Chinatown Movie Analysis — The Legacy of a Hollywood Classic

Chinatown Movie Analysis Essay

Following the long road to Chinatown

To understand the importance of Chinatown, we have to understand the importance of the era in which it was produced. The early 1970s were pivotal years for Hollywood cinema because they marked the advent of
New Hollywood; which in simple terms, was a radical film movement that ushered in a new generation of writers, actors, and directors.

This next video from “Ministry of Cinema” explains how New Hollywood came to be and how film movements such as film noir influenced its style.

Robert Towne, Jack Nicholson, and Roman Polanski were three of the forefront faces of New Hollywood.

Polanski received critical acclaim for directing movies like Knife in the Water, Repulsion, and Rosemary’s Baby. By 1969, he had become one of the most sought-after filmmakers in the world. However, tragedy struck when Sharon Tate (the wife of Roman Polanski) was murdered. Polanski’s works in the years immediately after Tate’s death were all absurdist or nihilist. Keep a mental note of this point — we’ll see why it’s relevant later.

Towne developed a reputation in Hollywood as one of the industry’s most venerated script doctors. In his early years, Towne consulted on acclaimed screenplays such as Bonnie And Clyde and The Godfather script. In 1974, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted screenplay for The Last Detail, starring Jack Nicholson.

A year later he reunited with Nicholson for Chinatown.

Nicholson struggled to find steady work in his early years in Hollywood but broke through in a major way in 1969 with Easy Rider. The following year, Nicholson starred in the film that thrusted him to stardom: Five Easy Pieces. Over the next three-decades-and-change, Nicholson received 12 nominations for acting Oscars.

Chinatown Summary 

What is Chinatown about?

Chinatown follows the story of fictional detective Jake Gittes as he slowly uncovers corruption in the Los Angeles Department of Water and Energy. Gittes is an imperfect protagonist — a pseudo-hardboiled antihero that wants to see the good in the world but can’t escape its evil. All of this is to say that Gittes is relatable but somewhat unknowable; just like Chinatown. 

In the Collector’s Edition of Chinatown, Towne said he was inspired to write the script after hearing an exchange involving a Hungarian vice cop saying “What did you do in Chinatown? / “As little as possible” as a way to underscore the unknowable nature of whether outsiders help or hurt ethnic communities.

With Towne’s point in mind, watch the clip below and think about why it’s such an important scene for establishing a major theme.

It may seem inconsequential, but let me ask you this: how many times have you watched a show or movie with a protagonist who has bandages covering their face for extended periods of time?

For me, the only ones that ring a bell are an episode of The Twilight Zone and Phoenix. It’s incredibly daring to use bandages to obscure a protagonist’s face. A protagonist's face is a big part of what sells a movie. You can’t sell a movie if you can’t see their face.

But Towne and Polanski didn’t care about selling tickets, they cared about making a great film.

We see imperfections elsewhere in Chinatown too, like when Gittes misinterprets the term “albacore” for “apple core” and “bad for grass” as “bad for glass.” These moments of imperfection are realistic, organic, and nuanced. 

One of the more famous imperfections in Chinatown is Faye Dunaway’s flawed eye, which we regard as a visual motif. Evelyn Mulwray is incapable of seeing the world as it is. Her flawed eye serves as a distortion device for coping with a world that’s too painful to see truthfully.

But in the end, her flawed eye is destroyed in a gunfight, which leads to her tragic death.

Character flaws are an essential part of writing strong characters. If a character is omnipotent, they won’t have anything to overcome; and there’s little strength involved in getting everything easily.

Chinatown Movie Summary and Impact

Quantifying the legacy of Chinatown

Author Sam Wasson argues in his book The Big Goodbye that Chinatown was the last film of “old Hollywood.” After Chinatown, studios began to allocate more budget towards marketing and merchandising than the things we see on screen. That’s not to say that movies after Chinatown were bad by any means, but rather different, from conceptualization to release.

The 1970s is regarded as one of the best decades in cinema history. It produced hundreds of amazing classics, including but not limited to The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Taxi Driver, Annie Hall, The French Connection, and Network –  and big blockbusters like Star Wars, Alien, and Jaws. 

But there’s an argument to be made that Chinatown was the best of them all. And there are few who would refute that the Chinatown screenplay is one of the greatest screenplays of the decade. This next video from Jack’s Movie Reviews breaks down what makes the Chinatown screenplay so great.

UP NEXT

Best Jack Nicholson Movies, Ranked

We mentioned Jack Nicholson’s performance in our Chinatown movie analysis but this was just the beginning of his amazing work. Chinatown is regarded as one of the best of his illustrious career – but did it take the top honor in our list of the best Jack Nicholson movies? Read on to find out.

Up Next: Best Nicholson Movies →