TOWNE'S CHINATOWN

Noah Cross: 'Either you bring the water to L.A. or you bring L.A. to the water.'

It would be remiss of me as a struggling screenwriter to not pay my respects to one of the greatest screenwriters of the past fifty years, Robert Towne, who died on Monday at his Los Angeles home. He was 89.

Coincidentally, it was fifty years ago almost to the day (June 20th) in 1974 that Towne's most famous screenplay 'Chinatown' was released in its completed cinematic form to the public, starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway and directed by Roman Polanski. It was met with great acclaim by critics and audiences alike and was nominated in 1975 for eleven Academy Awards, securing just the one for Towne and his screenplay in a highly competitive year that included 'The Godfather Part 11', 'The Conversation' and 'Lenny'.

'Chinatown' is of course, an unusual film noir in that a great deal of its story plays out in the bright natural light of 1930s-era California and not so much the dark, shadowy pools between the city lights as one might typically expect of films such as 'Double Indemnity', 'Out Of The Past' and Farewell My Lovely' which were very much seen as the original templates for the genre. The genius of this neo noir approach by Towne and Polanski is that it proves just how much of the covert corruption is hiding in plain sight like indistinct objects on the horizon obscured by the shimmer of relentless heat haze. It provides then a doubly disturbing and unsettling atmosphere, giving us a false psychological sense of security. We simply don't expect our murky mysteries to play out before us with such transparency.

Towne's story was partly inspired by the Californian Water Wars that took place during the early years of the 20th century where the Los Angeles Water Department cynically diverted water away from Eastern California via an Aqueduct depriving long established rural farming communities in the state in order to provide for the growing population in the drier south. In Towne's screenplay, the character of Hollis Mulwray is alleged to have been based on William Mulholland, the superintendent and chief engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, after whom the famous road Mulholland Drive in Hollywood was named.

Watching 'Chinatown', the audience is provided with a tangible sense of the deprivation of water in the arid landscape as it is targeted by the sinister Mulwray who manipulates his control of this essential utility to force landowners to sell their 'dry' land at a low price for him to easily acquire. There is a ominous, becalmed stillness in the air and a thirsty look to the city and its surrounding hills. Only the distant sea and the occasional controlled release of water through a sluice way provides an elemental contrast to these unremittingly parched environments. The perfection of the screenplay, matched by flawless direction is no doubt why 'Chinatown' is so often lauded as one of the great movies of the 20th Century.

Another reason I believe Towne was able to transcend the detective noir genre with his exploration of insidious political corruption is that he truly gets to the heart of our universal frustrations in recognising the futility in attempting to uncover the puppet masters who command the levers of power that control all of our human lives. Private investigator, J.J Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is a perfect narrative surrogate for the audience as he attempts (successfully in one sense) to get to the bottom of a mystery that ultimately can never be fully resolved. Michael Eaton observes in his BFI study guide on the film that "the social order into which we will be momentarily returned is restored (though) not to decency, rationality, love, health and meaning, but (instead) to a fundamental, chaotic, unconquerable and unembraceable perversity."

Noah Cross: You may think you know what you're dealing with, but, believe me, you don't.

[Gittes grins]

Noah Cross: Why is that funny?

Jake Gittes: That's what the District Attorney used to tell me in Chinatown.

In a city where constructing illusions is one of its main industries, it also makes sense to look at 'Chinatown' as an allegory of the place and environment behind the movies where the reality of its make believe is so often swept under the red carpet. Entertainment, like water, is a commodity which can be directed by those who hold the power while many others are left in the shadows with just their dreams.

Screenwriters like Towne can also be like detectives, who are both seduced by the Femme Fatale that is Hollywood (the eternal muse) who we chase into the night but are also equally keen to uncover the darkness that drives our fantasies of tinseltown which can so often reveal more sinister realities.

In this sense 'Chinatown' is truly a state of mind.

Rest In Peace, Robert Towne ( 23rd November 1934 - 1st July 2024)