Water and Power: A Look at Roman Planski's Chinatown

by Jason Schwab
Emerson College

I first discovered Chinatown about two years ago, before I was fully interested in film, in one of those magazine lists of the “greatest films of all time.” Chinatown was up near the top, and as I was flipping through the blurbs about each film there was a photo of Jack Nicholson slapping Faye Dunaway. Her face almost looked distorted, and Nicholson’s face looked like pure evil. It was from a different angle than how it is shown in the movie, so you could see more of Nicholson’s face. I thought this was one hell of an image to be putting in a magazine, but it also made me curious as to what this film was about. I read up on it before I saw it, and in the readings I was introduced to the term “film noir.” I finally saw China-town a few months later, but the background of the film, to me, is just about as interesting as the film itself.

If you got director Roman Polanski and screenwriter Robert Towne in the same room in 1975, one year after Chinatown was made, they would probably not get along. During production, there was much disagreement on Robert Towne’s part because of how Roman Polanski changed Chinatown’s ending. Consequently, they refused to talk to one another during and after the project. As it turns out though, Roman Polanski, Robert Towne, and producer Robert Evans ended up creating one of the most memorable, pleasurable, and surprising hits of the 1970s.

Today, Chinatown is often the one film that screenwriters and screenwriting teachers insist that newcomers to the craft must see. The film’s screenplay structure is used as a model in many screen-writing classes. Even if the professor does not mention the film specifically, China-town is considered the basic textbook structure for the typical screenplay. Robert Towne created a script with a perfectly sequenced set of events that propel the story from beginning, to middle, to startling finale. This screenplay became the model for a good portion of screenplays being produced in Hollywood after Chinatown was made.

Some of the script takes cue from Hitchcock, who liked to make films that were initially about one thing, and ended up being about something completely different. For example: Psycho starts out with a robbery, but ends up being about a knife-wielding psychopathic killer. Chinatown is initially about a water scandal, but ends up being about a scandal of a different color.

The movie begins with the Paramount logo and a stroke of a harp, blending into strains of violins, allowing the viewer to ease back into the 1930s when this film takes place. The lone trumpet that plays during the sepia (brown) opening credits is quite memorable, and is one of Roman Polanski’s methods of engaging the viewer before the story even begins. The music suggests old Hollywood, which is something that people in the 1970s enjoyed watching. With the repeal of the censor-happy Production Code six years previous, audiences could now watch old Hollywood type productions now complete with swear words and graphic violence.

Chinatown is about private detective Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson), and his quest for the truth in what turns out to be a series of scandals. Gittes specializes in marital infidelity cases; “It’s my métier,” he says later in the film. First, a woman claiming to be Evelyn Mulwray, the wife of water mogul Hollis Mulwray, comes into his office complaining that her husband is seeing a girl. When the real Evelyn Mulwray finds out that Gittes has been spying on her husband, she threatens to sue Gittes, pulling him deeper into trouble. She eventually drops the lawsuit realizing that Gittes is somewhat of a snoop. Suddenly, Hollis is murdered. Still with me? Now Gittes is on the case to investigate his death along with rival police lieutenant Escobar. Evelyn does not want him to discover that she is now keeping the girl with whom Hollis was fooling around. It turns out that Hollis’ old partner, Noah Cross, is also looking for the girl to protect her. During all of this, Evelyn and Jake fall in love. Jake tells Evelyn that he used to work in Chinatown. There he tried to save a woman, but ended up making sure she was hurt. When Escobar confronts Gittes claiming that Evelyn is now the primary suspect, Gittes goes to Evelyn’s mansion. When Gittes goes to look for Evelyn there, he finds glasses with bifocals in the backyard pond. The pond, apparently saltwater, is the same kind of water found in Hollis’ lungs. Gittes immediately springs to his feet. He goes to confront Evelyn to find out if she did it. Most importantly though, to find the girl whom Hollis had an affair with, now in Evelyn’s custody. First Gittes must find out who she is, and then what she knows. Evelyn enrages Gittes when she will not give him a straight answer about the truth. When she finally tells him, she breaks down, and he is ridden with guilt. Gittes tries to sneak her and the girl away from Noah Cross, but he intercepts them.

So what? This sounds like every film noir, right? Well, not really, and the fact that I did not give away the ending would hint at that. Everyone who has seen a film noir knows the typical formula. Chinatown does not fall back on the ubiquitous formula of film noir, and certainly not in the ending. It does not even have the same look as most film noirs. Director Polanski made the choice of shooting a ‘30s film with a ‘70s camera, so that his audience could see the era through a modern, realistic eye. Even if he shot in sepia tones, he would have still captured the desert-like drought situation that was plaguing Los Angeles. Instead Polanski chose color stock to also capture details like Faye Dunaway’s make-up, the Mulwray mansion, and the bodies of water that appear in the film.

This movie has one of Jack Nicholson’s more understated roles (with a few exceptions). In typical Nicholson fashion, he takes those understated moments and creates tension and even dread as he lies in bed or drives a car during his time alone on screen. Nicholson’s Gittes is a man with a short temper. However in most situations, he is able to finagle people into submitting to him so that he does not have to display his temper. Take, for example, his encounters with Hollis’ secretary. When he arrives, she immediately thinks, “It’s that damn detective again. This time I’ll show him who’s boss,” but Gittes does not go for it. He sits there and hums to himself, until she is willing to help him. At the end of this battle of wits, he gets his way. Gittes also must be on top of his game during his encounters with Evelyn’s butler, Kahn. He does not like Gittes from the start. In one scene, Kahn will not let Gittes into the house, in order to protect Evelyn. Jake retaliates with “Chow hoy kye dye! (fuck off, punk!)” as he pushes past him to enter the house. Nicholson masterfully plays a character who does not get jerked around.

Faye Dunaway is equally compelling in the role of the neurotic beauty Evelyn Mulwray. Her first appearance in the film, reveals her as confident, calm, and ready to sue Gittes for spying on her husband. At another point, she relaxes and smokes a cigarette after sex. Later, she is on the floor crying, as she reveals an unthinkable truth about her past to Gittes. Evelyn Mulwray’s character is put through quite a number of emotional changes, and Faye Dunaway handles the character with flying colors.

Chinatown concludes with an amazing revelation and violent finale. Some people claim that the ending is unsatisfactory. The idea of a sad ending to such a classic-type movie involving a beautiful lady seems unfair to them. Screenwriter Robert Towne shared this opinion. Still, others believe that the ending is justified; after all, that is life. People die, lives are often ruined, and 1930s Los Angeles was no exception. This was director Roman Polanski’s school of thought. I leave you to ponder the film for yourself, and to remember the last line of the film, which captures the mood that the situation is hopeless, “Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown.”