Chinatown Ending (SPOILERS AHEAD)

(See previous post for overview of film’s plot)

Because I can not handle the ending of this film and I need to rant talk about my feelings.

I’m always going on about how I like realistic non-happy endings. Seriously, I live for them. I love it when people break up and grow apart or when people don’t end up reuniting/reconciling. It’s refreshing. It’s not like I like it all the time. I just like to see, once in a while, a bad thing happening in a movie.

But this fucking movie takes the cake. omg

So Jake finds the entire plot out. Mrs. Mulray’s father, Noah Cross is the evil mastermind behind everything. But the cops have already decided that Mrs. Mulray must be behind everything and that she is paying off Jake to keep quiet and withhold evidence and such. They already found slight evidence backing this up and now they have Jake on counts of extortion and interfering with a case as well as assisting a murder. Jake realizes that he can’t really prove anything until he gets Noah Cross to talk. But of course, because Jake isn’t actually a spy, he ends up being taken to Chinatown by Noah Cross who is, after all, a rich man with a lot of influence and henchmen. He demands to be taken to his daughter Katherine (the supposed girlfriend of Mr. Mulray who is the result of CROSS’S RAPE OF HIS DAUGHTER EVELYN AKA MRS. MULRAY WHAT EVEN1?!?!!)

Everything culminates when Jake ends up on a street in Chinatown. Mrs. Mulray/Evelyn and her daughter/sister (this is so fucked up) are there, prepared to leave with Mrs. Mulray/Evelyn’s butler Khan. Jake’s associates/assistants are also there like he instructed them to be. The cops are there too because…common sense is shit’s about to go down in Chinatown (Jake was telling them about it earlier). There’s a sense of relief. Everything that Jake set up is falling together. Everyone is in the right spot and it is all because of Jake’s manipulation.

Except….no. Because the cops are leading Jack away without hearing his story and his evidence. Cross is acting nonchalant and above it all like the rich guy that he is. He knows he has the control. Jake tells Evelyn to tell the police what happened but Evelyn emotionally bursts out “he owns the police!” Cross approaches Evelyn and tries to talk to Katherine and Evelyn keeps pushing him away (all the while, he keeps calling her disturbed). Evelyn eventually gets into the front seat of the car and tries to leave. Cross opens the door and tries to get Katherine out, saying “You can’t stop me. You’re going to have to kill me.” to Evelyn. But she’s frustrated and terrified and she shoots him. He falls away from the car, she commands Katherine to close the door and then she is effing out of there.

The lieutenant fires a warning shot into the air, Jake pulls his gun arm away from the car but his MOTHERFUCKING DEPUTY shoots into the car. Luckily, the car keeps drifting.

except…

The horn is blaring continuously…

…

and it’s slowly rolling to a stop in the distance…

…

Then Katherine starts SCREAMING HER HEAD OFF. Everyone runs to the car. Evelyn’s head is leaning against the horn and when they open her door, she slumps sideways and you can see she was shot through her eye and she is clearly dead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let’s take a moment…

Katherine is crying. Citizens crowd around the street, the Lieutenant just tells everyone to forget it and in the confusion, Cross leads Katherine away.

…

Jake mumbles “…as little as possible…” (And this is clearly a reference to earlier in the movie when he is telling the fake Mrs. Mulray that she should “let sleeping dogs lie” and be happy knowing as little as possible because it will only end in pain. and ain’t that the goddamn truth!!!)

The Lieutenant tells Jake’s assistants to take him home and he tells Jake he’s doing him a favor (basically he’s dropping the case since the supposed bad guy is dead)

And I just…can’t.

I’m all for realistic endings but Jesus fucking Christ, I was hoping that Evelyn had at least shot Cross dead.

LIKE AT THE VERY LEAST, I WOULD HAVE LOVED FOR HIM TO BE DEAD!!! EVEN IF EVELYN DIED TOO!!

OMFG THIS RAPIST/PEDOPHILE/MURDERER/EVIL BUSINESSMAN LITERALLY WALKS AWAY WITH EVERYTHINGGG!!!! HE GETS AWAY WITH HIS EVIL PLOT, HE WALKS AWAY WITH HIS DAUGHTER AKA NEW POTENTIAL RAPE VICTIM AND HE LITERALLY GETS AWAY WITH MURDER!!1

OMG A FOREST FIRE COULD BE STARTED ON THE EMBERS OF MY ANGER ALONE I CAN’T EVEN.

and do you know what the cop says?!?!?!?!? he goes “Jake…let sleeping dogs lie. it’s Chinatown.”

OMG THESE STUPID RACIST UNDERTONES ARE PISSING ME OFF JUST AS MUCH BECAUSE REALLY!?!? BECAUSE IT HAPPENED IN A POOR/SKETCH AREA OF A CITY WITH PEOPLE THE COPS DON’T CARE ABOUT, THIS DOUCHE LITERALLY GETS AWAY WITH EVERYTHING

JESUS. MARY. AND JOSEPH.

I need to be alone.

Chinatown (1974)

Chinatown directed by Roman Polanski, written by Robert Towne

Light spoilers ahead.

Chinatown is a detective, neo-noir film starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway.

It starts simple enough Jack AKA Jake (If I slip up, I’m sure you’ll understand) is a private investigator who gets hired usually by people who are trying to find out if their husband/wife/whatever are cheating on them. A Mrs. Mulray comes into the office and asks him to follow her husband to see if he is cheating on her. He tells her that she should leave it alone and that she’s better off not knowing.* She insists however, so Jake and his assistants end up tailing Mr. Mulray as he watches tide pools, stands near bodies of water, and participates in debates centering around building a dam and such. They see him with another woman and give the pictures to the wife.

Evelyn Mulray

The next day or so, the pictures end up in the newspaper and there’s scandal everywhere. A woman, who makes it a point to establish that she has never met Jake, drops the bomb that she is Mrs. Mulray and will be suing Jake and this was my favorite scene in the movie because it’s something akin to the scene in A Social Network when Andrew Garfield says “Lawyer up asshole…”

Except hers came first and is said with so much more poise. As she leaves the office, Jake pleads with her not to be so hard and she looks over her shoulder and is basically like “It’s not in my nature to be hard Mr. Gittes. That’s what my lawyer is for.” AND THEN SHE JUST SWEEPS OUT OF THE OFFICE AND IT’S MAJESTIC AND PERFECT. lol

Mulray (later killed)

Anyways, so Jake thinks that someone is trying to set up Mulray. He thinks that it’s really sketch (rightfully so) and he wanders the city trying to find Mulray so he can warn him. Except Mulray’s dead. He gets dragged up from a reservoir thing and the plot thickens. BUM BUM BUMMMM.

Jake embarks on a journey and to spare you guys spoilers, he finds out many details about many different people. He knows that someone wanted Mulray killed because he opposed the building of a dam. The city of LA doesn’t have any water (or so the farmers say) but there is evidence that suggests otherwise and Jake is trying to figure out everything. Read Wikipedia or watch the movie for the rest of the plot.

*I like how Jake says this and then throughout the film, he completely contradicts himself. There is even a moment where a henchmen catches him at night outside the reservoir and calls him a cat, wondering why he’s there so late and why he is being nosy. He gets his nose slashed very badly. There are many other moments that show that Jake doesn’t actually leave anything alone even though he would be better off not knowing the entire situation. So I really appreciated this bit of foreshadowing.

I think the only frustrating part of this movie (for me) is that Jake does not have good instincts at all. AT ALL. Maybe it’s just as a result of watching the Bourne Trilogy but Jake made so many rookie mistakes. Let’s review:

Jake Gittes

• He didn’t bother sneaking anywhere. Sometimes, he went places in broad daylight.
• He gave away his suspicions very early on to someone who CLEARLY wasn’t the head behind the master plan, thereby giving the actual head time to plan
• He let his emotions get the best of him, several times accusing Mrs. Mulray of killing her husband.
• He literally always uses his name. He never lies about why he’s there or what his name is. (only once did he lie about his name and they found out his real name anyways)
• He never records ANY of the sketch conversations he has with people
• THIS ONE TAKES THE CAKE!!!! After receiving a mysterious phone call with mysterious instructions to meet somewhere, he doesn’t take any backup or ask anyone for help
• Once he arrives at the house, he sees that it’s been broken into. HE CONTINUES TO WALK INTO THE HOUSE.
• EVEN AFTER SEEING A DEAD PERSON!!!!! HE TOUCHES THINGS, LEAVES HIS FINGERPRINTS PLACES…..I can’t. My spy training (courtesy of Jason Bourne) has taught me to NEVER go into a situation like that unless you have surveyed the entire area and have mapped out at least 7 possible escape routes.

Despite Jake’s questionable survival skills, overall Chinatown was very enjoyable. It offers a good plot, a simple, believable premise, enough suspense without being too much and engaging characters even if you don’t necessarily like them personally. There is an unnecessary hookup but it’s Hollywood so it’s expected. BONUS points for the terrible ending scenes. And when I say terrible, I’m referring to the circumstances not the acting or the creation of said ending scenes.

4/5 Stars

(P.S. See next post for my reactions to that terrible-brilliant but TERRIBLE- ending scene.)