 Chinatown (1974, 131 min.) written by Robert Towne. directed by Roman Polanski. The Wages of Purchasing the Future “See, Mr. Gittes, most people never have to face the fact that, at the right time and the right place, they're capable of... anything!” –Noah Cross  In his essay Preface
and Postscript to Chinatown the
film's screenwriter, Robert Towne, reminisces about the sensory palette
that
was Los Angeles in his youth. Relying heavily on olfactory
impressions,
he
notes the inspiration for his screenplay "came out of thin air."
It's
no coincidence the film's main character, private detective Jake
Gittes, has
his nose cut open by a hoodlum (played by the film's director, Roman
Polanski)
and, further, that this vicious act occurs just after Gittes emerges
from an
aqueduct where his body has been washed over by a rush of stolen water.
Symbols and narrative connections unfold at a subdued pace in Polanski's noir masterwork. The film's pacing is augmented by lush production value, crisp dialogue and a hypnotic score, all combined to create a nearly palpable atmosphere and a foreboding sense of mystery. Polanski's measured filmmaking precision succeeds brilliantly. His film not only reinvigorated a genre, it transcended the genre to penetrate the heart of popular perception, where mythic symbols often subdue reality.  In
the mythic imagination, L.A. thrives on illusive
offerings of youth, beauty and the sun-drenched glamour of
celebrity.
Chinatown, however, lifts the mythic
veil to reveal a harsh struggle of survival, wherein the city owes its
existence to a base, insatiable craving for land and water -- the body
and
blood of the earth. Chinatown is set
in pre-World War II Los Angeles, when the city was casually poised to
launch
into a new age. L.A. has since become a gargantuan mirage of
modernity,
perhaps
unparalleled in proportion. Located where the desert meets the
sea,
where
logically no metropolis should exist, the city's geography seductively
perpetuates, expanding upon a process that long ago defied nature's
intent. In a twist on noir tradition, Chinatown supplants money with land and water as the objects of greed. The film's heavy, Noah Cross (that name surely no coincidence), dismisses the almighty dollar as a motivation for illegally diverting the region's water supply in order to affect land prices in the San Fernando Valley. When Gittes asks Cross what need he has for the millions he'll make from such a fraud on the populace, Cross, already an incredibly wealthy man, bluntly states that he intends to purchase "the future."  The
implication of the film's bleak ending is that
Cross and his ilk would bequeath a future to L.A. that is scarred,
unjust and
dispiriting. What we know, in hindsight, is that what Cross
objectified
has now
been pursued by various means. Chinatown,
then, speaks of more than the vulgar crimes of an individual or the
pursuit of
truth by a lone private detective. It acknowledges larger sins
and the
deeper
truth about them -- that once bequeathed, they can evolve into
something
collective, incalculable and, as Towne puts it, "very difficult to
punish." Essay © David Tlapek |
