Chinatown

Los Angeles, 1937. The city basks in a heat wave, its aqueducts pumping water into a desert that's growing faster than its supply. Into this sun-scorched world steps J.J. 'Jake' Gittes (Jack Nicholson), a private detective who specializes in divorce cases. He's good at his job, but the moral line he walks is as thin as the dust in the San Fernando Valley. When a woman claiming to be Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) hires him to tail her husband, the chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Gittes stumbles onto a case that's far more than a simple infidelity. Directed by Roman Polanski and written by Robert Towne, this crime mystery thriller cost $6 million to produce and grossed $30 million at the box office. It's the first film in what would become known as the Jake Gittes Collection, though no sequel materialized for decades. With a rating of 7.9/10 from over 4,300 votes, it's widely considered a high point of 1970s American cinema. Jerry Goldsmith's score and John A. Alonzo's cinematography capture a city that's both beautiful and corrupt. [edit]

Private eye Jake Gittes makes his living photographing unfaithful spouses. His latest client, a woman calling herself Evelyn Mulwray, wants him to follow her husband Hollis, the chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Gittes snaps Hollis in the company of a young blonde woman, and the photos end up in the newspaper. The next day, the real Evelyn Mulwray shows up at his office. She's younger, sharper, and furious. Gittes was set up. Before he can untangle who hired him and why, Hollis Mulwray is found dead in a drained reservoir. The coroner calls it suicide. Gittes doesn't buy it.

He starts digging. At night, he watches city water being dumped into the ocean while the region is parched by drought. He visits the Mulwray estate and meets Evelyn's father, Noah Cross (John Huston), a wealthy land developer who once co-owned the water company with Hollis. Cross hires Gittes to find the young woman Hollis was seen with, claiming he wants to protect Evelyn from scandal. Gittes follows leads to the San Fernando Valley, where orange grove farmers are being pressured to sell their land. He learns that large tracts have been quietly purchased by shell companies. After a thug slashes his nose in a warning, Gittes teams up with Evelyn, who reveals that her father is the force behind the land acquisitions. The central conflict emerges: Noah Cross is orchestrating a scheme to buy up cheap valley land by creating a manufactured drought, then profit enormously when a new dam and aqueduct bring water to the region. Hollis Mulwray discovered the plan and was murdered to keep him silent.

As Gittes and Evelyn grow closer, she remains evasive about her past and her relationship with her father. Strange details accumulate: a flaw in Evelyn's iris, a mysterious house in the hills, a young woman named Catherine who Evelyn claims is her sister. The investigation pulls Gittes deeper into a web of municipal corruption, family secrets, and violence that threatens to consume everyone involved.[edit]