Extras : Scene index, Theatrical Trailer, A Retrospective Interview
with Roman Polanski, Robert Towne and Robert Evans
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
Chinatown
is the first of two film noir movies starring Jack Nicholson as
private eye J.J. (Jake) Gittes, the second being the self-directed sequel
The 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 long
he'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 river
when there's meant to be a drought on.
I could mention other parts of the plot, but to do that could give certain
things away.
Jack is the best thing about this film. He delivers his typical excellent
performance as he always did in the late 70s and early 80s, but aside from
an entertaining fight sequence just over halfway through when his snooping
goes a bit too far the film does get incredibly boring at times and Faye
Dunaway doesn't look alluring - though that's presumably the impression she's
meant to give - just half-asleep.
Director Roman Polanski appears in a cameo as "Man with Knife", which
is why Nicholson spends most of the film with what looks like a toffee wrapper
stuck on his nose.
Anamorphic and in the original 2.35:1 ratio, it looks very good, but there's
the usual scratches and blemishes on the print you'd expect for a
near-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. Like
the same for
Witness, it doesn't
offer many surprises but comes across clearly.
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 minutes
and a seven-minute interview with director Peter Weir. Both you'll
watch once and probably not go back to.
Menu :
A basic static and silent menu with a shot of the two leads and the usual
options.
For a film that's a reputed classic I found it dragging on for far too
long. Jack's good, as always, but the rest of the film never gets going
properly 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 film
late at night and accidentally broadcast a version - on both digital and
analogue platforms - with a widescreen ratio of around 2.1:1.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
