The truth did come out: Her "sister" is actually her daughter, and the father of her daughter was her father. It's about incest. Creepiness expected of the director.

Forget it Homer, it’s Chiro-town.

Famous line, nice 👍

​@@graham974😊

One of the greatest lines ever

Top quote of the top 🎥 films!

Nice tie up .

maybe worth adding that in the early years of the LAPD, Chinatown was pretty much the sanctioned area for vice. 'Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown' can be read as 'you know how this goes; you've been here before'.

I got the same feel , hey anything goes here move on......its Chinatown .

On a side note, Robert Towne got his start as an actor in the film "The Creature from the Haunted Sea." He went by the name Edward Wain. It was a goofy movie but, at least, he got a foot in the door. It's all good.

@@clarencewalker3925 Makes sense as Nicholson started in other Roger Corman films as well.

She isn't in it a ton but Three Days of the Condor is great too.

"A Face in the Crowd" CRUSHES "Network".

DEFINITELY "Bonnie And Clyde" and "DEFINITELY "Network"!!!!! How there are not countless reactions to those two movies is beyond me. There are, I believe, only three for "Network". NONE for "Bonnie And Clyde". Those stand right next to Chinatown, Godfather, Cuckoo's Nest, Taxi Driver, etc as far as undisputed masterpieces of that "New Hollywood" era. ("Dog Day Afternoon" is another). Anyways, DEFINITELY seconding both "Bonnie And Clyde" and "Network". (and if I had to pick a fourth essential Faye film: "Barfly"!)

I was thinking the same thing during the watch. It's amazing to me how little she is known to youger audiences, seing how big she was.

@@Oxmustube true true. She's mostly known for her overacting in Mommie Dearest these days, which really is a shame

What critic said this?

yeah, no actor ever wants to be seen on film dying. That's why so many chse parts in which they could do a death scene. Name ONE critic who said as you claim.

​@@randywhite3947Roger Ebert.

If not the greatest

Sources for that hype?

@@randywhite3947 As compared to what? See "A Man for All Seasons" (six Oscars), "Casablanca" (Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Director), 1957's "12 Angry Men".

@@jnagarya519 you can find it on google

The screenplay for this is considered one of the greatest ever written and is used for teaching and training writers. No matter how many times this is watched, - new details, more depth, additional complexities always crop up. Chinatown is more a frame of mind, and circumstance of life, is not a place, but is unknown and bitter social realities.

Spoiler a bit- ****************** ****************** The last shot of Faye Dunaway is a callback or reference to her role in “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967)

And if you ever watch Bogart's version of MALTESE FALCON, John Huston's the director AND his famous '20s and '30s actor-father plays the ROLE of the soon-to-die captain of the SS PALOMA, carrying in the Falcon statuette. The stuff dreams are made of. He gets better, though, and plays the Older of the miners in TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE in 1948.

Son of actor Walter Huston (Treasure Ot The Sierra Madre).

He also won an Oscar for "treasure of the sierra madre" as well as his father for best supporting actor. Years later him & Angelica both won for "prizzi's honor"

When I saw this film on opening night in 1974, knowing nothing about it, I thought Evelyn Mulwray might be in league with her father the whole time, setting Gittes up. She walked a tightrope in creating that character, keeping us guessing until the end.

@@lemorab1 It wasn't she who kept you guessing; it was the screenplay.

She didn't keep you guessing; the screenplay did that.

That’s from Batman

@@ReallyGoodandKind my apologies

Body Heat needs some love from movie reactors.

Oh yes, Body Heat is great!

KLUTE and THE LONG GOODBYE are two more needing to get rediscovered.

"Body Heat" is great, but man, "Double Indemnity"...

If TBR and Sam could ever find a way to cover Body Heat, it would be great. Brilliant directing, writing, hot musical score, and performances by William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, and Ted Danson.

Bawled my fucking eyes out in that movie.

Mine is the unknown Frantic with Harrison Ford

Another sex-obsessed film from Polanski? Gee, what a non-surprise. He needs to take a break and spend some time on a special kind of couch.

Exactly. There is nothing wrong with this film, one of the most perfect films ever made.

See him in "As Good as it Gets" and "The Witches of Eastwick".

@@jnagarya519 Hes even better in The Wolfman. His best work no one talks about.

Ken Kesey, the author, wanted Gene Hackman in the role of RP McMurphy. Anyone who read the novel would agree, Hackman would have been perfect. I believe Nicholson got too much credit. The supporting cast was outstanding. Everyone in the cast were perfect in their roles. Kesey refused to watch the film.

Great movie. Hell, you probably could pick about a half-dozen Nicholson films from the late 60s to the mid 70s (EASY RIDER, FIVE EASY PIECES, CARNAL KNOWLEDGE, THE LAST DETAIL, CHINATOWN, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOOS NEST, etc) as among the best of his career.

The passenger too.

And his directing career began (The Maltese Falcon) and ended (The Dead) with masterpieces.

@@anthonyleecollins9319not many can say that

"pretty sure"? Perhaps you should actually research the question.

The Two James doesn’t hold a candle to Chinatown, of course, but I just loved getting to catch up with Jake so many years later. It’s sad that we’ll never get the third one they had planned.

@@alankingsley2916 I've never seen it, but I've heard that despite definitely being inferior to "Chinatown" - I mean, there aren't a whole lot of movies that can measure up to it anyway - it's actually a pretty good sequel.

@@anthonyvasquezactor IMO the last act is a mess. The rest is pretty good, though!

What's the main premise of that without any spoilers? Does it have any relation to the original?

I've run into that basic sister/mother thing quite a few times reading about people in the last century. Look up Merle Oberon sometime, and they're not all famous actresses. All to do with sex with underage girls being just a thing that was tolerated among men but something that needed to be buried on the part of the women it happened to. Feel free to chime in with Polanski-related comments if you must, but it's not like he invented statutory rape.

@@karlmortoniv2951 to be clear, it wasn’t merely statutory.

@MDK2_Radio Depends on when you hear about it from the person involved. It never came to trial so we don't know what the DA would have pursued in court.

Network was my favorite movie of all time. Very prescient satire on news, terrorism and politics.

@@karlmortoniv2951The latest I read on this topic was that Polanski and his lawyer had a deal worked out with the DA for some jail time + time off for already served time, but at the last minute they heard the judge wasn’t going to honor the deal, so Polanski fled the country. Not excusing the action, but explaining what was happening.

And now they're running out of water. What a difference 😶

You haven't seen many movies.

@@jnagarya519 LOL, okay random guy. I’ve seen thousands.

@@zeltzamer4010 So, random guy, you consider a film about incest, and the VICTIM of the incest being killed, a great film. But that isn't what you consider "insane"?

@@jnagarya519 My endorsement of the movie is not an endorsement of what happens in it, obviously. By that measure, anyone who likes The Empire Strikes Back must support interplanetary war and hand mutilation.

@@zeltzamer4010 I am an adult with critical faculties. And as a professional writer I critically evaluate not only the writing but look behind and beyond it to sources. A super-convoluted writing that is ultimately based upon BLAMING THE VICTIM of incest is problematic. None of that is obscured by actors or cinematography or "enjoying" it as a viewer who surrenders objectivity to wallow in emotion. One of the best movies ever made, in all particulars, is 1966's "A Man for All Seasons". Another is 1957's "12 Angry Men". Art should not debase.

Not a lot of acting by Huston for that ...

Jack was dating his daughter at the time

@@rxtsec1 More than dating.

@@frankgesuele6298 yeah they were together for years

I think the father in the film was the director of The Maltese Falcon, John Huston.

@@stsolomon618 Yes that's him Angelica's father. Huston also directed Key Largo and Treasure of the Sierra Madre, both magnificent films!

@seansersmylie Thanks for that. I saw those films they are very good.

Good game to play with The Long Goodbye is Spot the Schwarzenegger

Altman movies are also very interesting, and worth a watch. Movies include McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Nashville, The Wedding, MASH, The Player, Gosford Park and more!

He changed Robert Towne's ending, which in my opinion would have been better.

In the wrong hands the ending would have been melodramatic and ruined the film, but Polanski was a great filmmaker in his prime and it made the movie devastating at the end. He told Towne she had to die at the end of the film would have no deeper meaning

Yes, and also that truly figuring it out usually involves tragedy because you have to get in so deep to figure it out that you become a player in the 'game'--and it's almost a certainty that you are the weakest player and thus cannot help or protect anyone, even yourself. Jake was lucky to get out of this alive. Or was he lucky? Now he has to live with another instance of trying to help someone he cared about, only to make sure she got hurt (killed). And that doesn't even include Katherine, who now is under the control of her father/grandfather, a despicable person. Jake can only hope that Cross is too old to repeat what he did to Evelyn, but it certainly won't be a good environment for Katherine...

And Heaven Can't Wait, Reds, Dick Tracy and Bugsy with Warren Beatty

See 1966's "A Man for All Seasons".

@@jnagarya519 I have, but I like this much more.

Yes!! 😀👍

It should be pointed out that "Chinatown" is NOT a true story. Robert Towne took some people and re-aligned their stories to cook up his own thing. Not that this kind of awfulness didn't go on back then, but "Chinatown" should not be taken as historical fact.

Never said it was. I said it was BASED.

The San Fernando Valley has never been a city. It is about 60 suburbs in search of a city. I grew up there in the late 1940's, 1950's, and 1960's and watched it change from farmland to the bleak concrete jungle it is today. The Ventura Freeway took our house via Eminent Domain in 1956.

Exactly! 👌

The Godfather Part II also came out in 1974. Most thought it was a toss up between Nicholson and Al Pacino and Carney surprised by beating both. The other nominees that year, Dustin Hoffman in Lenny and Albert Finney in Murder on the Orient Express were strong performances as well. Really great year for the best actor category.

Carney deserved it.

I have seen 4 of the 5 Best Actor nominees (only missing Dustin Hoffman in LENNY), and IMO the only deserving candidates were Carney and Nicholson (it was neck and neck between the 2 for me). That being said, I think the person who should've won that year was Gene Hackman for THE CONVERSATION who bizarrely wasn't even nominated.

1970s film was steeped in paranoia.

Played a sleazy private detective in the great Black Widow (1987).

"Never confuse the singer with the song"-guys, dont confuse Polanskis personal life with the films. This film is a classic, and its film noir-ALL this genre is DARK. Its not "the last ten minutes". Its film noir dude.

Uh, I don't think so? Based on literally the entirety of the movie, the line means there's nothing you can do about it anyway. You can't change it, everything is rooted too deep, so just walk away.

@@robertcampbell8070 Exactly, and it refers to the corruption, wealth and power and the water scandal too in that way, tying it all together. Pity the review didnt seem to get that instead calling it two films. Oops.

Not really. It's more like it's futile to fight corruption at this level, so let it go.

⁠@@petercofrancesco9812 “Corruption” is too one-sided since that perspective requires maintaining the primacy of a conventional sense and expectation of law and order, or of how things are supposed to work. Historically (and even today to some degree), Chinatowns or Chinese immigrant communities in North America were not forced to function strictly according to Western expectations, but were allowed to operate according to their own cultural norms and mores, their own expectations of how things work, their own set of rules and how those rules are applied and enforced. Chinese society under Confucianism (and also under today’s Communist Party) had a different approach to the law and to ideas like the good of the community; and the way such a society operated could seem to Western observers to be at least ad hoc pragmatism, if not unfathomable and mercurial lawlessness. That is what “it’s Chinatown” is getting at: There is a different way of doing things, a different set of rules, expectations and understanding of how they will be applied that is confusing or even disturbing to those outside of the society who are powerless to change it. That is true whether the reference is to the literal Chinatown or to the society of the rich and powerful, who also seem to have and are allowed to retain their own way of doing things, their own set of rules, their own relationship to the law; and all of that is difficult or impossible for those outside of that society to understand, accept or change. The movie doesn’t completely lose its outsiders’ perspective on either form of Chinatown, but there is an element of understanding that Chinatown isn’t just corruption and lawlessness so much as it is another way of thinking and doing that works according to its own logic.

Jake Gittes had been a patrol cop in Chinatown, and he had been given the order to look the other way because of pay offs to the cops and local politicians. How did you manage to miss that?

Yep, and as great as The Godfather 2 is, I think Chinatown should have won the best picture Oscar for 1974.

Great filmmaker whose movies deserve to be preserved, terrible human being who deserves to die in obscurity. But he is a prime target when talking about separating the art from the artist. Michael Jackson, Luc Besson, Ezra Pound...etc. all great artists, all guilty of terrible things. Personally, I absolutely believe it's possible, even necessary, to separate the two.

Yes, I agree🤔

I Love the Ninth Gate but I suspect that you and Samantha would not. I still recommend it however because I am dying to see someone react to it.

I would give this more thumbs up if I could, absolute fave!

One of those films I have to watch every year. Love it so much.

Yes!!👍😀

One of the most beautifull films I've ever seen.

I can see why it might not win. For one thing it is very dark and disturbing. I mean I love this movie and the Cross father/daughter reveal still leaves me feeling like I am breaking out in hives when I see it. For another it is a movie where you have to be paying attention every second or else you will miss something that keeps you from connecting all of the dots and a lot of people these days don't have that attention level. It is not a film for lazy movie watchers which seems to be what a lot of the movie watching audience these days has become.

@@88wildcat 100% correct. too many lazy viewers with little or no attention level.

I wish every reactor on KZfaq would do Once Upon a Time in the West. My all-time favorite movie and hardly anyone ever reacts to it. I think maybe there are four total reactions to it and half of them are reactors that have no idea what they are doing.

There’s a nice little political thriller/mystery by Polanski called The Ghost Writer. It stars Ewen McGregor and Pierce Brosnan. I’d recommend it.

I think Polanski's darkest place would be in a hot tube at Nicholson's house.

@@joshhill5932 yeah, but that’s not a film fortunately.

I would definitely recommend the excellent TFVK for a nice change of pace, it's a very light-hearted horror spoof, basically combining Carl Dreyer with Hammer Films.

His film "Carnage" has some funny moments too.