Comparing ChinaTown and the Big Sleep

Comparing ChinaTown and the Big Sleep

ChinaTown, directed by Roman Polanski, is a non-traditional hard-nosed detective film made in the 70's. The typical elements of character type are there; J.J. Gittes (a private detective in LA) played by Jack Nicholson is the central character, sharing the spotlight is Fay Dunaway playing the femme fatale Evelyn Mulwray. This film breaks all types of norms when compared to the hard-nosed detective films it is modeled after. The film is filled with allusions to the Big Sleep, especially taken from scenes of Marlowe and Vivian. Chinatown has formal elements indicative that it is going to be in the style of traditional Film Noir hardboiled detective, until you examine the characters' personalities next to the story content.

The end of the ChinaTown has a major change from films like the Big Sleep or even the Maltese Falcon. J.J. Gittes ends up with nothing. He loses the girl he loves to a bullet; he loses the girl he is trying to protect to the sinister villain Noah Cross. The last shot of the film leaves the audience with no hope for the future. Gettis is back in ChinaTown, the place he has an obvious contempt for, the city that took his ex wife's life. As the camera cranes upward opening the frame, and the crowd of Chinese people surrounds the scene, Gettis is escorted away, moving to the background. We are left with the impression of watching the retreat of someone who has just been bested and is going home alone in defeat with nothing but pain. This is a very dark ending, there is no hero getting the girl, or the split of emotions when the hero has to let the girl go to jail to uphold his code of honor for the murder of his partner. The audience is just left with a mostly empty frame.

Gettis is similar to Marlowe from the Big Sleep at first glance. Like Marlowe he once worked for the District Attorney and now is a private detective. Gettis also falls in love with the femme fatale character Evelyn, like Marlowe does for Vivian. Here is where most of the similarity between the characters stops. The hardboiled detective as a formal type is indicative of a protaganist with sharp social skills, congeniality and a flawless demeanor. Gettis destroys this ritual. Gettis has moments when he is smooth; by in large he is a far cry from Bogart's portrayal of Marlowe. In one instance he hears a joke at the b...

... middle of paper ...

...ttis point of view, the first person point view. This gives us the impression that we are watching the mystery unfold at the same time he is. The narrative form is exemplified in the scene where Gettis is on bridge, watching Hollis Mulwray talk to the little boy on the horse in the flood plain. We start with an establishing shot of Hollis's car driving down the riverbed. Then it cuts in tighter on Hollis. The next cut is of Gettis watching the scene through binoculars. In use of the film noir this narrative form we are left with no clue as to why Hollis is in the riverbed, what was said in the discourse with the boy on the horse or what Hollis is looking at on the hood of his car. At the same time neither does Gittes.

The hardboiled detective film is still being copied today, however loosely, on TV series and Movies. The movies have some obvious similarities, but as finished products they are totally different. Polanski is able to twist the ideas he uses from The Big Sleep so much so, that as a whole ChinaTown can transcend any correlation it might have with The Big Sleep. Taken in its smaller parts by character analysis or in some scenes, the films resemble each other.