Chinatown

Chinatown Literary Elements

Director

Roman Polanski

Leading Actors/Actresses

Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway

Supporting Actors/Actresses

John Huston

Genre

Neo Noir, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Language

English

Awards

Academy Award for Best Writing: Original Screenplay (by Robert Towne); BAFTA for Best Direction and Best Screenplay

Date of Release

1974

Producer

Robert Evans

Setting and Context

The film is set in Los Angeles in 1937 and depicts the ongoing political conflicts over water rights known as the California Water Wars.

Narrator and Point of View

The film has no narrator; the main point-of view-character is Jake Gittes.

Tone and Mood

The tone is serious and procedural; the mood is tense and ominous.

Protagonist and Antagonist

The protagonist is J.J. "Jake" Gittes; the chief antagonist is Noah Cross.

Major Conflict

The major conflict is that Jake Gittes wants to protect Evelyn Mulwray from harm while simultaneously uncovering a conspiracy to divert public water and push farmers off their land.

Climax

The film reaches its climax when Noah Cross forces Jake at gunpoint to lead him to Katherine and Evelyn before they can flee; after shooting her father, Evelyn is killed by a police officer. In this turn of events, Jake's attempt to uncover the conspiracy and save Evelyn results in Evelyn's death.

Foreshadowing

The glint of Noah Cross's broken bifocals in the Mulwrays' salt-water pond foreshadows Jake's epiphany that someone drowned Hollis in his own yard.

Understatement

When Jake realizes that one of the Northwest Valley landowners who bought a property in the last week died two weeks earlier, he employs ironic understatement to call the evidence of corruption "unusual."

Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques

Allusions

The film makes reference to the California Water Wars, a series of political conflicts over water rights between the city of Los Angeles and ranchers in Eastern California.

Paradox

Parallelism

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