Chinatown Essays

  • Chinatown

    1219 Words  | 3 Pages

    Chinatown A bus pulls up to its stop on College Boulevard and passengers stream out. Cars are flowing steadily through the streets as I stand perfectly still on the street corner in an attempt to greedily absorb the smells, sights, and sounds. The green hand shaped light appears and I proceed to cross the street with an increasing sense of discovery. There were signs everywhere; mostly in Chinese characters. Some of the signs in English read: Dim Sum Lunch $3.50, English Books about Chinese

  • Chinatown

    1155 Words  | 3 Pages

    Chinatown Before the 1960s, the era of the Civil Rights Movement and People of Color Movements, ethnic towns were formed due to the anti-ethnic legislation, which forced many people of color to live in certain areas of the city. After the relaxation of some anti-ethnic legislation, especially in residential segregation, these ethnic towns changed. No longer are these ethnic groups forced to live in segregated areas due to legislation, but rather because of economic and cultural survival due

  • The Film Chinatown

    1910 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

  • Chinatown Film Noir

    1101 Words  | 3 Pages

    Chinatown is a 1974 American neo-noirmystery film, directed by Roman Polanski from a screenplay by Robert Towne, starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. The film was inspired by the California Water Wars, a series of disputes over southern California water at the beginning of the 20th century, by which Los Angeles interests secured water rights in the Owens Valley. The Robert Evans production, a Paramount Pictures release, was the director's last film in the United States and features many elements

  • Chinatown Film Noir

    624 Words  | 2 Pages

    Chinatown is a 1974 American neo-noir mystery film, directed by Roman Polanski from a screenplay by Robert Town, starring Jack Nicholson and Dunaway-Fi. The film is inspired by the California water wars, a series of conflicts over water of Southern California at the beginning of the 20th century, whose interests Los Angeles securing water rights in the Owens Valley. And Robert Evans production, Paramount Pictures and was released, another film director in the United States, and includes many of the

  • San Francisco and Chinatown

    2141 Words  | 5 Pages

    San Francisco and Chinatown Gilded age San Francisco stood as a beacon for travelers bound for the western coast of the United States. The most prominent city in the developing west during the latter parts of the nineteenth century and the opening of the twentieth, San Francisco encompassed a range of conflicting identities. This time period marked a transitory stage in the development of San Francisco, evolving from a booming “frontier town” to a “civilized metropolis,” the emerging San Franciscan

  • Chinatown Movie Essay

    1263 Words  | 3 Pages

    be analyzed will be Chinatown. This Roman Polanski mystery centers around Jake Gittes, who meets a woman pretending to be the wife of Hollis Mulwray, the chief engineer of LA Water and Power Company. This imposter claims to suspect her husband of infidelity, and asks Gittes to take up the case. Gittes later finds the dead body of Hollis Mulwray and gets caught up in a world of crime and deceit that he never knew before. The idea of deceit is ever present throughout Chinatown, especially when dealing

  • Chinatown as Film Noir

    853 Words  | 2 Pages

    'Chinatown' as Film Noir 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. Roman Polanski's

  • Polanski's Scheme In Chinatown

    1125 Words  | 3 Pages

    Polanski's scheme in Chinatown, ultimately, is about defilement in the political aspect during a scandal in which a Water Department was greatly involved in Los Angeles during the 1930s. Nonetheless, his genuinely real seeming film concerns this defilement, so profound and broad as to be fatal. In addition for all its obvious interest, is at last so cynical, and truly skeptical; his overall lesson in this film (despite the fact that Polanski uncovered the debasement of sexual and free enterprise)

  • Old Chinatown of Los Angeles

    1422 Words  | 3 Pages

    Old Chinatown of Los Angeles Chinese first established their community in Los Angeles at today's El Pueblo Historical Monument. About two hundred settled by the year 1870. This number gradually increased over the years when the Southern Pacific began to construct a railroad from San Francisco in the 1870s. They were farm laborers, servants, road builders and small shopkeepers. Even with heavy discrimination during this time, Chinese held a dominant economic position in the Los Angeles laundry

  • Jake Gittes In The Film Chinatown

    1159 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

  • Chinatown Film Noir Essay

    1133 Words  | 3 Pages

    Chinatown is the essence of a neo-noir film, it captures everything a noir film would encompass, just in a different era. By 1974, the year in which Roman Polanski’s Chinatown was released, the era of film noir had long passed. The film is sure to make the relation obvious to past films, including Evelyn Mulwray’s double - Ida Sessions to parallel Miss Wonderly in The Maltese Falcon (1941). In further contrast, Jake may be financially more stable than Sam Spade, but he is not quite so capable at

  • Gender Stereotypes In Chinatown Film

    530 Words  | 2 Pages

    Chinatown (1974), a film written by Robert Towne and directed by Roman Polanski is centered around Los Angeles during the 1920s. Because of its setting and era, the film has cinematic style and and thematic elements that allude to “film noir”, a common genre for 1920s films. One aspect commonly brought up in this genre is gender role, specifically that of women, during the noir era . Polanski’s film references the common noir archetype of “femme fatale”, a lying, seducing female character who brings

  • Comparing ChinaTown and the Big Sleep

    1275 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

  • Examples Of Neo-Noir Chinatown

    1152 Words  | 3 Pages

    Chinatown is classified as a neo-noir, mystery film directed by Roman Polanski, the leading female Mrs Evelyn Mulwray influences the events of the film as a femme fatale starting in her first appearance after being sought out by Gillies, the private investigator hired by a Mulwray impersonator. Through the feminist lens, depiction of the neo-noir non-predictable femme fatale can be seen. I will discuss the relationship between father and daughter and how women seemed to be treated in this film and

  • Textual Analysis Of Chinatown Movie

    1580 Words  | 4 Pages

    Trevor Brown Professor Gigante 3/29/17 COM 221 10 Shot Assignment - Chinatown The 1974 film Chinatown (U.S 1974, Roman Polanski) is about a private investigator, J.J Gittes, who was hired by a women impersonating Mrs. Evelyn Mulwray to investigate leads connected to her husband having an affair. J.J ends up meeting the real Mrs. Mulwray in the movie and learns about the sudden death of Mr. Mulwray. Once learning this, J.J quickly begins to realize that this case will be far different than his usual

  • Analysis Of Roman Polanski's Chinatown

    1045 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

  • Jake Gittes In The Film Chinatown

    741 Words  | 2 Pages

    The scene from the movie Chinatown that I decided to analyze is when Jake Gittes follows in vehicle Evelyn Cross Mulwray after their conversation in to a mystery house. While Evelyn Cross Mulwray showers, Jake Gittes goes to her car, breaks the left light back and later she leaves. Although she told Gittes to stay and wait for her, he disobeys her. He carefully follows her in the dark by sneaking outside and kicking out the red cover from her right car taillight. He takes her husband's car and

  • Movie: Delta Force - Suicide In Chinatown

    586 Words  | 2 Pages

    Movie: Delta Force - Suicide in Chinatown There was a normal afternoon in Chinatown. Everybody was really interested in Silvester Stalone's new action movie that was being played for the first time this weekend. Delta Force was the movie. Stalone was acting as a very famous cop. He became popular because one year before he killed all a group of terrorists that was planning to put a bomb in the Empire State Building. Now he is fighting against some bank robbers. The critics and also the public were

  • Film Weir's Pessimism In Chinatown Film Noir

    743 Words  | 2 Pages

    Chinatown also reflected the time period in which it was made. Released in 1974, the movie was made in the final years of the Vietnam War and after the Watergate scandal. These two scandals, one focused on the disingenuousness of the government in reporting the war effort, mixed with the lack of purpose in actually fighting the war, and the other dealt with a spying campaign that tried to undermine democracy essentially, which lead to distrust of the government. You get that sort of distrust within