Chinatown (1974)
Screenplay by Robert Towne
Starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway
Plot Summary
If you haven’t already seen “Chinatown”, it’s the exact same plot as a film you likely have seen, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”. Instead of freeways, it’s water rights, and instead of toons, there’s incest.
Why I Picked This Film
It’s #21 on the American Film Institute’s list of 100 Greatest American Films. It’s also one of my all-time favorite movies, and probably my very favorite noir film even though it’s not from the official noir period. I know, blasphemy.
Where I'm At
For the past several days I’ve been listening to Jessie Gender’s three-and-a-half-hour-long video about J. K. Rowling on Nebula. It’s been in the background, off and on, while doing cover designs and related graphics work for a few of my upcoming books. Issues of human rights, basic respect and dignity, privilege, and the ability to separate art from the artist are at the forefront of my mind. For the record, I used to have people make fun of me because I’d never read a “Harry Potter” book, nor seen any of the movies. Now I can turn that around and proudly say I’ve never given Jo Rowling a dime. Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Non-binary people are valid. Trans rights are human rights.
This brings us to the elephant in the room about “Chinatown”…
The Real Issue Here
If you noticed, I listed the screenwriter, Robert Towne, where I would typically cite the director. While Towne had his own faults and a notable rough patch in his life, he’s not as controversial, nor as problematic, as Roman Polanski. I can’t write any commentary on “Chinatown” without tackling whether it’s possible to separate the art from the artist.
Growing up, I listened to Bill Cosby’s comedy albums. Later on, I watched him on television, as did more people during a certain era of American pop-culture history. I will no longer pay any attention to anything that has its name on it. When I first heard about a mystery writer that’s currently popular, I had to check whether he was related to the comedian because they shared the same name (he’s not). Fortunately, Leonard Part 6 isn’t on any list of cinematic masterpieces, so I will never have to speak of ol’ Cocktail Cos in this space ever again.
As a young cineaste, I watched all of Woody Allen’s films up to the point where I didn’t. There will be no review of “Annie Hall” here, even though it’s #35 on the AFI list because Woody Allen can fall down a well and stay there. He told us exactly who he was in 1979 when he wrote, directed, and starred in “Manhattan”, a film about a 42-year-old man dating a 17-year-old girl as if that’s a perfectly normal and acceptable thing to do. Everyone should have listened then.
Yet I still love “Chinatown”, in spite of Polanski. In the past year, I have watched it five times. What’s the difference? I can tell you.
Only Cosby could have made “The Cosby Show”. Only Cosby could have made “Fat Albert” (asked Kenan Thompson). Only Cosby could have performed “To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With”. If you pull him out, there’s nothing left.
Only Woody Allen could have made Woody Allen films. I’m not disparaging the actors that he’s worked with through the years, but as the writer, director, and most of the time star, his fingerprints are all over everything. If you pull him out of, say, “Annie Hall” or “Bananas”, it all falls apart and there’s nothing left.
Conversely, anyone could have directed “Chinatown”. It’s not just a Roman Polanski movie. It’s a Jack Nicholson movie. It’s a Faye Dunaway movie. I’d even go so far as to say it’s a John Huston movie because his performance is so powerful I do think the movie wouldn’t have worked without him. It is most definitely a Robert Towne movie because the screenplay is everything. But I think other people could have directed it.
I think other directors could have handled “Rosemary’s Baby” and, yes, even “The Piano”.
That’s not discounting the work of directors, mind you. I’m one of those people that thinks Spielberg ghost-directed “Poltergeist” because come on, have you seen it? Do you have eyes? Does that look like a Tobe Hooper movie to you?
Having watched a queer person in tears because “Harry Potter” was their safe space as a kid when they were mercilessly bullied for being who they are, I’m happy that I’ve never partaken of that franchise. Never read one of the books, and never watched any of the movies. Not because I wasn’t interested, but I never got to it. Now, I never will. The harm is done. You can’t separate the art from the artist because those are still J. K. Rowlings words, and there is terrible, racist, anti-Semitic, misogynistic content in those books completely separate from the garbage she tweets.
I can still watch “Chinatown” because I can forget that Polanski was ever a part of it. I don’t have to see his face. I don’t need to listen to his dialogue. You might think that it’s a cop-out, a difference that makes no difference, and there are days when I might agree with you because I will forever struggle with this. But at most, I only have to acknowledge that he was there and shift my attention to celebrating Towne, Nicholson, Dunaway, and everyone else that worked to create this cinematic masterpiece.