Chinatown 1974
I’m not sure when I first watched Chinatown, but I bought the DVD in 2004, maybe as a blind buy. I watched it again and had forgotten some major details, especially towards the end. It’s a very good movie, true to its noir roots, and Jack Nicholson is great as a smart and tough guy who does some dumb things and gets beat up a lot. John Huston is also very good as one of the best villains of all time even though his part is pretty small and his acting is a little stiff. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie until towards the end when Nicholson’s character finally figures it all out (only after slapping the crap out of Faye Dunaway) and then does some more really dumb things that make the whole thing end badly. That seemed forced to have him give up the upper hand and it turns out that the director, Roman Polanski, changed the ending at the end of filming to get a bigger impact. I didn’t care for it and so I am marking it down from an easy A to an A-.
Written: 10 Aug 2017
Owned on: Blu-ray, Digital