Chinatown is a 1974 American neo-noir mystery film, directed by Roman Polanski. The film took inspiration from the California Water Wars, which were disputes over the water in Southern California. Polanski uses a range of techniques and a unique way of portraying crucial themes. In the film, Jake knows about the dangers of unintended consequences from past experiences when helping a woman leads to disastrous results. After this, he relates those terrible events to Chinatown. This is a place with its own culture, language, and customs where the police do “as little as possible”, leading to doing more harm than good.
In 1937 Los Angeles, private investigator Jake 'J.J.' Gittes specializes in cheating-spouse cases. Currently, he is working on a case targeting Hollis Mulwray, who is an engineer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Mulwray’s wife suspects him of infidelity. At the beginning of the Mulwray case, Gittes witnesses some unusual business meetings and meetups regarding the construction of the new dam. Eventually, Gittes sees Mulwray meeting with an unknown young woman who isn't his wife. Once the news got out of the supposed tryst between Mulwray and this woman, additional information comes to light. Gittes believes that Mulwray is being set up and framed for actions taking place over the dam. In the investigation, Gittes is assisted by Mulwray’s wife Evelyn, and the secrets start to be uncovered about Mulwrays’ professional and personal dealings. With all the secrets unfolding, the identity of an unknown woman may be the key to uncovering the whole story.
Roman Polanski has portrayed the key ideas throughout the film with the use of themes, motifs, foreshadowing, and a variety of film techniques. This is a film whose subtlety deserves seeing more than once.
The Dishonesty of Authority Figures (theme)
Chinatown suggests that the very notion of an honest, trustworthy leader is a myth. In Chinatown, people in positions of power are brought out to be mischievous and their greed for power gets the better of them. Cross, who has no official power, earns his power through his wealth and is able to control the leaders and potentially run the city. The police in Chinatown has the reputation for ignoring every crime that is committed. Throughout the film, Escobar is willing to let injustice occur without punishment for those people who brought it to pass. This allows for more power and emphasizes the corruption of the town. In the world of Chinatown, anyone with any authority becomes a mere cog in a machine that maintains corruption.
Ignorance (motif)
Many of the people in Chinatown claim ignorance of the corruption that surrounds them, often with tragic results. Throughout the film, Gittes is unable to piece the clues together as all the clues seem obvious and clearly shown. Evelyn acts innocent and pretends to know nothing about the woman her husband is seeing. Doing so greatly puts her own life at risk. Ida Sessions professes her ignorance of the full scope of the crime she helped commit and therefore cannot see that she is in deep enough to be murdered. At the end of the film, when Jake naïvely tells Evelyn to “[l]et the police handle”. Escobar realizes that the only way to handle the situation was to kill Evelyn.
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Critical Essay on ‘Chinatown’: Movie Analysis.
(2023, July 20). Edubirdie. Retrieved April 29, 2024, from https://edubirdie.com/examples/critical-essay-on-chinatown-movie-analysis/
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2023 Jul 20 [cited 2024 Apr 29].
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