dMYD DVD
Starring Jack Nicholson
Y
He can rape, he can run, he can hide… and oh boy can he make great films. Callously ignoring the essential evil of Roman Polanski’s psychological make-up,Chinatown can still be seen as one of the greatest pulp stories ever filmed, a neo-noir in the most literal sense of the term as a twisting, shadowed world of vice and corruption is brought sneering and scowling into life by the sunny orange tints of the City of Angels. Aside from the genre-scrambling direction and pitch-perfect performances it’s the script that’s the real star here, plunging insanely-likeable P.I Jake Gittes into a hell-storm of base nastiness that he can barely stay on top of but can’t help but cram his nose into. The themes working in the background only get more relevant and frightening as time marches on, the film holding up a scum-laden mirror to an elite few who refuse to learn NOT TO KILL US ALL whilst retaining a personal element that’s as disturbing as it is tragic, culminating in a final reel showdown that presents real consequences in a genre known more for style than tear-wrenching substance.
An intensely dark film told by a genuinely frightening man, it’s remarkable that it commands such a lightness of touch and desire to see the mystery through to the end without drowning in its own despair of humanity, though by the last shot you may feel that you’re waving goodbye to what remained of the director’s last hopes for decency. But hell, forget it and bask: it’s Chinatown.
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