Shanece McGregor Chinatown is an American neo-noir movie. The movie is inspired by the dispute that went on in California over water at the start of the 20th century. Jake Gittes, a former officer now specializing in marital investigations. If hired he will investigate your spouse and find out if whether or not he/she is cheating. Hired by who we believed was Evelyn Mulwray, he is sent to investigate her husband, the builder of the city's water supply system. She believes that her husband might be seeing another woman. As Jake began his investigation, we later find that the woman was an imposter. She wasn't the real Mrs. Mulwray. So it's no wonder that when Mr. Mulwray is found dead, Jake finds the need to keep investigating. As he starts uncovering …show more content…
I feel as though the movie is trying to portray the Corruption of the American Society. One main element of the American society is the American Dream. They almost go hand in hand. The American Dream is; believing that although you might be poor you can become successful if you work hard enough. But Noah Cross, Evelyn’s father, was just cheating the system the whole time. Although Hollis Mulwray is the “genius” who developed the irrigation system, he was ultimately snuffed out by a man with power. That’s a close reflection of Wall Street. Wall Street is a place located in New York City where a lot of the United States financial industry is concentrated. It is home to the country's two major stock exchange, the New York Stock exchange and the American Stock Exchange. This place is tied to a lot of the country’s wellbeing economically wise. In other words if Wall Street were to crash, there will be bankruptcies, macroeconomic difficulties, decline of money, and unemployment. It's no surprise that we always hear so much illegal scams and activities going on within Wall Street. Numerous bankers have been caught in
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.
While there are many different ways to classify a Neo-noir film, Roman Polanski’s, Chinatown captures many. The 1974 movie consists of many of these elements, including both thematic and stylistic devices. One of the main themes of neo-noir film that is constant throughout the film is the deceptive plot that questions the viewers’ ideas and perceptions of what is actually happening in the film. Every scene of Chinatown leads to a twist or another turn that challenges the practicability of the film’s reality. All of the never-ending surprises and revelations lead up to the significant themes the movie is trying to convey in the conclusion of the film.
Roman Polanski weaves together several aspects of literary design and film noir in his 1974 Chinatown in order to tell the film’s engaging story inspired by the California Water Wars. These include the film’s unique use of structure, constant jarring plot twists, the development and depth of the film’s many characters, and multiple symbols and motifs. Most clear of these is the film’s use of water as a motif to represent the constant power struggle between the film’s characters, and character flaws in Gittes and Evelyn that adds an element of humanity and empathy between the film and the viewer as well in addition to strengthening the depth and complexity of the relationship between the film’s main characters.
Films that are classified as being in the film noir genre all share some basic characteristics. There is generally a voice-over throughout the film in order to guide the audience's perceptions. These movies also involve a crime and a detective who is trying to figure out the truth in the situation. This detective usually encounters a femme fatale who seduces him. However, the most distinctive feature of the film noir genre is the abundance of darkness.
The film stars Jack Nicholson as hard-boild detective, Jake Gittes, and Fay Dunaway, as Evelyn Cross Mulwray. Unlike The Big Sleep, the title Chinatown is referenced frequently throughout the film to symbolize a dark imbalanced universe filled with cheating, murder, water corruption, incest, sexual abuse, secrets, and violence. Early on the film, Chinatown is associated with cheating when Gittes shares a dirty joke, “A man who is bored with his wife decides to “screw like a Chinaman.” Chinatown represents a place of corruption where law enforcement does as “little as possible to help.” Jake holds a pessimistic, cynical, and apathetic view of the world because he feels powerless to the injustice and underlying forces of corruption and power in both Chinatown and Los Angeles. According to Gillian, two traditional conventions of film noir in Chinatown are themes of corruption and depravity. For example, Jake Gittes describes working for the D.A. in Chinatown: “I was trying to keep someone from being hurt. I ended up making sure she was hurt.” And that is what happens here. Here, Jake leaves Chinatown because he tried to help a woman, but his intervention inevitably hurt her. The injustices of law enforcement and conspiracies follow him on his venture to L.A, most notably with his former colleague Lt. Lo Excabar and Noah Cross who “owns the police” and practically the whole town. There is a clear animosity
In the novel entitled the great Gatsby, the ideals of the so called American dream became skewed, as a result of the greediness and desires of the main characters to become rich and wealthy. These character placed throughout the novel emphasize the true value money has on a persons place in society making wealth a state of mind. The heart of the whole notion of wealth lies in the setting of the novel, the east and west eggs of New York City. The west egg was a clustering of the "Nouveau riche" or the newly acquired rich, and the east egg was where the people who inherited their riches resided.
Did everyone has taken a moment to imagine which neighborhood that you like to live? The Chinatown neighborhood of Chicago is one of the historic neighborhoods. According to Harry Kiang’s Chicago’s Chinatown, “In 1890, 25 percent of the city's 600 Chinese lived along Clark between Van Buren and Harrison Streets, in an area called the Loop’s Chinatown. After 1910 Chinese from the Loop moved to a new area near Cermak Road and Wentworth Avenue, mainly for cheaper rent” (Encyclopedia of Chicago). The Chicago has two Chinatowns at the Southern part of the Chicago. Thus we can know that the old Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood is called the Loop’s Chinatown and located at Clark between Van Buren and Harrison Streets; the new Chicago’s Chinatown located
In this paper I will be sharing information I had gathered involving two students that were interviewed regarding education and their racial status of being an Asian-American. I will examine these subjects’ experiences as an Asian-American through the education they had experienced throughout their entire lives. I will also be relating and analyzing their experiences through the various concepts we had learned and discussed in class so far. Both of these individuals have experiences regarding their education that have similarities and differences.
The movie Chinatown is about the main character Jake Gittes, a private eye, and his search for what happened to Hollis Mulwray, which turns into the larger search and conspiracy of what has happened to all the water in Los Angeles County. Jake Gittes is the type of detective that takes a lot of pride in his work saying that he is “making an honest living,” relishing the fact that he seems to get a lot of press in his line of work. He also take a lot of pride in his appearance, constantly appearing in a stain free white suit, which is saying something because he is in the dead of summer heat in Los Angeles (LA). He also seems to be the type of guy who likes to get to the bottom of things, which is definitely a good sign since he is a detective
Upon viewing the film Chinatown a discovery can be made within a sequence of events that can be traced back to the beginning scene of the movie. This particular film is a movie of the private eye genre. Such films are made to where they convey the viewpoint of the detective and place the viewer in the mindset of the detective as the mystery unfolds beforehand. The evidence is clear throughout the film but you are only able to piece it together once the film has ceased. The discovery made is that the evidence presented to Jake Gittes is not particularly as it seems and is not easily understood as goes for multiple things during the course of the film.
The 1974 film Chinatown directed by Roman Polanski was a drama and mystery movie. Jake Gittes, a private divorce investigator, meets a woman who pretends to be Evelyn Mulwray, the wife of Hollis Mulwray. Hollis Mulwray was the chief engineer of the Los Angeles water company. The woman asks Jake to investigate her “husband” for his disloyalty to the marriage. Jake’s quest of the case slowly uncovers a huge scheme against a water company and management, land, real estate, and dishonesty through the city, as well as murder and deception.
This movie starts off as Jordan Belfort, the main character in the movie, losing his job as a stockbroker in Wall Street. After losing his job, he goes and gets a job in a Long Island brokerage room. In the brokerage room, he sells penny stocks. Thanks to him being aggressive in his selling skills, he was able to make a profit. With the new income, he gives his wife a bracelet and she asked him why doesn’t he go after the people that can afford to lose money, not the middle-class people or lower income people. That is when he gets the idea to get a lot of young people and train them to become the best stock brokers.
The idea of deceit is ever present throughout Chinatown, especially when dealing with authority figures or people in positions of great power. The main murder that sparks the Jake Gittes’ spiral into this complex plot is that of previously mentioned chief engineer
European and American miners armed with weapons marched upon the Chinese area of the diggings to drive them off the goldfields. Defenceless Chinese miners were beaten up and some even had their tents burnt and their supplies stolen. Any gold that was found was also taken. Several Chinese were killed and a majority were injured. This event came to an end when the military intervened. While the Europeans committed terrible crimes, they did not serve great punishments due to mass protests against it. Although these riots happened mainly in New South Wales, there were a few in Ballarat, however, there were not to the same
The film, Chinatown, directed by Roman Polanski tells a story about corruption, incest, and privatization of water. The plot in this multi-layered, noir film draws upon the history of Los Angeles and the water wars of the early 20th century. The film was released in 1974 and the main characters were portrayed by Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston. Chinatown was Polanski’s return to Hollywood five years after the Manson family murder of his wife, Sharon Tate. I believe that this experience influenced scenes of the film.