Chinatown – Special Collector’s Edition (1974)

by | Nov 28, 2007 | DVD & Blu-ray Video Reviews | 0 comments

Chinatown – Special Collector’s Edition (1974)

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston
Director: Roman Polanski
Studio: Paramount 12244
Video: Enhanced for 16:9 widescreen, color
Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1; English restored mono/French, Spanish, Portuguese mono
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese
Extras: Four featurettes = “Chinatown: The Beginning and The End!,’ “Chinatown Style,” “Acting Chinatown,” “Chinatown: The Classic,” Theatrical trailer
Length: 130 minutes
Rating: *****

This classic feature is regarded by Polanski as his second most successful film, after The Pianist, but is on the Top Ten list of many critics. It only won one Oscar, for scriptwriter Robert Towne – a longtime friend of Nicholson’s who crafted much of the actor’s lines to fit his personality.

What seems at the outset a straightforward case of adultery for attorney Gittes (Nicholson) – with Faye Dunaway as the dishonored socialite wife – develops into a convoluted and mysterious confusion involving deceit and dastardly doings, as Gittes allows himself to be drawn in deeper and deeper, at some danger to himself.  For example, witness the famous nose-cutting (inflicted by a character played by Polanski himself) which than forces the Gittes character to continue for about half of the film with his famous – then young and handsome – face disfigured by bandages on his nose. 

Author Towne gives the story much more scope and sweep by involving the supposed adultery case with the larger conspiracy to control the needed water supply for Los Angeles in the 1930s. In the  useful featurettes Nicholson, Towne and Polanski speak at length about aspects of the filming. Nicholson credits Polanski with teaching him many acting points, and talks about the framing of some of the cinematography which has the camera following just behind Gittes, showing his head and shoulders, as though the viewer is experiencing what he is discovering along with him.  The look of 1930s LA seems very accurate, including the various vintage cars. The story doesn’t take place in Chinatown except for the final scene – which was Polanski’s idea to add.  Chinatown is more of a concept or philosophy that is central to the film – which would take too long to explain here.

The transfer is so good that most of the film looks like hi-def resolution, except for the darker scenes that would not appear washed out in Blu-ray or HD DVD. Jerry Goldsmith was brought in at the last moment to replace the original soundtrack score, which Polanski and associates felt didn’t work.  The new score has a number of avantgarde music effects such as playing on the strings of the piano without the keyboard.  A main theme is carried by an evocative trumpet soloist. The new 5.1 mix doesn’t create much of a soundfield with the sound effects, but it often brings the music score to the fore on the surround channels.  In fact, in the final scene in Chinatown it is rather crudely brought up at too high a level. Seeing this classic again, I believe I would put it on my top ten films list.

 – John Sunier

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