By Rebecca Lubin
Photo credit Wikipedia.com
"Chinatown" is a neo-noir film filled with action, mystery, and drama thriller that gives off whodunit vibes. So if you love murder mysteries and detective/ private eye films this is the movie for you! The movie is set in Los Angeles during the California water wars, which was a big political dispute between Los Angeles and farmers in the Owens Valley of Eastern California over water rights in the early 1900s, private eye J.J “Jake” Gittes is hired by a woman pretending to be Evelyn Mulwray to find her husband and find out if he’s cheating on her.
Her husband is Hollis Mulwray, the chief engineer at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. After Gittes finds Mulwray with a woman and the pictures are published in a newspaper the next day, the real Evelyn Mulwray comes forward and threatens to sue Gittes. He soon realizes he was set up and Gittes tries to get to the bottom of things. After Hollis Mulwray is found dead, Gittes finds himself in a tangled web full of corruption, lies, scandals, and hidden secrets.
Chinatown stars Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway as the lead actor and actress. It is directed by Roman Polanski, written by Robert Towne, and produced by Robert Evans.
The key thing in this movie is that water plays a big role symbolistically and literally. To “find the girl”, a line many of the characters say in the movie is key to solving the mystery. When Gittes discovers and finds out clues and eventually everything is when the audience does as well.
When watching this movie, it may be very confusing at first but not for long as viewers quickly begin putting the pieces together. This movie is beautifully written and the plot is so mind-blowing it’ll have you on the edge of your seat!
Because of this movie, Faye Dunaway is now my favorite actress and I’m more interested in these types of movies.
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