"She is my sister and my daughter!"
Faye Dunaway was baffled and shocked when she uttered this line.
After this "second turning point", "Chinatown" opened its third act of despair.
Private investigator Jack Gittes, played by Jack Nicholson, tries to uncover the truth behind a murder. He already knows who the real killer is. Just when the audience expects him to give the crime a punch like Conan, the reality is like a Stand up like a giant.
Jack's face was covered in confusion and helplessness, and he realized that his meager strength could not compete with it at all. The audience couldn't help but think of a "internet term" - money can really do whatever you want.
"Forget it, Jack, this is Chinatown."
A former colleague who worked with him in Chinatown advised Jack to stop pestering him.
The movie never makes it clear what happened to Jack in Chinatown and what directly caused him to leave the police force.
Viewers can only find out from his conversation with Faye Dunaway's wife Evelyn.
Evelyn felt that Jack's desperate pursuit would only cause unnecessary trouble. Jack says he wasn't like that a long time ago, when he was a police officer in Chinatown.
"Try to do nothing."
This line of Jack actually comes from reality. It was obtained from a conversation between screenwriter Robert Tong and a Chinatown policeman, and it is the inspiration for the entire "Chinatown" movie.
It's not that Jack is set like this in the movie, but the real policeman is like this. Viewers who have known this behind-the-scenes story will know more about the impact of "Chinatown" on Jack.
Why don't you care about being a police officer?
Because it will have the opposite effect.
Westerners don't understand Chinese culture, and if they take action, it is often difficult to distinguish whether their actions are preventing crimes or assisting crimes.
Jack is a person with principles and pursuits. He is not suitable for being a police officer who does nothing and eats and drinks. He is not suitable for this paradoxical place.
He thought that after leaving Chinatown, he would be able to uphold justice through his talents.
So he dressed himself very decently, was strict with employees, and handled every business with confidence and seriousness.
One of the great things about the "Chinatown" script is that the protagonist Jack is portrayed in the very first act. What is his personality, what he does, what he is about to do, those seemingly unconnected subtle relationships make the whole story successful.
The whole story revolves around Jack. Every shot, every message, no matter how small it seems, reveals something about the plot, until it corresponds to the third act, and the whole play forms a perfect whole.
The building part, the interior of the office, shows Jack's daily work status.
After dealing with Curly's wife cheating at the beginning, the catalytic event comes on the next page.
A well-dressed lady in a bunker hat claims her husband is cheating and insists on Jack's help in the investigation.
Seeing her so determined, Jack began an investigation of the target, Hollis Mulwray, the director of the Water Conservancy. The camera turns to City Hall, and the image of Hollis, the background of the story, is brought out at the same time.
Like Jack's "history" of being a police officer in Chinatown, the background of the story is also based on real events in reality.
In 1900, the rapidly growing city of Los Angeles faced a severe water shortage. Some "people of insight" saw the opportunity to make money and planned to buy the Owens River (region), the closest water source to Los Angeles, build a water pipeline, and then sell it to the city of Los Angeles.
When the great drought broke out in 1906, in order to make the conspiracy "bond plan" proceed smoothly, the fresh water that could have alleviated the disaster was led into the sea. Once the bond program was passed, the citizens of Los Angeles were quickly provided with clear water.
However, the valley where the Owens River is located has withered and dried up, and the money has squeezed the land that was originally beautiful.
Robert Town changed the time of this historical event to 1937, and subtly brought in Jack, a character who pursues justice, trying to interpret the point of view that "you can do whatever you want with money".
Those "people of insight", including politicians, businessmen, celebrities, and even gangsters, want to build the dam for profit, but they have been opposed by Hollis Mulwray, the head of the water conservancy.
In order to fix this ignorant man, the man behind the scenes used Jack to dig out his extramarital affair scandal, adding to the smear.
Jack felt that he was being used, he felt bad, so he wanted to fight back. At first, he went to investigate with anger, but it gradually turned into a desire for the truth in his heart.
When truth is found, justice can be achieved.
Most detective movies are like this, but Roman Polanski, a director who lived through a tragic tragedy, decided to make Chinatown a noir film.
Depressed, cold to the bone, and the rotten and gloomy atmosphere permeates the whole film, so the "ending that meets the audience's expectations" originally set by Robert Tang is somewhat out of tune.
Roman Polanski and Robert Tang argued about this in the preparation stage. The former believed that the dark ending was more shocking, and the latter believed that the film should take into account market factors and the needs of the audience.
Possibly out of consideration for Roman Polanski's loss of his beloved wife, Robert Tang finally chose to compromise.
On August 9, 1969, Roman Polanski's wife, Sharon Tate, was brutally murdered at her Los Angeles home, with her 8-month-old fetus in her womb. This is the famous Manson murder, which Quentin Tarantino made into Once Upon a Time in Hollywood .
Distraught Roman Polanski did not want to return to Los Angeles, choosing to go to Europe to relieve his heart. In the early 1970s, Jack Nicholson approached him and said there was a good script to see if he was interested.
The script for "Chinatown" is so good, even if the story is set in Los Angeles, Roman Polanski couldn't refuse it out of a filmmaker's instinct.
The pain has not been completely relieved, and he had to put all his emotions into the movie.
On December 1, 1969, the Los Angeles police chief announced that after 8,750 hours of work, the Manson murder case was finally solved and Charlie Manson was arrested.
In 1971, Charlie Manson and four other suspects were found guilty by a jury, and the judge sentenced them to death, all without exception. However, the following year, the US federal court abolished the death penalty, and five people were automatically commuted to life imprisonment.
For Roman Polanski, it was unacceptable. This also influenced his later creations, and depression and darkness enveloped many of his works.
Chinatown , released in 1974, was undoubtedly the most affected.
What is justice?
After the tragedy, Jack and Roman Polanski lost their answers.
Some people take a long time to get to know themselves. --"Chinatown"
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