It's Chinatown - Chinatown (9/9) Movie CLIP (1974) HD

CLIP DESCRIPTION:
As Cross (John Huston) leaves with Evelyn's daughter, Jake (Jack Nicholson) is left completely disillusioned.

FILM DESCRIPTION:
"You may think you know what you're dealing with, but believe me, you don't," warns water baron Noah Cross (John Huston), when smooth cop-turned-private eye J.J. "Jake" Gittes (Jack Nicholson) starts nosing around Cross's water diversion scheme. That proves to be the ominous lesson of Chinatown, Roman Polanski's critically lauded 1974 revision of 1940s film noir detective movies. In 1930s Los Angeles, "matrimonial work" specialist Gittes is hired by Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) to tail her husband, Water Department engineer Hollis Mulwray (Darrell Zwerling). Gittes photographs him in the company of a young blonde and figures the case is closed, only to discover that the real Mrs. Mulwray had nothing to do with hiring Gittes in the first place. When Hollis turns up dead, Gittes decides to investigate further, encountering a shady old-age home, corrupt bureaucrats, angry orange farmers, and a nostril-slicing thug (Polanski) along the way. By the time he confronts Cross, Evelyn's father and Mulwray's former business partner, Jake thinks he knows everything, but an even more sordid truth awaits him. When circumstances force Jake to return to his old beat in Chinatown, he realizes just how impotent he is against the wealthy, depraved Cross. "Forget it, Jake," his old partner tells him. "It's Chinatown." Reworking the somber underpinnings of detective noir along more pessimistic lines, Polanski and screenwriter Robert Towne convey a '70s-inflected critique of capitalist and bureaucratic malevolence in a carefully detailed period piece harkening back to the genre's roots in the 1930s and '40s. Gittes always has a smart comeback like Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, but the corruption Gittes finds is too deep for one man to stop. Other noir revisions, such as Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973) and Arthur Penn's Night Moves (1975), also centered on the detective's inefficacy in an uncertain '70s world, but Chinatown's period sheen renders this dilemma at once contemporary and timeless, pointing to larger implications about the effects of corporate rapaciousness on individuals. Polanski and Towne clashed over Chinatown's ending; Polanski won the fight, but Towne won the Oscar for Best Screenplay. Chinatown was nominated for ten other Oscars, including Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Cinematography, Art Direction, Costumes, and Score.

CREDITS:
TM & © Paramount (1974)
Cast: John Huston, Perry Lopez, Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, Belinda Palmer
Director: Roman Polanski
Producers: C.O. Erickson, Robert Evans
Screenwriters: Roman Polanski, Robert Towne

WHO ARE WE?
The MOVIECLIPS channel is the largest collection of licensed movie clips on the web. Here you will find unforgettable moments, scenes and lines from all your favorite films. Made by movie fans, for movie fans.

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MOVIE CHANNELS:

HIT US UP:

[hughweymouth]

Seriously one of the best scenes in film history.

All of that tragedy summarized in a few sentences. Heart-wrenching as it may be, he's forced to move on, to ignore the injustice he witnesses, as Jake is just another fish in the vast ocean of Los Angeles, being swept along in the current of forces greater than himself.

He feels helpless, powerless, desperate, and it's really conveyed well in this short bit.

[thirteenthhour]

Jake used to work as a police officer in Chinatown, where the DA told him to do "as little as possible", because at the time (the 30s) no one really spoke Chinese, let alone understood the culture. So when a crime happened, and the police showed up, it was impossible to tell who was the guilty party, who was innocent, etc., and so the police officers felt they were being misled and manipulated by their lack of understanding, which is exactly what happens to Jake through the whole film.

[satoshikatsumoto]

For those saying they hate the ending, that's how noir is.

[TheDiegoo]

The way Noah Cross grabs the sister, daughter, sister, daughter makes me feel sick like a monster

[icomeiraveilove]

Noah didn’t feel any sad or grief when his daughter die.Truly one of the scariest villains of all time

[JoeTyler]

an ending so perfect yet at the same time so nihilistic/depressing as this one could only have come from the 67-77 era of New Hollywood

[Canuckvik]

What an ending... I absolutely hated it at first obviously, but it's just so perfect... the story in total, the script is absolute genius

[Howenow]

Robert Towne said that one of the questions he asks himself when he's writing a character is "What's he afraid of?  What's he REALLY afraid of?"  And in Jake's case, he was afraid of being the fool, of being the one guy in the room who didn't know the deal.  And, for all that Jake DOES discover during the course of the film, he ultimately can't save Evelyn, and--for all of his cynicism--he doesn't realize how deep the secrets and the corruption go.  Towne's original ending was a happy one:  Evelyn and the girl make it to Mexico.  Polanski insisted on the MUCH darker ending.

[allys]

“I tried to keep a woman from being hurt. But I ended up making sure she was hurt.”
—— J.J. Gitties

[garrison]

And that is some really convincing hysteria from that young girl.

[DeanMcLean]

It had everything to do with it. Chinatown represented being in over your head- that was what Gittes constantly referenced throughout the movie. He left because he thought he could get away from that kind of thing, only to be led back there again (both physically and symbolically) at the end. His associate is trying to remind him that getting in too deep only gets people hurt- hence "as little as possible".

[betoen]

...Forget it, Marge, it's Chinatown...

[colossusjuniormedia]

Little as possible! thats what jake said at the end
EDIT: as in "Do as little as possible" which is what the attorney general told him when he worked as a cop in chinatown

[lymb]

He really was doing him a favor, too. He acknowledged the injustice of the situation, but knew there was no legal avenue to rectify it. Whatever had just happened, however cruel and unjust, there was nothing anyone could do. It's Chinatown...

[rockoutkids]

This is one of those beautifully tragic endings. So damn good.

[love-hammer]

The line "as little as possible" was a callback. I had to look up the script but here's the reference in case anyone else was confused by it:

J: This hasn't happened for a long time.
E: When was the last time?
J: Why?
E: It's an innocent question.
J: In Chinatown.
E: What were you doing there?
J: Working for the District Attorney.
E: Doing what?
J: As little as possible.
E: The DA gives you advice like that?
J: They do in Chinatown.

[mrlevinielsen]

Forget it Jake.... it's cloudtown

[charliesunday]

Remember how Jake notices the the flaw in Evelyn's iris? I suppose that was some foreshadowing...

[jacobjones]

“ as little as possible”..

Breaks my soul, every time..

[garrison]

One of the best endings of any film of the decade.