Chinatown (1974)
Noir sophistication at its finest.
Presentation:
Heralded as one of the greatest screenplays of all time, the intricacies of the script meant that I didn’t understand anything when I watched it in high school. Watching it now, I can definitely appreciate the masterpiece of cinema accomplished here, though casual viewers may still find it slow. The cinematography is quite dim though still excellent through the use of anamorphics to capture the perspective of our private investigator through unorthodox handheld angles. The atmosphere is mysterious, dark and moody, the pinnacle of film noir in terms of atmosphere. The brooding hard boiled detective doesn’t get much better than this during peak Los Angeles. If you go into this knowing you have to pay attention to all the details, it’ll reward you with a thought provoking and maturely smart script. Just the way it communicates information and clues challenges your movie IQ. The soundtrack is also understated yet tense. Presentation wise there’s something so magnetically atmospheric. The only negatives are the performances. Nicholson fits the part but his delivery is occasionally monotone. I also found the performance of Evelyn’s character to be inept with her forced stuttering to convey nervousness. Yet the screenplay is so rock solid that none of that matters.
Conclusion:
This a screenplay that is so strong they could have probably cast anyone on par with The Godfather, though the performances are worse. There’s so much meat on the bone and even if you fully understand all the details of the plot, there’s still bits and pieces of the bone that keep on giving when you watch more closely. L.A. Confidential comes close to this film, but it’s an entirely different mood. And wow, that conclusion leaves you breathless, what an impact. A must watch for those that get excited about story and plot device.
Recommendations
Before there was thriller there was Hitchcock.