This DVD item from Paramount was reviewed on 24-Mar-2009.
Chinatown Reference DVD. Classifications : General Drama Genres DVD Video General Mystery & Suspense Genres DVD Video Femme Fatales By Theme Mystery & Suspense Genres DVD Video Haunted by the Past By Theme Mystery & Suspense Genres DVD Video P . Click the following link to view the cover of Chinatown. Related topics: 1974-06-20. General. Drama. Genres. DVD. Video. General. Mystery & Suspense. Genres. DVD. Video. requestid: 252e3768-3dfd-4d2f-a46c-80b36225b9d3
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1) DVD DVD Chinatown by Paramount. I purchased this movie because I was taking a college course in film. I had not seen it yet but had heard of it. Now it is one of my top ten. Aweseome.¤ 2) DVD DVD Chinatown by Paramount. Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway & John Huston star in "Chinatown," a movie filled with intrigue, suspense and drama. All these ingredients make for great cinema and "Chinatown" delivers on all cylinders. Huston´s role is really more of a cameo, but he acquits himself well as always. Classic film. Ironically, Nicholson´s character says a line which would be said to him by Lieutenant Daniel Kafee (Tom Cruise) in "A Few Good Men": "I want the truth!" This film SHOULD NOT have been rated R, but PG. It only has mild language, some violence and brief nudity. Minor note: Look out for Roman Polanski in a cameo.¤ 3) DVD DVD Chinatown by Paramount. The mid-1970s saw a spate of "government conspiracy" films, all with liberal themes that emanated from Watergate. None of them were about Kennedy stealing the 1960 election. Hmm.
"Chinatown" (1974) may be the best screenplay ever written. A historical look at 1930s Los Angeles, it actually condensed events from the 1900s with events that, uh, never happened but made for good drama. Written by L.A. native Robert Towne, directed by Roman Polanski, produced by Evans and starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunnaway and famed director John Huston, it told the story of how Los Angeles became a metropolis. In Towne´s version, Huston "owns" the L.A. Department of Water & Power with a character based on actual L.A. City engineer William Mulholland. Mulholland had orchestrated the political deal which built the aqueduct that brought water from the Owens Valley into the L.A. Basin, allowing millions of Southern Californians to keep their lawns green to this day.
The Mulholland character is "sacrificed" at the altar of greed, embodied by Huston, who secretly buys the San Fernando Valley, knowing that once the water deal is set, it will be incorporated into the city, making him a gazillionaire. It is rather cynical, although nobody suggests the L.A. "city fathers" were boy scouts. The same old theme is that capitalism and American political power are corrupt. To make sure the audience is convinced the corruption is beyond redemption, Huston is in the end found out be an insatiable, incestual monster. He plays the role so well it brings up minds-eye imagery of his real daughter, Angelica. The film is utterly beyond any criticism, regardless of political colorization. For decades, film students and screenwriters have studied it. It spawned an artistic quest to lace the screen with symbols, metaphors, backstory, and twists.
"Chinatown" seems to be the apex of the American film period, the mid-1970s. The period from 1960 to 1979 is unparalleled, but the backstory of the people who created these classics is a telling tale of why the genre leans to the Left. In the 1960s, film schools became popular. Four schools emerged, and have held their place as the place to learn the craft. In Los Angeles there was the USC School of Cinema-Television. Their first big alumnus was "Star Wars" director George Lucas. UCLA combined their film school with their drama program, so as to bring actors, writers, directors and producers together. Coppola went to UCLA along with a future rock star named Jim Morrison, who would form The Doors with another UCLA film alumnus, keyboardist Ray Manzarek.¤ 4) DVD DVD Chinatown by Paramount. The Bottom Line:
Watch Jack Nicholson act as well as he ever did, watch Roman Polanski channel his wife´s tragic death and a script by Robert Towne into a piece of cinematic art, watch one of the few color noirs worthy of the name: above all else, watch Chinatown.¤ 5) DVD DVD Chinatown by Paramount. CHINATOWN is, to state the obvious, one of the great Hollywood classics, featuring fabulous dialogue, a sensational story, incredible acting from Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway ( at the top of their game ), and stiletto-sharp direction from Roman Polanski. This is the kind of dark, steamy, pot-boiler that defined noir, and very few films have ever done it as well- and none better.
This is an excellent product with great sound, and a sharp transfer. There are also plenty of extras. An absolute must for Nicholson, or noir fans.¤ 6) DVD DVD Chinatown by Paramount. Jack nicholson stars as a private eye who follows socialite faye dunaway into a hotbed of scandal corruption and murder in 1930s los angeles. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 08/23/2005 Starring: Jack Nicholson John Huston Run time: 131 minutes Rating: R Director: Roman Polanski¤ 7) DVD DVD Chinatown by Paramount. Roman Polanski´s brooding film noir exposes the darkest side of the land of sunshine, the Los Angeles of the 1930s, where power is the only currency--and the only real thing worth buying. Jack Nicholson is J.J. Gittes, a private eye in the Chandler mold, who during a routine straying-spouse investigation finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into a jigsaw puzzle of clues and corruption. The glamorous Evelyn Mulwray (a dazzling Faye Dunaway) and her titanic father, Noah Cross (John Huston), are at the black-hole center of this tale of treachery, incest, and political bribery. The crackling, hard-bitten script by Robert Towne won a well-deserved Oscar, and the muted color cinematography makes the goings-on seem both bleak and impossibly vibrant. Polanski himself has a brief, memorable cameo as the thug who tangles with Nicholson´s nose. One of the greatest, most completely satisfying crime films of all time. --Anne Hurley¤ Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 21-Apr-2009, 0792159578097361551647, 810-500-870-506-SHB-9EB-CWB-18B-RMB-ZGB-8 
Chinatown, DVD, Image © Paramount
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