You may think you know what youre dealing with, but believe me, you dont, warns water baron Noah Cross (John Huston), when smooth cop-turned-private eye J.J. Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) starts nosing around Crosss water diversion scheme. That proves to be the ominous lesson of Chinatown, Roman Polanskis critically lauded 1974 revision of 1940s film noir detective movies. In 1930s Los Angeles, matrimonial work specialist Gittes is hired by Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) to tail her husband, Water Department engineer Hollis Mulwray (Darrell Zwerling). Gittes photographs him in the company of a young blonde and figures the case is closed, only to discover that the real Mrs. Mulwray had nothing to do with hiring Gittes in the first place. When Hollis turns up dead, Gittes decides to investigate further, encountering a shady old-age home, corrupt bureaucrats, angry orange farmers, and a nostril-slicing thug (Polanski) along the way. By the time he confronts Cross, Evelyns father and Mulwrays former business partner, Jake thinks he knows everything, but an even more sordid truth awaits him. When circumstances force Jake to return to his old beat in Chinatown, he realizes just how impotent he is against the wealthy, depraved Cross. Forget it, Jake, his old partner tells him. Its Chinatown. Reworking the somber underpinnings of detective oir along more pessimistic lines, Polanski and screenwriter Robert Towne convey a 70s-inflected critique of capitalist and bureaucratic malevolence in a carefully detailed period piece harkening back to the genres roots in the 1930s and 40s. Gittes always has a smart comeback like Humphrey Bogarts Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, but the corruption Gittes finds is too deep for one man to stop. Other oir revisions, such as Robert Altmans The Long Goodbye (1973) and Arthur Penns Night Moves (1975), also centered on the detectives inefficacy in an uncertain 70s world, but Chinatowns period sheen renders this dilemma at once contemporary and timeless, pointing to larger implications about the effects of corporate rapaciousness on individuals. Polanski and Towne clashed over Chinatowns ending; Polanski won the fight, but Towne won the Oscar for Best Screenplay. Chinatown was nominated for ten other Oscars, including Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Cinematography, Art Direction, Costumes, and Score. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide