Editing Chinatown (1974 film) (section)

==Production==
===Background===
In 1971, producer [[Robert Evans]] offered Towne $175,000 to write a screenplay for ''[[The Great Gatsby (1974 film)|The Great Gatsby]]'' (1974), but Towne felt he could not better the [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]] [[The Great Gatsby|novel]]. Instead, Towne asked Evans for $25,000 to write his own story, ''Chinatown'', to which Evans agreed.<ref name="dvd">{{cite video |people = Robert Towne, Roman Polanksi and Robert Evans |date = April 11, 2007 |title = Retrospective interview from Chinatown (Special Collector's Edition) |medium = DVD |publisher = Paramount |ASIN = B000UAE7RW}}</ref><ref name="Thomson">* Thomson, David (2005). ''The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood''. {{ISBN|0-375-40016-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://lamag.com/film/robert-evans-chinatown | title=In a Never-Before-Published Interview, Robert Evans Talks 'Chinatown': 'We Weren't Sure if We Had a Disaster on our Hands' | date=October 29, 2019 }}</ref> Towne had originally hoped to also direct ''Chinatown'', but realized that by taking Evans' money, he would lose control of the project's future and his role as a director.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wasson |first=Sam |title=The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood |publisher=Flatiron Books |year=2020 |isbn=9781250301833 |location=New York |pages=100, 114}}</ref>

''Chinatown'' is set in 1937 and portrays the manipulation of a critical municipal resource—water—by a cadre of shadowy oligarchs. It was the first part of Towne's planned [[trilogy]] about the character J. J. Gittes, the foibles of the Los Angeles power structure, and the subjugation of public good by private greed.<ref name=inter>{{cite web |url=http://thehollywoodinterview.blogspot.com/2009/10/robert-towne-hollywood-interview.html |title=Robert Towne: The Hollywood Interview |author=The Hollywood Interview |access-date=November 7, 2009 |archive-date=December 16, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171216223651/http://thehollywoodinterview.blogspot.com/2009/10/robert-towne-hollywood-interview.html |url-status=live}}</ref> The second part, ''[[The Two Jakes]]'', has Gittes caught up in another grab for a natural resource—oil—in the 1940s. It was directed by Jack Nicholson and released in 1990, but the second film's commercial and critical failure scuttled plans to make ''Gittes vs. Gittes'',<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/09/29/chinatown.towne.movie/index.html | work=CNN.com | title='My sister! My daughter!' and other tales of 'Chinatown'  | access-date=April 28, 2010 | date=September 29, 2009 | archive-date=January 23, 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180123062920/http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/09/29/chinatown.towne.movie/index.html | url-status=live}}</ref> about the third finite resource—land—in Los Angeles, circa 1968.<ref name=inter />

===Origins===
The character of Hollis Mulwray was inspired by and loosely based on Irish immigrant [[William Mulholland]] (1855–1935) according to Mulholland's [[Catherine Mulholland (historian)|granddaughter]].<ref name=beast>"[http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/28/william-mulholland-gave-water-to-la-and-inspired-chinatown.html William Mulholland Gave Water to LA and Inspired ''Chinatown''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160915194827/http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/28/william-mulholland-gave-water-to-la-and-inspired-chinatown.html |date=September 15, 2016}}" by Jon Wilkman, ''[[The Daily Beast]]'', February 28, 2016</ref><ref name=catherine/><ref name=brook/> Mulholland was the superintendent and chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, who oversaw the construction of the 230-mile (370-km) [[Aqueduct (bridge)|aqueduct]] that carries water from the [[Owens Valley]] to Los Angeles.<ref name=catherine>"[https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-catherine-mulholland-20110707-story.html Catherine Mulholland dies at 88; historian wrote key biography of famed grandfather] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211216014314/https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-catherine-mulholland-20110707-story.html |date=December 16, 2021 }} " by Elaine Woo, ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', July 7, 2011</ref> Mulholland was considered by many to be the man who made Los Angeles possible by building the Los Angeles Aqueduct in the early 1900s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Standiford |first=Les |title=Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles |publisher=Ecco: an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers |year=2016 |location=New York |page=3}}</ref> The 233 mile long feat of engineering brought the water necessary for urban expansion from the Owens Valley to a Los Angeles whose growth was constrained by the limits of the Los Angeles River.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Standiford |first=Les |title=Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles |publisher=Ecco: an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers |year=2016 |location=New York |pages=3, 64}}</ref> Mulholland credits Fred Eaton, then mayor of Los Angeles, with the idea to secure water for the city from the Owens Valley.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Standiford |first=Les |title=Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles |publisher=Ecco: an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers |year=2016 |pages=66}}</ref>

Although the character of Hollis Mulwray was relatively minor in the film and he was killed in the early part of the movie, the events of Mulholland's life were portrayed through both the character of Mulwray and other figures in the movie. This portrayal, along with other changes to actual events that inspired ''Chinatown'', such as the time frame which was some thirty years earlier than that of the movie, were some of the liberties with facts of Mulholland's life that the movie takes.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Standiford |first=Les |title=Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles |publisher=Ecco: an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers |year=2016 |location=New York |pages=xv}}</ref>

Author Vincent Brook considers real-life Mulholland to be split, in the film, into "noble Water and Power chief Hollis Mulwray" and "mobster muscle Claude Mulvihill",<ref name=brook>Brook, Vincent. ''Land of Smoke and Mirrors: A Cultural History of Los Angeles''; Rutgers University Press; 2013; {{ISBN|978-0813554563}}</ref> just as Land syndicate and Combination members, who "exploited their insider knowledge" on account of "personal greed", are "condensed into the singular, and singularly monstrous, Noah Cross".<ref name=brook/>

In the film, Mulwray opposes the dam wanted by Noah Cross and the city of Los Angeles, for reasons of engineering and safety, arguing he would not repeat his previous mistake, when his dam broke resulting in hundreds of deaths. This alludes to the [[St. Francis Dam]] disaster of March 12, 1928.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Nazaryan |first=Alexander |date=April 10, 2016 |title=On the edge of L.A. lies the remains of an engineering disaster that offers a warning for us today |url=http://www.newsweek.com/2016/04/22/st-francis-dam-disaster-los-angeles-warning-engineering-445915.html |magazine=Newsweek |language=en |access-date=March 10, 2018 |archive-date=March 11, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180311140802/http://www.newsweek.com/2016/04/22/st-francis-dam-disaster-los-angeles-warning-engineering-445915.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Unlike the character of Mulwray, who was concerned about the dam in ''Chinatown'', Mulholland's role in the disaster diverged from the events in the film. Mulholland had inspected the St. Francis Dam after the dam keeper Tony Harnischfeger requested that Mulholland personally inspect the dam after Harnischfeger became concerned about the safety of the dam upon discovering cracks and brown water leaking from the base of the dam, which indicated to him the erosion of the dam's foundation.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Standiford |first=Les |title=Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles |publisher=Ecco: an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers |year=2016 |location=New York |page=5}}</ref> Mulholland inspected the dam at around 10:30 in the morning, declaring that all was well with the structure.<ref name=":1" /> Just before midnight that same evening, a massive failure of the dam occurred.<ref name=":1" /> The dam's failure inundated the [[Santa Clara River Valley]], including the town of [[Santa Paula, California|Santa Paula]], with flood water, causing the deaths of at least 431 people. The event effectively ended Mulholland's career.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Pollack|first=Alan|url=http://www.scvhs.org/news/dispatch36-2.pdf|title=President's Message|journal=The Heritage Junction Dispatch|publisher=Santa Clara Valley Historical Society|date=March–April 2010|access-date=October 17, 2013|archive-date=June 9, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130609044219/http://www.scvhs.org/news/dispatch36-2.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Reisner">* Reisner, Marc (1986). ''Cadillac Desert''. {{ISBN|0-670-19927-3}}</ref>

The plot of Chinatown is also drawn not just from the diversion of water from the Owens Valley via the aqueduct but also from another actual event. In the movie, water is being purposely released in order to drive the land owners out and create support for a dam through an artificial drought. The event that the movie refers to occurred in late 1903 and 1904 when underground water levels plummeted and water usage rose precipitously.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Standiford |first=Les |title=Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles |publisher=Ecco: an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers |year=2016 |location=New York |pages=62}}</ref> Rather than a deliberate release, Mulholland was able to figure out that because of faulty valves and gates in the water system, large quantities of water were being released in the overflow sewer system and then into the ocean.<ref name=":2" /> Mulholland was able to stop the leaks.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Standiford |first=Les |title=Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angele |publisher=Ecco: an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers |year=2016 |pages=63}}</ref>

===Script===
According to Robert Towne, both [[Carey McWilliams (journalist)|Carey McWilliams]]'s ''Southern California Country: An Island on the Land'' (1946) and a ''West'' magazine article called "[[Raymond Chandler]]'s L.A." inspired his original screenplay.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-05-29-bk-63320-story.html|title=It's Only L.A., Jake|last=Towne|first=Robert|date=May 29, 1994|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=May 11, 2017|archive-date=June 19, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160619061535/http://articles.latimes.com/1994-05-29/books/bk-63320_1_raymond-chandler-s-la-chinatown-oil-derrick|url-status=live}}</ref> In a letter to McWilliams, Towne wrote that ''Southern California Country'' "really changed my life. It taught me to look at the place where I was born, and convinced me to write about it".<ref>{{Cite book|title=American Prophet: The Life and Work of Carey McWilliams|last=Richardson|first=Peter|publisher=University of Michigan Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0472115242|location=Ann Arbor|pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanprophetl00rich/page/260 260]|url=https://archive.org/details/americanprophetl00rich/page/260}}</ref>

Towne wrote the screenplay with [[Jack Nicholson]] in mind.<ref name="dvd" /> He took the title (and the exchange "What did you do in Chinatown?" / "As little as possible") from a Hungarian vice cop, who had worked in Los Angeles's Chinatown, dealing with its confusion of dialects and gangs. The vice cop thought that "police were better off in Chinatown doing nothing, because you could never tell what went on there" and whether what a cop did helped or furthered the exploitation of victims.<ref name="dvd" /><ref>Brownstein, Ronald (2021). ''Rock Me on the Water''. New York: HarperCollins. pp. 170–171. {{ISBN|978-0062899217}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Klein |first=Norman M. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/609301964 |title=The history of forgetting : Los Angeles and the erasure of memory |publisher=Verso |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-78960-413-9 |edition=New updated |location=London |oclc=609301964}}</ref>

Polanski first learned of the script through Nicholson, as they had been searching for a suitable joint project, and the producer Robert Evans was excited at the thought that Polanski's direction would create a darker, more cynical, and European vision of the United States. Polanski was initially reluctant to return to Los Angeles (it was only a few years since the [[Tate murders|murder of his pregnant wife]] [[Sharon Tate]]), but was persuaded on the strength of the script.<ref name="dvd" />

Towne wanted Cross to die and Evelyn Mulwray to survive, but the screenwriter and director argued over it, with Polanski insisting on a tragic end: "I knew that if ''Chinatown'' was to be special, not just another thriller where the good guys triumph in the final reel, Evelyn had to die".<ref name="TCM">[http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article.html?isPreview=&id=154968%7C28063&name=Chinatown "Chinatown"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605191012/http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article.html?isPreview=&id=154968%7C28063&name=Chinatown |date=June 5, 2013}}. Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved August 22, 2012.</ref> They parted ways over this dispute and Polanski wrote the final scene a few days before it was shot.<ref name="dvd" />

The original script was more than 180 pages and included a narration by Gittes; Polanski cut and reordered the story so the audience and Gittes unraveled the mysteries at the same time.

===Characters and casting===
* J. J. Gittes was named after Nicholson's friend, producer Harry Gittes.
* Evelyn Mulwray is, according to Towne, intended to initially seem the classic "black widow" character typical of lead female characters in [[film noir]], but is eventually revealed to be a tragic victim. [[Jane Fonda]] was strongly considered for the role, but Polanski insisted on Dunaway.<ref name="dvd" />
* Noah Cross: Towne said that Huston was, after Nicholson, the second-best-cast actor in the film and that he made the Cross character menacing, through his courtly performance.<ref name="dvd" />
* Polanski appears in a cameo as the gangster who cuts Gittes' nose. The effect was accomplished with a special knife which could have actually cut Nicholson's nose if Polanski had not held it correctly.
* In 1974, after making Chinatown and while filming ''[[The Fortune]]'', Nicholson was informed by ''Time'' magazine researchers that his "sister" was actually his mother, similarly to the revelation made in the film regarding Evelyn and Katherine.<ref name="seducer">Collins, Nancy. [https://web.archive.org/web/20081021095326/http://www.jacknicholson.org/1984RollingStone.html ''The Great Seducer: Jack Nicholson'']. ''Rolling Stone'', March 29, 1984,</ref>

===Filming===
[[Principal photography]] took place from October 1973 to January 1974.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071315/locations/ | title=Chinatown (1974) – Filming & production | website=[[IMDb]] | access-date=March 9, 2024 | archive-date=March 18, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230318061712/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071315/locations | url-status=live }}</ref> [[William A. Fraker]] accepted the cinematographer position from Polanski when Paramount agreed. He had worked with the studio previously on Polanski's ''[[Rosemary's Baby (film)|Rosemary's Baby]]''. Robert Evans, never consulted about the decision, insisted that the offer be rescinded since he felt pairing Polanski and Fraker again would create a team with too much control over the project and complicate the production.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g6owDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA11|title=A Hidden History of Film Style: Cinematographers, Directors, and the Collaborative Process|last=Beach|first=Christopher|date=May 2015|publisher=Univ of California Press|isbn=9780520284357}}</ref>

Between Fraker and the eventual choice [[John A. Alonzo]], the two compromised on [[Stanley Cortez]], but Polanski grew frustrated with Cortez's slow process, old fashioned compositional sensibility, and unfamiliarity with the Panavision equipment. Alonzo had worked on documentaries and shot film for ''National Geographic'' and for Jacques Cousteau.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wasson |first=Sam |title=The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood |publisher=Flatiron Books |year=2020 |location=New York |pages=205}}</ref> Alonzo was chosen for his fleetness and skill with natural light a few weeks into production. Alonzo understood that Polanski wanted realism in his lighting; "He wants the soft red tile to look soft red."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wasson |first=Sam |title=The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood |publisher=Flatiron Books |year=2020 |location=New York |pages=204}}</ref> Ultimately, only a handful of scenes in the finished film, including the orange grove confrontation, were shot by Cortez.<ref name="Wasson, Sam 2020"/> Because Polanski's English was poor, Alonzo and Polanski would communicate in Italian, which Alonzo would then translate for the crew.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wasson |first=Sam |title=The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood |publisher=Flatiron Books |year=2020 |location=New York |pages=207}}</ref> Polanski was rigorous in his framing and use of Alonzo's vision, making the actors strictly adhere to blocking to accommodate the camera and lighting.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wasson |first=Sam |title=The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood |publisher=Flatiron Books |year=2020 |location=New York |pages=208}}</ref>

In keeping with a technique Polanski attributes to Raymond Chandler, all of the events of the film are seen subjectively through the main character's eyes; for example, when Gittes is knocked unconscious, the film fades to black and fades in when he awakens. Gittes appears in every scene of the film.<ref name="dvd" /> This subjectivity is the same construction used in Francis Coppola's ''[[The Conversation]]'' in which the main character, Harry Caul (Gene Hackman), appears in every scene in the film. ''The Conversation'' began shooting eleven months prior to ''Chinatown''.

===Soundtrack===
{{Infobox album
| name       = Chinatown
| type       = film
| artist     = [[Jerry Goldsmith]]
| cover      =
| caption    =
| alt        =
| released   = 1974
| recorded   =
| venue      =
| studio     =
| genre      = [[Jazz]], [[soundtrack]]
| length     =
| label      = [[Varèse Sarabande]]
| producer   =
| prev_title =
| prev_year  =
| next_title =
| next_year  =
}}
[[Jerry Goldsmith]] composed and recorded the film's score in ten days, after producer Robert Evans rejected Phillip Lambro's original effort at the last minute. It received an [[Academy Award]] nomination and remains widely praised,<ref>{{cite web | first=Terry | last=Teachout | title=The Perfect Film Score | work=The Wall Street Journal | url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204261704574274152752739772 | date=July 10, 2009 | access-date=December 7, 2016 | archive-date=October 28, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161028144134/http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204261704574274152752739772 | url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=empire>{{cite web | author=Team Empire | title=The 20 Soundtracks That Defined The 1970s | url=http://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/decade-defining-soundtracks-70s/ | work=[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]] | date=April 27, 2013 | access-date=December 7, 2016 | archive-date=December 4, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161204074322/http://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/decade-defining-soundtracks-70s/ | url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last=Schweiger | first=Daniel | title=CD Review: The Ghost Writer – Original Soundtrack | url=http://www.filmmusicmag.com/?p=5171 | work=Film Music Magazine | date=March 15, 2010 | publisher=Global Media Online | access-date=December 7, 2016 | quote=...of all of his movies that involve some sort of conspiracy, Jerry Goldsmith's Oscar-nominated film noir stylings for ''Chinatown'' are the most renowned. I can dare to say that while nothing is going to top that classic score... | archive-date=January 15, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170115105926/http://www.filmmusicmag.com/?p=5171 | url-status=live}}</ref> ranking ninth on the [[American Film Institute]]'s list of the [[AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores|top 25 American film scores]].<ref>{{cite web | title=AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores | url=http://www.afi.com/100years/scores.aspx | publisher=[[American Film Institute]] | access-date=December 7, 2016 | archive-date=March 30, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140330194723/http://www.afi.com/100Years/scores.aspx | url-status=live}}</ref> Goldsmith's score, with "haunting" trumpet solos by Hollywood studio musician and MGM's first trumpet [[Uan Rasey]], was released through [[ABC Records]] and features 12 tracks at a running time just over 30 minutes. It was later reissued on CD by the [[Varèse Sarabande]] label. Rasey related that Goldsmith "told [him] to play it sexy — but like it's not good sex!"<ref name=empire />

# "Love Theme from Chinatown (Main Title)"
# "Noah Cross"
# "[[Easy Living (song)|Easy Living]]" ([[Ralph Rainger|Rainger]], [[Leo Robin|Robin]])
# "Jake and Evelyn"
# "[[I Can't Get Started]]" ([[Vernon Duke|Duke]], [[Ira Gershwin|Gershwin]])
# "The Last of Ida"
# "The Captive"
# "The Boy on a Horse"
# "[[The Way You Look Tonight]]" ([[Jerome Kern|Kern]], [[Dorothy Fields|Fields]])
# "The Wrong Clue"
# "J. J. Gittes"
# "Love Theme from Chinatown (End Title)"