Revisiting Chinatown

Bryon Quertermous watched Roman Polanski's Chinatown recently and had this to say:

I finally gave CHINATOWN a sporting chance last night. I rented it for free from the library, so there was no money on the line, and from the moment I popped in the DVD I knew this was going to be the time I'd "get" it. And I did. I liked it a lot. It had the same feel and mood and vibe that THE BIG SLEEP and THE MALTESE FALCON give, but with a bit more of a modern spin. I enjoyed watching Jack Nicholson and there were some good moments in the movie, but I still don't see it as a GREAT movie. There are plenty of movies, PI and otherwise, that are much better and have done more with, and for, the form, so I don't see why this movie gets special billing.

This could be because I'm coming to the movie late and all of the secrets had been revealed, but still, I don't think that's it. And that's one of my biggest questions with this movie. I don't get what the whole sister/daughter kinky family triangle has to do with the main story of the water shortage plot. They never mesh and one never really has anything to do with the other. But none of that matters. The plot zipps along after a slow start and about an hour in I was ready to go to sleep but it kicked it up right then and I was dragged along to the end. I think my biggest complaint is that there wasn't enough character stuff for me. I've grown so used to my PI stories being as much about the PI character as the PI's case and there is none of that here.

I commented:

It's been about a year since I saw CHINATOWN for the first time myself. Have a look at review I blogged.

Gittes is the best role I've seen Nicholson play. Jake may not compare to book PIs, but the debate should be how he compares to other screen PIs. Since 1974 there've been a boatload of lukewarm adaptations of book-first PIs: Robert Urich and Joe Mantegna Spenser, Powers Boothe and James Caan as Philip Marlowe, Jeff Bridges as Scudder, Denzel as Easy Rawlins, or Alec Baldwin as Robicheaux. I'll take Gittes over any of them. He was made for the movies. Towne knew what had to happen onscreen to make Jake memorable.

Two other great screen original PIs? Jeff Bridges as Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski and Bill Pullman as Darryl Zero (ZERO EFFECT).