Sequels to classic films are dicey at best. Only a few of them (Godfather II and Aliens to name but a brief few) are able to match the excellence of their predecessors and even take their greatness to another level.
More often than not, however, sequels don’t have the magic and seem more like a retread of the original.
The Two Jakes (1990), the long in the making sequel to the 1974 film noir classic Chinatown, is a noble attempt but isn’t able to sustain itself on its own merits for very long before having to literally dig up memories of Chinatown in order to reinvigorate itself. I don’t know why Paramount calls this a “Special Collector’s Edition” as it only has ONE featurette.
The film takes place 11 years after Chinatown ended. Jake Gittes still lives in Los Angeles only now it’s 1948 and WWII has come and gone. Jake saw his time oversees but times have good to him since he’s been back. He’s a little older, a little more cynical but a lot smarter.
He owns the building where his P.I. business is thriving, has a good handicap and a nice country club where he plays, and has a fiancée. He doesn’t take the philandering spouse cases as often as he used to but still does every once in a while.
This is how he meets the other Jake of the title, Jake Berman (Harvey Keitel). Berman is a property developer who’s convinced his wife Kitty (Meg Tilly) is cheating on him. Gittes shows him how to act when he bursts through the hotel door and he and his old associates from the original stake out the hotel where the affair is taking place. Things don’t go as planned and Berman shoots and kills the other man.
It seems like a case of reasonable insanity, after all the man was sleeping with Berman’s wife. But it turns out that the murdered man was Berman’s partner in his real estate development company and the widow (Madeleine Stowe) tell Gittes that Berman planned on murdering the partner so he and his wife could have the partner’s share in the company. That would also make Gittes an accessory to murder.
Of course, just like in the original, nothing is as clear cut as Gittes or we would like it and also just like the original, we get to hear someone tell Gittes “You may think you know what’s going on, but believe me you don’t.”
There is a cover up involving oil and land, as opposed to water and land in Chinatown, and ghost from Gittes’ past including Kathryn Mulwray, the daughter of Faye Dunaway’s Evelyn Mulwray from the original.
The production history of The Two Jakes is one of Hollywood lore and nightmare. Nearly eight years in the making, The Two Jakes went through dozens of rewrites, actors (at one point Bob Evans who produced Chinatown and co-produced here was set to play Jake Berman) and directors before Nicholson decided to direct the film himself just so the film could get out of development hell. Unfortunately, the finished film shows the chaotic makings that went into it.
The original idea for Chinatown, conceived by Robert Towne, was a trilogy that would examine the inner workings of power and corruption in Los Angeles. Chinatown focused on the hording of water, The Two Jakes focuses on oil and land while the third part, Gittes vs. Gittes would have focused on air and highway construction.
Because of the commercial and critical failure of The Two Jakes however, Gittes vs. Gittes would never be made. The idea here of how the natural oil made the land in L.A. valuable land, after the water was brought in which was what Chinatown was about, thus making the land subject to manipulation by those in power is an excellent premise and at times, you get the sense like you are watching the history of the city unfold before your eyes.
Towne’s screenplay here, which who knows how close it is to what he wanted, tries to replicate the inner workings of the elite as they horde for more much like Chinatown but here the conspiracy involving oil and land is complicated beyond comprehension and all too often dips into the Chinatown pool of memories to elicit an emotional reaction from the viewer and Jake.
The film might have stood on its own without being a sequel and without bringing up key plot points and characters of Chinatown. But when you start importing lines of dialogue from the previous film and literally stop the film down at times to refresh the viewer with plot points from the previous film, that’s a sure sign that you’re trying to ride its success rather than have the current film survive on its own merits.
There are some excellent moments in the film, particularly the scene with Jake and Kitty Berman where he discovers her secret and the last showdown between the two Jakes at the end, but more often than not, the film seems to move at a laborious pace that never engages anyone.
Nicholson the director and his cinematographer, the great Vilmos Zsigmond, seem intent on showing the bright sunlight and sunsets of post war L.A. at the expense of an exciting story sometimes.
That’s not saying Nicholson is a bad director. His first directed film, 1971’s little seen and extremely hard to find Drive He Said, was the most revealing, fascinating look at a college campus during the late ‘60s Vietnam era. I just feel that with The Two Jakes, he was doing the directing work because there was no other way to get the film made.
Nicholson the actor does fine work here as he knows this character inside and out but aside from him no one else is able to really develop. The subplot with his fiancée is so poorly executed; it’s a wonder why it was kept in at all. You never get the sense that he loves or even cares about this woman and only see her once.
It’s clear early on that he has never gotten over Faye Dunaway’s character from Chinatown and probably never will. He’s able to provide a real sadness to Gittes in addition to age and wisdom, particularly when he’s faced with the haunting memories of his past.
Keitel’s Berman doesn’t really come into any focus until the very end, Meg Tilly’s Kitty speaks so softly that at some points you can’t even hear her and Madeleine Stowe, although she looks gorgeous as always and has a hilarious scene where she throws herself at Gittes, is wasted as the hot tempered widow of the man Berman shoots.
The only extra other than the theatrical trailer, the 18-minute featurette Jack on Jakes gives us a present day Jack talking about some of the film’s troubled history, the proposed trilogy that could’ve been and the incredible difficulties that come with being both the director and star. It’s no surprise when Nicholson reveals that when he started shooting, the script wasn’t even finished.
You get the feeling that if the film was able to secure another well-established director, Nicholson would’ve gladly handed the reins over and stuck to his acting duties. Robert Towne was reportedly unhappy with the way the film turned out and his absence here speaks volumes.
The Two Jakes isn’t an awful film and does have some moments of brilliance. Yet, it falls into that sequel category where when you finish watching part two, you want to watch part one again to remind yourself why there was a part two. It’s unfortunate that we’ll never be able to see what Towne and Nicholson would’ve done for the third part of the Gittes/L.A. trilogy.
The Two Jakes (Special Collector's Edition) is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for this version of the DVD in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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