I think that the main idea throughout Chinatown was that no one cares what happens there. We obviously do not see what happens after the big murder at the end of the movie, but would it have made the papers? At the beginning Gittes gets a picture of Mr. Mulwray with his supposed mistress. This picture makes the front page of the newspaper. Yet I question if the murder of Mrs. Mulwray would even make it into the papers because it occurred in this desolate 'Chinatown'.
This movie also highlighted the differences between night and day. Everything bad that happened happened during the dark of night, while during the day everything seemed very civil and orderly. Gittes sat down and had lunch with Mr. Cross (the "good" guy and the "bad" guy) and everything was just like another day. All of the "bad stuff" happens under the cover of darkness.
I think the implication is that Cross will see that it never gets in the paper. In a sense they're blaming it on Chinatown here, but it isn't really because it happened in Chinatown. Normally, no one bothers because it's "only" Chinese who are being victimized. In this instance, it's likely it would have gotten in the papers (the death of a prominent white woman will be news wherever it is, perhaps especially in Chinatown). But Noah Cross wouldn't countenance it.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, Gittes' story about doing "as little as possible" comes from a story Robert Towne, the script writer, heard from an L.A. detective.
I believe that ethnicity played an interesting part in this film. Not only did the violent crescendo take place in Chinatown, the servants were all asian, and interestingly, Roman Polanski and his thick European accent played probably the most violent character in the movie, the iconic "man with the knife".
DeletePrior to watching Chinatown in class I had never seen the movie, but I had seen the nose cutting scene before in some sort of montage. Along with the ending, it is probably the most memorable part of the movie (very cringe-worthy). I would be interested to know why Polanski cast himself in that role and if he knew how iconic that scene would be.
It really seems that Cross really did "own the cops and the newspaper". I think he could have easily paid off anybody interested in writing a piece or maybe even having them "accidentally" die like Mulwray.
ReplyDeleteAnd I can think of several instances to support that the "bad stuff" only happens at night. One in particular was when Jake first met those two body guards he wasn't harmed, but when he met them at night (for the second time as he snuck around the reservoir) and his nose was sliced open.
I agree. It seemed like Cross owned the cops or had the potential to influence them to his convenience. The only bad event that happened during the day I can think of is when Jake broke in to that territory and was shot at.
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