Chinatown R
You get tough. You get tender. You get close to each other. Maybe you even get close to the truth.
397K
ratings
8.2/10
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Out of Print:
Future availability is unknown
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on most orders of $75+
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Brand New
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Also released as:
Chinatown (Blu-ray)
for $12.80
Chinatown
for $11.10
DVD Features:
- Rated: R
- Run Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes
- Video: Color
- Released: January 8, 2013
- Originally Released: 1974
- Label: Paramount Catalog
- Encoding: Region 1 (USA & Canada)
- Note: Theatrical trailer
- Retrospective interviews with Roman Polanski. Robert Towne and Robert Evans
- Aspect Ratio: Widescreen
- Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 - English, French
- Subtitles - English
Performers, Cast and Crew:
| Starring | Jack Nicholson & Faye Dunaway | |
| Performer: | John Huston, John Hillerman, Burt Young, Perry Lopez, Diane Ladd, Darrell Zwerling, Roy Jenson, Joe Mantell, Bruce Glover, Richard Bakalyan, James Hong, Beulah Quo, Jerry Fujikawa, Roy Roberts, Noble Willingham & Rance Howard | |
| Directed by | Roman Polanski | |
| Edited by | Sam O'Steen | |
| Screenwriting by | Robert Towne | |
| Composition by | Jerry Goldsmith | |
| Cameo: | Roman Polanski | |
| Produced by | Robert Evans | |
| Director of Photography: | John A. Alonzo |
Memorable Quotes and Dialog:
"Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."
- Walsh (Joe Mantell) to Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson)
"It looks like half the city is trying to cover it all up, which is fine with me. But Mrs. Mulwray, I...near lost my nose! And I like it. I like breathing through it. And I still think you're hiding something."
- Jake Gittes to Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway)
"I'm just a snoop."
- Jake Gittes
"Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown."
Major Awards:
Academy Awards 1974 -
Best Original Screenplay: Robert Towne
Entertainment Reviews:
99%
93%
Nicholson is terrific as Gittes, and Dunaway, as a troubled widow, gives the performance of her career.
Full Review
Los Angeles Free Press
...A film noir masterpiece that never stops screwing with your head...
Total Film
In its total recapturing of a past, in its plot, its vivid characterizations, its carefully calculated and accelerating pace, its whole demonstration of a medium mastered, Chinatown reminds you again that motion pictures are larger, not smaller than life.
Full Review
Los Angeles Times
Rating: 4/5 --
Polanski's telling of his tale of corruption in LA is masterly - thrilling, humorous and disturbing at the same time - and brilliantly played by John Huston and Faye Dunaway as well as Nicholson.
Full Review
London Evening Standard
...[Polanski] handles the mechanics of the plot with a ruthless brilliance that is immediately involving...
Sight and Sound
Chinatown is not just another Maltese Falcon or Big Sleep, to be dismissed as a contemporary painting that apes, however skillfully, an old master. It is, rather, a subtly updated version: an equivalent with significant albeit subcutaneous differences.
Full Review
Esquire Magazine
Rating: 5/5 --
See this film as many times as you can. Please.
Full Review
Little White Lies
Product Description:
Many films from the 1970s allow even the most gripping narratives to flow with the consequences of real life. CHINATOWN is a classic film whose intrigues and adventures culminate in life-changing moments for its protagonist, Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson).
Director Roman Polanski's classic neo-noir detective story is set during a heat wave in 1930s Los Angeles, where residents suffer from a water shortage due to an ongoing drought. With stellar contributions from composer Jerry Goldsmith and screenwriter Robert Towne, whose script recalls the hard-boiled cynicism of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, CHINATOWN is a complex and superbly crafted period drama that has become Polanski's most critically acclaimed film. Private investigator Gittes runs a sleazy detective agency. When a client (Diane Ladd) hires him to spy on her "husband," who is rumored to be having an affair with a younger woman, Jake uncovers a plot against the man--but this is only the tip of the iceberg. Still to emerge are a sex scandal implicating the real wife (Faye Dunaway), with whom Jake is destined to become more closely acquainted, and a real estate swindle of tremendous proportions devised by her tycoon father (John Huston), backed up by a vast network of corrupt city officials and landowners who make life hell for the private eye.
This story crystallizes the impact of a chance meeting with the romantic ideals of the early 1970s, when the American urban landscape and economic power structures were in flux.
Director Roman Polanski's classic neo-noir detective story is set during a heat wave in 1930s Los Angeles, where residents suffer from a water shortage due to an ongoing drought. With stellar contributions from composer Jerry Goldsmith and screenwriter Robert Towne, whose script recalls the hard-boiled cynicism of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, CHINATOWN is a complex and superbly crafted period drama that has become Polanski's most critically acclaimed film. Private investigator Gittes runs a sleazy detective agency. When a client (Diane Ladd) hires him to spy on her "husband," who is rumored to be having an affair with a younger woman, Jake uncovers a plot against the man--but this is only the tip of the iceberg. Still to emerge are a sex scandal implicating the real wife (Faye Dunaway), with whom Jake is destined to become more closely acquainted, and a real estate swindle of tremendous proportions devised by her tycoon father (John Huston), backed up by a vast network of corrupt city officials and landowners who make life hell for the private eye.
This story crystallizes the impact of a chance meeting with the romantic ideals of the early 1970s, when the American urban landscape and economic power structures were in flux.
Keywords:
Detectives
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Classic
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Mystery
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Scams And Cons
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Thriller
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Deception
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Film Noir
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Classic Fight Scenes
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Tragedy
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Blackmail
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Recommended
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Character Study
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Disturbing
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Nostalgic
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Corruption
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Theatrical Release
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Essential Cinema
Production Notes:
- Theatrical release: June 21, 1974
- Filmed in Los Angeles, California.
- CHINATOWN is number 19 on the American Film Institute's list of America's 100 Greatest Movies.
- CHINATOWN was added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 1991.
- Director Roman Polanski makes a rather conspicuous cameo appearance as a thug.
- Screenwriter Robert Towne had originally conceived of an alternate, happier ending to the film, but it was rejected by Polanski.
- Polanski went to painstaking lengths to have the film very authentically capture 1930s Los Angeles because the story is based on actual events from the city's history.
- CHINATOWN, which was produced in 1974, was Polanski's first American film since 1968's ROSEMARY'S BABY.
- In 1990, Jack Nicholson went on to direct and star in the film's sequel, THE TWO JAKES, set in 1948 Los Angeles. The later film also starred Harvey Keitel and Meg Tilly and featured cameo performances by some actors who had parts in the original film, among them Faye Dunaway, James Hong, and Perry Lopez. Robert Towne wrote the screenplays for both films.
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