Chinatown

Dom Robinson reviews

ChinatownDistributed by

Paramount

• Cert:
• Cat.no: PHE 8042
• Running time: 125 minutes
• Year: 1974
• Pressing: 2000
• Region(s): 2, PAL
• Chapters: 16 plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Surround
• Languages: 6 languages available
• Subtitles: 12 languages available
• Widescreen: 2.35:1
• 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
• Macrovision: Yes
• Disc Format: DVD 9
• Price: £19.99
• Extras : Scene index, Theatrical Trailer, A Retrospective Interviewwith Roman Polanski, Robert Towne and Robert Evans
  

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  Director:

  Roman Polanski

  (Bitter Moon, Chinatown, Cul-de-Sac, Death and the Maiden, The Fearless Vampire Killers, Frantic, Knife in the Water, Macbeth, Repulsion, Rosemary’s Baby, Tess)

Producer:

Robert Evans

Screenplay:

Robert Towne

Music:

Jerry Goldsmith

Cast:

J.J. (Jake) Gittes: Jack Nicholson
Evelyn Cross Mulwray: Faye Dunaway
Noah Cross: John Huston
Lieutenant Lou Escobar LAPD: Perry Lopez
Russ Yelburton, Deputy Chief of Water Department: John Hillerman
Hollis Mulwray: Darrell Zwerling
Ida Sessions: Diane Ladd
Claude Mulvihill: Roy Jenson
Man with Knife: Roman Polanski

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Chinatownis the first of two film noir movies starring Jack Nicholson asprivate eye J.J. (Jake) Gittes, the second being the self-directed sequelThe Two Jakes.

Set in pre-war Southern California Evelyn Cross Mulwray (Faye Dunaway)comes to Jake with a problem. She wants him to investigate her husband,Hollis (Darrell Zwerling), who’s having an affair but before longhe’s found testing Archimedes’ law. His isn’t the only body to be found,but Jake’s suspicions are aroused while bodies are being flushed down riverwhen there’s meant to be a drought on.

I could mention other parts of the plot, but to do that could give certainthings away.

Jack is the best thing about this film. He delivers his typical excellentperformance as he always did in the late 70s and early 80s, but aside froman entertaining fight sequence just over halfway through when his snoopinggoes a bit too far the film does get incredibly boring at times and FayeDunaway doesn’t look alluring – though that’s presumably the impression she’smeant to give – just half-asleep.

Director Roman Polanski appears in a cameo as “Man with Knife”, whichis why Nicholson spends most of the film with what looks like a toffee wrapperstuck on his nose.

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Anamorphic and in the original 2.35:1 ratio, it looks very good, but there’sthe usual scratches and blemishes on the print you’d expect for anear-30-year-old film and it looks a little grainy at times.The average bitrate is a high 7.64b/s, occasionally peaking over 9Mb/s.

The sound has been remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1 for English only. Likethe same forWitness, it doesn’toffer many surprises but comes across clearly.

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Extras : Chapters :16 chapters over 125 mins? It’s the same number as the Region 1 DVD,but someone’s having a larf. Languages/Subtitles :Dolby Digital 5.1 in English alone with mono for the French, German, Hungarian,Italian and Spanish.Subtitles are available in English (and hard of hearing), Danish,Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese,Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. And there’s more… :An anamorphic and grainy 16:9 widescreen trailer lasting just over three minutesand a seven-minute interview with director Peter Weir. Both you’llwatch once and probably not go back to. Menu :A basic static and silent menu with a shot of the two leads and the usualoptions.

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For a film that’s a reputed classic I found it dragging on for far toolong. Jack’s good, as always, but the rest of the film never gets goingproperly and just slouches along in first gear but, like a lot of films,I wanted to stick with it to the end to see what would happen.

The only other good thing I can say is when BBC1 last showed the filmlate at night and accidentally broadcast a version – on both digital andanalogue platforms – with a widescreen ratio of around 2.1:1.

FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS


OVERALLReview copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.