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Chinatown (1974)
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Overview
Plot:
A private detective investigating an adultery case stumbles on to a scheme of murder that has something to do with water. full summary | full synopsis (warning! may contain spoilers)Awards:
Won Oscar. Another 17 wins & 22 nominations moreNewsDesk:
(20 articles)
AFI Picks Top Films By Genre (From Studio Briefing. 18 June 2008, 10:35 AM, PDT)
Polanski Slams Modern Film Studios (From WENN. 8 June 2008, 6:33 PM, PDT)
User Comments:
The apex of the 1970s American film renaissance. moreCast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Jack Nicholson | ... | J.J. 'Jake' Gittes | |
| Faye Dunaway | ... | Evelyn Cross Mulwray | |
| John Huston | ... | Noah Cross | |
| Perry Lopez | ... | Lieutenant Lou Escobar | |
| John Hillerman | ... | Russ Yelburton | |
| Darrell Zwerling | ... | Hollis I. Mulwray | |
| Diane Ladd | ... | Ida Sessions | |
| Roy Jenson | ... | Claude Mulvihill | |
| Roman Polanski | ... | Man with Knife | |
| Richard Bakalyan | ... | Detective Loach (as Dick Bakalyan) | |
| Joe Mantell | ... | Lawrence Walsh | |
| Bruce Glover | ... | Duffy | |
| Nandu Hinds | ... | Sophie | |
| James O'Rear | ... | Lawyer | |
| James Hong | ... | Kahn |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
View content advisory for parentsRuntime:
131 minCountry:
USALanguage:
EnglishColour:
Colour (Technicolor)Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 moreSound Mix:
StereoCertification:
Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | UK:15 (video rating) | Iceland:16 | Argentina:16 | West Germany:16 (f) | Singapore:NC-16 | Brazil:12 | Australia:M | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | Canada:R (Ontario) | Finland:K-16 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R16 | Norway:15 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | UK:X (original rating)MOVIEmeter: 
Fun Stuff
Goofs:
Anachronisms: Police cars use the higher-pitched style of siren commonly heard from the 1960s onward, not the lower-pitched style characteristic of the 1930s. moreQuotes:
[first lines]Jake Gittes: All right, Curly. Enough's enough. You can't eat the Venetian blinds. I just had them installed on Wednesday.
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Soundtrack:
Some Day moreFAQ
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Some might go with the operatic grandeur of The Godfather, or the gritty psychic trauma of Taxi Driver, as the finest achievement of the Seventies in American film. For my money, though, nothing tops Roman Polanski's masterpiece. A noir thriller that somehow transcends noir, Chinatown becomes a meditation on the bottomless well of human mystery. Robert Towne's legendary script can stand with the best work of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, and Polanski, in insisting on the darkest possible ending for his L.A. story(understandable, given the nightmare Polanski experienced in Los Angeles six years before this film was made), directs with supreme story-telling integrity. Flawlessly performed by its superb cast, with an especially terrifying piece of underplaying from the great John Huston as Noah Cross, a man who could never say what he really wants, even to himself. Easily one of the six or seven best films ever made.