Editing Chinatown (1974 film) (section)

===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.