Chinatown: Paramount Centennial Collection – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Oct 5, 2009, 15:22 GMT

Landmark movie in the film noir tradition, Roman Polanski\'s Chinatown stands as a true screen classic. Jack Nicholson is private eye Jake Gittes, living off the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-war Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite (Faye Dunaway) to investigate her husband\'s extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing ...more

“'Course I'm respectable. I'm old. Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough.”

“Forget it Jake. It’s Chinatown.”

With Roman Polanski in the news, it may be difficult to separate the director from the film.  Chinatown would be his last Hollywood film before going on the run.  It’s a fantastic film, a classic, and now Paramount adds some new special features to the mix.  

In the mid-1930s, Los Angeles private eye Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is hired by Evelyn Mulwray (Diane Ladd) to watch her husband Hollis (Darrell Zwerling) who she suspects is having an affair.  Hollis works at the city of Los Angeles Water and Power and Jake trails Mulwray until he gets some seemingly incriminating photographs. 

He gives them to Mrs. Mulwray and the pictures make their way into the papers.  The following day the real Mrs. Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) shows up and serves Jake with a lawsuit for publishing false information.  Jake is not one to be taken advantage of and seeks out the fake Mrs. Mulwray to restore his sullied reputation as a private eye. 

Jake uncovers a conspiracy that runs all the way up to Noah Cross (John Huston), the former owner of the water department, which was in private hands at first.  Cross, Evelyn’s father, was opposed to selling Water and Power to the city but was convinced by his son-in-law, Mulwray, to do so because the people should own the water.  More vile doings are afoot and they all come to a head in Chinatown. 

Chinatown is a classic film and was nominated for eleven Academy Awards.  It would walk away with one win for screenwriter Robert Towne.  Chinatown is a fictionalized story of the water department of Los Angeles.  Towne has crafted a mystery that is dipped in the pumped in waters that quench the desert thirst of L.A.  It’s also a mystery wrapped in an enigma as the story seems to be going someplace, an official having an affair, and weaves all over the place until its shocking conclusion. 

The performances are top notch with Jack Nicholson being propelled to superstardom with the lead role.  Faye Dunaway is vulnerable and sexy in the femme fatale role.  Both would be nominated for Oscars.  John Huston steps away from being a director and oozes a velvety larger-than-life villainy in the role of Noah Cross. 

The film is also masterfully scored by Jerry Goldsmith and equally masterfully directed by Roman Polanski.  Polanski has been in the new recently for some pretty vile charges (I heard a transcript of them recently) that he fled from in 1978 and hasn’t been back to the United States since.  He now is in Swiss custody and faces extradition back to the States to be tried for his crime. 

It’s a little ironic to hear him talk about justice in some of the special features of this disc.  I suppose he’s speaking of cinematic justice, but it’s ironic nonetheless.  I have a tendency to try and separate the artist from the art.  If we didn’t, we’d dismiss the art of Picasso or any other artist because of them being jerks in real life. 

When you’re looking at the painting you have no sense of what kind of human being the artist is.  So is the case with Chinatown.  It’s just Chinatown, an excellent film.  There are some ironies in the plotline, if judged with Polanski’s case, but it’s a gripping, groundbreaking film no matter what the case.  

Chinatown is presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions.  According to a sticker on the packaging the film has been “remastered in high definition.”  This just made me annoying ask myself, so where is the Blu-ray?  Oh well.  Special features on disc one are a commentary with screenwriter Robert Towne and film admirer director David Fincher.

Disc two starts off with the new 77 minute “Water and Power” hosted by Robert Towne.  It’s only tangentially about the film and really concerns the brining of both water and power, both electrical and control, to Los Angeles.  Also new is the 26 minute “Chinatown: an Appreciation” in which several Hollywood names detail their love for the film. 

The rest of the featurettes, “Chinatown: the Beginning and the End” (19 minutes), “Chinatown: The Filming” (25 minutes), and “Chinatown: The Legacy” (9 minutes), come from the 2007 DVD. 

They include interviews with Polanski (in Paris at the time), Nicholson, Towne, and producer Robert Evans.  Finally you get the 3 minute theatrical trailer.  The case also contains a booklet with production notes and photos.  
I don’t know if this DVD release will be helped or hurt by Roman Polanski being in the current news cycle.  All I know is that the film is hard to forget since it’s a classic and so well made.  That’s Chinatown.  

Chinatown: Paramount Centennial Collection 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.