What I found interesting in Chinatown is how Jake is so noble. He refused to take bribes from Cross. I enjoyed watching Jake, but I noticed that at the end of the movie it seems like he left the police force because they were not noble. At the end when he was told to just forget it that "its just china town" he looked shocked as he walked away.
I think it was better that he was no longer in the police force so that he can not be bought, because Cross owned the police.
It seems that Jake may have been the most moral person in the film. Though I couldn't help but notice how he was a man who constantly pointed out flaws and imperfections in the film. The dark spot in the iris, even his job was to find imperfections in peoples' lives. The movie deals a lot with this sense of imperfection in people. The police are corrupt, and even the rich have their dark secrets, such as children born out of incest. To me, Chinatown deals with this sense of finding security in the uncertain. It's only once we start digging deeper into things and becoming more familiar with them, that the darkest of truths are revealed. I noticed that every time someone in the film said "I wanna show ya' somethin'" that it usually led to more trouble. It would seem that the only flaw in Jake then, is his overwhelming curiosity. This combined with his nobility had paid their price in getting several people killed.
ReplyDelete-Aaron Swaidner
I'd actually point to Evelyn as the most noble, certainly the most selfless.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the possibility of Hollis Mulwray being the most selfless? The movie doesn't come out and say it, but it seems to me he "married" Evelyn to help protect her and her sister/daughter from Cross. Not to mention his role in the water issue.
ReplyDeleteHe works too. Significantly, both Evelyn and Hollis have been murdered by the end of the film, Hollis directly by Cross and Evelyn indirectly (since she's fleeing his efforts to regain Katherine, her sister/daughter).
ReplyDeleteWhy did kiddies refuse to charge more for his detective services?
ReplyDeleteWhile I understand what you are saying about him looking shocked as he walked away, I would argue that all of his work was for nothing. This is what caused the shock look on his face. I think that Giddes was very cocky, he believed that he was on the case and therefore it was going to get solved effectively. When it doesn't he realizes that he fails and that takes him by surprise. That and the fact that he just saw someone who he had a very close relationship with get shot through the eyeball.
ReplyDeleteI saw Gittes differently. There may have been some cockyness, but he was a detective and former cop. I think he believed he had seen and heard it all. He knew people could be mean, cruel and corrupt, but every way he turned he was caught off guard. Maybe he felt he could no longer be shocked or surprised by people, but it was all hitting a bit more closer to home. It's one thing to know what goes on in the dark corners of the world, but another thing when it happens and your right in the middle of it. I think Jake's reactions/ expressions (especially at the end of the movie) was of disbelief. (did this really just happen?)
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