Starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston
A private detective investigates corruption in Los Angeles' water department while simultaneously looking into a murder mystery involving its chairman.
Viewing this film was interesting for me as I had rented it maybe a year ago and gotten through about half of it. The film seemed fairly boring to me and I never had any interest in getting it back out to view the 2nd part of the film. Fortunately though, I recently saw its high placement on a greatest films of all time list and decided I'd give it another go. I don't know whether I was just paying more attention this time or I just have more of an appreciation for more conservatively directed films, but I enjoyed it much more this time and felt as though I only now fully realized its true greatness.
First of all, it must be said that what really sets this film apart from all others is Jack Nicholson's performance as J.J Gittes. I felt as though any other actor in this role simply wouldn't have sufficed, and it seems as though some scenes and dialogue of the Gittes character were almost custom made for Nicholson, his personality, his look, and his delivery. This was the first film I had ever seen by Roman Polanski, and although I really liked all of his neo-noir, precisely-framed, still camera shots, some of the time when he chose to move the camera, the shots were noticeably shaky.
The story itself, written by Polanski and Robert Towne, was excellent. I felt as though it nearly matched Godfather II in terms of complexity, which I appreciated, but it was still reasonably understandable and not overdone. The twisted plot also helped to add depth to the principal characters, all of whom I really liked. The writing was strong when it came to dialogue as well, as Nicholson had some real gems to work with.
I also really liked some of Gittes' detective methods, which seemed very realistic. My only real complaint with the story was the fact that I seemed to have lost the plot in the last 15 minutes or so, as I didn't quite understand Gittes' motivations in calling Noah Cross after he had his daughter, but I'll probably understand this better with a rewatch.
John Huston was great and I wished his character had been featured more. Polanski and Nicholson's work here also makes me want to see more of both of their work, as well as more films in the noir and neo noir genres.
