Like the Godfather (also produced by Robert Evans) Chinatown was filmed during the "Hollywood New Age" of the 1970s but it doesn't feel too trapped in that era. Part of the credit for this goes to the script by Robert Towne. Like the Godfather this film takes a typical Hollywood genre, in this case detective films, and makes some changes to it but while still keeping many of the core elements of the genre. The other credit should go to Polanski for the way that the film was shot. Polanski shoots the 1930's setting with both old fashioned glamor as well as modern "grit". These two elements come together to create a film that is set in the thirties and made in the seventies bt which neither feels like a movie from the thirties or from the seventies.
The film follows Jack Nicholson as a private detective who normally works divorce cases but who ends up getting involved in a case of murder and corruption that continues to get more complex as it goes. To reveal any more of the plot would be criminal and it is quite labyrinthine. This is why Chinatown can be a little difficult to love upon first viewing. It is a movie that requires a lot of concentration from the viewer and upon first viewing that concentration is spent on the plot. The plot of this films is only one part of what makes it great and that is why on second and third viewing the movie continues to improve.
Robert Towne wrote a screenplay that very much follows in the vein of a Raymond Chandler novel. This movie really involves the viewer to the point that even upon third viewing I was still captivated by the ability the films had to reel me in. This is also why when Towne adds some new ideas of his own to the conclusion which differ from your typical Marlowe novel it can be rather abrupt and, well I don't want to ruin it.
Overall the performances are also fantastic with Dunaway and Nicholson the standouts. In many ways the art of cinema has been very generous to viewers giving us not 10 or 15 but more than 20 films which I consider to be perfect in nearly every respect. Reveling in the joy of watching these great films is as fine an experience as a five star meal. Chinatown is a film that only gets better on each viewing and remains perfect 5/5!
