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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra
Roman Polanski’s only other film on the countdown was The Tenant (88), but despite whatever controversy surrounds the man, as a filmmaker he is an undeniable great, and Chinatown may be his masterpiece. Here at MoFo, enough of us were able to separate the art from the artist to land this dark and pessimistic mystery at number six, only twenty-five points ahead of A Clockwork Orange. A formidable seven first place votes topped its fifty-three total. The other twenty-five top tens it earned, as you can see below, were two second place, two third place, four fourth, four fifth, two sixth, two seventh, four eighth, two ninth, and three tenth placers.
It's the third movie starring Nicholson on the countdown, second in the Top Ten (#53 Five Easy Pieces, #8 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest). He starred in the number one film in our '80s list (The Shining), as well as Tim Burton's Batman (#52).
To nobody’s surprise, I’m sure, seeing as how I tout it as my absolute favorite film of all time, Chinatown was my number one for the decade and atop my list, giving me an even twenty.
1. Chinatown (6)
3. Nashville (43)
4. A Clockwork Orange (7)
5. Young Frankenstein (15)
7. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (22)
8. Little Big Man (61)
9. The Conversation (18)
10. The Man Who Would Be King (81)
12. The Long Goodbye (19)
13. Breaking Away (95)
14. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (8)
15. Days of Heaven (29)
16. Solaris (39)
17. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (94)
18. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (21)
19. MASH (78)
20. Don’t Look Now (72)
21. Monty Python’s Life of Brian (41)
22. Le Cercle Rouge (60)
24. The Spirit of the Beehive (47)
25. Stroszek (115)
I've always felt that Chinatown is about as perfect a film as there is. I had it at #6.
My list-
#2 A Clockwork Orange (7)
#3 Saturday Night Fever (87)
#4 Animal House (66)
#5 The Warriors (37)
#6 Chinatown (6)
#7 The Exorcist (12)
#8 Coming Home
#9 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (8)
#10 The Deer Hunter (38)
#12 Little Big Man (61)
#13 Apocalypse Now (9)
#14 Mean Streets (77)
#15 Deliverance (51)
#16 Smokey and the Bandit (124)
#17 Mikey and Nicky
#18 The Beguiled
#19 Marathon Man (73)
#20 The Gauntlet
#21 The Marriage of Maria Braun
#22 The Last House on the Left
#23 Straw Dogs (83)
#24 3 Women (126)
Again I am shocked. This is an insanely popular movie on this site, I had it in the top 5 on my predictions easy. And here it is just outside. I guess it has VERY passionate fans, but not the uber broad appeal of Star Wars. Also, no clue Alien would be this high. Swan will be very happy.
Seen 78/95
My list: 16
1. ?
2. Apocalypse Now (9)
3. Stalker (20)
4. Blazing Saddles (33)
5. Eraserhead (26)
6. Pink Flamingos (1972)
7. Dirty Harry (34)
8. Dawn of the Dead (35)
9. Coffy (1973)
10. ?
11. Mean Streets (77)
12. Superman (23)
13. Rocky Horror Picture Show (46)
14. ?
15. Mad Max (70)
16. Foxy Brown (1974)
17. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (13)
18. Death Wish (1974)
19. The Exorcist (12)
20. ?
21. Young Frankenstein (15)
22. A Clockwork Orange (7)
23. ?
24. All the President’s Men (75)
25. Network (32)
My List So Far:
1. Che? (1972)
2. The Conformist (1970) #71
4. Chinatown (1974) #6
5. Wake in Fright (1971) #109
7. The Godfather: Part II (1974) #10
8. Walkabout (1971) #67
9. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) #8
10. Solaris (1972) #39.
11. The Deer Hunter (1978) #38
12. Straight Time (1978)
13. Eraserhead (1977) #26
15. Deliverance (1972) #51
16. The Exorcist (1973) #12
17.Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) #14
18. Halloween (1978) #17
19. The Last Detail (1973) #129
20. Sorcerer (1977) #108
21. The Conversation (1974) #18
22. Wise Blood (1979)
23. Payday (1973)
24. Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976)
25. La grande bouffe (1973) (1 point, not on the countdown)
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A normal man? For me, a normal man is one who turns his head to see a beautiful woman's bottom. The point is not just to turn your head. There are five or six reasons. And he is glad to find people who are like him, his equals. That's why he likes crowded beaches, football, the bar downtown...
Chinatown begins with almost a perfect recreation of the best opening credits which a classic mystery NEVER actually began with. The Sepiatone, the fast scroll, Jerry Goldsmith's sexy, jazzy score, the mistaken-identity opening, Gittes' obsession with sex... they're all perfect.
And the film does build and build... My fave mystery (both as book and novel) has always been The Maltese Falcon, but Sam Spade never lets anybody get his number. Scripter Robert Towne lets Nicholson's Gittes fall for Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway), and their chemistry is terrific, so by the time we reach the most-Noirish ending of any Noir, our guts are just as busted up as Gittes. The ending is not rushed at all. After all, what do you want to see? Gittes cry and then go blow away Noah Cross like the ending of Taxi Driver? I don't think so, I hope.
You know, I've seen this movie so many damn times and the first time I saw it was one of the first drive-ins I went to in 1974, but for some strange reason, I never realized that Nicholson's Jake Gittes acted almost completely like an amateur at the beginning of Chinatown. I mean, Sam Spade seems like a pro in The Maltese Falcon, but when one of Gittes' "operatives" takes photos and shows them to him, Gittes blows him off ("Is that all you got?") and shows no signs of realizing who Noah Cross (John Huston) is.
Then, later on when Gittes is doing his own photographic essays, he knocks down some tiles a la Ben-Hur to try to announce his presence!
The scene where the "real" Evelyn Mulwray shows up is a classic where Gittes talks about "contemplating the moon", but it introduces many of the concepts of Film Noir into modern film usage. "Noir" literally means "Black" in French, but since most film noirs were made and shot in America before the French defined the term, I think that we are allowed to adapt the definition to mean anything which seems to involve a man, a woman, a mystery and something "Pitch Black". I cannot think of a plot more "black" or "noir" than Chinatown, so you will never convince me that it's not a perfect example of film noir. Even though the cinematography by John Alonzo of Chinatown is often crisp and bright, the plotting is dark and murky, but that doesn't mean that Alonzo doesn't go out of his way to use plenty of shadows throughout the film.
An homage to The Maltese Falcon is apparently the character named Ida [sic] Sessions. Well, Ida was the name of Sam Spade's partner Miles Archer's wife, and Spade was having an affair with her before Miles got "lead poisoning" and died. Let's see. It's also about halfway through Chinatown that one of the great reveals occurs and I'm talking about the line, "It's bad for the glass."
Gittes may be an amateur as a private dick, but he does go out of his way to sing about what he thinks of the real Evelyn Mulwray - "I love you and just the way you look tonight... "
What do you think of the scene in the bathroom where Gittes finds the flaw in Evelyn's iris? Wasn't that just about the sexiest scene in screen history?
As Chinatown inexorably moves on to its finale, who else is haunted by Gittes' comment that in Chinatown he was trying to keep somebody from being hurt? Chinatown is crammed with scenes which no other film contains. Do any others contain chases through orange fields? How about people getting knifed in the nose and spending 40% of the film with a huge bandage on the nose? Then again, many films refer to something which happened to a character before the movie started, but very few do not reveal what it was that happened [in Chinatown].
How about all the fun clues and foreshadowing spread throughout the movie which lead you to the identity of the murderer and the chief baddie in the flick? In the very first scene where Curly (Burt Young) looks at the photos which Gittes (Nicholson) got of his wife cheating, Curly says, "They don't pay you as much for skipjack as they do for albacore." Later when Gittes looks at the photos of Mulwray arguing with who turns out to be Noah Cross, Walsh says he could only make out one phrase due to all the noisy traffic, "apple core". In Yelbertson's office, there are several photographs of big fish on the walls. Later on, in Yelberton's secretary's room, Gittes sees lots of photos of Mulwray and Cross and learns who Cross is.
Just for fun, the "midget" (Polanski) who slices up Gittes' nose tells him that next time he'll cut the rest of it off and feed it to his goldfish. Later on, Gittes speaks the line, "What do you think of them apples?" just in case you forgot about "apple core". Gittes finally meets Cross and has lunch with him on Catalina Island at the Albacore Club. His lunch is a fish served with the head on. Cross says he prefers them that way and Gittes says that it's fine "as long as you don't serve the chicken that way." Of course, later on we learn that the Old Age Home is "sponsored" and does some work for the Albacore Club. Then we also learn that Mrs. Mulwray is Noah Cross's daughter.
As a side note, in the restaurant where the pianist plays "The Way You Look Tonight" the arrangement seems to highlight how much the melody resembles that of "As Time Goes By" (Casablanca). Oh, I want to apologize for misrepresenting something earlier concerning another Bogie flick. In The Maltese Falcon, Sam Spade's partner's wife was named Iva and not Ida. It still could be a reference but not quite as blatant if that's true. Did anybody else notice any of this stuff?
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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden My IMDb page
That makes 17 from my list so far. Chinatown was my no.5 pick. To me, it's an absolute masterpice of film-noir. A classy, complex and darkly humorous all time great.
Seen 78/95
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Too weird to live, and too rare to die.
Chinatown was my #9 for this list, but would be higher now, as it is #7 on my all-time list. Which just goes to show the strength of the 70s. I find this is the best decade for movies (with the 80's very close behind it), we should enjoy this countdown while it lasts
going out on a limb to predict the Top 5 placement
5) Alien
4) Jaws
3) Taxi Driver
2) The Godfather
1) Star Wars
oh, & Mark F nailed it with his linked quotes concerning Chinatown, so i will not bother tacking on more praise for this timeless treasure
Chinatown was my #4. In fact I ordered the Blu Ray when I was putting together my list and only resolved to open the cellophane when it appeared here.
I've got 14 of my 25 on BD now. It's the second major reformat I've done with my watching habits (VHS to DVD, DVD to BD) since buying a BD player in 07 and only about 15% of my DVDs have been replaced. I'm gonna need a bigger shelf... *cough*
__________________ "Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how theTatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan
I need to rewatch Chinatown. I saw it quite a while back and really, really liked it, but another viewing might bump it up much higher than where it landed on my list at #20.
1. Annie Hall
2. Picnic at Hanging Rock
3. Network
4. Hausu
5. Play It Again, Sam
6. Harold and Maude
7. Barry Lyndon
8. Love and Death
9. Carrie
10. Sleeper
11.
12. Alice in the Cities
13. Being There
14. Blazing Saddles
15. Nashville
16. American Graffiti
17. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
18.
19. Walkabout
20. Chinatown
21. The Conversation
22. A Woman Under the Influence
23. Wake in Fright
24.
25. Aguirre, Wrath of God
Another from my list, I had it at #5. I've said it all before, but the script is, arguably, the best script ever produced and, despite my disinterest in film noir, this had me from the first frame to the last. I think this is mostly down to the look and feel of the film. For some reason, it really works for me in a way the similar looking films don't. Like Picnic At Hanging Rock or Dawn Of The Dead, this film opens its arms and envelops me. Pulling me in and not letting go until its told its story.
I considered Clockwork Orange, but didn't include it on my list. I liked it when I was much younger, but now that I'm older, I'm not sure if I would still like it. It's been decades since I last seen it.
I wonder how many women MoFo's had it on their list?
Ladies, well did ya?
My girlfriend, who is not a big Kubrick fan, absolutely loved A Clockwork Orange. I know plenty of women that like the film, now that you mention it.
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“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.”― Thomas Sowell
My #3. Shame it's not higher. It's immensely better than anything coming up in the top 5 that's for sure.
If these are the final 5 and it's pretty safe to assume they will be at this point, this is how I'd prefer them to be ranked. Not how I think they will be ranked, but how I think they should be:
1. Taxi Driver
2. Alien
3. Jaws
4. The Godfather
5. Star Wars
Give me anything other than either of those last two at number 1, I beg of you MOFOs.
My reaction when I saw Chinatown was merely ranked sixth.
I was one of the 7 awesome people who had Chinatownat number 1. Chinatown's position on my list was actually the only spot I was completely sure about. It's BY FAR my favorite film of the '70s and it's also one of my top 3 films of all time.
When I started my exploration of cinema a few years ago, this was one of the first classics that caught my interest. The film's title and the film's poster just breathed a certain mood that I was looking for.
I wasn't prepared for one of the most intelligently written and beautifully photographed films of all time, though, so after the film was over, I litterally stared at the screen for minutes after the credits had ended. I knew I had just seen something very, very special.
Immediately the evening after I first watched it, I watched it again. This time with my oldest sister and my dad, who I was very eager to show it to! They both liked it (naturally) and the film didn't lose its effect on me at all. I actually appreciated it even more after my second watch.
Since then, I've seen it three more times (once with my youngest sister who could also really appreciate it).
I try not to watch it too much, because I still want it to be special (I have that attitude towards many of my favorite films), but it's such an extremely strong film for me, that it's sometimes really hard to stay away from the satisfaction that it delivers. I litterally love EVERYTHING about it! The music score, the scenery, the extremely rich screenplay (possibly the best ever written), the emotions behind the story, the subtly brilliant manner in which the film is directed, the cast, ... Everything about this film is simply perfect! My English vocabulary isn't broad enough to do my feelings towards this film any justice.
I'll write about it a little more in depth when it appears on my top 101 list, but that might still take a while, because it'll be very high.
Too bad it didn't make the top 5, but I'm very happy to see that so many people had it as their number 1 film and think of it as highly as I do.
Just to showcase how rich the script is:
The film doesn't announce its many twists with obvious introductions, like many other films do. It casually does it with class, charm and even a good joke:
And there it is, my number one pick! Roman Polanski's Chinatown.
Although I have Bladerunner ahead of this film on my Top 10 favorites here at MoFo, I must make it clear that I think of Chinatown as an almost perfect film, if there could be such a thing. I do not consider Bladerunner to be a perfect film, but I just happen to like it a bit more. Chinatown has what I consider to be one of the most well-written screenplays of any film ever made. It's also brilliant on a technical level, perfectly performed, and shot masterfully. I must also mention John Huston, who dominates every seen he is in in monstrous fashion. I have seen Chinatown many, many times, and yet I keep finding little details and flourishes. As any film noir fan will tell you, all the best noirs don't cop out at the end, ending on a dark note, and Chinatown has one of the darkest endings of any film ever made.
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