Imagine for a moment you’re a private eye. A woman named Mrs. Mulwray asks you to spy on her husband to see if he’s been cheating on her. He’s a powerful man controlling the water and power to Los Angeles. You advise her that she’s probably better off not knowing and not wasting her money. But she insists, and you take the job, snap the pictures and you’re through. You’ve been paid. You’re done. You’ve lost count of the amount of times you’ve exposed extra-marital shenanigans. It’s your job and you do it well. This one was no different.

Now imagine, the very next day you are sacked with a lawsuit from the real Mrs. Mulwray (Faye Dunaway, Bonnie and Clyde) – the same woman you ended up taking the photos of. You’ve been played a fool, but that was never anyone’s intention. Someone wanted to get the Mulwrays in trouble in a big way. Immediately after attempting to save-face and apologizing to Mrs. Mulwray to avoid any lawsuits, Mr. Mulwray’s body washes up and you find yourself confronted with a conspiracy that you could almost assuredly walk away from with no consequence. What would you do? Would you saddle up and move on, or attempt in earnest to repair your already seedy reputation? In Chinatown, Investigator Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson, The Shining) goes with the second option and trails the case to the bitter end.

This wasn’t my first waltz through Chinatown. Often times after watching the film I think how differently Jake Gittes’ life would’ve turned out had he simply walked away at any point. But this is really something that you can only begin to examine after viewing the film several times, because you can’t imagine alternate outcomes while you are too busy living and breathing the filmed one. The way that the film forces you to follow Jake is so smooth that it’s almost dreamlike and forced without the viewer even noticing. The camera literally follows Jake everywhere and the information that’s revealed about the plot and its players are revealed to Jake and the audience at the same time. We’re along for a ride, and what a perfect cinematic ride it is.

Stylistically, Chinatown owes more than a subtle debt to the film noir genre and you needn’t have to have much experience with it to recognize that. The film is made to present as accurate a portrayal of 1930s Los Angeles as possible. Like a true investigative detective, Jake never once handles a gun. He does all his own investigations by himself and isn’t afraid to ask direct confrontational questions and trespass to find information. Sometimes, in order to get the truth, you either have to beat it or con it out of someone, and Jake Gittes understands this and knows how to gumshoe with the best of them.

Another way in which illustrates Chinatown’s greatness is through its incredible dialogue. Jake is prone to spouts of anger directed at just about anyone he feels deserves it and some of what he yells out is completely memorable and delivered in ways only Jack Nicholson can pull off. My favorite line is when Jake confronts Mrs. Mulwray after getting his nostril slit by a thug (played by Polanski himself). “Mrs. Mulwray, I goddamn near lost my nose, and I like it. I like breathing through it – and I still think you’re hiding something.” But there are other classic hard-ass lines too, like after a cop gives Jake a hard time questioning the origins of the injury, he replies with, “Nope. You’re wife got excited and she crossed her legs a little too quick. You understand what I mean, pal?”

Every actor brings their A-game to Chinatown. Faye Dunaway brings an authentic flawed and damaged feeling to the femme fatale role. Usually the widow is the key component for double crossing the hero in any Noir, but in Chinatown Mrs. Mulwray has reasons to keep secrets, though she actually does want to help Gittes find how deep the corruption goes. John Houston (The Wind and the Lion) plays her father Noah Cross, who is in charge of the cities water supply. He’s a shady and dangerous character who goes out of the way to appear as unmenacing as possible, but Houston always has this air of repulsion about him that Jake (and as such the viewer) knows that he’s full of no good.

Behind the scenes, Polanski’s decision to literally follow Gittes is probably the most instrumental ingredient in Chinatown’s superiority over other films of the genre. It seems that coming off the successes of Repulsion and Rosemary’s Baby, he took everything he had learned of suspense and paranoia and pumped it in to Gittes and Mulwray. To this day, Polanski is at his best with suspense scripts. The score – oh, God the score – by Jerry Goldsmith, is one of the timeless cornerstone classics of film music. I’m actually disappointed to learn that it is no longer in print because I would suggest it to anyone who loves the movie.

Really, I could go on to pages worth of more praise for Chinatown, but to talk more freely about it, I would have to spoil a lot of the film. I can’t do that in case newcomers might be reading this. So if you haven’t seen Chinatown, do it now. I can’t fathom anyone ever being disappointed by it.

The DVD Presentation
Time to feel old – This month (November 2007) marks the eight-year anniversary of Chinatown’s DVD debut. This new Special Collector’s Edition marks the first re-release of it in all this time and it easily eclipses it. While I no longer have the original DVD, the transfer here still looks fantastic. It’s presented in anamorphic widescreen and the transfer looks far cleaner than you would ever expect. The audio now has a 5.1 mix (I don’t believe the original did) and while it isn’t the greatest mix (it wasn’t made for surround sound anyway), a few parts do sound pretty immersive like the aqueduct scene. Purists need not worry. The original English Mono is included. If you don’t speak English, Paramount was nice enough to include Mono dubs in French, Spanish and Portuguese as well as subtitles in all of the languages including English.

And the Extras Are?
Chinatown: The Beginning and The End – (19:30)
Chinatown: Filming – (25:36)
Chinatown: The Legacy – (9:40)
This set of three newly-recorded “talking-heads” style interviews with the Chinatown cast and crew are topical and fairly self-explanatory by their titles. Director Robert Polanski, actors Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, screenwriter Robert Towne and even producer Robert Evans are all given time to talk about every aspect of one of the most incredible movies of all time. Together, these features are fantastic, and almost eclipse any disappointment that there is no commentary track. You’ll hear Polanski talk about difficulties of him returning to Los Angeles only a few years after Sharon Tate’s murder. You’ll learn that the origins of the film’s plot are actually based in fact. You’ll see Robert Evans still thinking that he’s the sexiest thing on this planet. The benefit of 33 years of retrospect is apparent in this honest look at the making and critical reception of the film. I especially enjoyed how time has shifted some of the memories of the conflicts on the set and who was fighting over what. Somehow, for Chinatown, that’s fitting. It’s not the best set of features I’ve seen on DVD, but if you’re a Chinatown fan (and who isn’t); you’re going to want to spend your time here.

Theatrical Trailer – (3:21)
I love trailers, and since many DVDs are now excluding them, I’m pleased that Paramount saw fit to include the original trailer on this re-release.

On the original DVD, which I sadly don’t have for a better, fresher comparison, there were several interviews with the cast and crew. I don’t remember them being as involved as these, but I would have liked them to roll over. Fans may want to hold on to the original release for this reason alone.

The Bottom Line
There are very few films that I place higher on a pedestal than Chinatown. Certainly it’s the best Noir film made after the 40’s and unlike most suspense-mysteries where once the plot twists are known there is little reason to revisit, Chinatown’s brilliance never fades even after many repeat viewings. If you never picked up the film before, this is easily the best DVD to add to your collection. If you own the original release it will be up to how important the new supplements and sound mix are to you when deciding on upgrading. That said, everyone should have a copy of Chinatown in their collections. If nothing else, it’s a definite must see.