Roman Polanski, yes, the puritanical American press has crucified him for decades for his dalliance with a 13 year old girl. Very few know the actual story, the girl herself has no ill feelings towards Roman, and being European and considerably more sophisticated than the spawn of colonists, whom in essence were mostly poor Brits considered trash by their upper-class countrymen as well as repressed religious zealots, love to sit in moral judgement. Plymouth Rock got the witch burners and Jamestown only had a few noblemen. Georgia was populated by British convicts. In a plea agreement, the director agreed to plead guilty to "engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor", undergoing a 90 day psychiatric evaluation and probation. Polanski complied with the terms and it would have all been over and done with except the judge, Laurence J. Rittenband, reneged on his own prosecutor's plea bargain. Thus, Roman got the hell out of the American Empire for good and has lead a much more fulfilling life mostly in France where young girls desire to bed older men as a rite of passage. The propaganda is that we live in the "land of the free". That concept is absolutely absurd!

excellent!

yes!

Ah good point. Hadn't realised that hint to the past as nothing good happens there. And hence the 'forget it Jake, it's Chinatown'.

As Wm. Faulkner said: "The saddest word is 'again.'" Jake repeats a tragedy that happened in his past. Because he wants to make it come out right this time.

thank you!

you're welcome. yes, all the slants add up to something; too bad they are always behind him and he can't ever see them!

I agree that this is one of the best scripts ever written. Two things have bugged me since I saw "Chinatown" on opening night in summer, 1974. (No reviews were out yet and we, the audience, expected a conventional noir thriller and homage to the detective procedurals of the 1940's with Humphrey Bogart, Lawrence Tierney, Bob Mitchum, Dick Powell, et al. Of course, we walked out of the theater gutted, in silence, trying to take in what we'd just seen.) First, everything is right there that Gittes needs to identify Mulwray's killer: The salt water pond and the perp's glasses. Gittes points the glasses out to the gardener, but is distracted by Mrs. Mulwray's sudden appearance and forgets all about the glasses. So, we have to believe that the fastidious gardener just leaves the glasses at the bottom of the pond for Gittes to eventually fish out himself. Gittes may have been distracted, but the gardener wasn't. The second thing is, after working as a cop in Chinatown, Gittes knows that the power brokers pull all the strings, get away with everything, and own the system. Yet, he actually believes he can nail Noah Cross for Hollis Mulwray's murder! Gittes is cocky, not nearly as smart as he thinks he is, and is actually two steps behind Cross' criminal syndicate, when he foolishly believes he's two steps ahead. There's a naivete in the character, as written, that I found hard to swallow in an experienced hardened, chastened cop turned private eye.

Could even be a Right hand path vs left hand path symbology + one eye.

@@lemorab1 Good points

fair enough. good comment, thanks!

Jake is a tragic character: all his strengths & abilities are not enough to save him from his flaw: he's hasty, impulsive, and has a hidden wish to impress Noah Cross, whom in some dark way he admires.

@@constantreader8760 Interesting insight about wanting to impress Cross, which might be why Gittes is so quick to show Cross his entire hand, including his one piece of physical evidence, near the end. He presents as slick and street-smart, yet doesn’t expect Cross to have goons at hand to make sure Cross gets his way. And he has to be told that Cross owns the police-something that’s obvious to the audience from the first shots of Cross’ estate. Gittes, like so many other characters and LA itself (especially another part of town, called Hollywood), artifice. And LA certainly isn’t the only part of the world with a brightly lit stage and very dark backstage. Jake’s one of the wide-eyed wounded.

@@vincegay986 Yes, he should have had some backup during that scene, but he probably didn't trust the cops either.

@@truthseeker7341 Not at all my point.

yes!

I agree it is one of the movies made ever

@@theeoddments960 it is for sure on of them

he deserves a video. he was great at choosing projects, especially that killer run in the 1970s.

Learning about Movies Absolutely, can you make a video about him? I think he’s in the top 3 actors of all time

I have been thinking about it for months. Just trying to figure out the format -- ranking his movies or going through them chronologically? I need to watch a couple of obscure ones first, such as the King of Marvin Gardens.

Hells Angel's on Wheels ~ Poet

thank you.

thank you.

thank you very much.

thank you.

yes.

maybe I should do an intro video on that. thanks.

@@LearningaboutMovies Yesssss.

yes!

thank you.

have not. always have to meant to go back to his earlier works, but have not seen anything before Rosemary's Baby -- instead, just about everything after it.

I like the line mumbled by Jake just before that, almost lost in thought, '..... as little as possible.' And the cop looks ready to punch him when he just catches a bit of it, like it's the Precinct joke/punchline. lol. classic film, the ending it deserved. Went nowhere. Beat goes on.

Chandler is more a style and atmosphere writer, with a fun narrator. MacDonald is far better with plots. The ability for movies to visualize really does do what you say: capture in a provocative way the "theme of corruption in society." Would have been fun to have a sequel with the Gettes character. Jack could still do it!

@@LearningaboutMovies A sequel was made - The Two Jakes directed by Jack Nicholson. It flopped & plans for a 3rd dropped. The original idea by the writer Robert Towne was to have 3 scripts all based in LA on the themes of Water ( Chinatown) , Land ( The Two Jakes) & Gas. There's still a script out there & Jack Nicholson as well as Robert Towne are still alive as is Polanski in case someone's interested in producing.

thank you. that's neat.

thanks.

thank you.

I did! That video is on the channel somewhere - just search for it.

" And like Gittes, our weakness is being unable to imagine the full depravity of Noah Cross before it's too late." Good point!

early 1970s = not a time for happy endings.

@@LearningaboutMovies Lol. It’s why those movies stay with you for a long time.

"The Conversation" WAS brilliant..and EXTREMELY disturbing..Gene Hackman was SO amazing in every movie...

Guess you've not seen grave of the fireflies, that's the saddest and probably the most depressing film I've ever watched

​@jones848 I wouldn't discuss Grave of the Fireflies here, but I do agree with you that it is one of the most, if not the number one depressing film I have ever seen. I am surprised I watched it quite a few times, because it always left me with a sense of dread for those I deeply cared about. I haven't watched it again in years, and ever since our daughter was born, I don't think I ever want to watch it again. I worry about my family enough.

what polanski is accused of is not only disgusting, but it's abhorrent that he fled. I think the art is separate from the artist, mostly, depending on context. Some of the most beloved poems in the world were written by a man who used his power to seduce a woman and then had her husband murdered. That's King David, who by that definition was a moral monster. Caravaggio was a murderer, Cellini confessed to everything, Lewis Carroll was a pedo by our standards, and the list goes on for pages and pages. If the artist is using art condescendingly, to upbraid others while proving his/her own virtue, and the artist is clearly a hypocrite, that's when I object. Alas, that is quite a bit of Hollywood these days! Also, Thoreau. Polanski made many good movies. "The Pianist" is still great and it's a separate entity from the monster who directed it. Same with Chinatown. btw, the video I made on "Tess," another Polanski movie, touches on this point just a little bit.

@@LearningaboutMovies thanks so much for your insights! i might give his films a watch with unbiased eyes one day

I feel that knowing what Polanski did has a unique effect on this film in particular. The film is a meditation on evil and knowing that the director himself participated in such vile acts similar to the Father character only cements this film's themes. NOTE* This does not justify in any shape or form what Polanski did, he is a vile person for not only what he did but that he also didn't have the balls to face his rightful punishment. I just feel knowing about the man who directed this film and the fact that he never faced punishment for the evil he committed directly contributes to this film's themes being so impactful and unforgettable.

@@LearningaboutMovies it's perhaps easier to watch a movie from a director than it is to watch an actor like Spacey without thinking about his crimes the whole while watching him. He was one of my favourite actors... now...I agree with trying to separate artist from works. Many musicians are quite deplorable but I'm not going to stop listening to Oasis or other great music.

@@the_succ_ Yes, but Polanski didn't write those vile deeds perpetrated by the Cross patriarch. Robert Towne did.

great!

thanks.

yes, you're right. The Newman character is indeed named Lew Harper; they changed that from the novel, where his name is Lew Archer. The movie that came before "Drowning Pool", called Harper, is also based on a MacDonald novel.

@@LearningaboutMovies Thank you. I'll check MacDonald out. Much appreciated.

yesh. Albacore Club Good!

good observation, thank you!

Yes, she seems to be trying to flick away an unwanted particle of soot that blew into her eye.

indeed yes. you make me think about doing some video or videos on the AFI top 100 -- what should be in and what shouldn't.

@@LearningaboutMovies I think it's a fun conversation, I'd definitely be interested in that

you're welcome.

Try watching the movie instead of looking at your phone.

@@jamesscanlon5969 The movie is on my phone.

It's just you.

Bro stfu the dude raped a 13yr old girl he can be a talented artist and a bad human, and I'd say the best part about this movie is the writing which he didn't even do.

?? Five Easy Pieces, The lawyer with the crushed skull from Easy Rider? HAVE YOU WATCHED OTHER JACKS?? sorry.

@@timewa851 I didn't really like Bobby Dupea from Five Easy Pieces, two-timing and running out on his girl like that. I felt sympathy for the drunk lawyer in Easy Rider, but as far as "liking" him, I'm not sure...

those two words set you off, and yet you did not listen. The Marc Reisner book documents the historical aspects of LA Water rights shenanigans as real conspiracies. This channel has fondness for that sort of material -- see my videos on JFK, MAlcolm X, Judas and the Black Messiah, Dr. Strangelove, etc.

definitely likeable in a way. it's Jack!

Gittes appeals to the angry, impatient side of my personality. But he's gonna go down, and that's beautiful.

and yet he's the environmental hero/whistleblower, right? USually in noir, everybody is deeply corrupt, including the angels.

I'm pretty sure you're mistaken about Hollis Mulwray. He was not involved sexually with anyone. Cross just wanted Gittes to think so in order to have it treated like any other matrimonial sleuthing assignment coming over the transom. Hollis Mulwray was a thoroughly decent fellow. Evelyn sincerely believed that. And his refusal to build a dangerous dam confirms this for us.

I agree that you are mistaken if you mean Hollis Mulwray. He was not sexually involved with Katherine, he was a father figure to her and was trying to protect her. Hollis and Evelyn are the most morally uncompromised people in the story.

if only Aquaman were in the movie.

the police shooting into crowds, with perfect precision, is another movie cliche useful for heightening the drama. I would not recommend it for real life.

"FORGET IT JAKE, IT'S NEW ORLEANS" lol...YOU obviously are not familiar with crooked PD's..NOPD is a good example

Many of the movies from this period have the same aire. Zeitgeist.

um, what??

@@LearningaboutMovies Well i guess u never heard that.I have,several times,from reliable sources,like mainstream media.If that is reliable enough...

usually I do not look into the lives of actors. Never have heard this one.

It's the other way around; the person he thought was his sister is his mother. Her parents raised him as one of their own since she was underage and unmarried when he was born.

thanks.

please be more helpful than that.

standard noir ending. it's in all of the American noir books of the 20th century.

Why?

fair enough.