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Chinatown: Difference between revisions
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* [[Femme Fatale]]: Just about everyone thinks Evelyn Mulwray is one of these. {{spoiler|She is the exact opposite}}.
* [[Film Noir]]: Although it goes out of its way to subvert and lampshade many of the core tropes of the genre.
* [[Friend
* [[Friendly Local Chinatown]]: Well, it's local at least.
* [[Genre Deconstruction]]: Critics such as John G. Cawelti have argued that the film is all about deconstructing the "myth" of [[Film Noir]] and the [[Hardboiled Detective]]. Gittes isn't a tough, emotionally detached private eye, but rather a vulnerable, flawed [[Anti-Hero]]. Evelyn ''isn't'' a [[Femme Fatale]], but everyone assumes she is (in part because of the misogynistic value system underpinning 1930s California). And the villain is so rich, powerful and influential that Gittes is ultimately powerless to stop him or his conspiracy. And so on.
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** Also, the coroner's name is Morty.
* [[Meta Casting]]: John Huston, the director of many of the [[Film Noir]] classics, in the role of the villain.
* [[Missing White Woman Syndrome]]: At the beginning of the film, farmers are campaigning for the construction of a new dam which will allow for better irrigation. Hollis explains that the proposed site for the new dam has a shale base, as did the previous dam in the area, which collapsed and killed five hundred people. In a line of dialogue [[All There in
* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: {{spoiler|Gittes gives Cross the only piece of evidence capable of proving him guilty of murdering Hollis Mulwray.}} Whoops.
** Not to mention {{spoiler|calling the cops on Evelyn under the erroneous belief that she's the culprit}}.
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* [[Police Are Useless]]: Well, in Chinatown they are, anyway.
* [[Politically-Correct History]]: Averted. Even our hero wears his prejudices on his sleeve.
* [[Rape
* [[The Reveal]]/[[Wham! Line]]: She's {{spoiler|her sister ''AND'' [[Family Relationship Switcheroo|her daughter]]}}.
* [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]]: In the face. With a [[BFG]]. Repeatedly. "Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
* [[Shout-Out]]: The casting of [[John Huston]], the director of many of the great, early noirs including ''[[
** The scene in which Gittes repeatedly slaps Evelyn to try and get her to fess up recalls a similar scene in ''[[
* [[Smug Snake]]: Quite a few, ranging from lowly policemen to high-ranking [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Corrupt Corporate Executives]].
* [[The Sociopath]]: Noah Cross.
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** [[Harsher in Hindsight|It was pretty awkward as it was]], given that Jack Nicholson had just started dating Anjelica in real life, making the scenes where John's character asks "Mr. Gittes, do you sleep with my daughter?" just...uncomfortable.
** Chinatown was meant to be one of three Jake Gittes movies. Nicholson never played another detective character, so that Gittes would remain his iconic PI. When the first sequel (''[[The Two Jakes]]'') finally got made, the results were underwhelming, torpedoing the chances of a third movie.
*** Many elements of what would have been the third sequel turned up in ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]'', notably the freeway arc.
* [[Wretched Hive]]: From the way Jake reminisces about his days there and the events by the film's end, you can tell Chinatown was one of these.
* [[World Half Empty]]: And completely dry.
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