Sunday, December 7, 2014

Babbling Old Man: Chinatown


Koko and I checked out the movie Chinatown. Yeah. Took me long enough, huh? It only came out in 1974. It is directed by Roman Polanski and stars Jack Nicholson as a private investigator named Jake Gittes. This movie is incredible and I am mad that it took me this long to see it. This is one of those mysteries where I thought I figured it all out about three times before the ending and was wrong each damned time.


Gittes is hired by a lady to follow her husband Hollis Mulwray that she suspects of cheating. He does a good job of it and one of the photos even makes the front page of the paper. All is well with him world until the real wife Evelyn Mulwray played by Faye Dunaway shows up! She tells him that she is going to sue him. Gittes realizes that he was set up by someone and begins investigating why when Hollis is found dead.


Shit starts to get deeper after Gittes is shot at and threatened by two thugs. They tell him to keep his nose out of their business and flick a knife up his nose cutting him. He meets up with Evelyn and starts to think that she had something to do with her husbands murder. The first lady that pretended to be Evelyn calls Gittes and tells him that she didn't know that murder would be involved but that he needs to check the obituaries. He does and realizes that a lot of land is being bought using old folks and recently dead names.


This story starts to go places that I did not think they would. I'm talking about seriously honked up things happen that make you question the guilt and innocence of most of the people involved. This was probably the best crime/detective movie I've ever seen. I was impressed with all of the performances, the music, and the wardrobes. It was cool seeing L.A in the 70's that was supposed to be the 30's. This movie needs to be shown to anyone that plans on using plot twists and writers as well. This made me embarrassed to say I've written crime stories.

Click here for previous Babbling Old Man.

No comments: