168: Chinatown (1974)

“Well, to tell ya the truth, I lied a little.” Alex and Nick break down one of the essential films of the New Hollywood movement, Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown.” The guys discuss their favorite Jack Nicholson performances, Polanski’s infamous career, Faye Dunaway’s disturbing performance, John Huston as one of the best movie villains of all time, Robert Towne writing one of the best screenplays of all time, and much more.

Part 6 of the WAYW New Hollywood Film Project.

Follow @WAYW_Podcast on Twitter / Instagram / Letterboxd
Send mailbag questions to whatareyouwatchingpodcast@gmail.com

Transcript

0:03

How did you get past the guard? Well, I'll tell you the truth. I lied a little. You know what happens to nosy fellows, No one. I guess. I got damn near lost my nose. And I like it. I like breathing through it. And I still think that you're hiding something. See, Mr. Getz, most people never have to face the fact. The right time and the right place. They're capable of anything. Hey. Hey, everyone. Welcome to. What are you watching? I'm Alex with throw in. I'm joined by my best man, Nick Doe. So how you doing there, Mr. Gates? Oh, Mr.. Get it, get it, get it. Oh, so Mr. gets lost. He just goes every time he cracks and he's like, yes, he's so sincere I love it. I did a little, it just in my research he actually couldn't say it. I, you couldn't say get it said he kept saying it incorrectly. They kept like Polanski was like, you got to say it right. And he could. So they just went with it and turned it into a thing, which I love. Yeah. I mean, it's honestly it's a great moment. I mean, it's such a good moment that I remember I knew exactly what you were talking about when you did it. That says a lot. Yeah, it does, it does. All right. How are you doing? Oh, man. I'm, I'm jazzed. I'm 1930s. Fucking like LA stoked, man. I'm fucking ready. Ready to go to the reservoir. Yes. The white water. Yeah. New Hollywood Film Project is back with, not at all controversial film. Nothing about it. Or anyone who made it as controversial setting. You're talking about Chinatown? Yeah. What have, you know the most? What the production of, which was one of the most kind of legendary ever. And of course, some of the people who made it have gone on to live in great infamy. We'll touch on that as we go. But this film, you know, why are we doing Chinatown, 1974, directed by Roman Polanski, written by Robert Towne. We're doing it because I can jump right to here as a way to just get us started. I think this is one of the top ten best screenplays ever written. Ever. Oh, for cinema. I think the script is a thing of pure artistry. So, you know, we can start there. But that's one of the reasons why we're here. I, you know, the funniest thing is, is that throughout the whole entire movie, I'm marveling at the script from from everything from just the tone of it to where all the actors know what that tone is. And then just some of the actual just like, biting dialog. There's like, we always have a we always have a thing on here where, you know, we try to jot down our favorite quotes from these movies. This I actually had a difficult time doing that because this script is so goddamn tight that it's like, I can't really just pick any line because they're all so good and they're all so close to junction with. Yeah, yeah, it flows so well. Exactly. But I never actually like, thought about that question that you just said, like that statement that this is one of the, if not the greatest screenplay ever written. Wow. I mean, I can't I can't dispute it, though. I can't I did a list ages ago on my blog like my favorite top ten movies, top ten directors, all that. But I did do top ten scripts and I even broke it down between adapted and original. This is an original script, like it's crazy you just came up with this and it's very layered. And one of the reasons because yeah, we're talking about that biting dialog, even like I think there's only one F-bomb and it's what Jack's trying to get their attention. He's like, shut the fuck up, you know, on the phone. Yeah. Like, but even that, like, if we just say that line that doesn't really read much to you, but when you watch the movie, it does. Of course it has. Okay. If you. I don't even have the shit written down. Few reasons why I think it's one of the best scripts ever. I firmly believe if if we're using the metaphor of like a ride, a roller coaster, I think the entire thing, 90% of it is going up and we're going up the incline of it. I think the final scene, once we get to Chinatown, is that first massive drop down, and instead of enjoying the rest of the ride, we cut the fucking credits. Yeah. So it's this narrative propulsion that is going, going, going the I think the most iconic scene is the last scene. The last scripted line of dialog in Chinatown is the most famous line of dialog in the movie. That's. Yeah, it's like it's the last line. It's crazy. And there are long, huge passages of this movie where no dialog is spoken and we are watching Jack, Mr. Guinness in his process, the stopwatches, all this stuff, figuring all this out. So it just it proves that a great script is not just dialog, not not at all. There's such a story built in here. There's so much interior, it's magnificent. The, I was going to save this note. I don't know when I was going to save it, because we were all we were always all over the place with these. But, I think one of the things I started noticing about midway through, I was like, every single scene you're learning something brand new about the story. But then we also leave every single scene with a new question, just like Geddes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think to your point of this being that kind of roller coaster ride is because you're not getting those ups and downs, you're not getting those big moments because every single thing is leading to something else. Now, I can only imagine that if you were to try to make a script like that yourself, that that is it. Probably a giant trap to fall in, because I can't imagine you're not giving the audience a chance to go on any kind of ride. But this movie does not feel like stagnant. It does not feel, stale. It doesn't feel like we need something else. You're right. It's it's a continuous build, but yet we're compelled the entire time, even on scenes that don't even seem like they really mean much. Yep, they do. And you're still learning something brand new. Like, I'm not even thinking about when he goes to that one guy's office and he's dealing with the secretary of the old lady. This is always bothered by him. Yeah. And I take your, like, lunch. Yeah, exactly. And then it's just within that you're like, they wait. He's looking around their partners like all of a sudden now there's something new learned and a question like, wait, what is this in every scene has that it's, it is, it is very, very remarkable. I missed one key thing for why I love the script. The whole thing is through the eyes of JJ Geddes. We do not learn any information unless he is learning it now. So you really feel like a detective going along in the story? And. Yeah, there's no. We're just going up the whole time. Because even when there is a quote unquote, I don't know, action scene or scene of great suspense like hello Kitty cat, you know, you know, what happens to nosy people that. Yeah, we still don't know why that happens. I mean, the scenes later, he's like, I damn near lost my nose. Like, you know, he he doesn't know why it's happened. So we're constantly it's just a great, like, potboiler detective thriller. And yeah, you're right. You don't know, like, why are we meeting Bert Young in the very first scene? Like what? What is. Why is he talking to this guy so much about the pond? Like, this doesn't matter. It's all going to matter. Like, all these little threads are going to matter toward the end, toward the great, great end. Before we go any further, I know I bring this up a lot when we just do deep dive, but there's no way to talk about this movie without spoiling it. And there are some amazing massive reveals in this movie that if you haven't seen Chinatown, or even if you haven't seen it in a while, I really strongly encourage everyone to go listen to it or go watch it rather, and then come back and maybe listen to us. Maybe we can, I don't know, shed some light on the mysteries of it, whatever. But I, you know, that's just my fair warning that we're going to ruin everything. And I almost got close just talking about that last scene. So from here on out, anything is free rein. So just wanted to get that out there. But yes, I love this film. How many times have you seen this? Oh man. This is probably this last watch for this episode. It's probably watch for I would say. Yeah. And that's another thing. You can't watch this once. I mean you can and you can have an opinion of it, but it's, you know, you're it's going to be a lot different. Yeah. Oh yeah. Sure, sure. So the let's, let's do that. Let's talk about when we first discovered it I was in college and this was around that time where I think like a lot of my story Australia's. But it is what it is, is when you start like feeling like I got to start jumping into, like, these movies that are considered the classics. Yeah. What are these digging deep, like Chinatown. That's one that everyone talks about. So I put this on and man, I mean, obviously I'm in my home, but I it to me this is, this is this is what it was. I didn't think that it was a more boring movie ever made then. Absolutely fair. Absolutely fair. Because I, because I didn't know what the movie was asking me. I didn't know what it was demanding from its audience. And what it is demanding from you is your full attention because. Absolutely. And and so like halfway through, I'm like, is this fucking movie all about water? Is that all this fucking is like, am I watching a movie about fucking water? And and then like, I'm just watching. And I was like, I just can't wait for this fucking slugfest. If I can get it over with, like, and, and that was my opinion of Chinatown for a very long time. I, you know how a lot of people look at Lawrence of Arabia and their very first reaction a lot of times goes, oh, that's fucking long. I made it, I made it, yeah. And and so I had that opinion about Chinatown. Any time Chinatown would come up, be like, oh, jeez. And I think it was my director for, in college. And I remember, I think I just so, boldly reacted that way. And he just looked at me like I had two heads, and he was like, what do you mean? And I go, that movie was boring. And then he's like, you're going to watch it again one day and you're going to think differently. And man, that is also fair. And that's that's exactly right. It's a very fair thing to say because this is one it can you can be you can be too young for this. Like this was not. Yeah. Oh yeah. A movie, you know, a 70s movie that I discovered incredibly young, like a lot of other ones. We're talking about this I came to later. I still remember watching it for the first time with my mom, and I'm. I was probably 15 or 16, and she loved it. She. You know, she was selling it to me so hard. And. Yeah, I had no idea that this is like, you're watching it for the first time. If you're a little younger and you're like this, what? Like, who the fuck are all these people? There's doppelgangers. There's double, triple, quadruple crosses. No one ever is telling the truth. No one is telling the truth until the end. Even Guinness is constantly lying. And now there's water. There's aqueducts, there's reservoirs, there's rivers. What the fuck is going on? Here's a funny little guy with the switchblade. Like, who's that? Like what? For me, it was all about the mood, the tone, the atmosphere. And it kind of felt like I had already had a relationship with Jack Nicholson. But kind of when you're watching Chinatown, you're like, was this made in the 30s? I mean, of course it wasn't. But like the production design, the art direction, the costuming, the way they're playing it, it's all so brilliant. So I just remember being drawn to that. Of course, it sounds great with Jerry Goldsmith's score. It looks amazing with John Alonzo's cinematography. We've already talked about the script, so I was compelled to keep going back and back and back. But it took yeah, I mean, I was probably in college when I was on my fourth or fifth viewing, and then I was the guy going, no, like to all my friends going, you have to watch this. Like, yes, you do have to pay attention, definitely. But it leads to a that's another thing. It doesn't lead to any sort of catharsis. It ends in complete dread and pessimism and misery. So. And there's no hope. And it is fabulous. It's like, yes, Jesus Christ, like you just you end at peak despair. There's no that's where it ends. And then you're just you got to leach now. You got to go on with your day and you're like, wow, wow. Yes, this is a fantastic new Hollywood movie. What new Hollywood films represented? This is like a grade A prototype. I don't know about you, but I feel like in that whole entire end sequence, because so much goes to shit and we are going right to the end right now because I just want to talk about it. That's fine. It never hits me any different in all the times I've seen it. Like, because there's so much that is like washing over you in terms of your exact that your word despair is exactly correct, the complete loss of hope. To me, there's nothing more brutal than and it's John Houston when he like with his whole body that has the yeah that had comes around. Oh it's all you know and you just oh my god I'll get you chills because it's so frightening. Oh and you and she's just screaming. Yeah. The, the product of something completely horrific and horrible and unnatural has now just taken this child back. Yeah. On top of all the other things that are happening. Yeah. So fourth time watching it. I don't know if the ending ever hit me harder than it did this last time. Yeah. There was just so much there. And yeah, you're you're 100% right. The fact that this movie has the balls to fucking do that. But this is also why this is why we're having this new 1970s project series. It's because these are the movies that, yes, Chinatown is regarded in such a way, but I feel like, you know, the way to kind of like make people realize, like, why this was such a big deal and why we don't see things like this now. I don't think I, I'm struggling to think if there's a movie that could be made today that would have the patience of Chinatown, the complete attention to detail, the way that this movie does, like you were saying, when you're talking about that screenplay, there is something about this movie about every single prop that you see, every single sign, every single thing that you need to start like to track. It's shown to you beautifully. Like, even like the way that Jack will open up that, like Case of Cigarets. It's almost as if it's like it's a showpiece. Like. And you remember that now because it was such a gesture and because the production design and the art direction is so good, it looks like that, but you're like, oh, this is what she does. She's always smoking these. She's just chain smoking out of these things. And she does it when she's nervous. Well, she does it when her father's men mention it's when. Yes. That's when he's like, you already have one going, Mrs. Malone. Yeah. You know. Yeah. She gets I mean, Jesus Christ, she's fantastic in this. The shivers like, Yeah. Whether they're clues that we need to track for the case or they're personal items that matter to another character, it's it's, you don't you it's it's subconscious. You don't realize that you're remembering these things, but it's all because of the way it was shot. And because it was in the script. Like, there's a point that we need to see these things. Yeah. And if you're not paying attention, that is where this movie will lose you. Because you could be working at a headline on a newspaper that that Jake is looking at. And that is a clue right there. And sometimes he doesn't even bring attention to it. You just see it, and then you cut to his face and he has a reaction, and then you're like, oh, what's that? That's for a Lamar crab. Jasper Lamar crab. Yeah. Exactly. Like it demands your full attention through it. It demands your full attention. And if you're and if you miss any of it and it starts from the get go. Yeah. Right away. If, if you're not paying attention to as soon as that woman comes in because you could I think I the first time I, I was very confused when Faye Dunaway first comes in and she so is he. Yeah. And I'm like, wait a second. What? This movie's lost me. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's a fun kind of question. If if you had only seen it once or if we had someone on here who'd only seen it once, I would ask, when did it lose you? Like, at what point are you going, okay. And yeah, that's as good a point as any, but so is get it's he's lost as well. Yeah. He has no idea what's going on. Yeah. Let's jump. You want to jump into how it kind of got made because this is such a crazy story. Let's fucking do it, man. I'm fucking stoked. This is one of the craziest. Just like pre-production and not even that. Just coming together of a film in 70s history or Hollywood history. Famous producer slash Paramount studio exec Robert Evans. He's probably this guy is like the king of New Hollywood. He produced films and ran the fucking studio at the same time. Kind of unheard of. He wants famed screenwriter Robert Towne to adapt The Great Gatsby. Towne says nah, he wants to do an original script, set it in 1930s LA. He writes the part of J.J. Geddes for his friend Robert Evans. Man, this guy, again a producer and the head of Paramount. And he kind of changed, I mean, he is such a large part of the reason of why New Hollywood exists. He made The Odd Couple, Rosemary's Baby, The Italian Job, True Grit, Love Story, Harold and Maude, The Godfather, Save the Tiger. He did make The Great Gatsby the conversation. He was he had a hand in the conversation. Chinatown and The Godfather two in the same fucking year. It's it's insane. And then he switches to producing. He produces Chinatown Marathon Man, which we covered black Sunday, Urban Cowboy, and then gets heavily into drugs. Things get rough. There's a great documentary called The Kid Stays in the picture about him. Dustin Hoffman and Wag the Dog is basically playing Robert Evans. Matthew Goode did play Robert Evans in the Paramount series The Offer. Bryan Cranston is essentially playing a Robert Evans type in the studio, very probably one of the most infamous producers who's ever lived after, you know, like the geezers, like the Selznick's and all that. The geezers. So Polanski, this is, you know, I'm not going to go into this without touching on him. Like, this is the first time we're doing a really controversial figure, like a movie by a really controversial figure. And the guy's born in Paris. He. His family moves to Krakow. Nazis invade. Two years later, his family is captured in the Krakow ghetto raids. Little Polanski, little Roman escapes. He survives the Holocaust. A lot of these personal experiences were captured in his film The Pianist, starring Adrien Brody, but Polanski starts making movies in Poland. He begins with a really crafty thriller, knife in the water. 1962 two Men and a woman on a boat. Things don't Go Well, repulsion 1965 Oh My God is First Grade a thriller. This is a movie about Catherine Deneuve losing her fucking mind in an apartment. Huge influence on my film earrings I love repulsion. Oh, cold sack, 1966. Not bad. Only saw it once. Comedy thriller about gangsters hiding out in the castle. The Fearless Vampire Killers, 1967. This is a comedy horror film starring Polanski himself and Sharon Tate, who he would marry the next year. Rosemary's baby, 1968, produced by Robert Evans at Paramount. Just a bona fide psychological horror masterpiece, 100% still absolutely holds up. Ali had never seen it, wanted to watch it, showed it to her a few months ago. She could not believe it. She didn't know it was going to be she. She had no idea what it was going to be and she just loved it. She said it was it was her first time seeing Cassavetes and she's like, I now know why you love him like that dude's not acting that dude dislike feels like he's in the scene. Rosemary's baby 68, August 9th, 1969. Four members of Charles Manson Family break into the home at 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles, and they butcher all those inside, including Polanski's wife Sharon Tate, who is eight and a half months pregnant at the time. With Polanski's child, this crime ruined American innocence, and it shattered Polanski's life early on. Keep in mind, he was the lead suspect. They thought he did this or had a hand in doing it. I just I can't imagine. A few years later, he makes Macbeth in the British Isles. He makes what, in Italy? And then Robert Evans convinces him to come back to L.A. to make Chinatown. The ending that we've hinted at. That was his idea. Wow. As was the casting of John Houston, which is just fantastic. And I'm going to jump to this now because we're just going to do it now. After Chinatown Plants, he's back on top. He's nominated for directing Chinatown. He writes and stars in his next film, The Tenant, in 1976, and then the next year, his life completely falls apart again. This time it's his fault, because in 1977, Polanski is arrested for drugging and raping a 13 year old girl, and it still remains one of the most notorious Hollywood scandals ever. Today, this day still one of the most crazy things to ever happen in that damn town. Entire books, documentaries and podcast series have been made about this crime and the judicial fallout of it. Polanski left America shortly after the crime happened, and he has never returned. This brings up the age old question of the art versus the artist. I find what he did in 1977 to be morally reprehensible, personally disgusting, and objectively terrible. And he has also made a few classic movies. Both things can be true. Yeah, I think him as a person. He's weird and gross and I wouldn't want to hang out with him. But I also think Chinatown is a masterpiece and that's kind of all I have to say on that. That's it. That's all I can do. I think we're in the same boat when it comes to this stuff. Yeah. You know, when you look back in history, like, you know, when you look at all the artists that have gone throughout the centuries, that they're pieces of literature, there's pieces of artwork that we still look at and we admire and we celebrate and we do all these things because that is that good. And then you also kind of sometimes think about the reality of like, I wonder if that person was a complete awful human being. And unfortunately, I bet you more often than not they were, because it's not like humans were better centuries ago. It's not at all. You know, so a horrible deed and a horrible act and horrible behavior is exactly that. It's horrible. And you there's there's no there's no positive there. No. As much as humans can do those horrible things, they can also create amazing pieces of art. And that's this is always the catch 28 of it all, you know what I'm saying? Yeah I do. Yeah, sure. Exactly. But that's also why we're not doing a Polanski full profile. We're doing. Yeah, yeah, a movie that he's done. And I think it's it's just I wanted to at least mention it to so that listeners know that we don't have, you know, our blinders on. We're very aware of this stuff. And I, I did think about it a little bit like, do we I don't know, do we do this? But this movie is fantastic. And I don't know if it helps that this was made before the, the horrible crime. But, you know, the pianist was made decades after, and the Academy gave him best director for that. So Hollywood, Hollywood, Robert Towne, the great Robert Towne, he's part of the Roger Roger Corman school of filmmaking. He was great friends with Nicholson. Towne wrote The Last Detail, Chinatown, The Accuser, shampoo, the Chinatown follow up, The Two Jakes, Days of Thunder, The Firm, The First, Mission Impossible, He Punched Up, The Godfather, The Parallax View, Marathon Man, Heaven Can Wait, Red's directed a few flicks personal best Tequila Sunrise without Limits, Ask the dusk. That actual book, Ask the Does is is an amazing, amazing book. Really? Oh, yes. Jesus wrote it. Hang on, hang on. Oh, you have it. Wow. He's going to the shelf, folks. He's going to the shelf. I didn't even I guess he learned how to read in the past couple weeks. That's great. I me learn me smart me do things now. John Fante, he he. This is Charles Bukowski's, guy. This is the guy that Charles Bukowski. Bukowski has always said that he hates other writers because a lot of writers say this thing, like Hemingway said, too, it's like, I don't want to read any other writers because they're, you going to be better than me, or it's going to be shit. And he has like an entire introduction into this book about how, like, this is the guy that basically he looked at as his influence to writing very good book. Never wanted to see the movie because I actually can't imagine how you'd actually make this. I remember reading that in reviews because I saw this in the theater. I was I really like Colin Farrell to time he's in it. So I'm like, all right, I'll go see it. It just doesn't work. But this I say this a lot that I don't think amazing. I don't think the best screenwriters in the history of film should necessarily also be directing. I don't know if that, you got to you got to be able to cut yourself. Aaron Sorkin I know you're listening. Just that's all. Stand for Social Network to text me for more. Can you imagine a text from him? It's probably like three pages long. One text. I don't know, man. I think it's going to be good. Good? I'm just having fun. I'm going to see it. I'll say if they release it two days early, I'll be there. I'll be there in preferred seat. I mean, come on, who are we kidding? I'm just having a little fun. Robert Towne is also has a really good part in the Nicholson directed drive. He said, I didn't even know he acted when I was doing. I saw that for Five Easy Pieces and it was cool to see him in that. But in 1974, Robert Towne is one of the most respected writers in Hollywood. I would actually argue that Chinatown as a movie is a Robert Towne movie. Above all else. It's a Robert Towne movie about being a Polanski movie, above being a Robert Evans movie, even about being a Jack Nicholson movie. I do want to say that there's an entire book dedicated to the making of Chinatown called The Big Goodbye by Sam Wasson that I have read. It's fantastic. And in that it was revealed that Robert Towne actually wrote this script with his friend, a guy named Edward Taylor. And the agreement was Taylor would never receive any credit for it, ever. He just helped him and got paid. So that came out in Watson's book, and no one ever knew that. So we got paid. Yeah, but I mean, he didn't get any like, credit, you know, as they wrote it together in a room, I don't know, Jack Nicholson heard of him. He has more than 15 film credits before. He's an easy rider, which he wasn't even supposed to be in. We covered him in the Five Easy Pieces episode. He's after that he's in Carnal Knowledge, the King of Marvin Gardens, The Last Detail, where he really thought he was going to win an Oscar. He really thought he was going to win that Oscar in 1973. And then he's in Chinatown. Jack, 1974. White hot in Hollywood. Just the hottest he can possibly be. Equally as hot. Faye Dunaway, hugely famous. She was in Bonnie and Clyde, Thomas Crown Affair, Little Big Man, puzzle of the Downfall Child, which I did watch here we go, Jack, and say in a movie together, well, let's see it. The Big Goodbye is a great book. It does outline the very complicated process of making this movie. Polanski, Dunaway and Evans all had massive personalities, some of which I think were affected by untreated mental health issues. Polanski and Dunaway did not get along at all that Nicholson sounds like he was trying to play more refereed than anything. I remember Faye Dunaway hating Polanski so much that you weren't allowed to mention Polanski or Chinatown if you interviewed her, like decades later, like so long later, there's a scene where she wasn't getting he wasn't getting the performance out of her. The he wanted. So he went and plucked some of her hair out that they did to take it. Oh my God, I was yeah, stormed off, set all that stuff. She, you know, but at the performances, the performance, they also had a cinematographer, Stanley Cortez, who was not fast enough for Polanski. So they fire him and they bring on Johnny Alonzo. None of this is very easy, but that's what leads us all up to Chinatown. And, you know, we can start. We're always just going to bounce around. But just kind of I just want to, you know, as we do, kind of go through the movie, if there's anything we missed or that you want to talk about along the way, that would be okay with me. Maybe it would be helpful to, you know, who plays the first quote unquote Mrs. Ray, who hires J.J. Guinness? No, but she looks very familiar. And that is Miss Diane Ladd. Laura Dern, are you going to be in wild part? Yeah. And she's great. Yes. And I love that you just think he's getting hired for we're you know, we were dropped in here and we're like, all right, there's this woman who's hiring this private investigator, JJ Geddes, played by Jack. This is I mean, he's being hired for pies, bread and butter, getting evidence of a marital affair. Well, hang on, hang on, Hoss, you're skipping over a very, very key part of the of the tone of this movie. The opening credits, man. Opening credits. There's such a fucking tone setter, man. There's so brilliant. My. My. My my. You you are absolutely meant to feel like you are going back in an old timey 1930s movie. The sepia, the fonts, the way that the credits are done is exactly how they did it back then. And we're talking 1974. I remember being in my film noir class in college, and we talked about that neo noir, and there was an attitude in the 70s that, for the most part, it was like black and white. It's old, it's done work. It's all about color. They did that. Yeah, they did that. We don't need to do that shit. Yeah. To give you this type of feeling is supposed because, you know, you're going to get a gorgeous looking movie. An absolute brilliant color right here. But to set you in, that idea like this is where we're at, because when you get that this is where the movie is trying to start you from, and then you get to the end, you couldn't you talk about like the fucking codes that they had back then and all, like it's a complete fuck you to all of what all these old movies were and did. So to start you out in that place and it lulls you into that, that kind of thing. But the thing that I love about is, like, throughout the whole entire movie, it's they looks brilliant. Everything is so polished and perfect, but yet you still feel like something's not right. You still feel like there's a seediness going on here. I think that opening credits that sets up that stage to for you or to take you on that full 180, it's luring you into this sense of like, oh, this is going to be like a 30s movie, but they're going to get it. Yeah. You don't know how the wild they're going to get at the end with things that you could. Yeah, never do in a movie of the 30s. 40s are really up until like 1967. You are 68. You can yeah, do a movie with this stuff. Oh, I just love him. Goldsmith's music is like pounding away so good. And, you know, we faded on the pictures and was hearing Burt Young. Well, it paid the jack because this is such a Robert Towne line. I wrote it out because of the specificity of the detail. All right, Curley, that's enough. You can't eat the Venetian blinds. Most people just stop there. But it's you can't eat the Venetian blinds. I just had them installed. Most people stop there. But then it's. You can't eat the Venetian blinds. I just had them installed on Wednesday. It's. It's so fucking funny. It's such these added layer of details like I don't feel, you know, Robert Towne and Jack were really good friends, and you can feel that in Jack's performance, like this was written for him and there's just an ease to it. It's a perfect opening line, but. And you get that whole entire scene too. Like even though you don't know who these people are, you're like, oh man, this guy must have just been cheated on. And and Jack is the private investigator. And now and then he basically just kicks the guy out, and then it's on to the next. It's like, becomes literally small. Really? Yeah. And now I know. No setting it up. No sort of like feeling of like now we're going here. It just does it. It just does it. And you got to keep up with it. Yeah. I mean he comes in this Miss Mrs. Moll Ray comes in and says, I think my I love that my husband's having an affair. And Jack goes, no really? Yeah. It's like he's. So he's feigning this, surprise and shock. He probably hears this like ten times a day and it's really, you know, this movie's simple. I don't know what we're on about. It's just this woman wants to hire P.I. so the Pi can expose the husband's affair, which he does. And then the movie's over. No big deal. No big deal. No, I want I want you to follow my husband, Hollis, Mo. Ray. God, I love the names in this. I love the names because I think he's having an affair. You mean how small, Ray? Like chief water, chief engineer. Water and power. Okay, like you would just know that I love that. Yeah. So the 30s, they were a big deal. Yeah, I know, I know, you got. So they go to the water meeting, which is great because Jack is just so in his bag here. Like sitting back, leaning, yawning, laughing. But even on repeat viewings when that sheep farmer comes in, that's Ron Howard's dad, actually, Rance Howard, sheep farmer, comes in and it's like a gag. But if you listen to what he's yelling, that's the movie. Like he's yelling like that. That's the whole thing of the movie. Yeah, all the stuff he's yelling and Jack's laughing at it. He's going to spend the duration of the movie trying to figure this stuff out. The movie's filled with stuff like that. The entire time I also love the casting of that guy playing Hollis, because as soon as you see him, you're like, well, this guy doesn't really look bad. I don't know, he just kind of seems like he's on the up and up to me. He seems genuine, I don't know, and I just love that casting. And then, yeah, now we have to that. Now we're just the entire movie is us with get following him around so much of the movie is filmed from behind his back, like in conversations, because we're literally figuring things out. So now the case starts. Let's follow him around, let's, you know, go wherever he goes, fall off home to the beach. Now he's talking to this kid on a horse. Now he's looking over, you know, a ledge. These are the scenes I'm talking about with no dialog, where we're just watching him, and I mean, and then you get you cut to a shot of Jack Nicholson, like, sitting on rocks, smoking with the sun set in the background. It's like one of the most beautiful shots you've ever seen. It's gorgeous. It's. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. This the, one of the things I want to say about this whole time, which is why I like this, is a movie that truly does not take your audience for granted. Because as you're watching all these no dialog moments, the thing that's going in, in my head, I go, well, this dude's not cheating. He's just like, he's conflicted. Like, this is a guy that's just like, he he sees what that farmer's issue is and he's like, we don't know what he's trying to do. But we can see that he is like weighed down by this and then like 15 minutes, I want to say go by before some of his, like one of Jack Nicholson's partners. He just says it. The guy's got water on the brain. Yeah. And all of a sudden, like all those things that I was thinking about and I was putting together for myself when nothing was told to me in one throwaway line because wasn't even on screen. It was off screen when he says it and I'm like, that's right. That's exactly what I had gathered was that this guy's not cheating. He's not off and doing things. But then the best fucking thing happens is like, you then like realize that like, oh, okay, this guy is just he's not having an affair. And then word that that, that shot of him on like the Echo Lake, the the boats and you see him with a girl and then you're like, oh shit, he is too. Like he's like. And that's all the deal that was made of. It was just sort of like this and you're like, oh my God. But this is how we're finding out information. It's just happening. Exactly. It's happening and we're discovering it as we get it does. I love that scene. When they go out for the little boat ride in Echo Park and he's, you know, that's, his buddy. His partner is played by Bruce Glover. That's Crispin Glover's dad. Oh. That's awesome. Yeah, yeah, they actually look like a lot of like they do now that you say. Yeah, but yeah, they get those pictures and then, the story leaks quote unquote in the paper. And I love that quick scene of the barbershop. What did get it. Just get the shaved. Oh, the guys give it a ball. The shit. He goes if you want to step outside, maybe we could talk about it. But I love what he. You sit back out to the charity, he goes, I make an honest living, Thank you Jack always I that like I love. Oh, man. It's so good. Yeah. Listen, pal, I make an honest living. People only come to me when they're in a desperate situation. I help them out. I don't kick families out of their houses like the bums down at the bank. And I tell you, the guy who maybe like to step down out of the barber. Chairman, we go outside and discussing. What do you think, Jake? Let me tell you about the guy I got tired of. I don't know how you got in the newspaper was so quick, I didn't even know it myself. Thank you. Make an honest living flesh. You do? Well, anyway, this story, this guy who got tired of screwing his wife. But, yeah, he's like, we're. We're starting also to gather that this guy is. He's a whore. He's a whore for the press. He spends his name for the press. So like, he's an arrogant dude. Just like with the suits and the way his hair is done, but, like, yeah, he's not surprised that those pictures ended up in the paper. But he is not afraid at all. I mean, he he basically in every single scene when he encounters like, these people from his past, which I think is a big part of everything. But like when he walks into any room, he's just insulting people. He's just he's like, well, then you'd have to know how to read. Yeah, exactly. Like for like for no, for no reason. You're like, so this dude is actually trying to make a reputation for himself in some way, but like, like to what end though? Like what? Like what is this for? Like, this certainly isn't going to like, you know, put him in any favor of anything or is he just trying to get to a certain level of power for himself where he is just sort of like, listen, I'm the guy that you come to for all this and fuck all the rest of you could be some of that. The the this is has to be one of the most well intentioned, well, intentionally shot movies of all time. Yeah, yeah, I mean, it does it it really does look great. And I didn't really realize how beautiful it was until I got to see it on the big screen, which I actually got to when I lived in L.A. I got to, it was playing at Arclight, and that was the first time I realized how much is handheld in the movie. Like, yeah, out of it a lot and held. And that is very rare for the time. How many? You know, it would be fun when I was wondering, when was the first instance in the history of cinema that our main character is telling a joke and then someone standing behind him, or like they're talking shit about a person and that person is standing behind them. I when I was watching something like, what was the first time this ever got done, I it's honestly probably in like the 20s or 30s anyway. It has to be that's what it's. Yeah, yeah it's class. That's what happens to poor. Exactly. That's what happens. Poor poor Jake here telling this crass joke and then Faye Dunaway, the outfit, the hat, the cheekbones. Yeah. This is the real Evelyn Marshall Ray, And I love the line of I don't get tough with anyone, Mr. Geddes. My lawyer does. So she's like, I never hired you. I have we've ever met. No. Yeah. Okay, then I've never hired you to follow my husband, which you did. So here's a lawsuit, buddy. So now get us along with us. We're like, wait, That this is a new. So. Yeah, it's just stacking on this confusion. I even pass by that somewhere in there. He's looked at pictures of how small, really got into a terrible argument with this guy in the parking lot. So, you know, we're seeing this guy and we're hearing this. Abel core. Abel core. What is that? But again, Jake is not putting any thought into this stuff. He doesn't he's not even paying attention to the guy in the picture. So he's looking at Hollis and all the clues are here. So that's what makes repeat viewings so, so good. Yep. But when he's hit with the lawsuit now, you know his case should be up. But he's like, who the hell is this guy? Who's Hollis Mowbray? Why did I get hired to follow him around? So he starts snooping around Hollis his life. That's when he, you know, goes to the office. He's not there. And I, I love, the whole interaction with the secretary and then. Yeah, like you said, like he sees that big guy clawed at the elevator, just immediately insulted. So that's that's going to get called back. He goes to the mall. Ray Morehouse, James Hong, the great James Hong 468. Acting credits. I looked it up on IMDb. Oh, nice. Christ, he's there. He answers the door. This is where we're getting. So all these threads, James Hong is important. The pond is important. Where now? Evelyn's like, okay, I'll drop the lawsuit. No problem. Hey, it's all good. And then now get. This is like, what the hell's going on? You're dropping it. What? Yeah. And I love that scene because he's got such, you know, his he basically is sort of like, I don't want you to drop it because this is a bigger thing than this. Like, someone's trying to set me up and make a, like, like, upset my business, and I'm working too hard to have that happen again. Back to Jack. Sort of like I'm trying to do something for myself that's above everyone else, and it's really all like, the more that I think about it, it's it's really because of his past. Whatever is in that past for him, he is trying so hard to, aggressively. I think that's why he treats everyone that way is because he's he he's not giving anyone he doesn't want help. He's no and is actually intentionally ruining any help that he could possibly get in the future. He's just burning every single bridge that he has ever come across in weird ways. Yes, absolutely. And you're talking about the past. That's a really good now's a good time to bring up the title, because Chinatown is not meant to be taken literally. It's more of like a state of mind. Of course. Yes, the movie does end in Chinatown, and JJ gets used to work the beat in Chinatown. As a cop. It just it wasn't a good place. Whatever happened, there wasn't good. And it he lives in this Chinatown state of mind of like, I know what this city is. This is another reason why I love the movie Chinatown. This does not make LA look like a glamorous place. Brilliant production zone, brilliant costumes, gorgeous. But this is a nightmare. This Polanski's nightmare of the city. Oh, that is why I went into the whole historical context of what he went through less than five years before this happened. Yeah, yeah, I yes, in the past, actually. And our next scene is coming to a head because now get this is like I'm going to go back down to the reservoir. He lies to the cops, gets in. Yeah. Meets his old pal Lou, who's not really happy to be there. This is when we get one of my favorite lines in the movie, like Lou goes, how did you get past my guards? Get his girls. I want to tell you the truth, I lied a little joke. Jack just says, it's so perfectly. Yeah. They are. There's no smoking here, sir. That's all right, officer. We can make an exception this time. I'll see you. Careful with the matches and doesn't burn himself. Thanks, Luke. How did you get past the guard? Tell you the truth, I lied a little. You look like you've done well by yourself. I get by well, sometimes it takes a while for a man to find himself. Maybe have him going through. And still he's got this arrogance to him. Like I'm just Walker. I don't know why the cops are here. And then who do they pull out of the fucking channel? Hollis mall raid dead. Yeah. So now what the hell happened? No, no. Good. Get. This is like what? Like I just came to. He probably just wanted to see if he was still going to be there and then note that. And all again, the meeting of Lou was very important. Going to the is important because this is where he's going to go back to soon and have a little nose problem. But yeah. Is Hollis Mowbray having an affair. And then that got changed to okay who is Hollis Morais now? It's what happened to Hollis because now the poor guy is dead. And this is why I think I Revere the screenplay so highly. Basically, he was killed somewhere else and dumped here, and we don't yet know why. So he's trying to figure stuff out. Get us is he goes back to the channel, almost drowns himself because he's like. And again, not none of this is explicitly stated. We just have to watch. Then he goes and hops over the fence and 42 minutes into Roman Polanski's Chinatown, we are going to reach Icon cinema status because the actor playing Claude and this little guy in a white suit comes bouncing around the corner. And this is Roman Polanski himself. I mean, he was a good actor, like I always enjoyed, enjoyed his performances and just the way he plays this and, kitty cat and your nosy and, I mean, this is a fantastic scene of, like, we talk about violence in movies. Yeah. I'm so drawn to movies that treat violence realistically. This is one of the most painful things I've ever seen in a movie, because you can just imagine it. We can all just imagine it and then imagine like, I don't know if anyone listening to this would have been hit in your face, whether by a person or not. You turn around to click and boom, you get knocked. What's the first thing you do? The first thing everyone does when something touches your face, it's foreign is you go to grab it. It's our first thing. So imagine having your fucking hands tied behind you. Someone's just sliced your nostril in half and you can't grab it. And his reaction is he's not like screaming in pain. It's just the yes, yes. Like he gets it. It's, it's this is a great scene. And I mean, one of the most legendary scenes of the 70s. Hold it like, get a cat, hold it. Hello, Clyde. Where you get the midget? A very nosy fellow kitty cat, You know what happens to nosy fellows, No one, I guess, No. Okay. They lose their noses. Oh. Next time you lose the whole thing, cut it off and feed it to my goldfish. Understand? And let's give credit to Jack for actually climbing out that fence with the water rush, because that's all him. That's all duty. I mean, that's what I'm say. Like he almost drowned. Yeah, like that's something that you probably, especially at that time, did not put your lead actors through. And he's like, you really want me to do this? You want me to get in that water and get rushed into a fence and climb over it? Okay, I'll do it. I'll do it. Roman. Any overtime pay? Better be good tonight. Rome. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And then after he gets cut. I love the smash cut to the guys in the office just looking at him. And then we cut to him and like people, I can't. I really can't tell you. The biggest movie star in the world. Just a willingly agreeing to having his face covered with a giant bandage through a lot of the movie like this may not seem like a big deal. It was. That's a big deal in 1974. I mean, this is the era where they're like, no, you cannot have a beard on your face. People come to see our art, our audiences come to see movie stars. They still have those debates today. And, it's just great. It's such a prominent prop and he just plays it so well. That giant fucking band, it it's it it's it's the reason my mom doesn't like this movie because you can't see. They see. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly right. She's like she's like, why did they have to make it so big? And I go, I think that's like the point. It is. Yeah. And and to be fair to the specificity of this movie, like the more and more like we because he because he does kind of like it sometimes there's like a little bit less gauze but like what of later when we, when, you know, Faye Dunaway is putting peroxide on it, that it looks exactly like what that would look like, like all the little stitches. Yes, yes. The redness, the blackness, the actual line of how deep it goes up the nostril. I mean, it's all like, this is again, like this is that level of specificity that you just don't see anymore for these tiny little details, tiny little things, but they end up mattering so much because you you feel it that much more. Yeah. And we're hearing new names. Ida sessions, she calls. Who the hell is this? This is where we get to shut the fuck up line. I love that she's the one who's admitting to Burt. She. I pretended to be Mrs. Ray Howe, and, you know, he goes and meets. Are Geddes and Evelyn go to meet for drinks. The production design, the reds of this restaurant. The greens from the plants. Like. It's just beautiful. The browns, the blacks. And this is one of the best, traditional dialog scenes in the movie. Them talking about there's a back and forth, a rat a tat tat that they have her never offering more than she needs to, and in the way she quickly shivers at her own name. Cross. Yeah. Why are you asking me? Oh, I'm just nosy. I'm curious. And he's like, no, it's got to be more than that. And then finally we're like 50 minutes into the film and the core plot, quote unquote, is laid out. Someone is dumping thousands of tons of water into the ocean, and California is supposed to be in a drought. Hollis Ray found out about it and he was killed. But why in ever loving shit is any of this happening? As JJ get it says, I goddamn near lost my nose and I like it. I like breathing through it. So he doesn't know either. But he's discovered this little conspiracy. But like, why? Why is this happening? Why is any of this happening? And why am I involved? And you're missing the last line. And he goes, all right, I still think you're hiding something. And she is. Yep. And she is. Somebody has been dumping thousands of tons of water from the city's reservoirs, and we're supposed to be in the middle of a drought. He found out about it, and he was killed. There's a waterlogged drunk in the morgue. Involuntary manslaughter. If anybody wants to take the trouble, which they don't, it seems like half the city is trying to cover it all up. Which is fine by me. But, Mrs. Mallory, I got damn near lost my nose, and I like it. I like breathing through it. And I still think that you're hiding something. Hiding something very, very big that she is keeping for good reason. And she's going to keep it from him and from us until the very end of our story. But yeah, now it's this is the detective thing of like, you never know when you're going to get a break. Like, you don't know. That's part of the going back to the office over and over. You're knowing someone and then, yeah, you're just going to sit there and look at the pictures on the wall and ask the secretary questions, why not? And think of all the information she gives. That's no across. And it's not no, no, it doesn't work for the water company. He owns it. And he's like what? Like he owns all the water in Los Angeles? Yes. Shortly after that's when they when Geddes and Evelyn have the direct conversation about no across. She's smoking twice and. Yeah. Yeah. How she was married to Hollis, who was. No. Across his business partner, Hollis and Kross had a falling out over the water in L.A.. That's it, you know? But, like, who the hell is this guy who is. No. Across? And there's so much murkiness in terms of, like, everyone's being like, oh, no, they haven't talked in years. And. Yeah, to and then to. But like then I got these photos of that say different. And it's just like nothing really is adding up because everyone is lying every. Or if they are telling the truth, a lot of the times it's almost like, and like inadvertently, like, like that secretary, she didn't know she was. Yeah, exactly. Key information. Like what? You know, and then. Oh, here we go. Showdown I, the section called Noah Cross versus JJ Gittes. Where does JJ go? That's right. Catalina Island folks. Oh Jesus Christ I'm just going to leave that there. I didn't know it was Catalina. Yeah, that makes sense, right? Makes sense. Pure evil lives. Not. That's not that's when he gets off the boat. It's Catalina. But where they actually shot the scene of them talking wasn't in Catalina, but it's still just like seeing. No across the Mr.. Goodness. Like in the background, the way he's dressed. And I mean this here we're meeting John Houston as no. Across John Houston, one of the best directors who has ever lived, one of the best filmmakers who's ever, ever lived. And this is just truly some of the finest casting in any movie. Yeah, ever. This guy embodies evil so damn well, and he's not in the movie much. He does not have a lot of screen time. And John Houston acted before. He had acted before this. He acted after he didn't ever do anything like this. This is just now the casting seems so like, yeah, no brainer. But no one. It was all Polanski's idea and everyone's like, what are you talking about? Okay, I mean, John Houston's making. He's a director in the 70s, he's making movies and it's a genius bit of casting. And then what does he say kind of to your point about and what how he's being viewed. You know, the arrogance first thing. No cross says you've got a nasty reputation, Mr. Gates, I like that. Yeah. I'm not fully there. The impression. But you can kind of sound me. It ventures into something else, which I'm going to get to in the legacy. But yeah, this is just I mean, this is a brilliant scene and a lot of it is captured in one take. And as it was pointed out to me on the commentary, they're actually eating. They're like two, actually, that's right into those fish heads and they're and we don't cut. So they're actually eating. Boom. You got a nasty reputation, Mr. Gibbs. I like that. Thanks. You're a bank president at one point, but in your business, it's admirable. And you could advertise it doesn't hurt. It's right. In fact, my client like my daughter, probably. But I'm surprised you're still working for this. She suddenly come up with my husband. No, she. ABS. I think the last one was murdered. How'd she get that idea? I think I gave it to her. This is also remarkable acting, because this is also. The audience is paying attention to this prop. You can't not. It's this. Well, they gave us a closeup of it. They go right into the head, and then we pull out the two shot of them. Yeah. And there's like this rule in theater where, if you're ever on the stage, you're doing a play and you're working with props, if you if you set a cup down on a table, if you put that cup, like right on the edge, everyone's going to be looking at that cup you're going to complete. Like that's actually one actor. I think it was John Barrymore did this to upstage their other actor because they didn't like them. He's like, I'm going to upstage you without even having to do anything. And he put the cup on the edge and no one was paying attention to a single thing this actress was saying, because they were looking at the cup, waiting for the cup to fall. Yep, yep. My point is, is that you drew so much attention to this prop, and yet now you're getting a giant, monumental acting scene done between Jack Nicholson and John Houston. And never once do you not pay attention to either one. It's equal. You're watching them eat, and then you're listening to what they're saying and the nuances and the back and forth and like that. A great acting tennis match going on right here between the two of them. And you're watching the food. So I'm like, if you're directing this, it's sort of like we're only doing this part in one take because we can't have anything fuck with the food. Like if they're starting it when it's fresh, then they're eating it and that's just what it is. And then when Jack gets up now, we don't have to worry about the food anymore. Yeah, there's a lot of that in this movie of, like, what? How can we do this in as few setups as possible? But yeah, I mean, it was it it takes more time to rehearse that stuff and get it right. But then once it's done, it's done. There's no breaking for continuity. Yes. Yes. You're. Yeah, absolutely. Also keep in mind another layer to the scene. Jack Nicholson in real life had just started dating Anjelica Huston, John Huston's daughter. So when Noah Cross is asking Geddes if he's sleeping with Evelyn, there's a lot going on there. Like, what? Are you sleeping with my daughter? Like, it's all in there. And then politicians, ugly buildings and whores all get respectable if they last long enough. That is Robert Towne. That is a Robert Towne line. I love that line so much. There's so many things in this movie that mirror Jack's current life that he was living at that time. It's crazy. This is also a really important scene, because this is the only time in the movie that we go out of this objective viewing, and we see his back and we go across his face. Yep. And he learns that, you know, Hollis had been with this, this girl, this he was having this affair with this woman. And it's like, oh, so we that's the only time we learn information. But then right there, cross is like, How about I what if I hire you to go find this girl? Because I just want to talk to her. And again, Jake just has no idea that from the beginning he's been used as a pawn this entire time. And, I mean, I just love this scene so much. The the sit down with them is sizing each other up. It's oh my God, it's amazing. Might be the best scene in the movie. I don't know, hard to say. It's one I can rewatch all the time. Definitely. You're you're 100% right. And it's not just the one take, it's the whole entire sequence from one take to that cut away where we're just seeing John Houston's face, which still makes sense, though, because we're not breaking away because the information Jack already knows what we what he thinks he needs to know. So when he's saying he goes, you know, basically because he's like, oh, imagine in this age, you know, you forget how long it's been since you've seen somebody. And Jack's like eating the thing. Well, I actually I got photos just from a couple days ago. Yeah. So Jack is not actually learning anything he doesn't know. So we're not actually betraying the set up of what we've done with Jack. So that's why you can kind of get away with this. Because that you just see John Houston. Just deal with that. All right, you got me there, sonny boy. All right, I got. Yeah. Now, now, now. All right. What do you say about taking this job? Yeah. What do you say? You know, why are you so interested? Just. And then and now, like, especially after Noah Cross is introduced. Like I'm saying, we're still going up and up, but I think we're accelerating up this hill. We start knocking shit out. He goes to explore some records. He's dealing with that twerp. I love that little chirpy guy. Just simply guy. Yeah, I love him. Jake's learning about a bunch of land being bought in the valley, and he goes to the orange groves. There's a dust up there. He gets the shit kicked out of him a little bit. Evelyn has to go and pick him up. That's. Oh my God, that shot of them in the car when they're driving home. That fucking sunset. Like, that's just, that that's just. It would of course, be CG now, and it's just. Oh my God, it's brilliant. It's brilliant. You may have to go out there seven days in a row to do those takes just to get that lighting right, like that's what it is. And it. Oh my God, it looks amazing. It looks so brilliant. And there's so many times in this movie like the one where he's camping out, you know, looking at house, you know, like that when he's going down into the, into the reservoir, there's that beautiful. It looks like it's probably like 5 p.m.. Yeah. Dusk. It's just. Yeah. Like you're right. Like all this. Would you. They probably spend days just getting this because once it's gone, it's gone. Like, we didn't really get. We'll have to go back tomorrow or whatever it is. Whereas now. Yeah, that would just be CGI and it would look like shit, like absolute shit. Yes. We're getting we're chipping away at information. Someone's buying a bunch of land in the valley. They're draining all the water, driving the farmers out because they're going to plan to buy that land back and then dump all the water back into it. Wonder who could be at the helm of all this? They go to that old folks home, and I love that room. I love this, yeah. How do you let in people of that Jewish persuasion? Well, no, that's exactly what I wanted to hear. You just has an answer for every like, you know, he's setting I. He's greatness. And the way that he. And you know Evelyn this just their relationship together is great is really. Well but then yeah all the all the old people here, people on the wall at the core, we're learning all this stuff. All these threads are coming back up. I love that when it's like that list he pulls out from the records and it's like all those names are in this old folks home, and you just see all these old women sewing and you're like, does this look like, you know, the epitome of like, wealth and water and power to you? Yeah. And it's but still it still doesn't know, like why any of this is happening and and now exactly. Now Nyff happy Polanski is back and shots are getting fired and things are heating up. We're moving momentum forward. Propulsion. Darwin E you got to roll with it. Jesus. Sorry, I got went for it. Jettison. Evelyn, jettison Evelyn. Go back and they go at it. This is where I mean, you know, these scenes smoking in bed. They're shot so well. He's explaining the concept of Chinatown. Oh, man. He admits to meeting her father earlier in the day, and she's just so, like, skittish and everything. He mentions that girl again, and now everyone's like, you have no idea how dangerous my father is. Like none. And then as soon as she leaves, he's like to scurry it out, following her like, no, post-coital. Like, oh, a letter. I won't spy on her anymore. Nope. Still spying after that behavior. I mean, she just is, like, she's literally, like, fucking, like, shaking. And she's, like, covering everything, and she's like, no, no, no, I just have to go. I just have to go. I my father. Yeah, I just I'll be right back. And he's just sort of like my ass. You never say that, but you know that. That's just her and then sees her with the girl. So it's like, oh, yeah. What? All right. Yeah. She was having an affair with Hollis, but, like, what is all this now? He's getting called back to Ida Sessions home. She's dead. The cops are there. What the hell? Like, I love that these cops are trying to pin so much on Geddes, and he just has to scramble to, like, as we're watching them. He has to do all this and he's figuring out that Hollis died in the pond. And then, I mean, we're again, we're moving, moving, moving and forward propulsion for propulsion and now we get, a big scene, a real big scene, one of the biggest kind of scenes that unfortunately, can be spoiled in, like, Oscar clip sometimes. You know, my sister, my daughter, my sister, my daughter, but I will I will never forget seeing this scene for the first time, watching this with my mom. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And when this happened, it wasn't she had already seen the movie, so it wasn't her. She just sat back and she's like, man, it's like that. Like, oh, there it is. Everything leads to this scene. Everything get us is fucking set up. I goddamn near lost my nose. I'm getting pounded by yokels. That orange farm's like, what the hell is going on? People are dead. You're meeting up with the girl, and it's just building, building, building. And, you know, she admits she's my daughter. No. Boom slap. No, she's my sister. Slap. You just keeps hitting her. He was really slapping her. She said, go for it. Do it. Lay it on me. And it's so believable. And then that that release of information of oh, oh, that piece, that key piece of evidence clicks everything into place. Everything for him. And what I love perhaps most about Jack Nicholson is JJ Geddes, is he changes here, he changes and he is now committed to getting her and her daughter the fuck out of town. And I love that. It's not with this teary confession. He just changes. It's immediately into action. What can I do to get her out and get them safe? I love it. Well, it's it's it's as soon as she says, like I forget what her line is because. What? Yeah. When he's like, you know, my daughter, my sister, my daughter, you know, he's still like, cut the crap. Like, you know, you're not making any sense. But then when she's like, have you figured it out? Like, can you put it together then. Yeah, it's not. It's like he doesn't have like, this look on his face that's so overdone where it's sort of like, yeah, that teary eyed thing you're talking about. But when he realizes it, his whole, like, energy is now just. Oh, well, that. All right. Well, we need what what what, like I'm getting you out of here. Yeah, you're exactly right. And I love that. And and then for the rest of that too, it's it. You know, there's something funny that kind of happens because he now becomes the hero, or he assumes the role of a hero, which is not at all what he was doing, ever wanted to be, or what the movie was positing at all. But now there comes a time for moral justice to be served that is completely separate. I mean, it's involved, but it is separate from what he's been doing because this is now all emotional. Everything else here was business now, even though there's the same key players involved. But he doesn't even care about he cares, but he would trumps it more. Is that getting her out of here? Making sure she's safe with with with the kid? Yeah. Because he's about to be offered as much money as you want. You know. Are you rich? Yes. Are you, you know, worth more than 10 million. Oh my God, yes. How much do you want? You know he's in. Money is not the key thing. And with this newfound heroism comes. He gets in way too over his head. Way to his head. Yeah. And he's trying to. He's trying to set meets. He's trying to put the cops here. No. Across here. Let's you know, let's what? Where can where can I meet you? 1712 Alameda. You know where that is. And that's slow pushing. Yeah, that's in Chinatown. And yeah, here comes curly. You can't. He's got, he hustles the cops. He gets curly. If you notice, Curly's wife there has a fresh shiner. Probably because. Yeah. JJ Geddes showed those pictures that you hit back, but, yeah, you know. Now tell her later, curly. And the trying to play the cops maybe get a could get away with that. Trying to play. No across. Can't do it. No realize he's cross is behind all of this. Has a ton of money I love when he's questioning his wealth. You know what can you buy that you already can't afford? The future. The future I it's always a really great question for these insanely rich guys like so you you're old right now and you stand to make so much more money. Like what? What more do you need? Like how many more million do you need? And then if you listen carefully, cross pardons himself for his terrible crime against Evelyn. With you found out everything was lost me a long time ago. Who do you blame for that? Her? I don't blame myself. See, Mr. Gates, most people never have to face the fact. The right time, the right place. They're capable of anything. Wow. Yeah. Wow. He is the embodiment, I think, of wealthy white American evil. Yep. I think that's that's what this is. And he wins because we have about six minutes left of the movie where we are taking place in Chinatown. It is an amazing it's it's frightening. It's horrific. It's beautifully staged. I mean, when you. Yeah when we see no across and he's like, I'm your grandfather. You're immediately like oh my God no. Like no. And then the cops won't listen to Jack. Evelyn's hysterical. He owns the police. She takes off, there's gunshots. And I mean, we already kind of touched on the ending, but the, you know, this this shot in particular, that fucking hand coming over her mouth and grabbing her into the crowd is one of the most terrifying images you can ever see. Knowing what's going to happen. You know what's going to happen. Yeah. His daughter is dead in the car. He doesn't care. No, no. And what can Jack do? What can JJ get his do? His. Is he still cuffed to one of the cops? Like what can he do? Nothing. Nothing. He is told to fucking forget about it. Forget it. Jake, it's Chinatown and we're done. And the the the look, the look on his face just it's it's his worst nightmare. It's everything that you know. And this is what I love about the movie is because we never really find out what exactly his past is, but, you know, it's something. So it's defines what he's tried to do, and now it's his nightmare come true. We only get to see, like the initial the fresh, raw moment of it. Yeah. And we you know because but I mean you can only kind of then be like his life is over. Like he's, he's he's not going to go it's probably not going to die, but. Well, how I have to see the sequel because I, it was just simple. But but if you're not talking about that, like, to me, it's just sort of like this guy's, he's, he's, he's out of here like he's going somewhere else. He's he's going to become a farmer in like, fucking. He's way, way lower than when we met him. And that is pretty rare for a mainstream studio Hollywood movie to do. If there was an arc, if there was growth, it was all in the the wrong direction. Yeah. Sorry, buddy. You may have tried, but it didn't. The town went. Evil wins. Money wins. Power corruption. This is what Robert Towne, I believe is trying to say, because ultimately it's confusing and dense. It's Chinatown. The scripting of it is it is ultimately a movie about a very rich, evil white dude trying to become richer and in the process becomes more evil. That's it. And we are, along with a private investigator trying to figure it all out. Of course, there's way more nuance in details, but that's the crux of it here. And just to leave the audience with the sense of complete, cynicism like this is what happens. The rich and the powerful in charge when he owns them, like so. Credit Jerry Goldsmith music taking us out, which is, such, such a monumental score. They had a score to this and they scrapped it. They scrapped the score to Chinatown. Jerry Goldsmith made this in nine days. Nine days creates one of the most iconic scores in movies. I love this theme so much. It's so, so beautiful. I believe it got mentioned all the way in one of our first episodes of our favorite movie scores and soundtracks. I mentioned this one. But that's I mean, that's Chinatown. We just ran through the whole thing. We're not we're not done, obviously, but wow, what a film. And I'm I really like hearing that you didn't get it and you're rejected it. And it was slow on first viewing. I think that's the case for a lot of people, especially if you're, you know, younger, especially if you're not paying attention. And then if you if you go back and you give it more viewings, every everything falls into place. And what I also love about this is if I take a few years between viewings, I may forget 1 or 2 things about, you know, every little detail and it's like it just all pays off and you're not going to leave with any. You may leave with questions, but if you go back and rewatch it, all those questions are answered. It's it's a great example of putting your trust in the filmmaker and and the writing, the directing, the cinematography, the acting, everything is there for you. So exactly like when you're on this confusion tale. And I think this is probably why be a challenging movie for a lot of people, younger people that might not know it today, because to to be willingly, to be confused with your main character, that is something that movies just don't do. There's a bit of like movies like to kind of rely now on a bit of like, a disassociation. So you can sit back and have perspective. Yeah. So you can see the bigger picture. But this movie forces you to be in the unknown, just like Jake the entire time without making a big deal of it. So. Exactly. So like when you find out that, like, Faye Dunaway is like, have we ever met before? And you're like, no, then I didn't hire you, Yeah. There's there's there's this thing that I think we have where we're like, wait, I need to understand more like, the movie is missed. The movie is failing me because it's not it's not explaining it. But that's the whole entire thing is like. It's like you're confused, just like he is. And you just keep going down or like, trying to find more things. It is. That's what makes it so compelling to watch. I will do little 4K call out here. The 4K looks good. Oh, Fox, you look so good. Why is it got to be fuck me. Jesus. Yeah. Players. Yeah. You think so, wouldn't you? Yeah, yeah, it looks great. The biggest thing to call out here this I if you're just a fan of movies, fan of physical media, there's a commentary on this disc between Robert Towne and David Fincher. David Fincher does not praise other movies. He doesn't. And this I mean, it is a fantastic listen. The amount of specificity that is in that man's brain. Like he's calling out this little light, this little light. It's it's fantastic, but mesmerizing commentary track, one of the all time greats to me. I can understand how this movie, particularly for David Fincher, who is obsessed with that kind of specificity and detail, that this would be a movie that's a huge inspiration for him. Yeah, yeah. All right. Moment. Everyone's getting into it. The wa w New Hollywood film Project categories. Who do you want to go? First? I'll ask the question, but you tell me if you want to go first for me. What is your favorite thing that makes Chinatown a new Hollywood movie? I'm just going to answer it. Okay. One the ending. Yes. Just because it's a complete like that to to completely nosedive your movie into complete cynicism and despair and all that. Exactly what I said in the beginning, where you're coming from these credits, right from back in the 1930s when you had, I always forget, what were those goddamn codes called, like the Hays Code? The case goes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and all that. And so it lulls you into thinking this. And by the time you get to the end, you couldn't have polarizing differences between sepia old 30s music. And then this, at the time, the most cutting edge ending to a story ever. Then you couple that with the fact that there's incest and that this was a huge reveal and a turning point for the movie, and it was something that I can't think of too many movies up until this point where it just boldly here's here's the reason, here's here is that because there's so much to unpack with it, there's so much to just. And it works, though it doesn't feel like it's trying to do it. It's not trying to give you that shock value. It just is shocking. But it's grounded in a in a ugly truth. It's not cheap at all. Yeah. Not cheap. It's not cheap. Yeah. So those are those are the two that I'd say. Yeah, I love that. I, I had kind of the it's one of the reasons why it took so long explaining how the movie came together. Because the entire way this is set up like you got the producer slash studio chief hiring the writer to writer writes it. He's writing the lead role for his best friend. They get a director who's had a terrible personal trauma. He changes the ending to make it terrible and cynical. Just all of that is that you get this dream team. It's the four of them coming together that that's it. That had to happen in order for Chinatown to happen. It's one of those pieces is missing. The movie isn't how it is. Yeah. Is this Roman Polanski's best film? What do you say? I have a top three here. I have a top three. Two. And I would say yes. I would say yes as well, but give me your three. So I got even though I don't like watching this movie, Rosemary's Baby would be number two. Oh. And then so okay, so this is a movie that I, funny enough, I saw this as a kid because my uncle had it on VHS, and I remember liking it a lot. And now you cannot find this movie literally anywhere talking about frantic. Oh, I thought you're going to say the ninth gate. Oh, no. No friends. Yeah. Frantic. I like that one. I like Fornite a lot. So. Yeah. So what is frantic. You're three and then. Yeah. Okay. So my three is Rosemary's Baby two the pianist one Chinatown. I don't know why you went in reverse order. Well, we usually do. Three, two, one. We don't do well. You're right, you're right, you're right. I just like for this one. Here we go, folks. You ready? If you listen to the five Easy Pieces podcast, there is a little, hiccup here in ranking our favorite Jack Nicholson performances. Hiccup from my dutiful co-host here. Couldn't get it. Shit straight. So I said about a week or two ago, wait a minute, I said, we are going to officially rank our top five Jack Nicholson performances as of September 6th, 2025. If it changes tomorrow, fine. But I want to. Bullshit. I don't want any arguing. I want five, four, three, two, one and that's how I want it. I have my ideas, let's do it. And that's how I want it. Don't fuck with me, I do. Don't, I don't want any arguing. I don't want any malarkey, any horse manure. I just want to do it well, and I did it. And I mean, and also keep in mind, folks, fellow, mad movie buffs, we know, if you know me, that Jack is my favorite actor. Yeah. So trying to trying to narrow this down, I think will always change. But as of September 6th, 2025, I have a very, very concrete, definitive list that I like a lot. So do I. Number five, the last detail. Nice. Nice. Yeah, I like it. I like it okay. Hal Ashby, 1973 I love that film. All right. We'll do round robin. My number five actually took your advice on this. You told me I'm not saying it's in your top five, but you told me. And a Jack Nicholson top five. The shining has to be here. I kind of bucked against that. I, in fact, agree. I think it has to be in the top five, so I'm putting it at five. Very good, very good. No, it's not in my top five at all. Jesus Christ, I fucking do it. I even put that one in there for you. Yeah. God. Hey it's fine, it's fine, it's fine. Last detail number five. Number four for you. Number four. As good as it gets. Nice. Okay. You said. Yeah, you did say that would have to be in the top five as well. I'll take that one. I'll do that. I love I love his performance in that. It's so good I do too. My number four five Easy Pieces a Great War. What do you when you hear my three, two, one. They're perfect. All right. What? All right. Number three, easy rider. Wow. Oh, my God, this is this is great because we don't have as much crossover as I thought. This is this is great. I love how high you rank that one because it's so early and he's not in it that much. But I love that. My number three. Your number five. Last detail. Whoa, man, when I rewatch this every time I rewatched something like that, we get one. We get like 30s of his rage in five easy Pieces, like in the car, man in the last detail. He's getting there so often and truly one of the best movies of men getting drunk. It's just one of the most accurate representations of three dudes sitting around getting drunk and turning it on into the night, into the next morning. Fantastic film, fantastic performance, fantastic. Number two. Five easy pieces. Okay. Wow. Yeah. Wow. This is okay. So our current film is not making your cut, which is fine. It's fine. But I mean, I have to assume. Okay, so five easy pieces all the way up there at number two. Yeah. That's big. That's huge. Yeah. Why don't you give me your number one? Because I'm going to do a little explanation with my two and one. All right. Number one is my third favorite movie of all time, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. And as my favorite Jack Nicholson performance. Yeah. No one can, disagree with that. So. No. Is Chinatown in the top ten? Oh, yeah, it's in the top ten. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So yeah, just it couldn't it couldn't get into this. Five. Okay. I talked about the rage and he gets two and five pieces and he gets there in the last detail. The entire thing. Pretty much of Cuckoo's Nest is there. That's when anyone who watches One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, anyone you're objectively going to go, that's a great performance. No one's going to argue with it. No one. I think if you watch Chinatown, if you watch JJ Guinness, you're he's doing something that is far more nuanced. It's not as explosive. So much of the movie plays on his face where there is no dialog, and we're watching it. So it's a different tone. It's almost. Yeah, it's a different tone. And it really is like a one, A1B thing. We said this about The Godfather one and two as well. It's kind of like my favorite Jack performance is either my number one is Chinatown when I'm watching Chinatown or my number one is Cuckoo's Nest. When I'm watching Cuckoo's Nest, say, Godfather. Yeah, they are two brilliant films, brilliant performances back to back. It's astonishing that he did this back to back. And I think Cuckoo's Nest is probably your great a Jack Nicholson performance. I think when you picture him, that's the image you think of and all of that. Yeah. Just so right now today, I'll put Cuckoo's Nest two and Chinatown at one. I, I am so in love with watching JJ get his figure out this mystery, and I never really put it. This is kind of stupid, but I never really put it together that truly the entirety of Chinatown is plays off him it. We're learning information with him at the same time. And so the whole movie rests on his shoulders. And I think I really feel the authorship that his friend wrote it for him. And yeah, I love it. I love the characterization, everything. But obviously myself. And no one would ever take anything away from R.P. McMurphy like it's it's his flawless. His acting gets it really is. It really is. And across the board, everyone in that movie is just fantastic. Like they they that that was a movie that they absolutely knew what they wanted to do with it. So we had Last Detail, five Pieces and Cuckoo's Nest in common. All right. Cool, I like it. No shining. I didn't include this one in the outline because I didn't want to trigger Nick. But what happened to them? Oh, geez. I have I have Nandu Hens Hines as his secretary. Sophie, this is her only film. She was only in this movie. And I know she got into real estate in real life after. But I love that part when he's like storming back into his office and she stops him and she whispers, you know, Mrs. Marshall Ray, I don't know. I just like her. And I looked her up and went, wow, this is her literal only acting performance ever. That's what happened to her favorite shot. It's them in the car driving at sunset. Jesus Christ, it's just beautiful. Yeah, I love that, I love it. I think it's the Jack and, John Houston, the whole. Oh, that's a whole one take. And then. And then. So the one A and the one B, because it's not because the shot is not the, it's the it the shot is not the, is the star of that. It's, it's it's everything. It's it's yeah. It's the, the scene itself is playing. But I think my favorite shot would be, would we bring it up, brought it up earlier is when we look away and we see all of Jack's, face away from us in John Houston's face to us, I there's something about the dichotomy of both of those shots back to back that's just I love it. Yeah. It's. And you said that might be your favorite scene. It honestly might be mine too. When I was done with the movie and I was done, I watched watched the special features and I was done. Sometimes what I'll do is I still have like the still lingering and I'll just want just give me that scene again. Like, I just want to watch that scene again. And I immediately went to this scene, that meeting the showdown in Catalina. And, yeah, there's a lot going on in the show. There's people in the background, there's all the props in front. It's just great. And. Yeah. Oh, God, I love it. I love it. Favorite quote that's very hard. I think it's one of the best scripts ever written. I mean, well, to tell you the truth, I lied a little. It's just fantastic. But there's so many. And as you said, you pluck any one of them out of context. It may not hit his heart, but in the movie. Yeah. Whoa. Yeah. And it's because they're right after another. It's like every next scene, there's some biting line that's just like, oh, I. But I think if I had to give when we already brought it up, but I think it's like I goddamn lost my nose and I like it. I like breathing through it. And I still think you're hiding something. It's great. It's just great because it says everything. It literally just sums up everything. Like, this is where I'm at, this is my truth, and you're fucking it up. Other movies that were considered for this pod for 1974 I consider The Godfather two because, it's the godfather to the conversation, which we already did, but not as part of the New Hollywood Film Project. A Woman Under the Influence. Dah! Fuck yeah! Day for night and Amarcord. Amarcord two. Great. You know, Ford films made during the time, necessarily American 1970s film project. Okay, get Blazing Saddles, directed by American Mel Brooks. Longest yard with Burt Reynolds. These are other these work. I didn't consider these is the other big movies of the year. Lenny was a huge movie. Yep. What are some of your favorites from 74? Alice doesn't live here anymore, bro. Yep yep yep. It's great film. But I mean, she had a great career. I mean, come on. Yeah, like a woman under the influence. Godfather to the conversation. Alice's limb here. More Chinatown. I mean, it's like it's it's a stacked fucking year. Like one of the most stacked years. It really is. It's a I mean, there's so many good years in a row. 75 is a great year. Yeah. It's, I love it moment we've all been waiting for. Here we go, folks. The WCW and FD The Knick, though still hot. Take for Chinatown. What's in store? All right, I have no idea. Here it is. So I think this is the best movie ever made. When you know exactly what time of day it is and every single fucking scene. Oh, wow. You you tell us more. This is so interesting. You know, when you're looking at the daylight and not just like. Like what? Time of day? You know, what fucking hour it is? Like you, you could look at this and be like, that's 10 a.m. on on undeniable. And then there's times where you're like, that's fucking 2 p.m., that's fucking 5 p.m.. Like, you could literally look at every single shot during the day in this movie and get a real sense of exactly what time it is. And it all tracks like how Michael Mann's Heat tracks in terms of like that time, like, you know, like how many days are going by and you know exactly what time of day it is, and it looks like that and it feels like that. This is a great take. I love this. I am, you know, personally that I am obsessed with time in my own writing and in everything I do. I always outline it by time, how much time it's passing. There's not a lot of days that go by in this. Like even that, especially that last day. There's so much that is going on. You know, the police cross Evelyn, there's all this stuff and yeah, you're never, lost. You know, like what time it is. So how how we got from this side of the city to this. Yeah, I love it. It all tracks. That's just that's all. It's not just great. Screenwriting. That's great direction as well. Making sure that the audience is going to know where you are and when you are. Great. Take I love that, I love that well, I want to introduce a new section to this as well. All right. I don't think this is going to apply for every single movie that we talk about, especially as we get into, like, you know, our director filmographies. Maybe they could pop up once in a while, but it's something that I've been doing a lot in my, in my, in my acting work where I've been asking the question of like, if I'm reading a play, what is the question of this play? What is the author? Because at the end of the day, like, you don't pick up and write something unless you have something you want to say. And I think that is always the biggest question at the heart of the whole project, when it's all said and done. So to you, what do you think artfully are the questions that are being posed by Chinatown? I have a few to give you an example. Yeah. To me, I and I think I'd like to hear your examples first because I don't know if they're questions so much is what is he like answering for us or well, that could be the case too. I think Robert Towne is telling us that evil power, corruption and money, when that's it, that those things, if you have that those when and you can either fall in line with it and like forget about it and go away or you can try to fight against it. But if you do, you will lose. In terms of questions, that's that's almost a different question. But to me, it's answering this thing of not that this is not a city of dreams. This is not a city of angels, is this city of hell and despair. And no. And you're 1,000% right. And because this is one of those times where that question I think is answered. Yeah, but I think that definitive answer is the exclamation point that makes this approach. Sure. But I also so I pose that question of like, does power and injustice and corruption and wealth win? And that answer that Robert Towne is, is like, yes, it will. It always will. But then I've also been like, are you doomed to never, ever escape your past, no matter how hard you're trying to run away from it? And I think that's what Jack's character is doing, I love that, yeah. So things like this, I thought it would be a cool way to kind of like, especially when we're talking about deep dives, because obviously we're picking these movies. We wouldn't be talking about this question if we were talking about the Rock from 1996. You know, let me tell you, I think the question, the question that the Rock is posing is, do our veterans need more, accommodations after their service? How about that? I mean, that's actually probably a great question. Should we keep our most magnificent scientists locked up in a box? Give me the fuck out of this gas chamber. You want me to stick this into my heart? Are you. Are you fucking nuts? What, that. That's the, God, didn't he going. He directed like owning Mahoney or. No. Love, Lisa. Love Lisa. Yeah. Love, Lisa. Yeah. He was also in High Fidelity. He had Jerry Maguire. He's the babysitter. Yeah. The poor guy who, you know, he wanted Renee Zellweger so bad. So bad. He was. He was just like, this is Miles Davis. Davis in. I think she's gonna pull out, like, a condom or something. He's like Chad, I don't know. Come on. Oscar nominations for Chinatown. Tough year. Oh, got 11 tied with The Godfather two to take down 11. Rams wins one wins. Best screenplay original. Thank god. Robert Towne yeah, it's I mean it had to win that and then everything else that it lost you I honestly I go through all of them but you kind of get it like it loses picture director to godfather to say it loses to Ellen Burson. For Alice doesn't live here anymore. Jack loses to Art Carney for fucking Harry and Tonto. We've talked about this a lot. It wasn't the right call, but you know, it's just what they do. Sometimes the score goes to the Godfather, to costume design goes The Great Gatsby. Best sound goes to earthquake. Art direction goes godfather to cinematography goes to Towering Inferno. No, that was a mistake. That's that's the one. Cinematography and editing both go to Towering Inferno. That's when they used to do this. This is when they. They were like, oh, the biggest and loudest movie were give it like the prestigious awards. That's no, no. Like Chinatown absolutely should have won cinematography and editing. I'm looking at the, nominees, but it's a Towering Inferno. Any good? I've never seen it. They did this all the time. Yeah, they just did these disaster films all the time. So it's like Steve McQueen and Paul Newman. Like, that's the big thing, the movie. Honestly, I remember the movie mostly because Steve McQueen was such an asshole. Like, he it was so tightly negotiated, like he couldn't have fewer lines. And Paul Newman, he had to have either the exact same or more. His name had to be the highest on the poster. It's just all that star stuff. But I don't I don't think it's there's that earthquake airplane, not the comedy like the, you know, the real one. They used to always do these disaster movies and they would give them Oscars. I mean, it's fine, but it's it's not it's not the 18th best movie made in 1974. And maybe it's a 13 legacy. What has been the legacy? Well, first of all, I'll start with the sequel. His Two Jakes, made in 1990, directed by Jack Nicholson. So that's kind of intriguing. You know, he reprises his role as JJ Geddes. I will say that he needed a director. It just gets a little too, too unnecessarily complicated. It's, you know, the first movie is brought up, things from it are brought up pretty directly. So it's still, you know, tied to it, but it wasn't. You can kind of replace oil with water for this new one and I rewatch it for this. It's not bad, but it's not. It's just nowhere near as good as Chinatown. And then, you know, that's that. If you watch Chinatown and listen closely to no across, most people ever have to face the fact that at the right time, in the right place, they're capable of anything. Kind of sounds like I see the worst in people. I want no one to succeed. Huge influence on Daniel Day-Lewis for playing Daniel Plainview and There Will Be Blood, among many other things. It's just it's influenced a lot. Chinatown has. I talked about the book The Big Goodbye by Sam Wilson. Really good book. I it's long, I liked it and it'll go into way, way, way more detail than we did on this part about the making of it all that because the making Austin was really crazy there. I can't remember exactly, but the scene of them in the restaurant when she has the the net over her face, that was because, like, she couldn't she wouldn't come out of her trailer. She just like, wouldn't. And if something like, my face doesn't look good or something. So they basically agreed that she would come in with that on and that took it was hours upon hours and hours. I what I think that was in her documentary. I watched a documentary, Faye, recently, and that's when she admitted, she admits in it that I apparently I had this thing called now they call it bipolar manic depression. I didn't know that. Wow. And it's like, yeah, you I think this is really common. Like you would have these people just go, you know, yeah, whether they're famous or not, go on these absolute fucking terrors. And we didn't know what it was like. That documentary was good, actually, as we veered into. What are you watching here? That's not my wreck. But you could go watch it. Watch it on HBO. Okay. So anyway, Chinatown. Great movie. This is a lot of fun. It's an intense movie, but it's so fun to go back and explore and re explore. What are you watching? What are you watching? You're going to get a kick out of mine. Oh, is it Superman? No no no no no, listen to the 96 bar to get that one out of that. But the streak continues. Streak continues. I love it. No, I, this is a fun movie to couple it with, even though it's they're nowhere near each other. But, I watched this movie for, some, some acting research, and I had never seen it, and, and it was a wild ride that I had no idea. I watched Bad Lieutenant. Whoa. Wait. Which one? Harvey. Harvey Keitel, the first one I'd seen. The second one, Nicolas Cage. But. And this its own thing. Yeah, but in this, like, in minute ten, you're. It just cuts to a nun being gang rapes and you're like, oh, okay. Thank you. Abel. Ferrara. I really appreciate this. It's just I got the 4K right here. I bought the 4K about, a couple months ago, and it looks great, but wow, you've tell us your thoughts, man. Wow. I mean, it's, I, you know, it's funny because having seen the other one with Nicolas Cage, which is, you know, for viewing purposes, quite honestly, it's just, it's, it's a wild ride, like, you're there's no iguana. Yeah, exactly. Like like like shoot him again. His soul is still dancing. So I can absolutely feel that is here like this. Like you don't get. You don't get the one with Nicolas Cage. Without this one. But this one is definitely more grounded in, you know, something that this director was actually trying to get at right here. Some real, real pain is in this movie, is in this character. Maybe one of the more because it's just that the accuracy of the drug portrayals. Oh my God, it is. It feels like he's doing all of it. I haven't done everything that he's doing. No, certainly I've never smoked crack, but he I'm like, that's as close as I've ever seen in a movie. Like he I mean, and this Harvey Keitel is playing a fucking lieutenant with the NYPD and like by minute five, you've seen him like, cheat, drink, smoke, crack in the car while he's taking his kids to school. He's doing outrageous gambling bets and, like, losing. I mean, it's fucking nuts. It's the movie's insane. It's absolutely nuts. And you are just watching this animal, and he does not know how to handle it. And, it's it's certainly it was, it was a movie that helped me in my in my research. Yeah. It was. That's a wild fucking movie. Okay, so a few things. I love that you watch it. I upgraded it to 4K this year. In fact, I watched every able for our movie. I had seen a few, but this is this is what we talk about. Like this podcast. Well, of course I love it. Barely scratches the surface of my movie watching. Like I've never had a chance to really talk about that. But I love that director. This is a very intense film. It has a very deliberate and well earned NC 17 rating. Yeah, I think it features Harvey Keitel. Best performance it was. Keep in mind that Martin Scorsese, probably one of our one of the most famous, very Catholic people in the film business, said this was one of his top ten films of the 90s of the entire 1990s. So it has dark subject material, but I think for a reason and with a purpose. And then finally, the anger, the raw emotion that you feel. And Harvey Keitel, it makes for an upsetting but very informative Wikipedia read when you see what he was going through in his personal life. At the same time, I do not want to mention it here. It involves Lorraine Bracco, who he was with, and they were. I don't even think they were officially married. They were going through an extremely nasty separation that may or may not have involved his children being abused by her current boyfriend, who was famous. So I'm not going to get into any more of it. But he was in a hellacious legal battle because of this and put all of that angst into Bad Lieutenant. And I learned all of that listening to the commentary when I bought the 4K, I never knew any of that, and I never even knew the story. I never even knew he and Lorraine Bracco dated. And then to find out that it ended. And not only did it end this way, but it was a huge Hollywood scandal. Like, it's it's a Wikipedia read. It's it's intense. But anyway, I'm glad you watch it. It's a very, wild movie in that when he pulls over, he pulls those girls over. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. Yeah. And it's honestly repulsive. It's it's one of the most appropriate titles. Yeah. It's, Lieutenant got to kick a club. I mean, it's an understatement, but, I mean, it's it's what? It's truly. That's what it is like. This is not a good guy. This is not a good human being. Not at all. And he has kids and he's married and all that. It doesn't. And he's, walking around legally carrying a gun. Oh my God. All right, I'm going to do, a few for me. One old, one new, and then something fun new. Jesus Christ. Wow. Caught stealing Darren Aronofsky. Yeah, well, I have made fun of Austin Butler a lot in my letter box reviews on this podcast. I'm just not that big of a fan. But whenever I'm talking a little smack about an actor and it's usually a younger one, please know that I am always willing and greatly able to have my opinion changed by any performance. I, really like this movie and I thought he was fantastic in it. I thought it was by far the best performance he's getting, given Regina King's in it as well. I love Regina King. She's had a tough few years personally, and I just. Oh, my God, I love her. I do you know what happened to her? No. Her son died by suicide, and she's been very open in talking about it. And we need this. We need someone of her stature and her acclaim sitting down and talking about this shit. Honestly, she was just on Marc Maron's pod. I I've always loved her. I've loved her since Boyz in the hood. But, God, I love this woman. And she's great in the movie. She's great in the movie. Why? I loved it so much. There's a beating scene. Austin Butler gets the shit kicked out of him early and caught stealing. It's in the trailer. You see him getting, you know, in the trailer it's made for kind of. It's funny. I'm watching this beating. This is like in the first ten minutes and I'm shaking my head and I'm going, I'm so fucking sick of this, man. Like, if you got your ass kicked like this, you would be in the hospital for days. Like, this stuff is bullshit. He's in the hospital for a long time. He gets really fucked up from the beating in the movie. I realize, oh, this movie does not live in movie land. This movie, in terms of violence, lives in stark reality. And it is one of the most honest movies about violence that I have seen in years. You don't see movies like this anymore, but also it's kind of fun. Like, I liked it. It's an Aronofsky movie. I think it is being marketed terribly. I think the trailer is terrible because it has nothing to do with how the movie is like. I like to call it stealing. I liked it all right, what else? I'm only bringing this up because you just dropped it randomly. Tomorrow I will be in New York City, and I've decided in my infinite wisdom, to spend four of those hours inside seeing Lawrence of Arabian 70mm film. It's a waste of time. I own it right here on 4K and unopened 4K, I may say, but yeah, I'm going up there anyway. Why am I going to New York City, Nick? Why? Why? For the first time in my life, this Monday, I will be seated in Madison Square Garden to see none other than Haim. It's Haim time, baby. It's Haim time show. One of the I quit tour begins on Monday. Madison Square Garden. Taylor's going with me. He's never like, she's amazing and we've never even been to a show together. I've never been to Madison Square Garden. So tomorrow early is shit. Taking the train up to New York. And I'm like, yeah, I'll go to Lawrence of Arabia for four hours a night before, I'm bringing this up because Nick and I love Haim, their new album, I quit. We're texting about it so much. We love it real quick. I swear. Tracks one through 15, that's every track on the album. 52 minutes long. Flawless play. No Skips starts off with such strong tracks one through five, and it slows down and there's a ballad, there's a few funky tracks, then track ten, everybody's trying to figure me out. Instant first play Haim classic first spin. Yeah, Alana gets a solo track, she gets a solo track. They all share on the penultimate track, and then the album ends with a thunderous banger that I teased at the end of the F1 episode on this podcast. I love it, I quit fucking, I'm excited. God I'm excited. 40 year old man, a freshly 40 year old man going to jam out to Haim and guess what? I'm excited. So that's it. What are you listening to? Yeah, you should be by the time this. By the time it out, it will have already come and gone. I've never I've never been there, though. I'm excited to go to hell. You never been, did it? A bucket list thing for me is to go see a wrestling show in MSG. Do they do them there a lot there? Well, that that was that was where it was. That was like the Mecca for it for WWE. But I would I would go see an on televised show there just because that's that's the hallowed ground. Exactly. Which is kind of why I'm really excited. So all right, bunch of fun stuff. I'm so glad you watch that, Lieutenant. And what phone conversation about Chinatown. You know, tough director. Yes, but a worthy film. I hope we maybe inspired you to watch it before giving us a listen. Or you rewatch it. Whatever it is, let us know what you're thinking on socials at white W Underscore podcast. And remember, Molly took a shit in the back of a truck. Didn't even notice she was too coked up, wants to be a dancer, but she has no luck and more times pass. Thanks for listening and happy watching. I b get worried there. It's it's a great line up. My. Line. Hey everyone. Thanks again for listening. Send us mailbag questions at What Are You Watching podcast at gmail.com or find us on Twitter, Instagram and Letterboxd at Y w underscore podcast. Next time we are completing our Robert Towne double feature with Hal Ashby's shampoo. I adore this film. I think it is still the template for what a great hangout movie should be. So excited to talk about it. Stay tuned! I. Highly. Shut the fuck. Oh my gosh.