I've Never Seen: Chinatown

So, This whole book project is going a little slower than I anticipated, and I finished my Disney Project for the time being, so I wanted to find something else to write about in between books. I have tens of readers, and I want to start adding content at a more regular pace than I have been. So I looked at the list of classic movies I've never seen or don't remember and I thought, "yeah, that'll keep me occupied for a while."

The First movie in this ongoing series is Roman Polanski's Chinatown.

I gotta be honest, I mostly watched this because I heard that Rango basically lifted the whole plot of this movie, you know except for that whole part about sister/daughters... Anyway, this movie is pretty much a masterpiece. It's a fantastic film noir that shows Jack Nicholson at his most heroic (a low bar for a guy know for playing psychopaths, but still). It was actually really great to see him playing everything much more naturally that I am used to. It reminds me of the first time I saw the Godfather and I realized that Al Pacino and Subtlety were not mutually exclusive. We also get Faye Dunaway pre Mommy Dearest, and, painted eyebrows aside, she also gives a mostly brilliant performance. She does a fantastic job of building up the image of Noah Cross in our mind so we are picturing the worst until we meet him the first time. His genial nature throws everything off kilter until the depths of his depravity are revealed at the end of the movie. John Huston gives the kind of performance that makes you want to sleep with a gun under your pillow. If you haven't seen this yet, it is very much worth your time.

On a side note, I wanted to comment a little more on John Huston's Noah Cross. Being a child born in the 80's, my first exposure to Huston's work as an actor was his portrayal of Gandalf in the Rank and Bass Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Cartoons. It really is a whole new level of nightmare fuel to hear the voice of kindly wizard Gandalf say the things he says in Chinatown. Then you get to deal with the realization that we have a movie directed by a wanted sex offender, in which a character who is also a sex offender also happens to have the same voice as a beloved childhood character....so there's that. I guess what I'm saying is that watching Rango is a much less psychologically damaging experience, and they really do have the same basic plot. Except Rango has a dead armadillo spirit guide.