What Makes CHINATOWN One Of A Kind

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Raiders of the Lost Podcast is hosted by James Deveney & Anthony Deveney
#chinatown #movies #classicmovies
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Audio Engineer:
Jacob Kossler
Opening Music:
Chase Jackson

[@stlyrface]

Chinatown isn't "one of the best movies" of the seventies, it's THE best movie of the seventies. The Godfather movies, Jaws, Star Wars, The French Connection -- they're all excellent, but they're basically straight lines. No other movie has so many twists and turns, or arrives at such a shocking conclusion. And all done with complete confidence and style. Just totally brilliant.

[@philmcclenaghan7056]

Just watched it. More twists doesn't mean better. Plot is difficult to follow. Water and affair aspect is boring. Lots of leads aren't very interesting. Average film.

[@sk-un6vw]

There is one Hindi movie called "Manorama six feet under" was inspired by this movie. Indeed Chinatown is the best.

[@azohundred1353]

Chinatown is really a perfect movie, and this Neo-Noir is even better when you've seen some of the essential classic Film Noirs of Hollywood's Golden Age. In my opinion, there's at least an essential five. After seeing: The Maltese Falcon (1941) The Big Sleep (1946) Out Of The Past (1947) Double Indemnity (1944) The Killers (1946) After getting an understanding of the hard-boiled noirs of Golden Age, you feel like you know exactly what what was being paid homage to in Chinatown, I mean John Huston is often credited with really beginning the noir craze in the mainstream when he directed the quintessential Hard-Boiled Detective movie, The Maltese Falcon, with Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade, so having Huston as the villian in this story just matches it perfectly, and Jack Nicholson is perfect as the private detective in this movie as well. Faye Dunaway is amazing in this and is so reminiscent of Joan Crawford, you can definitely see why Joan Crawford saw Faye as her acting successor. Jerry Goldsmith made one of his greatest scores in this movie, and it seems like a more mellow version of his score for Lonely Are The Brave (1962), one of Kirk Douglas' best movies. Overall, Chinatown is fantastic!

[@raidersofthelostpodcast_]

Amazing comment!

[@RoundtreeattheGrosvernor]

Well said

[@garytiptin6479]

Huston played "the Lawgiver" in "Battle For The Planet Of The Apes"!

[@uarenowondirecthotlinetoGod]

Brilliant list of films Thank you.

[@jrcallahan1844]

Check out Sam Wasson’s book The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood (2020). Excellent detail about the making of the movie. Polanski was instrumental in the dark ending of the movie; Towne wanted a happy ending.

[@raidersofthelostpodcast_]

Will do!

[@seanspalding9296]

Evelyn's revealation about her daughter/sister makes a lot of her behaviors earlier in the film suddenly make sense... her being so secretive and mysterious, her covering her nudity when Jake mentions meeting him while they are in bed, her nervousness and lighting a 2nd cigarette when he asks about him in the office...

[@creedecriswell634]

This might be one of my new favorite movies.

[@b991228]

Directors and cinematographers can often take the writing of a screenplay and are perplexed into wondering how to turn what is the written word and turn it into a visual story. Robert Towne didn’t write a book but instead created a tightly structured visual narrative. It’s even better when you hand your screenplay over to a great director and to a great cinematographer.

[@CaminoAir]

In case someone hasn't already corrected this, Jerry Goldsmith won his Oscar for 'The Omen'. Despite 17 other nominations......to the eternal shame of the Academy.......he didn't win another.

[@2340Vegas]

The greater LA backdrop to this movie was done perfectly.

[@raidersofthelostpodcast_]

@@2340Vegas 🙌

[@mobiuspaw494]

Greatest movie ever. I am obsessed with this film. When that Smokey trumpet plays the soundtracks theme I melt.. Gives me goosebumps. Excellent review.

[@raidersofthelostpodcast_]

🤌🤌

[@michaelrotman8523]

@mobiuspaw494 that great trumpet is the legendary Uan Rasey. He was in all the MGM movies from the 50s through the 80s beloved among his colleagues and students of which I was privileged to be one he died in 2011 listen for him on the Twilight Zone episode with Jack Klugman as a suicidal trumpet player

[@christopherclark564]

I just showed this to my son. I agree wholeheartedly with you guys!

[@raidersofthelostpodcast_]

Dad of the year!

[@cwdkidman2266]

Okay. This is a Roman Polanski film. I have heard and read that Polanski and Towne worked on touch-ups to the screenplay before filming began. The "perfect screenplay by Robert Towne" would not need to be filmed, just published. Or...said "perfect screenplay" could be filmed by RG Springsteen or Richard Bare or a kid with a cellphone and it would be just as good as the 1974 film. By Roman Polanski . Or try this: The Graduate lifts big one-liners and plot points from the novel. But would any other Director and Star than Nichols/Hoffman be as good without Nichols's angles and shot transitions and Hoffman's deadpan delivery and comic timing be as funny and groundbreaking? Would Redford, who was the epitome of the novel's physical description, be able to carry the movie past a Barefoot... Park movie into a groundbreaking and revolutionary rethinking of what the lead in a big Hollywood movie could look like and BE like? Hoffman's Ben develops over the movie into as confident a leading man as anyone taller and less Jewish, so that through sheer force of will Hoffman changed Hollywood. Paving the way for Pacino, DeNiro, Dreyfuss, et al. Would Chinatown be the worst possible noir/darkest ending noir without Polanski?

[@TravisRyan9]

Great episode on one of the best crime noir mysteries ever. Speaking of reviewing more classics, do The Thing! Possibly the greatest use of practical effects ever

[@raidersofthelostpodcast_]

OHHHH HELL YES

[@damianstarks3338]

This crime noir movie is a pure classic and I love it. Your review on this movie puts the biggest smile on my face.

[@raidersofthelostpodcast_]

Happy to hear!

[@TonyRoberts-t5z]

One thing. That was not explained. Who hired the fake Mrs. Mulray

[@raidersofthelostpodcast_]

Noah Cross hired her

[@fringelilyfringelily391]

@@raidersofthelostpodcast_ ... so that he could track down his daughter/grand daughter.

[@EpictasticJoshua]

Despite the dramas with the director, I think Chinatown is a great film

[@shawnbingley5433]

This has been one of my favourite films for as long as I can remember..I’d call it one of the few movies ever made that is perfect in every way..direction, script, cast, music..everything..seen it dozens of times and I could watch it again now..

[@raidersofthelostpodcast_]

💯💯💯💯

[@jugheadsrule]

7:30 'The way he (John Alonzo) lit this was really unique...it was an unheard of way of lighting for a feature length film' You do realize Film Noir is all about emphasizing shadows and silhouettes and the contrast between them, in other words, chiaroscuro lighting? James Wong Howe used these techniques in the 1940s and 50s. The way lighting was done in Chinatown is literally a tribute to James Wong Howe, who John Alonzo had worked with in the 1960s. Okay just got to 19:42 'He thinks I'm gong to be a big hero....." No dude, he doesn't. He's only interested in the case because he's supposed to be a successful detective but he's been deceived and made to look like a fool by the fake Mrs Mulwray and whoever paid her to do it. I mean...he literally said this to the real Mrs Mulwray when she tells him she'll drop the lawsuit. Chinatown is in the my top 5 movies ever but I can't be bothered to watch this review past 20 mins. You guys just sound like you've read a bunch of reddit reviews and decided to make a podcast on it.

[@raidersofthelostpodcast_]

Never even used Reddit. We’re literally one the only channels here talking about films like Chinatown and you have nothing good to say, that’s on you not us

[@minechaftgamer288]

@@raidersofthelostpodcast_ thanks for the video and for dismissing some of these terrible takes in the comments with the contempt they deserve

[@tranquilitybase7860]

I am rebuilding my home to look like J.J.Gittes office. Love it.

[@DanielLiebert-i1p]

Polanski when asked his favorite shot in the movie he said the profile of Evelyn with the car pulling out at 54:28 (in your podcast). Beautiful but I need help seeing it as the greatest.

[@raidersofthelostpodcast_]

🫡🫡

[@novicechef3489]

Trumpet! Trumpet! Not saxaphone.

[@jkickass]

if there's anything anywhere near this quality in the last ten years, please let me know. looking for something to watch

[@brycecanning2773]

Watched for the first time this weekend! Loved this movie! Thanks guys!

[@raidersofthelostpodcast_]

Glad you enjoyed!!

[@etherealtb6021]

Actually, Nicholson wasn't that well known. That's why we were able to talk to him during filming. 😁 Let me explain, my mom was walking me home from kindergarten, but had noticed filming going on (old cars, TV antennas taken down). So we went to take a look. They were filming Chinatown, specifically Gittes' drive up to the my sister/ daughter's house, so a very short scene. In between setups, we started to walk back home and the guy who'd been driving the car (Nicholson) was laying on the lawn chilling and my mom (who talked to everyone) asked who he was, lol. He laughed saying a lot of people didn't know who he was. I was 6, so I asked him why he had a wire on his nose and he very nicely explained he gets hurt in the movie and the wire was so it could be seen far away. BTW, they give the real address, it is just in Hollywood, not Glendale. 😁

[@raidersofthelostpodcast_]

Wow that’s amazing, such a cool story!

[@etherealtb6021]

@@raidersofthelostpodcast_ Right? So lucky to have seen a teeny tiny part of this masterpiece being made! Go to the house next time you go to Griffith Park to hike. It is cool.

[@karanvirkooner1993]

Chinatown came out the same year as The Godfather:Part II

[@raidersofthelostpodcast_]

🤩

[@xbrooksx]

It seems you're under the assumption that anamorphic lenses have a larger depth of field but they actually have a smaller one, making it more difficult to deep focus.

[@defenstrator4660]

Of the two I have to rate Chinatown over the Godfather. Godfather 2 beats the Two Jake’s though.

[@michaelrotman8523]

I enjoyed your podcast but two glaring Mistakes One the San Fernando Valley was incorporated into Los Angeles in 1915 not in the 1930s as you incorrectly state. In the theme music that is a solo trumpet by the great you on racy who was heard on Singing in the great Uan Rasey heard on MGM musicals do your homework

[@raidersofthelostpodcast_]

we aren’t a history podcast

[@michaelrotman8523]

@@raidersofthelostpodcast_ How LAME is that! if you had any pride in your work you'd look up the basic info easily available

[@bobharlow-ib2ed]

Chinatown lost to Godfather 2 for Best Picture of 1974 not The Sting , which won the year before.

[@etherealtb6021]

​@@michaelrotman8523Pretty lame to complain about mistakes with so many typos, I can't even tell WHAT you were saying.

[@michaelrotman8523]

@@etherealtb6021 guilty as charged on my second comment but the first is perfectly clear these podcasters understood it voice dictation is tricky

[@cwdkidman2266]

By the way, I am writing this as i listen to you guys. Hope you realize that Jack isn't the sharpest tool in the box. And that he never realizes that Evelyn was NOT assaulted, that she had consented as much as a fifteen year old girl can consensually engage in incestual intercourse.

[@raidersofthelostpodcast_]

It's very disturbing

[@cwdkidman2266]

VERY. Did your research show any rewriting collab between Polanski and Towne? Towne reminds me of Christian Nyby. His Thing From Another World is really as suspected Hawks's film. But Hawks thought sci-fi/horror too embarrassing a genre to fool around in, in 1951. So Nyby got the credit and his DGA card. And never once produced anything as good as The Thing. Which got into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress the split second it was eligible, with Hawks and Nyby receiving co-credit. You guys do much with the New Hollywood Movement? Love to see a deep dive into Blow-Up, the non- Hollywood film that started it all. Or Paula's Paranoia Trilogy. Or Medium Cool, by Haskell Wexler. Or even the tremendously successful but now ignored Bonnie and Clyde or Straw Dogs or Midnight Cowboy or MASH, THE.1970 movie, not the defanged powderpuff TV show. Or those other two cannot be made today movies: Deliverance and the 1976 Bad News Bears (not kidding), which had Matthau give his 11 year old players Coors to celebrate their second place finish.

[@isaiahmcsweeney9217]

Day 24 -asking for a pacific rim movie review. Yous are really making my watch list long now aha

[@raidersofthelostpodcast_]

Hahaha you have lots of movie homework!

[@gk8573]

Please watch RRR movie it's amazing and oscar winner this year epic action with the master of story telling 🤩🙏🤗🍿

[@raidersofthelostpodcast_]

Did a review!

[@jugheadsrule]

So just started watching this review and alarm bells already ringing. The seventies is the best cinematic decade of all time? Not even close. 1940s -Citizen Caine, Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, The Third Man, White Heat, The Great Dictator, Grapes of Wrath, It's a Wonderful Life....etc etc 1950s - Sunset Boulevard, Vertigo, Rear Window, North by Northwest, Seven Samurai, All about Eve, Rebel without a Cause, Singing in the Rain, A Streetcar named Desire...etc etc etc Most of the top 50 movies ever made.

[@ignatiusjackson235]

Nah, '70s is boss.

[@JohnnySmithWhite-wd4ey]

Neo Noir. It's not a mystery.

[@raidersofthelostpodcast_]

He’s literally trying to solve a mystery the entire film