My thoughts on Chinatown:
I was unenthusiastic about viewing this film
again: hadn't seen it in more than a dozen years. After watching
it, I understood my lack of enthusasiam earlier, although the why
was based on something entirely different. Whereas I'd only
remembered the film with some revulsion, on viewing it for this
event I was struck by how perfectly constructed this film was.
What I'd remembered with lack of fondness was the dispair, the
total lack of any sense of justice in the ending. As Rask said
earlier, Polanski leaves one nothing, not one shred of hope.
I suddenly remembered the total feeling of
darkness that came over me when I first saw this film. The
feeling that there is no good in the world, only corruption and
evil. Dang, it was a dark realization for me at that time, an
effective damper on my youthful enthusasim and energy, and it
scared me.
I think this is what was unique about Chinatown
at the time it was filmed, that it captured a complete breakdown
of faith in justice and in the "establishment" to do
honorable things. It drew on the growing sense that we, the
little people, were saps, and were being taken for a ride by the
wealthy and powerful forces behind the scenes.
I think this mood, this belief that government
is a tool of the powerful, and that the wealthy and powerful are
out to rape and pillage the little guy has only grown over the
last few decades since Polanski's film. The cynicsm that
undergrids the mood of Chinatown WAS really something quite
different, and stark for those times.
I also forgot what promise Nickolson had as a
young actor. In retrospect, I think this is the best film he ever
made, and his acting in it was almost flawless. Perfect
characterization, no over the topness, and he conveys precisely
the right sense of having been completely had, in every way
possible, and of realizing how little control he had over the
events that unfolded.
Huston was also nearly flawless. What struck me
about his character was how perfectly evil he was. But the
evilness was not deliberate, but rather a consequence of his own
unwillingness (inability?) to put anyone elses concerns, desires,
needs above his own. Worse yet, he managed to construct a view of
reality (about himself) that absolved him of all responsibility
for his actions. By accepting that he was capable of almost
anything, he seemed to find the rationale to explain any and all
actions he undertook, without any guilt.
In the end, he gets everything he wants, and
everyone else pays the price.
He was a walking nightmare of a man.
Finally, I thought Chinatown was beautifully
filmed and unfolded with nearly perfect timing. The look and feel
of the film was exactly the time period of the story.
Someone mentioned above (was it Calgal?) that
Polanski so well conveyed the sense of parched land, to see water
simply wasted in such quantities was horrifying. And, of course,
anyone who's ever lived in California feels the impact of wasted
water and burns over it. Water really IS what politics are all
about in that state and continues to be.
