Chinatown (1974)

Chinatown (1974) by Roman Polanski
Chinatown starred Jack Nicholson as a private detective named “Jake Gittes” who is hired to spy on Hollis Mulwray, the chief engineer for the city’s water department, by an imposer who comes into his office and claims to be Mrs. Evelyn Mulwray. (She thinks he’s having an affair.) Once Gittes starts spying on Hollis, he snatches pictures of him with a young blonde and another time with an old man that looks like they are in a heated argument. Later we find out who the young blonde is, and the old man is Evelyn’s father, Noah Cross (played by John Hutson). The real Evelyn Mulwray comes into Gittes’s office and proclaims she is going to sue him if he doesn’t stop following her husband. However, once Hollis ends up killed, a huge investigation breaks out and Gittes tries to figure out why this man died and who killed him.
This movie was a film noir because it had a big investigation about a murder that needed to be solved. The black and white made it more of a cinematic feel to it. I didn’t understand why that lady impersonated Evelyn Mulwray and who hired her to do that. I didn’t understand why they wanted him to be spied on and why the impersonator lady turned up dead in her apartment later on in the film. I understand the overall point of the film, just not that particular detail. The movie was pretty good, it definitely had the film noir aspects to it. It was a mystery with one character trying to solve the problem without getting the cops involve because of course, they ruin everything. The moral of the story was that something bad always happens whenever Gitte is in Chinatown. The entire movie was not set in Chinatown expect for the end of the film where something horrible happens! And that’s the point is that good things don’t come out of being in Chinatown. Horrible things will always happen there!