"Are you alone?"
"Isn't everyone?"
Upon rewatch and further deconstruction into its often lauded screenplay, Chinatown, despite all its undeniable moments of brilliance, doesn't quite hold up as strong. I find too often viewers take critics and filmmakers' words for what is "the greatest screenplay ever written" and fail formulate their own opinions through careful analysis. While the latter is certainly more difficult, it is, in my humble opinion, absolutely necessary before conforming to the authoritative norm and making such a bold "best ever" statement.
A slightly short third act and offbeat second are my main problems with the story structure. For example, the third act, after the devastating "sister daughter" scene, clocks in at a little under 15 minutes, which feels way too rushed for a 130 minute corruption narrative. At some moments, the dialogue feels unnatural and serving little purpose, most notably during the "Chinaman" story sequence.
Along the same line, some small scenes cut from its 3rd draft shooting script, were better kept. For example, before Gittes learns about Leroy Shuhardt's drowning, Towne originally has a scene in which Gittes and Escobar have a small quarrel over the details over Mulwray's murder, which perfectly heightens the ever-so-present suspense and crucial central conflict. It's a shame Polanski and Towne decided against it.
Coming to the positives of the script — long story short, they're endless. Not only do the bifocal glasses serve as a critical portion to the film's image system (consisting of windows, glass, and reflections to emphasize the twisty nature of the story), they also drive the plot in unfathomably efficient ways: leading the audience to believe a different identity murderer at every turn, bridging the usually awkward transition of character motivation from the 2nd to 3rd act (as they're almost always too depressed to go on the final adventure), and finally, symbolizing the shred of hope Gittes has towards the end of the film, which we later learn, no matter how conclusive the evidence, is inevitably doomed to be useless under the corrupt regime of authority (which might explain why the glasses are broken).
Nevertheless — whether its script is perfect or not — with masterfully constrained yet incredibly expressive performances by Nicholson and Dunaway, a steady but technically flawless directorial hand by the child rapist himself, and arguably the greatest closing line to ever grace cinema's screen, Chinatown is a neo-noir classic for the ages, and one's which values and morals will continue to haunt us till the end of time.
A-
"Isn't everyone?"
Upon rewatch and further deconstruction into its often lauded screenplay, Chinatown, despite all its undeniable moments of brilliance, doesn't quite hold up as strong. I find too often viewers take critics and filmmakers' words for what is "the greatest screenplay ever written" and fail formulate their own opinions through careful analysis. While the latter is certainly more difficult, it is, in my humble opinion, absolutely necessary before conforming to the authoritative norm and making such a bold "best ever" statement.
A slightly short third act and offbeat second are my main problems with the story structure. For example, the third act, after the devastating "sister daughter" scene, clocks in at a little under 15 minutes, which feels way too rushed for a 130 minute corruption narrative. At some moments, the dialogue feels unnatural and serving little purpose, most notably during the "Chinaman" story sequence.
Along the same line, some small scenes cut from its 3rd draft shooting script, were better kept. For example, before Gittes learns about Leroy Shuhardt's drowning, Towne originally has a scene in which Gittes and Escobar have a small quarrel over the details over Mulwray's murder, which perfectly heightens the ever-so-present suspense and crucial central conflict. It's a shame Polanski and Towne decided against it.
Coming to the positives of the script — long story short, they're endless. Not only do the bifocal glasses serve as a critical portion to the film's image system (consisting of windows, glass, and reflections to emphasize the twisty nature of the story), they also drive the plot in unfathomably efficient ways: leading the audience to believe a different identity murderer at every turn, bridging the usually awkward transition of character motivation from the 2nd to 3rd act (as they're almost always too depressed to go on the final adventure), and finally, symbolizing the shred of hope Gittes has towards the end of the film, which we later learn, no matter how conclusive the evidence, is inevitably doomed to be useless under the corrupt regime of authority (which might explain why the glasses are broken).
Nevertheless — whether its script is perfect or not — with masterfully constrained yet incredibly expressive performances by Nicholson and Dunaway, a steady but technically flawless directorial hand by the child rapist himself, and arguably the greatest closing line to ever grace cinema's screen, Chinatown is a neo-noir classic for the ages, and one's which values and morals will continue to haunt us till the end of time.
A-