Chinatown (Special Collector's Edition)
by Roman Polanski
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DVD details
Actor: Faye Dunaway, Jack Nicholson, John Hillerman, John Huston, Perry LopezDirector: Roman Polanski
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Portuguese (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); Portuguese (Dubbed); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 130 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-11-06
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Paramount Home Video
DVD Reviews of Chinatown (Special Collector's Edition)
DVD Review: Mysterious, Moody and Precise...Breathtaking Film Making..
Summary: 5 Stars
Say what you will about Roman Polanski's personal life, this film is one of the greatest noir film's of the last 50 years. Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway and John Huston are superlative. Jerry Goldsmith's score is moody and resonant, perfect for a story of this nature. I absolutely cannot give away the story, it is a must see....DVD Review: CHINATOWN a masterwork
Summary: 5 Stars
Chinatown is a potent reminder that films are more than just the hormone fueled adventures of Dick and Jane. The film takes on a large social issue and shows one mans struggle against the machine in Los Angeles of the 50's. Powerful performances by Nicholson (not a fave) and Dunaway frame a beautifully directed drama demonstrataing the power of film. If you have never seen this film, I highly recommend that you do so. If you haven't seen this for years, reaquaint yourself with a masterpiece. DVD Review: "How to Stop a 'Nosebleed'"
Summary: 5 Stars
Deeply atmospheric and mysterious. Jack Nicholson is great as a "nosy" private detective. He is really not prepared for the information Faye Dunaway's character lays on him. It is unthinkable, horiffic and chilling--a conclusion not many would easily jump to. Beautifully directed by Mr. Polanski who has a very bit part in the movie.DVD Review: Very Good, but not Great
Summary: 4 Stars
Pros
Fantastic melange of nostalgia, feel-good, period-piece, proto-noir, detective, horror, drama and suspense movies - one wishes more movie makers would riff like this instead of making the type of hidebound, genre-tight movies that utterly fail to spark the imagination of the viewer.
Shines with intelligence, beauty and craftsmanship of the highest order - the film-makers really poured their hearts and souls into making this movie and it can't but help rub off on the viewer.
Tucker, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - outside of latter-day Bollywood I can think of very few movies in which the cinematography is so unrelentingly beautiful, joyful and uplifting.
Cons
Has no comment to make on the human condition which distinguishes the truly great films from the merely very good - it's a very nice plot about corruption, incest and so on, but in truth the glory of the movie is that it resembles a beautifully cut suit or a 1930s Dusenberg not because it is particularly deep or meaningful.
DVD Review: A crime noir has never looked this good...
Summary: 5 Stars
Finally; a crime noir that works. After watching quite a few lackluster film noirs I decided to revisit `Chinatown' to see if it still held up as the greatest film noir of all time and, quite honestly, it does. Polanski gets everything right with this one, creating a film that is stunning, captivating, dark and brooding while always maintaining a level of hope that helps glue the audience to their seats (even if that hope is crushed in the devastating finale). There are few films that have been able to capture this aura, the most recent being `L.A. Confidential'.
The crime noir is something difficult to master, but Polanski masters is effortlessly.
`Chinatown' revolves around private detective Jake Gittes who is hired by a woman claiming to be a jilted wife to follow her husband and see if he is indeed having an affair. When the husband turns up dead and she winds up not actually being the man's wife things start to get complicated. The man's real wife, Evelyn, shows up asking what business Jake had with her husband, and as Jake digs deeper into her husband's murder he uncovers the dirty secrets lurking around every corner. As `Chinatown' spirals to a close and more is revealed it shifts from a pacifiable crime noir into a certifiable classic.
The script is brilliantly crafted, allowing the audience to sink into the grit of the situation with ease, building slowing on its foundation until the dramatic and explosive conclusion. Much must be accredited to Polanski who just pulls from all angles and draws the audience in with each and every frame. The murky, gritty feel to the film elevates the material and makes the audience feel a part of the action, and Polanski's resulting vision is one of beautiful demise.
A great facet of this film is the marvelous performances by the entire cast, most notably Jack Nicholson. Nicholson is a brilliant actor, I think we all can agree there, but there are times when he falls into self mimicry and winds up just parodying himself in his films. `Chinatown' is one of those times when he steps away from his public persona and just delivers a well rounded and fantastically crafted character. J.J. `Jake' Gittes is one of Jack's greatest cinematic accomplishments and certainly one of his greatest performances. Jack is given some ample help though, in the form of Faye Dunaway and John Huston, both of whom bring so much to this film. Dunaway is dynamite here, really stakeing her claim as Nicholson's equal, and as the film draws to a close and her character is finally fleshed out to the full she emotes so much genuine emotion she helps that transition work. Huston is delicious here, seriously. His performance is what the movies is all about. I'm really shocked he was passed over of the Oscar nomination when in all actuality I would have handed him the win. He has the perfect mixture of parental protection and selfish indulgence to make his character not only believable but engrossing.
`Chinatown' is filled to the brim with enough of everything to keep the audience glued in anticipation. The script is marvelous, tightly woven and intricate, always keeping you guessing and wanting more. The acting is superb, truly elevating each and every scene and the mood set is pitch-perfect, and it never wanes. Polanski should be lauded for this masterpiece. It's a shame it was released the same year as Coppola's `The Godfather, Part II' for both films are brilliant, perfect even, but there is no topping the magnificence that is Coppola.
Description of Chinatown (Special Collector's Edition)
Landmark movie in the film noir tradition, Roman Polanski's Chinatown stands as a true screen classic. Jack Nicholson is private eye Jake Gittes, living off the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-war Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite (Faye Dunaway) to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together for one, unforgettable night in...Chinatown. Co-starring film legend John Huston and featuring an Academy Award?-winning script by Robert Towne, Chinatown captures a lost era in a masterfully woven movie that remains a timeless gem.Roman Polanski's brooding film noir exposes the darkest side of the land of sunshine, the Los Angeles of the 1930s, where power is the only currency--and the only real thing worth buying. Jack Nicholson is J.J. Gittes, a private eye in the Chandler mold, who during a routine straying-spouse investigation finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into a jigsaw puzzle of clues and corruption. The glamorous Evelyn Mulwray (a dazzling Faye Dunaway) and her titanic father, Noah Cross (John Huston), are at the black-hole center of this tale of treachery, incest, and political bribery. The crackling, hard-bitten script by Robert Towne won a well-deserved Oscar, and the muted color cinematography makes the goings-on seem both bleak and impossibly vibrant. Polanski himself has a brief, memorable cameo as the thug who tangles with Nicholson's nose. One of the greatest, most completely satisfying crime films of all time. --Anne Hurley
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