her eye is totally ruined in the end. It strengthens the meaning that all people are metaphorically blind now. No one will stand up and fight against the evil now. And it more or less implies that even Jack knows the truth, because everyone else is blind, no one would believe him or support him.
Another connection I can think of is the fall of Jack. He is the moral guide and hero in the movie before the end, but he falls at last. This reminds me of some of the heroes in ancient epics, like Homeric epic and some others, where the heroes go through a full circle of rise and fall, but in the end almost all of them are doomed to death. It’s the fate. In Chinatown, it’s the reality.
Finally the connection of the name Noah with the Noah who saves lives on a ship ringed a bell with me. This is ironic. Both Noah have something to do with water. However, one fights against the flood and save people, while the other controls water in order to control the future and do whatever brutal things to please his own.
10. What are the themes of Chinatown? To which films that we’ve seen are these themes the most similar? The most different?
The main theme we see in Chinatown is that justice does not always work in our real life. Sometimes those who control the most important industry or who have the most power in economy or politics rule the society base on their own interest. Those who defeat them and “sue them to shit” successfully become heroes, but most of the time, there are no heroes. Women in this movie have really low status. They are totally controlled by the Mr. Big.
I think Apocalypse Now has the most similar themes to this one. No matter how reluctant people don’t want the war, as long as the authority is with the war, people have to fight. Kurtz’s mind is crashed by the war, so does Jack’s, the only difference is Jack is smashed by the reality. And most of the soldiers in the war don’t know why they have to fight, and their minds are all refreshed by the authority. Therefore they would do things like shoot people first and then send them to hospital. Similarly, in Chinatown people’s minds are numb. “As less as possible”. People are threatened by the hidden power, like the “monopoly” of certain industry and certain force.
On the contrary, Some Like It Hot has the opposite theme. Jerry and Joe successfully escape from the Spats group in the end. And women’s role is very high in this film. Run Lola Run is another film I feel the theme is really different. In Chinatown, no matter how hard Jack tries to change the situation, he failed, for the reality is too strong to defeat. However Lola can really change the situation based on her will. Reality is not that powerful in this film—you can even have the second and the third chance to change things to what you like.
11. Who is telling the story of Chinatown? How do we know? Is this narrator reliable?
I think Jack is telling the story of Chinatown. We see things from his perspective and make the same assumptions as he does. We analyze people through his assumptions, too. Like when Hollis is investigating the water, we watch him as how Jack watches. And some background information we don’t know are told through Jack when he is questioning others. For example, it is the co-worker of Hollis’ that directly hires the prostitute to go to Jack. We know these things from him.
The narrator is not very reliable throughout the movie, because he is the one who knows almost as much as we do in the begging. We gradually know more as he knows more, but much of those are some assumptions based on the proof we all have. As Noah says: “you may think you know what you’re investigating, but you don’t”, we don’t really know the truth. And the identity of a personal detective lowers his credibility, too. He is not the direct-related person in the whole thing. So he is not that reliable.
12. Do we understand this film differently in light of Polanski’s recent stretch in the news?
After checking the recent news about Polanski, I feel that he does not take police really seriously. He went to another country right before his sentence day. And in the movie we see that the real policemen are somewhat weak and they are just like decorations. Given that Polanski’s wife Sarah Tate and some others were murdered by Charles Manson, he is probably very disappointed with the police. It is said that they didn’t find out who was the real murderer until Charles Manson admitted it himself. I used to think about this movie based on the power of Noah, but ignored the real power of the police. If there is some people who can change the situation, it would be the police and the force whose power is entitled by the law. Why all of them are so weak even outside Chinatown? Justice is enacted by men. There is no justice, because there is no people want to take on the responsibility. One person is not enough. I see the disappointment Polanski has towards the police and his mockery on them.
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