Chinatown (1974)

Fifty years on, Chinatown remains one of the most discussed films to come out of Hollywood's so-called New Wave period of the early to mid 1970s, a stretch when studios briefly handed the keys to a generation of directors willing to make things messy, morally uncomfortable, and genuinely adult. Released by Paramount Pictures in 1974, it arrived at a moment when audiences, freshened by Watergate and the tail end of Vietnam, had a particular appetite for stories about institutional corruption and the people ground up inside it. Roman Polanski's film did not disappoint on either count. Set in late 1930s Los Angeles, it follows private detective Jake Gittes, a man who makes a modest living investigating marital infidelity, as he gets pulled far out of his depth into a scandal involving the city's water supply and some very powerful, very ruthless people. The period setting is rendered with care throughout, from the costuming to the sun-bleached, almost arid look of the city itself, giving the whole picture a polished but unremarkable surface that conceals something rotten underneath.

The script came from Robert Towne, who had been working in Hollywood for over a decade by that point and would go on to become one of the most respected screenwriters of his generation. His original screenplay, reportedly drafted over several months and revised in close collaboration with producer Robert Evans, is widely regarded as one of the finest original scripts ever produced for an American film. Polanski, who had already established himself internationally with films such as Rosemary's Baby (1968) before arriving in Hollywood, brought a European sensibility to the material, a coldness and a willingness to let the darkness win (you can see that instinct at work in his later career, including his Oscar-winning The Pianist). He and Towne famously clashed over the ending, with Polanski insisting on the bleaker resolution that made it to screen. History has rather sided with him.

The principal cast is as strong as any assembled in this era. Jack Nicholson, who the year before Chinatown had already proved himself a force in films like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (or thereabouts, given how close those productions ran), brings exactly the right combination of cockiness and creeping vulnerability to Gittes. Faye Dunaway plays Evelyn Mulwray, the woman who first hires Gittes, and she matches Nicholson scene for scene, her performance balanced precisely between control and fracture. John Huston, himself one of the great Hollywood directors and a man who knew his noir inside out, takes on the role of Noah Cross with an ease that is genuinely unsettling. It is, by any reasonable measure, a remarkable ensemble. The 130-minute runtime is put to thorough use, building its mystery the way the best crime pictures do: not by rushing toward answers, but by making you feel, alongside Gittes, the weight of what those answers might cost.

Chinatown (1974) is a masterclass in noir storytelling, dripping with atmosphere, moral decay, and one of the most unforgettable performances of Jack Nicholson’s career. He plays J.J. “Jake” Gittes, a slick, cynical private detective who stumbles into a web of corruption, deceit, and family horror beneath the sun-bleached surface of 1930s Los Angeles. Nicholson is magnetic (charming, sharp, increasingly haunted) as he peels back layer after layer of lies, only to find there’s no clean way out. His performance anchors the film with wit, weariness, and a growing sense of dread. Roman Polanski (views on him aside) directs with icy precision, crafting a world where power corrupts absolutely and innocence is devoured by greed. The screenplay by Robert Towne is razor-sharp (Up there with the best) layered with irony, historical weight, and dialogue that feels both natural and poetic. Jerry Goldsmith’s haunting score underscores every twist with melancholy and menace, becoming a character in its own right. The story (centered on water rights, land grabs, and generational sin) follows classic noir beats, so it may feel “par for the course” in structure. But it’s executed with such brilliance, such emotional and thematic depth, that it transcends genre. And that final line lands like a gut punch, one of the bleakest, most resonant endings in cinema. Flawless in craft, unforgettable in tone. A dark, brilliant film that gets under your skin and stays there. Not just a great mystery, but a devastating portrait of a city (and a man) powerless against the rot at the core.

For me, that tension between craft and content is what keeps Chinatown sitting at the top of the pile, even when you measure it against some excellent company in the genre. I've spent time with plenty of crime films across different eras, from the stripped-back menace of Little Caesar to the visceral, kinetic energy of something like The Raid 2, and what strikes me here is how much Polanski and Towne achieve through restraint. Nothing is over-explained. The rot is shown, not announced. And that final scene sits with you not because of anything loud or sudden, but because by the time you reach it, you already know, somewhere in the back of your mind, exactly how this has to end. Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown.

Rating: ★★★★  | Year: 1974  | Watched: 2025-12-01

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Trailer

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Roman Polanski: The Pianist (2002)
More with Jack Nicholson: The Shining (1980) · One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
More from the 1970s: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Here and Elsewhere (1976) · Italianamerican (1974) · Punishment Park (1971)
More crime: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Angst (1983) · Stolen Face (1952) · Cairo Station (1958)
More mystery: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · Carnival of Souls (1962) · One Way or Another (1975)