Robert Towne, the screenwriter, just passed away last week. He won the Oscar for Chinatown. The twist and the ending are the stuff of legend. Typically in noir stories the bad guys either win or simply don't get what they deserve for their actions, and Chinatown does that in the best (worst) way.
@@ernestitoe I definitely agree that her portrayal in Mommie Dearest is underrated, while I'd be lying when I say I didn't have that film in the back of my mind when I wrote that comment, I was also thinking about Supergirl and some of her other assorted projects that failed to bring her back to prominence. There's also the fact that she took the latter part of the Seventies off which didn't help her case much
One of my top 5 favorite films! So glad that Sam was locked in from the beginning. A lot of younger people can't abide with the slow burn and complicated plot but she was on top of it all the way! After watching this, every time in in Southern Cal i look at the little towns and huge subburbs in the middle of the desert and wonder what crooked schemes were involved in putting them there. "The future, Mr Gittes. The future"
Cross is played by legendary director John Huston who directed THE MALTESE FALCON, THE AFRICAN QUEEN, THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, UNDER THE VOLCANO, THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING among others, His mispronunciation of Gittes's name was genuine. He couldn't get it right.
He didn't intend to act in the movie, but then issues came up with casting the role so he just did it himself. And his accent makes it come off as a homage to Peter Lorre, in his typical role.
The knife he "cut" Nicholson's nose with had a real sharpened blade plus a mechanism that it would fold away one way, but could cut handled another way. Nicholson didn't trust anyone to use that thing on him, but was convinced to do it if Polanski was the one handling the knife.
Try The Long Goodbye, with Elliot Gould, for another LA based detective noir with a slightly less depressing end (noir traditionally will not have a happy ending)
Chinatown hits almost all the classic detective noir beats. By the end, our protagonist is beaten, bloodied, broken emotionally, alone, and just carries on. The only more noir thing would have Jake dying after learning the truth.
Loved your reaction. One of the best noir screenplays ever written, probably the best. It's like Jake is climbing all over the strands of a web until they lead him to the center where he does in fact find a grotesque spider there. And one of the best villain names ever, Noah Cross, which if you break up the syllables is No Across meaning, You're never going to get to me.
16 years later we got a sequel called The Two Jakes, directed by Nicholson himself. It's definitely not as good, but it still provides some neat continuations for a setting he clearly takes seriously. And before that movie was made, there were several other sequel scripts submitted, including one where Gittes uncovers a conspiracy to bulldoze a lower class neighborhood to build a freeway, then shut down the city's public transportation so people will have to use it. If this sounds familiar, it's because that script was turned into Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
The Van der Lip Dam disaster is a reference to the collapse of the St. Francis Dam in 1928, northwest of Los Angeles, which had been designed by engineer William Mulholland. The consequent flooding killed at least four hundred fifty people.
This is one of my favorite films of all time. The screenplay is often used as a training tool for screenwriter classes. Even after a 10th or 12th viewing, there are still new details to notice, new connections to notice, deeper understandings to be made. The script is always fresh and profound. Altho the story is fiction, it does have some basis in reality as there were “water wars” as that area of California growing, along with real estate development and conflicts over oil and other natural resources. An interesting detail was that during this film, Jack and Angelica Huston, daughter of John Huston (Nosh Cross) were a couple (for about 16 years) so when Noah Cross asks - are you sleeping with my daughter, it carried weight as a real question. The music is what really sets the mood; it establishes the time period, the noirish tone of the story. The set design and costuming evoked a dry, golden or sepia color that fit with the feeling of those times. The “Okies” with the orange grove were some of the families who left their homes as a result of the Dust Bowl and drove to California looking for a better life (as in the book or films“The Grapes of Wrath” or “Bound for Glory.’) That orange grove was property of actor Walter Brennan, who appeared in dozens of westerns.
Are you going to be sketchy?" In this movie, the answer will generally be yes. Dunaway was nominated for Best Actress. John Huston was a great actor, and he was also a great director. That's probably a short list --people who do both on that level.
John Huston, "Noah Cross", directed the African Queen with Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn. One of Clint Eastwood's initial forays into directing was the story of the very complicated preamble to making that film. Worth a watch although darker on a whole nother level to what you just witnessed. It's called White Hunter, Black Heart.
Would be Eva Marie Saint, who just turned 100, except she's been retired for a decade with Legend of Korra as her last role (and she's outlived two of her co-stars from it!).
👍🏼 My favorite neo noir and probably my favorite line in any movie: “Of course I’m respectable. I’m OLD. Politicians, ugly buildings, and WHORES all become respectable if they last long enough.” 😂 You have to admit, John Huston is a great villain.
When Jake and Evelyn are in the car during the scene where Evelyn tells Jake that Katherine is her sister, she lowers her head and accidentally hits the car horn. This foreshadows her death, in which she is shot while driving her head lies on the car horn.
Aside from the general excellece of this film (writing, acting, directing), most of the issues that Robert Towne raises about water in California (who "owns" it, who controls it) are as valid today as they were when the film was made! A prescient story...
Robert Towne got the idea for this movie from a conversation he had with a police officer friend who worked in the Chinatown section of LA. When Towne asked him what he did in Chinatown the friend replied "as little as possible," because there are so many different dialects that an officer intervening in a disturbance might unwittingly be participating in a crime.
Rather ironic that you ended up posting it this week. As the Screenwriter for the film died this week. 😅 Also the old man controlling all the water you'll remember as the director of Treasure of Sierra Madre and African Queen.
The actor who plays the shepherd who brings his sheep into City Hall is Rance Howard, father of Ron Howard. I’ve always found it an interesting coincidence that the film takes place in 1937, the year Jack Nicholson was born, and released 37 years from 1937 when Jack was 37.
The only Oscar it won was for the screenplay altho, it had 10 other Oscar nominations. It was up against Godfather, Part 2 and several other excellent films, so the competition was strong. It has won many other international and national awards and is recognized as part of the exceptional film output of the 1970’s, many of which had dark themes, ambiguous or sad endings and anti-heroes as major characters.
I remember from Film School, studying this movie. This more you get into Cross' motivation, it gets more disturbing and mind-melting. There's all this symbolism in the movie, water, and horses. Water symbolizes life, usually, and horses... well they are largely inbred... Cross wanted immortality. If you breed with your child, and make a grand child, that grandchild is 75% of your dna, not 50. If you have a child with that child, the number increases. It's pretty sick, but understandably dark material for Polanski, who had a pretty fucked up life.
I was going to suggest another Jack Nicholson film, The Shining, as a tribute to Shelley Duvall’s passing on Thursday but seeing as you’ve already seen that I’d go with 1980’s Popeye. Her performance in 3 Women is said to be better but Popeye’s probably the more fun to watch.
One thing you picked up on early is that Jake is a bit of a narcissist. (Note the references to the new clothes). It's likely he could have saved Mrs. Mulray if he didn't have to prove he was right about the case. So it does bite him in the end.
This is easily one of the ten, perhaps one of the five, greatest movies ever made. I saw it on opening day, having never heard of it until I saw the newspaper ad for it, went in with no particular expectations, and came out knowing I had just seen one of the greatest movies of all time. If you'd like to see Polanski in a much larger role than the tiny one he plays here, you might look at his earlier film The Fearless Vampire Killers (aka Dance of the Vampires), which also has a small role for his wife Sharon Tate, who of course would later be murdered by the Manson family.
Robert Towne originally wrote an upbeat ending where Evelyn and Catherine get away but director Roman Polanski felt that a downbeat ending would be more impactful. When Towne refused to changed the ending Jack Nicholson and Polanski wrote the final scene at the last minute. In 2002 after years of complaining about the change Robert Towne admitted Polanski was right.
You picked an intense one. The plot twist. And another Faye Dunaway ending, just like "Bonnie and Clyde." The "midget" is director Roman Polanski. His wife was actress Sharon Tate.
The scene where Roman Polanski slits Jack Nicholson's nose was extremely complex to film, and it was done by using a specially-constructed knife with a short hinge that would be safe as long as it was handled VERY carefully.
As an aside, they use to allow sheepherders to run their flocks through the river bottoms to transfer the herds to different grazing land. LA city hall is right by the LA river, which was not channelized at the time the film is set. So it would have been a good protest stunt.
New to your channel..........Chinatown is one of my top three movies ever (Godfather 1 & 2 are the others). Depending on how interested you might be, one of the best books i've ever read on the movie business is "The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood" by Sam Wasson........it's amazing. Enjoyed your reaction. Thanks for posting.
The final shot of Evelyn in the car is a tiny homage to her breakout role to stardom in “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967) on which writer Robert Towne contributed, altho was uncredited.
The director's wife, Sharon Tate had been brutally murdered a few years earlier, and that affected the dark tone and especially the ending of this film.
I just want to write to thank you for doing your own thing, and not reacting to the exact same limited selection of films it seems that most others do.
It's really interesting to see a screenwriter portray what a rich, powerful, man..who may or may not have an inappropriate relationship with his daughter, talks like before that relationship is known. Inappropriately, and possessive. Maybe watch out for any rich and powerful guy who talks inappropriately about his daughter?????
Robert Towne, the screenwriter, just passed away last week. He won the Oscar for Chinatown. The twist and the ending are the stuff of legend. Typically in noir stories the bad guys either win or simply don't get what they deserve for their actions, and Chinatown does that in the best (worst) way.
Faye Dunaway absolutely owned the Seventies. That she's not more appreciated today due to some of her film choices later on is truly unfortunate
Anyone who thinks Dunaway was overacting in Mommie Dearest wasn't raised by a woman like that. "A mother like that isn't possible." Yes she is.
@@ernestitoe I definitely agree that her portrayal in Mommie Dearest is underrated, while I'd be lying when I say I didn't have that film in the back of my mind when I wrote that comment, I was also thinking about Supergirl and some of her other assorted projects that failed to bring her back to prominence. There's also the fact that she took the latter part of the Seventies off which didn't help her case much
I think it has more to do with her own personality in general
@@joshuayeager3686 yeah, she seems like a major diva type according to people she worked for...but also she owned this and her role as Bonnie and Faye
One of my top 5 favorite films! So glad that Sam was locked in from the beginning. A lot of younger people can't abide with the slow burn and complicated plot but she was on top of it all the way!
After watching this, every time in in Southern Cal i look at the little towns and huge subburbs in the middle of the desert and wonder what crooked schemes were involved in putting them there.
"The future, Mr Gittes. The future"
Cross is played by legendary director John Huston who directed THE MALTESE FALCON, THE AFRICAN QUEEN, THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, UNDER THE VOLCANO, THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING among others, His mispronunciation of Gittes's name was genuine. He couldn't get it right.
The “midget” with the switchblade is Roman Polanski, the director.
He didn't intend to act in the movie, but then issues came up with casting the role so he just did it himself. And his accent makes it come off as a homage to Peter Lorre, in his typical role.
The knife he "cut" Nicholson's nose with had a real sharpened blade plus a mechanism that it would fold away one way, but could cut handled another way. Nicholson didn't trust anyone to use that thing on him, but was convinced to do it if Polanski was the one handling the knife.
One of the greatest films ever made. The sheepherder was Rance Howard, father to Ron and Clint Howard
I had no idea that was Opie Cunningham's dad!
Try The Long Goodbye, with Elliot Gould, for another LA based detective noir with a slightly less depressing end (noir traditionally will not have a happy ending)
Yes -- what a great movie.
Chinatown hits almost all the classic detective noir beats. By the end, our protagonist is beaten, bloodied, broken emotionally, alone, and just carries on. The only more noir thing would have Jake dying after learning the truth.
And really not even that...considering everything that happened, him living with it is perfect
Loved your reaction. One of the best noir screenplays ever written, probably the best. It's like Jake is climbing all over the strands of a web until they lead him to the center where he does in fact find a grotesque spider there. And one of the best villain names ever, Noah Cross, which if you break up the syllables is No Across meaning, You're never going to get to me.
One of the best two Neo Noirs, along with "The Long Goodbye"
16 years later we got a sequel called The Two Jakes, directed by Nicholson himself. It's definitely not as good, but it still provides some neat continuations for a setting he clearly takes seriously. And before that movie was made, there were several other sequel scripts submitted, including one where Gittes uncovers a conspiracy to bulldoze a lower class neighborhood to build a freeway, then shut down the city's public transportation so people will have to use it. If this sounds familiar, it's because that script was turned into Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
The Van der Lip Dam disaster is a reference to the collapse of the St. Francis Dam in 1928, northwest of Los Angeles, which had been designed by engineer William Mulholland. The consequent flooding killed at least four hundred fifty people.
This is one of my favorite films of all time. The screenplay is often used as a training tool for screenwriter classes. Even after a 10th or 12th viewing, there are still new details to notice, new connections to notice, deeper understandings to be made. The script is always fresh and profound. Altho the story is fiction, it does have some basis in reality as there were “water wars” as that area of California growing, along with real estate development and conflicts over oil and other natural resources.
An interesting detail was that during this film, Jack and Angelica Huston, daughter of John Huston (Nosh Cross) were a couple (for about 16 years) so when Noah Cross asks - are you sleeping with my daughter, it carried weight as a real question. The music is what really sets the mood; it establishes the time period, the noirish tone of the story. The set design and costuming evoked a dry, golden or sepia color that fit with the feeling of those times.
The “Okies” with the orange grove were some of the families who left their homes as a result of the Dust Bowl and drove to California looking for a better life (as in the book or films“The Grapes of Wrath” or “Bound for Glory.’)
That orange grove was property of actor Walter Brennan, who appeared in dozens of westerns.
Are you going to be sketchy?" In this movie, the answer will generally be yes.
Dunaway was nominated for Best Actress.
John Huston was a great actor, and he was also a great director. That's probably a short list --people who do both on that level.
The evil father is played by John Huston, who directed many films, including _The Maltese Falcon._
John Huston, "Noah Cross", directed the African Queen with Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn. One of Clint Eastwood's initial forays into directing was the story of the very complicated preamble to making that film. Worth a watch although darker on a whole nother level to what you just witnessed. It's called White Hunter, Black Heart.
Upon the death of Norman Lloyd at 106 James Hong became the oldest working actor in SAG.
Would be Eva Marie Saint, who just turned 100, except she's been retired for a decade with Legend of Korra as her last role (and she's outlived two of her co-stars from it!).
@@Rmlohner Yes. She is five years older than Hong.
“As little as possible “… It just breaks my heart every time and I have to look away..
Between Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown, Polanski has made two of the greatest films.
👍🏼 My favorite neo noir and probably my favorite line in any movie: “Of course I’m respectable. I’m OLD. Politicians, ugly buildings, and WHORES all become respectable if they last long enough.” 😂 You have to admit, John Huston is a great villain.
Great line, also Gittes' question, "What more can you buy that you can't already afford?"
When Jake and Evelyn are in the car during the scene where Evelyn tells Jake that Katherine is her sister, she lowers her head and accidentally hits the car horn. This foreshadows her death, in which she is shot while driving her head lies on the car horn.
Aside from the general excellece of this film (writing, acting, directing), most of the issues that Robert Towne raises about water in California (who "owns" it, who controls it) are as valid today as they were when the film was made! A prescient story...
Robert Towne got the idea for this movie from a conversation he had with a police officer friend who worked in the Chinatown section of LA. When Towne asked him what he did in Chinatown the friend replied "as little as possible," because there are so many different dialects that an officer intervening in a disturbance might unwittingly be participating in a crime.
Fabulous movie and one of Jack's best movies.
The guy with the lambs holding the staff is Rance Howard, Ron Howard's father.
Rather ironic that you ended up posting it this week. As the Screenwriter for the film died this week. 😅
Also the old man controlling all the water you'll remember as the director of Treasure of Sierra Madre and African Queen.
And The Maltese Falcon!
I didn't know that Towne had died! I heard him interviewed not long ago. The guy was full of amazing stories of Hollywood!
The actor who plays the shepherd who brings his sheep into City Hall is Rance Howard, father of Ron Howard. I’ve always found it an interesting coincidence that the film takes place in 1937, the year Jack Nicholson was born, and released 37 years from 1937 when Jack was 37.
This is one of my favourites. I’m so glad to see you doing a reaction to this.
The only Oscar it won was for the screenplay altho, it had 10 other Oscar nominations. It was up against Godfather, Part 2 and several other excellent films, so the competition was strong. It has won many other international and national awards and is recognized as part of the exceptional film output of the 1970’s, many of which had dark themes, ambiguous or sad endings and anti-heroes as major characters.
I remember from Film School, studying this movie.
This more you get into Cross' motivation, it gets more disturbing and mind-melting.
There's all this symbolism in the movie, water, and horses.
Water symbolizes life, usually, and horses... well they are largely inbred...
Cross wanted immortality.
If you breed with your child, and make a grand child, that grandchild is 75% of your dna, not 50. If you have a child with that child, the number increases.
It's pretty sick, but understandably dark material for Polanski, who had a pretty fucked up life.
I was going to suggest another Jack Nicholson film, The Shining, as a tribute to Shelley Duvall’s passing on Thursday but seeing as you’ve already seen that I’d go with 1980’s Popeye. Her performance in 3 Women is said to be better but Popeye’s probably the more fun to watch.
One thing you picked up on early is that Jake is a bit of a narcissist. (Note the references to the new clothes). It's likely he could have saved Mrs. Mulray if he didn't have to prove he was right about the case. So it does bite him in the end.
Possibly greatest screenplay ever.
Can’t believe u hvnt seen it!
❤
This one had u on a HELL of a rollercoaster!!!! 😂
This is and excellent movie, but very disturbing and depressing.
1970s neo-noir at its peak! The plot barely matters…just like in The Big Sleep.
FYI, the car Faye Dunaway drives is also Jessica Rabbit's car in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
This is easily one of the ten, perhaps one of the five, greatest movies ever made. I saw it on opening day, having never heard of it until I saw the newspaper ad for it, went in with no particular expectations, and came out knowing I had just seen one of the greatest movies of all time. If you'd like to see Polanski in a much larger role than the tiny one he plays here, you might look at his earlier film The Fearless Vampire Killers (aka Dance of the Vampires), which also has a small role for his wife Sharon Tate, who of course would later be murdered by the Manson family.
Robert Towne originally wrote an upbeat ending where Evelyn and Catherine get away but director Roman Polanski felt that a downbeat ending would be more impactful. When Towne refused to changed the ending Jack Nicholson and Polanski wrote the final scene at the last minute. In 2002 after years of complaining about the change Robert Towne admitted Polanski was right.
I absolutely love your reactions! Especially since you keep watching all of my favourite movies lately. Keep up the great work! :)
Robert Townes screenplay is considered one of the best of all time. It is still taught in writing classes to this day.
Poor Evelyn and Katherine😢
Another film about nuclear scares is Silkwood from 1983. I won't tell you who stars in it, but they're amazing.
The dam disaster is about the St. Francis Dam disaster. That happened near here.
You picked an intense one. The plot twist. And another Faye Dunaway ending, just like "Bonnie and Clyde."
The "midget" is director Roman Polanski. His wife was actress Sharon Tate.
The scene where Roman Polanski slits Jack Nicholson's nose was extremely complex to film, and it was done by using a specially-constructed knife with a short hinge that would be safe as long as it was handled VERY carefully.
The water scandal was a true story in 1930s LA history.
As an aside, they use to allow sheepherders to run their flocks through the river bottoms to transfer the herds to different grazing land. LA city hall is right by the LA river, which was not channelized at the time the film is set. So it would have been a good protest stunt.
New to your channel..........Chinatown is one of my top three movies ever (Godfather 1 & 2 are the others). Depending on how interested you might be, one of the best books i've ever read on the movie business is "The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood" by Sam Wasson........it's amazing. Enjoyed your reaction. Thanks for posting.
@@wwk68tig Welcome! Thanks for watching :)
The final shot of Evelyn in the car is a tiny homage to her breakout role to stardom in “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967) on which writer Robert Towne contributed, altho was uncredited.
The guy that played the father did the voice of Gandofl in the return of the king animated movie
FYI - The black eye on Curly's wife's face is on the correct side since Burt Young was left-handed.
This is a great mystery in plain sight; you just don't know what the mystery is.
The director's wife, Sharon Tate had been brutally murdered a few years earlier, and that affected the dark tone and especially the ending of this film.
This movie pairs well with what I call it's sister movie, LA Confidential...very similar vibes, and almost as brilliant
Don't forget the Big Lebowski
LA Confidential reaction: czcams.com/video/-khZVNraEyA/video.html
Big Lebowski reaction: czcams.com/video/Jw3M8ZOLhT0/video.html
:)
Forget it, Sam, it's Chinatown...... ;P ;) =)
Love Faye Dunnaway in Bonnie & Clyde.
I just want to write to thank you for doing your own thing, and not reacting to the exact same limited selection of films it seems that most others do.
It's really interesting to see a screenwriter portray what a rich, powerful, man..who may or may not have an inappropriate relationship with his daughter, talks like before that relationship is known. Inappropriately, and possessive. Maybe watch out for any rich and powerful guy who talks inappropriately about his daughter?????
My favorite Polanski movie is "ghostwriter" with Ewan Mcgregor & Pierce Brosnan.
Gotta check out some John Huston films
But heroes often fail
And you won't read that book again
Because the ending's just too hard to take - Gordon Lightfoot - If You Could Read My Mind
One of the greats, but also a rough watch in many ways.
⛄.🔪
Now you have to watch 'The Maltese Falcon' directed by the old man in this movie, John Huston.
42:42 "no happy ending here" ... welcome to Polanski's world ..