FREE ESSAY ON "CHINATOWN AND J.J. GITTES"

"CHINATOWN AND J.J. GITTES"

"Chinatown and J.J. Gittes"
As a classic detective movie, Chinatown involves a "hard-boiled" setting and a private
investigator. The story takes place in Los Angeles, California during the 1930's. The
mood of the film is typical of that of a detective story, and the gradual discovery of
clues completes the film's mysterious atmosphere. Though the detective myth is at first
followed, Director Roman Polanski quickly deviates from the typical story line. Instead
of gaining more control over the situation through clues and increased knowledge, our
detective falls more deeply into the web of helplessness. The wrongdoing in Chinatown is
not limited to one person. Instead, an entire society revolves around an individual whose
level of evil greatly outweighs any one man's quest for justice.
The one man, in the case of Chinatown, is J. J. Gittes, a "typical" private eye. His cool
and calm attitude matches his suit and clean-shaven face, indicating a businessman who is
always in control. As the audience might expect, Gittes was once a member of the police
force, and he still has close ties to the law. His independence from law enforcement,
however, helps to define what and who he is. On a deeper level, Mr. Gittes is different
from other private investigators. Divorce work, something most private eyes avoid, is J.
J.'s specialty. Gittes treats his job as a job, and he puts aside the sense of honor
common to Hollywood private eyes. Also, unlike most traditional detective depictions, J.
J. Gittes is not a truly lonely man. As an example, although he has an array of liquors
in his office, he only uses them for his clients. As the movie continues, Gittes takes
the role of the seeker of true justice rather than the enforcer of institutionalized law.

This shift of roles begins when a thug slices J.J.'s Gittes's nose. Though the actual
cutting scene is very serious and even somewhat frightening, the resulting bandage on
Gittes's nose acts as a comic relief. In a deeper way, however, the bandage works as a
reminder of the challenges Gittes faces. Therefore, though the bandage makes us laugh, it
also triggers impulses of pain and shock in our minds. It is an emblem of the evil
surrounding Mr. Gittes and how it affects him. 
As the movie continues, Gittes's surrounding evil increases until it reaches a maximum in
Chinatown, the location of the last scene. At the end of the film, the viewer is quickly
transported to Chinatown through shots of signs and flashing lights. Next, the camera
follows J.J. Gittes and Noah Cross, the source of evil, out of a car and onto the
sidewalk. The background noises of an outdoor urban setting create a distortion as Gittes
is confronted by a former fellow police officer. At this point, the placement of Gittes
and Cross on the screen, compounded by the concurrent arguments of both men, suggests
conflict to the viewer. Next, as the lieutenant tells another officer to lock Gittes to
the steering wheel of his car for "withholding evidence," the camera follows Cross to his
daughter, Mrs. Mulwray. What follows is an up-close struggle between Cross and Mrs.
Mulwray. It ends with a gunshot to Cross's arm and a wide-screen view of Mrs. Mulwray
speeding away in her car. In the end, the viewer sees a dead Mrs. Mulwray and a screaming
daughter/sister. Finally, Gittes is taken away from the camera as a crowd of spectators
covers the screen.
I agree with Cawelti's view of Chinatown. Indeed, the movie is a strong example of how
traditional myth crumbles with the presence of a greater evil. The myth of a detective
story is one that developed mainly within the earlier years of film. It typically
involves a hero, in the form of a detective, on a mission. The hero is balanced on the
"edge of the law." He uses both his intuition and his encounters with evil to discover
the source of wrongdoing. Finally, the hero finds an individual responsible for the
wrongdoing, and the criminal is brought to justice. In Chinatown, however, searching for
justice leads only to failure, and in the end, our hero is destroyed.