Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway and John Huston in the Roman Polanski movie ‘Chinatown’

A favorite movie of friend Airport Friend is the Roman Polanski film noir film Chinatown (1974). The storytelling includes intrigue, emotionally compelling drama and a mystery around elements of who did what and why. Robert Towne and Polanski each were writers for this movie, with formal credit granted to Towne.

(From left, Jack Nicholson as J.J. ‘Jake’ Gittes and Faye Dunaway as Evelyn Cross in the Roman Polanski movie Chinatown).

At the center of Chinatown as arguably the protagonist, and definitely as the primary point-of-view through which we as the audience relates, is J.J. ‘Jake’ Gittes, as portrayed by Jack Nicholson. Gittes is hired to follow Hollis Mulwray by a woman he’s told is Evelyn Mulwray. It’s only later, after Gittes’ team photographs Hollis Mulwray in the company of a younger woman that the real Evelyn Mulwray confronts Gittes with a lawsuit. Gittes encounters former police colleague Lieutenant Lou Escobar of the Los Angeles Police Department investigating Hollis Mulwray’s apparent drowning at a reservoir controlled by the water authority of Los Angeles, California.

(From left, Darrell Zwerling as Hollis Mulwray and Perry Lopez as Lieutenant Lou Escobar in the Roman Polanski movie Chinatown).

Faye Dunaway portrayed the true Evelyn Cross. Darrell Zwerling portrayed Hollis Mulwray. Perry Lopez portrayed Lieutenant Lou Escobar. J.J. ‘Jake’ Gittes began working for the legitimate Evelyn Cross following the death of her husband, Hollis. Gittes is warned off the investigation Claude Mulvihill and Man the Knife, as portrayed by Roy Jenson and Roman Polanski, respectively.

(From left, Jack Nicholson as J.J. ‘Jake’ Gittes and Roy Jenson as Claude Mulvihill in the Roman Polanski movie Chinatown).

Ida Sessions, as portrayed by Diane Ladd, admits to bringing Gittes into this caper from the beginning. More pieces of the bigger mystery are revealed when she shares that Hollis Mulwray had been in business with Evelyn Cross’ father, Noah Cross. John Huston portrayed Noah Cross. Additional film noir elements are offered to deepen the intrigue in play.

(From left, Joe Mantell as Lawrence Walsh and Diane Ladd as Ida Sessions in the Roman Polanski movie Chinatown).

The Ida Sessions tip leads to additional investigation into land dealings in the San Fernando Valley, northwest of Los Angeles. Gittes and Evelyn Cross visit a nursing home with the intention of pursuing some unusual activity with property transfers northwest of Los Angeles, which leads to additional heat for Gittes when the nursing home director brings this to the attention of Claude Mulvihill.

(From left, Belinda Palmer as Katherine Cross and John Huston as Noah Cross in the Roman Polanski movie Chinatown).

Whatever romantic and financial interests exist between J.J. ‘Jake’ Gittes and Evelyn Cross exist changes leads to later conflict for Noah Cross, Evelyn Cross and one Katherine Cross. The truly bizarre circle of the relationships for the three Crosses, and their meaning for the death of Hollis Mulwray, the subject of what the full story means to J.J. ‘Jake’ Gittes, brings a full-throated scream of the depths that can be included within the film noir genre.

(Director Roman Polanski as Man the Knife in the Roman Polanski movie Chinatown).

The fact that there is a substantial story in the film noir genre represents perhaps the biggest success for the movie Chinatown. The dramatic and mysterious moments that reveals themselves with deliberate, intentional storytelling, with a punch in the bringing the different themes of the tale together at the end, elevate the product further. I grant Chinatown as directed by Roman Polanski 4.5-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Saturday, July 16, 2022

Top 20 Movie “Rocky”

Top 20 Movie Rocky (1976) ranks 13th in Matt Lynn Digital’s Top 20 Movies in ranked order listing. As Rotten Tomatoes tells us, Rocky is the story of a “slightly dimwitted amateur boxer from Philadelphia’s tough neighborhood [who] gets a surprise shot at fighting for the heavyweight championship…[A]t the same time he finds love in the arms of a shy, reclusive girl who works in the local pet store.”

The raw, gritty feel of this straight from the 1970’s lower middle class struggle of a man (Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa) that is given the lottery ticket of a lifetime in getting to box the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, Apollo Creed as played by Carl Weathers in Balboa’s hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The context for Balboa stepping in was that Creed needed to book an opponent in Philadelphia for a bicentennial fight on short notice, so picking the little-known and only moderately successful Balboa from the Philadelphia boxing scene made some sense. Creed would train with insufficient seriousness while Balboa would work his famous gritty training regimen with trainer Mickey Goldmill, as portrayed by Burgess Meredith.

In many ways, this movie is heavily cliched and rumored to have been based on the March 24th, 1975 fight between Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner, wherein Ali had just defeated George Foreman in Zaire. Despite this question of having ripped off a central story for the movie while also being charged by critics with being a touch predictable, Rotten Tomatoes informed us that:

Sylvester Stallone’s script and stunning performance in the title role brush aside [those] complaints.

Despite the fact that Apollo Creed would take victory over Rocky Balboa by split decision in the movie’s main fight, you come to see that Rocky Balboa the character wins by setting his course in the boxing world while winning his love interest Adrian Pennino, as played by Talia Shire. The movie Rocky clearly won in the box office, with six sequels, and for the 1976 movie, three Oscar wins. Those wins were for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Film Editing.

Rocky was a continuous favorite of my household growing up. The movie stood up for being entertaining, enjoyed through multiple viewings, and told with an American ethic of redemption that told of a rising underdog who works hard in pushing his competition and overconfident rival to the limit.

In the mid-1970’s when Rocky was released, the tale was a feel good movie that showed toughness and some sense of realism. This realism and escapism is part of what makes Rocky the 13th ranked movie in Matt Lynn Digital’s Top 20 Movies in ranked order listing.

Matt – Tuesday, March 7, 2017