Chinatown
Now “Chinatown” is the kind of movie that is really hard to write about. My feelings about the film are rather unclear, and it is so incredibly highly acclaimed too. Plus Polanski is a household name and not only because of that rape story. Expectations are high…
What can I say, the film kind of grew on me in its second half when the events felt like they were rolling on their own. The more was revealed in the story, the more I was interested in its outcome. I also liked the visual style and its obvious hommage to film noirs especially in the scenes where you see Jack and Evelyn together in a car. At the same time, I can’t help but feel that the film has strange weaknesses. First of all, there may be interesting characters in the story (the main character is a typical Sam Spade-like guy and the villains are actually smart) but the main female character is completely boring. There is a scandal about her past (but it doesn’t feel all that scandalous in this film somehow) but her current self appears more like a whiny damsel in distress than a femme fatale who takes matters into her own hands. In fact, for most of the film she acts contradictory and panicky, rather than driven and vengeful (like most femme fatales would). All she does is running away, and she even fails to recognize the possibilities of using Jack or anyone else. She sleeps with him without the firm intent to use it for her, heck it even isn’t clear what feelings she has for anybody besides her daughter. If anything, she is totally an anti-femme-fatale besides her stylish looks which she never seems to even use for her own sake. What’s more, there is no such thing as a femme fatale who has something else to protect besides herself.
After finishing with my nagging on the main female character, there is nothing else about the film I want to go into detail about. I would like to mention how there are tons of crime films whose revelations were more interesting for me to see. I loved “L.A. Confidential” and when I think of an intricate and complex plot, I would rather think of “Miller’s Crossing” than this film. Heck the makers of the film weren’t even sure about the ending, where the last single minute defined the entire outcome. Also what’s up with that quasi-racist depiction of Chinatown (or any other Asian characters) in the first place? Since we are already speaking about political incorrectness, how come the good main character beats up a woman who does not fight back and is a rape victim? (Now you could say that Jack Nicholson’s character is not only portrayed as good, but certainly he is portrayed as moral… except for that woman-beating thing.) Feminism taken aside, no man can possibly aspire to be ‘good’ if he even considers beating up another defenseless human without giving him or her a chance to speak. It’s really that simple.
The more I happen to think about this film, the less I like it. Even though that one kind of objectified women as well, I thought that “Knife in the Water” was brilliant, and I really liked “Repulsion” but Polanski is strangely capable of making both sophisticated and dumb movies.