A Script By: Robert Towne - Chinatown

0:00 Before it was a film, it was a script. Welcome to a Film By presents a Script By a limited series hosted by me Brad Kozo. In this series, we'll. Explore some of Hollywood's most celebrated screenplays, the scripts that define genres, inspire generations, and change the way stories are told. Each episode, we're going to break down what makes these screenplay so powerful, how the acts flow together, how structure and character drives story and theme, and how every page earns its place well als. It's like a closer look at the writers behind the words, their process, their influences, and the journeys that led them to create these iconic works. This is a script By. Let's turn the page. Welcome to the premiere episode of A Script By. I am Brad Kozo, and I am so excited to finally have this out there for anyone that would want to hear it.

1:19 I just want to thank anybody that's listening right now, and we'll get right to it. For our first episode, We're going to dive straight into what many consider one of the greatest screenplays ever written. I'm talking about Robert Town's master work, the screenplay for nineteen seventy four's Chinatown. It's a script that defined an era of filmmaking, a story of corruption, deceit, the illusion of control wrapped in the sun bleach glamour of old Los Angeles. Today, will take a closer look at why these screenplays still studied, still quoted, and still regarded. It as a blueprint for how to tell a story that feels both timeless and tragic. From the first ten pages to its devastating final line, will break down and how Chinatown earned its place as one of the most celebrated scripts in Hollywood history.

2:06 So to start off. Before we get going, I am very pleased to welcome to the first episode of a script by my guest, Chuck Brian, the host of the Cinematic Flashback. That's right, folks. By day, Chuck's a senior software developer, but by night he's all about seventy cinema. On his podcast, he and his co host revisit the films that defined the decade, diving into the stories, the culture impact, and why they still resonate. Chuck, Welcome to the show. How are you, sir, Brad? Thank you so much for inviting me on. I am really super psyched to be here tonight. I have to say, I I am. I've been looking forward to this conversation now ever since Jeff reached out to me and pitched the idea. I thought it was great. I love your limited series, and I'm really looking forward to hearing what you have to do on Chinatown and moving forward.

3:03 Yeah. I mean, this one, I'd have to say, is. Not so much the easiest, but the most you can kind of talk about why it's considered so great. And like when Jeff told me about you know, he's got the script and you know, and then about your podcast and things like that, I'm like, well, yeah, that's that's just like you know, a my doppelganger. Perfect. You could almost say that seventies movies is my meta. Oh it's it's I think if you even though it's kind of said the seventies movies, it's about nineteen sixty seven to like mid eighty, I mean that that whole group of films, you know, that fourteen thirteen years, that is just the classics that will always be considered classics.

3:57 Oh yeah, best years of cinema. Well, on the cinematic flashback, we are solely keeping in between nineteen seventy and nineteen seventy nine, and it's hurting a little bit because you're right, there's a couple of them that are right on the edge. But I grew up in the eighties, so I grew up with the you know, in the seventies when I was a child, the movies I saw were The Superman, The Star Trek, the Star Wars. You know, I did not know about films like mash Kelly's Heroes, Clute, all of these films that are just real early and they are just magnificent films.

4:38 There's so much fun. There's some clever ones, there's some ones that aren't so great as well, but you know, overall, Matt, my co host, Matt Sardine and I we decided that we would restrict ourselves to this one decade period and just explore what we can and then just ask each other, honestly, does it still grow or has it actually skipped a beat? And that's the way in which we render our final judgment of thumbs up or thumbs down on it. Yeah. I mean, I think I was watching one of those, like the CNN the movies that they did a couple of years ago, and one of the film school professors just kind of said it. He goes, you can basically teach the seventies films for just like years, just to steep you know, for years, he goes, And that's all you kind of really need, you know. But yeah, now with Chinatown, do you remember when you first saw it, what you thought of the film, and then later on what.

5:35 You kind of thought of the script. So I can say I can definitely tell you all of those because I first saw Chinatown for the first time last year in our Season one when we reviewed the film. Okay, before that, I mean I I one of Chinatown was always one of those films that a friend of mine said you should watch, and he told me a little He didn't tell me much of the plot, but he told me it was about water, water works, water department. And in my mind, I kept thinking, Okay, it's Jack Nicholson, but I don't know. The water thing just never really really sat with me. We want we reviewed it last year, and I'm telling you, without necessarily spoiling anything for anyone here right at this point, I will say that the ending of the movie, my job was literally in my lap. I was I just I couldn't believe it. How this film ended, and it was a satisfying film. Even though it was tragic at the end, the whole film was was was satisfying. This past Christmas, I had the chance to be with my mom and I showed her this film. She had never seen it, she'd always wanted to see it as well, and she had the exact same reaction. And you know, it's almost like I think she actually maybe had bought the film before she left and had it shipped from Amazon.

7:02 To her home. Yeah. But yeah, And you know, when we're doing our study for this, a reviewing for the for the preparing for the podcast, I came across that how much that this film is is taught. The screenplay is taught. And I did not know the name Robert Town. It didn't mean anything to me, but now I see his fingerprints all over the place. And you got the opportunity, uh recently to read the screenplay in preparation for this for tonight, and it really brings out a lot in the film. I really liked.

7:42 That the the again it's it reads well and there's a lot of details that I think Robert Town put into the film, are into the screenplay that when you read the screenplay and then you watch the film, you just start to notice all these small little characteristics are a little movements. But yeah, it's it was. It's pretty amazing. Yeah, I remember, I didn't see it until when I had this crazy notion that a long time ago, when I thought I was going to be a screenwriter, the thing to get was Sidfield's screenplay book, and that film or a Chinatown and Dog Day Afternoon are mentioned very frequently in the you know, like the first couple chapters of the book. So the more research it is like, Okay, this is supposed to be this other classic like you know, the Godfather and stuff. And then I was starting to really get into these seventies movies and yeah, like I said, after it, my I was shocked.

8:44 But I was also just kind of like did that did that happen? You know, and almost kind of had to go back to make sure it was like did I miss it? It was like, no, you didn't miss it. It's just very cleverly put there. Oh yeah, oh yeah, so many things. Well, let's get started with our breakdown. This is a script by Robert Town fade In. So Robert Town was basically kind of all over everywhere in the seventies, he you know, he's even his name wasn't really always on screen. He was always doing uncredited working movies like Bonnie and Clyde, where he was a creative consultant, Kay and Missus Miller the Parallax View basically, like you mentioned before, shaping the tone of the entire decade. But the moment that really got people talking was his rewrite on that Godfather's scene between the Marlon Brando and Paccino. It was it was subtle, it was emotional, and it caught the attention of Godfather producer Robert Evans, who then invited Town out to dinner and they start talking about what are you gonna do next?

9:50 You know? And he tells him, I got this idea. I'm sitting on nineteen thirties detective story. But wait now, it's not about gangsters or shootouts. It's about water, who controls It happens when you steal the lifeblood of a city. Evan's immediately wants a script. Town tells him, no, it's mine, So instead of walking away, Evans does something rare. He backs him anyway. He tells Town, you know what, don't write with studio once write what only you can. And what Town. Delivers is a story about murder, corruption, power hiding in plain sight under California's son. But he also knew the script needed a director, some precise someone could turn elegance into something as sentley. And that's when he of course thought of Roan Polanski because they had already worked together on Roseenbary's Baby. But at that time Polanski had basically left Hollywood and disappeared after the brutal man Some murders of his wife Sharon Tate in nineteen sixty nine, and he didn't want to come back to Los Angeles. But I mean he initially said no, He said no, the city just carries too much weight. But Evans kept pushing tundon.

11:01 This wasn't just a movie. It was a story about Los Angeles itself. You know, you know that Robert Evans voice you can always hear about the ru to the beneath, the beauty, the lie, the control. You know. He read the script and then just something clicked, you know, he recognized that that underbelly, you know, and that's where the fun, you know, the script really comes into focus. It's it's basically the collision between Town's perspective, which is truth still matters, and Polanski's perspective of you know, truth doesn't save anyone. You know, what do you what do you think about that kind of like approach to it, like two people that see it, one happy, but one like, no, that's not the real world.

11:45 Hmmm, well I think you end up with Chinatown. Yeah. One of the things that really stuck out for me for Robert Town was his origin story and how he first started off off with Roger Corman. You know, Roger Corman gave most of our Hollywood heroes, Yeah, their start. It's it's amazing. And the first thing that I remember. I have this this book here about by Roger Corman, his autobiography called How I Made one hundred movies in Hollywood and Never lost a dime exactly, and he was talking about Robert Town, and he said, give this man enough time and he will write Chinatown or a shampoo.

12:38 But I need him to write faster. He even told uh, one of his writers who had she was just coming in to work. He said, in that room, the doors closed, and in there is Robert Town. He's he's writing for me, and he's gonna slip paper underneath the door to you, and then you take them as he gives them, and then at some point bring him lunch. But whatever you do, don't let him out of the room. So Corman leaves to go do his his his movie, and Robert looks out and says, is he gone yet? And then takes a break. So give him enough time and he will write Chinatown. And I think that what he was able to do with story about water wars and just murder and mystery and all the things was pretty incredible.

13:40 Yeah, And I kind of did a little bit of a dive with his work for the show, besides just Chinatown and watching the last detail and body and Clyde and kind of seeing how his it's just a it's straight in your face. It's it's not he doesn't show. He doesn't as to say that, he doesn't give you a metaphor. He shows you. I'm not I'm not going to give you a metaphor about it. I'm showing you that the the horror right there, and no apologies and very very brutal, you know, very kind of kind of rough.

14:21 Yeah, he doesn't pull he doesn't necessarily necessarily pull punches, but sometimes he kind of layers his especially in Chinatown. Uh. And it's one of the things that you know, we'll probably say, but I just I love how the movie starts off as one thing and leads you down this road and you're finding out things at the same time as uh, Giddies is finding it out and you're you're you're along with him, and I I love that you start with this very narrow point of view and by the end it's like it's so wide and you see everything and you see the corruption, uh, and it's it's it's pretty brutal.

15:03 Yeah, And what we're gonna basically try to do is to in some way kind of simplify it because I think the biggest kind of you know, uh thing with people have sometimes in this film is that it's confusing. There's just so much to it. I'm like, yes, because it's confusing to Jake. You feel the confusion. He is confused just as much as the you know, the audience member at that time. So yes, it is confusing, and yes, it is something that needs to be revisited to kind of break down again. But it's not pretentious. It's not saying, oh, we're smarter than you, and this is a smart movie, and your movies aren't smart. It's saying, look what happens when you don't know what the hell is going on. Well, right now, we're going to take our one of our first breaks when we come back. We're going to delve into the first ten pages of Chinatown and breakdown Act one.

16:05 Welcome back. We are talking act one. In the first ten pages, here's what we know from the first ten pages. We meet Jay gittis, confident private detective. He makes money off people's secrets. He's approached by. A woman claiming to be missus Maulray, the wife of a Los Angeles chief water engineer, Hollis Malray. She suspects her husband is cheating on her. Now, in the script and on the film as well, Jake's line of when she mentions Hollis Malray water and power. When he says it, he's like wait, water and power. He hears Hollis and Alray's name, and that's telling the reader, the audience. Jake knows his name. He knows it's an important, big guy.

16:49 This is this one's a big deal. Audience, Keep remember this guy's name. You know he's going to be important. Now this moment the fake Missus Mare visit. This is the story's first inciting incident. I mean, it's it's the lie that sets everything in motion. You know, he takes the case without question, you know, he never realizing he's being used, as I mean upon in a much larger gain. Oh yeah, absolutely. You know. One of the things about the script that's really great is the things that don't make it to the screen. And the movie starts off with get his working with a client who has his wife is cheating on him. Okay, so, like you said, he makes his money on on this. You know, so after he reviews the pictures, you know, he's he's in the movie. He you know, the next time you see him, you know, he's escorting him out and they're talking about payments and whatnot. But in the script there is this there is a line where Curly is asking, you know, I could I could kill her, right, I could just murder her? And they don't kill a guy like that, or do they? And get Us just gets real angry.

18:07 He says, I'll tell you it's the unwritten law, you dumb son of a bitch. You gotta be rich to kill somebody, anybody and get away with it. You think that that kind of dough, you think you got that kind of class cash. And the minute I read that, I mean, that's like within ten pages, and I'm thinking that is the film. That is one of the major themes of this film. Yeah, And he just said it right out there, yea. And part of me wants to say, maybe it was a good idea that they didn't put that into the film. I thought so too. There was well, when we get to the ending of the film, a much longer I guess struggle, but it felt too like Giddy's is trying to, like, you know, knock us in the head. Hello, you guys are getting I'm like in it. It seems like it goes on just a little too long. So he begins his investigation.

19:06 We see the glossy sunset, a sunlit world of nineteen thirties Los Angeles, trust it with dry river beds, furious farmers accusing the city of stealing their water. So by page ten, Town has already established the film's tone of deception, corruption, and illusion, though neither neither get us nor the reader yet realizes how deep the lights go. At that point, did the first ten pages earn your trust and If so, how does he do it without tipping his hand too early? Well, one of the things for me is you have to find Jake relatable. I mean, even though he does what he does, he has to be likable at a very basic level for the audience to actually connect with him, to want to go along with him. And you know, this is where where my misunderstanding of the film when I was told about it was Okay, this is this is an investigation of a man for water and power. Okay, I am not too interested in it. But but because of you know, whether it was the script, whether it was Jack Nicholson being a very young Jack Nicholson, I was.

20:24 I was drawn into it surprisingly. Yeah, and the fact that you like I said that he's not just a creep money tabloid kind of chaser. You know, he's he tells her, you know, do you love your husband? Yes? And go home? Let it go. I know you're rich. I know you'll pay me a fortune, but I have some dignity. You know, I'm not a soulless, heartless person. You should just let it go. You don't want you don't want to deal with that. She does want to see her tear the blinds down like Curly. Yeah. And even with Curly, you know, Curly is like, you know, there working out the payment for it, and you know, he says, I'm not going to take your last dime.

21:05 Yeah, you know. And and so immediately I think we we connect with him, and I think that we don't see him as like, you know, well, this guy is just you know, praying off the pain of others. You know, we actually, you know, as as as he says later in the barber chair, you know, I'm doing people a service. I'm not. I'm not kicking them out of their homes. You know. No, yeah, you know, he's just somebody says, hey, I want you to see somebody's cheat on me. Okay, I'll do you. I'll do you that solid. Yeah. So getting into Act one, like I said, we begins with the woman claiming to be Missus Raw, Missus Mulray, the wife of Los Angeles chief engineer. She hires private detective Jack Gettis to investigate her husband, suspected in fidelity.

21:56 This moment that we said, it's the it's the inciting incident, the smug the self assured, he takes it without question. It's just it's gonna be so much more than a dodgory case. But he trails houllisball Ray anyway way, and he knowses that he just doesn't really appear to be a guy kind of cheating and just more like a man haunted by the city's water problems. You know, he's out, he's inspecting dry river beds, empty reservoirs, and their political hearings were like farmers accuse him specifically like stealing their livelihood. You know. Then Giddess does see him with a woman, and we're never shown any kind of intimacy. It's just the woman is there and she's younger, and it hits the newspapers, and of course, like he said, scandal it up. I'm gonna you know, I'm just an honest man. But then the fit hits the shan when the real Evelyn maul Ray storms into his obvious furious that her name has been dragged to the press. That that's when Getty's realized he's being used confidence shatter reputation on the line. Determined declare his name, He's got to now dig deeper on cover evidence that water is being secretly dumped at night while the city claims that there is a draft.

23:16 So right there. But yet everything changes when Hollis small Ray dies, you know it found and the thing is the chief water engineer found dead, drowned in the very reservoir that he was inspecting, you know, right now at that point, so we see, we see Hollis mal Ray's body come up. That's the point I've never turned. That closes out the Act one. That means the lie that began as a routine case now becomes a murder investigation, and the stakes explode from personal embarrassment to life and death conspiracy. I'm not sure of the exact page number, but I think I think it's around maybe thirty three or thirty five, so about that like half hour mark. So that's a pretty good solid Act one, you know. And then so he's he's gonna step into the Act two. Now he's chasing the truth, you know, I mean for this one, but really the truth is gonna chase him. I mean, because Act one it's all set up slide of hand.

24:26 We think we're watching a detective story about infidelity, but what Town is really doing. He's learning us into a trap, just like with Gid is the same one he walks into by. By by time Hallsballay's body turns up, it's too late. The game's changed. And the real story that the one about the corruption and the control and the illusion, that's just the beginning, you know. So Chuck, looking at Act one as as a whole, you know, when do you think get Us actually loses control of the story? And is there any point where he could have safely walked away? He was never in control, I would say, And I'm not sure if his character would have allowed him. I mean, he I think he has this kind of a character who you know, the relationship that he has with the client.

25:22 He's at this point he realizes that he has been set up. Okay, he knows that someone who was posing as Evelyn Moray came in, hired him, he did a job, and then suddenly the real Evelyn Moulray shows up and she's going to sue him, and then not too much longer, her husband shows up dead. Now he he is actually in a position where he could be implicated in conspiracy or conspiring with or you know, being paid off or possibly extorting Evelyn. Right, and uh, and so I I think at this point, you know, he realizes that I mean, the the the time that he could have walked away maybe was by not taking Evelyn, the original Evelyn Mara the ship.

26:19 Once he did it, that that was it. And yeah, there was no way going out of it. And he was it seems so innocent, you know, you know, he did it with Curly and he's done it all before. It seems so innocent. Good paycheck. Yeah, and now he's not not only did someone end up dying and being murdered, but a very high profile person and he is now in this kind of web of lies that's that they just kind of threw him in. So yeah, it's it's pretty frustrating. I'd be I think I myself and as we would be like, yeah, you need to find this out.

27:00 What the hell is going on? Yeah? Oh if he you know, if if at this in the fact one or whatever he gave up, of course we would all be frustrated by that. But one of the other things that I really like about this script, and I think the first one actually kind of happens here, is that town sprinkles clues all throughout. Okay, Yeah, and the first one I think is the gardener who tells Jake it's bad for Glass, and Jake's like, yeah, sure, bad for Glass. A little misunderstanding of the Japanese gardener who might be pronouncing a letter incorrectly that comes back later.

27:46 Yes, And like I said, just those tiny little things. And I'm sure as a first time viewer, it is kind of frustrating to be saying like him, watching this guy like go boring empty reservoirs and things like that. But I will say one thing. Anybody that does live in California will kind of understand what it's like to deal with stuff in a drought in twenty twenty six, let alone nineteen thirties. You know so, But yeah, I agree with you. He at first I thought it was possibly when he found out he was just being used and kind of walked away. But now you kind of said, yeah, I was like, I know he was. He was sucked in from the beginning. Yeah, all right, we're going to take another quick break when we come back. We're gonna break down Act two of Chinatown and see how the story dives even deeper into corruption and control.

28:43 Welcome back. We're digging into Act two where Chinatown really starts closing on Jake gidtis So after Hollis's Maulray's death. The case starts being about saving face and basically just turns into an obsession. You know, he's he's not investigating anymore, He's chasing bigger something that we will basically doesn't want to be found. And then he starts to dig into the city's water scandal. He realizes he's being followed, watched, out played. Every answer raises more questions. I mean, it's it's classic uh Nor paranoia, the sense that the truth itself is just kind of hunting him, you know. I mean, on page Town writes his clean procedural one clue lead into the next, lead into the next. But I will say on screen plan Ski that that sense, that that frustration that you feel, that that I think that's him. He turns in that suffocation, the type frames, the harsh lighting, everything just kind of there's no certainty. But I mean the midpoint, though, is jake nose being slashed. It is the one true literal and symbolic warning. You know, you know, well you know what happens to a nosy fella, tell you what loses his nose? Well, because a little funny thing too, is that Polanski actually plays that little part there, but I mean they're arrogance that's stripped away and you

30:16 know that now it's not professional, it's just physical. And then it's like I said, it's just it's like an onion. It just keeps peeling and it like keeps stinking. You know. Then the IDA session's phone call. I'm the woman that calls you. It's like another one. Then they go, you know, Jake and Evelyn start getting close and hanging out and doing some investigating your own. They start finding out that there's lying about they're irrigating the Northeast Valley. He goes and checks. They're not doing that, but they are saying it. The white people at the you know, Water and Power and these senior citizens that have these links to millionaires, oligarchs of nineteen thirty one whatever, are using these senior citizens to put their names on the deeds of all this stolen land. But yet at the same time, the character of Evelyn, she starts crack, you know, you know, we get her fear, we get her hesitation, I mean, her guilt. You know, she kind of bleeds it on the surface, but Jake doesn't really understand it, you know.

31:25 I mean, you see any time her father, no cross is mentioned. It is just like someone's poking her with a needle, you know. It's but it also says on page like, you know, like alarms or she looks up, hesitating, or just things, you know, very simple likes miss. Malray, you already have another cigarette going. As she starts, he mentions that the father, and she pulls out a cigarette when she already has one going, you know, just little things like that, just like I said, those little sprinkles, you know, just man like, there's something really up with her dad. Not just hey I got daddy issues. She's got something worse than that that. There's really about the one thirty mark of the movie, probably page ninety.

32:13 Ish, you know, kind of where we're at. I mean, it just it does. It keeps getting more confusing, you know, And even if you've seen the film as many times as I'm sure I have, and you have now reading the script, you're still confused. And your your. Headache is also Jake's headache in a way. So Chuck by actuo is is he is he trying to solve the case still or is he just trying to just prove something about himself. I'm gonna say both so, and by that I mean he's obviously investigating. Uh you know. He meets Evelyn at the Brown Derby and that is where he receives a check as she is now a fish, engaging with him to be her investigator, and he asks what the C stands for in her initials, and she says Cross and then he immediately the next scene, he is in the office of Yelburden, who was the former partner of Hollis Mulray, and he's looking at all of the different pictures on the wall and he notices a man whose name is Cross, and he's inquiring of the secretary and she says, oh, yes, that's Noah Cross. He at one point owned the water reservoirs of Los Angeles, he and his partner Hollis Mulray.

33:44 So you realize these men in the past had great power over the city and just you know, a great responsibility is what Hollis Mulray felt. And he's like, this really should be part of the communities, It should belonged to the public. And in a way he deprived, he deprived no across of that control of not only what the you know, the future of Los Angeles at that time by seeding all of that over to the public good. So Jake is investigating this is all of him going about investigating the other thing that is really Oh and as he is investigating, I discessions calls and basically leads a cryptic message, you know, check the obituaries. And then he ends up at the Hall of Records where he sees in the deeds of transactions, you know, all of these these people and some of them are in you know.

34:50 Leads him to the to the to where the old uh folks home. Uh. And this is where he realizes that there's this shenanigans that are going on. And at the same time he is still trying to make sure that it doesn't look like he's shaking down uh Evelyn to uh Lou Escobar, the detective who is also investigating this for the police. I love the way Town does not only the finding out about Noel Cross and mal Ray's history together, it's in an effort where as the reader or the viewer, it's a charming scene because he's annoying the ship out of this woman absolutely getting this information. So it's done in such a clever way of thing. We're gonna give you some important pieces of the puzzle here, but we really need you to pay attention, So we're gonna let Jack Nicholson just kind of be a be kind of an annoying thing to get on that.

35:49 And I love the way. That he does that by saying, listen up, this is this is this is important. And the way there's a couple of times that Jake of finds things out almost by accident, and just he's a very good investigator. He's very good at it. One of the things my co hosts brought up to me, and I'm not sure if this is a thing or not, but after Jake gets cut, this is where you see the giant bandage on his nose. You remember that, right, Yes, you can't forget it. And it starts off huge, and as it gets closer to the end of the movie, as he is beginning to learn more and more and more, the bandage is becoming smaller and smaller and smaller, until at the very end when all is revealed, you know, he's finished his investigations, All the truth is out, you know now the cut in the bandage are gone.

36:47 Yeah, by the end, they're not even a They get a little bit smaller. Yeah, I think there's like two or three of them maybe, and they get a little bit smaller, and but yeah, by the time the end, it's like it's completely gone. And it's like, like I said, peeling off that other layer. But all of that happens in the script because you and I are watching this and we're learning things, and we're still trying to figure out what what what's the deal with Noah Cross? And as you said, every time, I always thought that the one scene to me that really showed Evelyn's vulnerability was, you know, after they have slept together and she's getting ready, she gets a phone call and she's getting ready to leave, and Giddy says, I had met your father And at that point, I mean, at one point, she's just very comfortable around him, and then she goes into that very defensive posture where she puts her hands and she's covering herself, you know, and she's just very tight, and I mean it's just like the air has gone out of her. And yeah, that was that was I thought that every time. You're right, every time she does and you might not notice it the first time, but the second time you watch it, you notice all of that.

38:04 Well, because then you know why she would be that way discussing him in the nude. Yeah, you know, it's you know, please, we're not gonna, you know, do that. So then, uh, then we come to act three, and that's when Act three basically everything comes together and then falls apart. I mean, he. Thinks he's closing in on the truth, but he's really discovering is just how powerless he is against the system that he's going against. And of course the point comes with Evelyn's Secret, which we're going to say because if you're listening to the show, you've obviously seen the movie, and that is the reveal that Catherine, the girl in question, is both her Evelyn's daughter and her sister due to incest and you know, rape. And the thing is after that, everything else is just done. It's just like, all right, because you had motive to think that No Across was involved, you know, with the oh he wanted hollist one of the water to be for the people. No Across didn't. Okay, there's your motive, but this motive knocks you on the thing.

39:22 You're kind of even not even thinking about it. You know that that the truth basically just but that point right now, you know it's it's not about water rights, it's not about land deals. It's about abuse control and this rot that just keeps being passed down through like generations. You know, it's from that point he's just doing damage control, you know, just to kind of just just somehow helper because he was he was so gut punched the same way we were. You know, he believes that knowing the truth means he can fix things. But he's wrong because in Chinatown, power protects itself.

40:06 And then. The final scene, which we're gon we're gonna talk about in just a tiny, tiny bit that breaks every Hollywood resolution. You know that basically the truth change is nothing. You know, on page Town gives us devastation, but on screen plans he's gonna give us. You ain't gonna forget this. This is gonna be unforgettable. The story ends not with justice but surrender, and that line forget it, Jake, It's Chinatown. Is just surrender. This is what happens. And like I said that. In your sittor Winner, why the hell is this movie called Chinatown? It's about water in La And then there you go and you get your answer. So let's talk about this controversial ending. You know, the original template was China Town wanted Chinatown to end with Evelyn killing her father.

41:01 He you know, he did. It was a small victory, you know, built on corruption. But Plansky he saw it differently. You know, he lived through real evil. You know that there's no. Escape in it, you know, so he rewrote that ending, you know, where Evelyn dies, Noel crosswalks, Free gets the sister daughter, and Jake gets he walks away. Just he just defeated. You know, It's it wasn't just really just the ending of the film. It was it was Plansky's worldview too, of you know, it's just like he's almost. Saying it Chinatown. Forget it, Jake's Chinatown. Forget it Roman, It's la But in his version, evil doesn't lose it just just goes home.

41:47 At this point, too, there's another great line. And to me, this line stabs me deeper than forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown. And that is the line, as little as possible, and that hearkens back to a story that he's telling Evelyn and she says, you were working in Chinatown? What were you doing there? And he said, as little as possible, and the origin of that line actually came from a cop who worked in Chinatown who said, look, you don't know the culture, you don't know which gang is, which you don't understand, and so sometimes the best things you can do is as little as possible so that you don't make situation worse. And we understand in the movie that something had happened in Chinatown. You feel it in the relationship with lou Escobar, I mean that whole relationship.

42:47 Every time the two of them are together. I mean, there's so much tension there and it finally resolves again at the very end where there's Jake again. He's in Chinatown. He's trying to help another lady and you know who needed help, and once again Chinatown screwed him over. Yeah, And it seems to be the one thing that Escobar and get Us agree upon every time that they do come and contact with each other. Like he he was under the notion that Escobar was still working in Chinatown, and he's like, I'm out of Chinatown, and Jake is very pleased for him, you know, he's like, oh, good, good, you got out of that garbage where you didn't know what the hell was going on. You know, and even when he is, he's explaining to uh, I can't he's he's explaining to know across about Escobar. He's given him good he knows he's he's.

43:50 A because Escort is close. He's pretty close. Once he starts kind of at the end lay, you know, so he's like he's he knows, he's like he will find this out. Yeah, Escobar will find this out. And that's why he keeps content. Sure, they bust each other's balls, but. They have this connection. And I think they have this this almost like police hipocritic, you know, hippocratic oath type of thing of like this is the right thing to do. Was this the right ending? Or was Towns a better ending? Which one would have if we if we lived in the alternate universe and you could pick the director's cut or you could pick the original, which one would you?

44:32 I'm I'm gonna go with Polanski because with his version, because it is not only realistic, it is we've seen you know, rich people. Yeah, you know, like if if he wouldn't have cut that scene out, like you said from the beginning, he would have tipped his hand too early. M hm. And but like you said, but from that line, He's like, yeah, you got to be rich to kill somebody. We've seen that through history, we know it, we've lived it, you know, so that there seems more if we've seen it in our lifetime in nineteen thirties, it is a lot easier to let that thing just be pushed aside and what you know, swept under the carpet. So I think that one I you know, she never had a chance, or a woman Evelyn never had a chance.

45:34 You remember I said, there's all those little clues that gets sprinkled in. So when they're leaving the what is it, the Vista del Mar, the age home, the elderly home. Yeah, and Mova Hill and his goons are they shoot twice at this car that she's driving away in kind of foreshadow was about to happen. And as she's going, she reaches up and she touches her left eye, And that was in the script that I had, But it it makes me think that the script that I have might be more related to to maybe a different version of the script, because the ending that that I was reading was it still had Evelyn's death in it, but it took out the idea of Noah Cross, uh, getting away with Catherine, right, and so that so that was to me, it's like the ending that we have. It's bad because first of all, you're shocked, right that that Evelyn is dead.

46:45 I mean that I didn't see that coming. And then when you see Noah Cross putting his hands around his daughter being Catherine and dragging her away, you know, you're just like, no, no, somebody stop him something, you gotta stop him. Oh, there's such a such a impactful ending. Yeah. Yeah, And it's just that's what makes that screenplay, you know, just unforgettable. You know. So we're gonna talk real quick. About uh, the dialogue, the character, and the subtext. One of the reasons that China Town is still get study is the dialogue. You know, Town isn't writing big movie lines.

47:34 He's writing truth disguised his casual conversation. On the surface, the dialogue feels relaxed, even you know, playful, but there's always something simmering underneath. Jake and Evelyn. They rarely ever really say what they mean. Their conversations are full of deflection and avoidance. Noah Cross sounds warm and fatherly until you realize how terrifying that calm really is. And then and even get his wise cracks aren't just humor. There there armor you know for him, you know, that's sarcasm. How he that's how he keeps control, you know. But with this one subtext does all the heavy lifting. It's i mean, town trust the audience to connect the dots, but Plansky reinforces it by letting the scenes breathe. That's with the long silences that take you know, the long takes as those silences, those uncomfortable you know, ones uncomfortable pauses.

48:31 The characters don't explain themselves. They reveal who they are through hesitation, reaction and what they basically refuse to say. So it's it's a script of a lot of restraint. But that's what makes it so powerful. I mean, uh, like you said, you might have already answered this, but is there a line or a scene in trying to tell that you feel simple on the surface but just hits a little bit harder once you know what realizes or once you know what's going on. Oh, you know, some of my favorite lines in this happens to be and I can't find it right off the top of my head, but it is the scene where, first of all there's there's I already said one of them.

49:19 But the the scene where Jack is trying to tell her that he's trying to tell Evelyn that and and she doesn't, I guess wanna wanna wanna pursue this case with her husband possibly having an affair with another woman, because she realizes that if Jake follows this this line, he's going to discover her secret. And Jake's confused, and and he says, you know, husband and wife affairs, it's kind of my thing, it's my meta, and it's he uses this word, and I'm thinking, what is what is jj Gettis doing with that word? And I actually had to go look it up a little bit. I kind of thought I knew what it meant, but god you did, because I it's his job, it's his thing. And there's another line too that I had I had underlined here in the script, was where you know, he's he's telling her that, look, this is all fine and well with me, but missus Moulray, I darn well near lost my nose.

50:32 And I like it. I like breathing through it. And I still think you're hiding something. So she's not coming out, she's not telling them, but he's telling her that, you know, he's gone through this whole thing of of laying out this waterlogged bomb who's been found, and that her husband has been murdered. He's laid all this out, but he's still telling her, you're not telling me something. And that's something, of course, is this relationship between her husband Noah and her and little things sprinkled all through. Well, yeah, and that's what just it makes it so well, then let's get into legacy and lessons, you know, I mean it didn't just you know, tell a great story.

51:17 It basically changed what a screenplay could basically do. It. It took the basic bones of a classic nore and then through in politics, psychology, emotion. But I mean since nineteen seventy four it's become a reference point. I mean it is taught in film schools, studying in writers rooms, and I mean it's echoed in movies that follow, whether they're they don't have to be a neo nor they can be anything, you know. But structurally it's it's almost flawless, you know, as far as a screenplay structure, Every reveal builds, every setup pays off. But what really I think that what really gives it. The staying power is the theme that you know, truth doesn't amically lead to justice, It just doesn't, you know, It just sometimes just leads to a little bit of clarity, you know, which which raises the question of would this script sell today? What do you think if you were at the studio and they brought in this screenplay and a guy that's maybe just done a few rewrits center in there. Is it going to sell? Is it going to people going to see it?

52:31 Here's what I would fear. Let's say it does sell, maybe as a speck or whatever. Let's say it does. I am not sure if today they would trust the writing to the audience. They wouldn't trust the audience to be able to follow along, and that there might be a lot more exposition and callbacks or something. I would love to think, and I'm I'm sure we do, but I would love to think that we could get movies of this caliber, that are scripts of this caliber that you know, you don't always have a producer like Robert Evans who is going to trust I mean that age is almost gone, if it's not gone yet ready, So I would think I would like to think it would sell but I think it would sell with an asterisk because I think that there would be some notes.

53:31 Yeah, and I think I think it would sell, but not to a big studio like Paramount at the time. If it was to be sold to something like today, I think you would see it get you know, awards recognition, absolutely, but it would be one of those that was almost an independent you know, ten different. Studios brought to you. You know, twenty minutes of just loose your credits before the movie starts. Because that kind of thing. But eventually, I but not like you said, I believe that era that's gone, you know, like I said, there's not a Robert Evers a Paramount. You know. But you know, great scripts, they don't they don't chase trends, they outlast them. So at this part of the episode, as we're kind of nearing the end here is we do a couple of companion picks to the episode, something that maybe if you're interested in whatever film or script we're talking about, you want a little bit more information.

54:32 My pick is and there are several several books about Chinatown, I'm sure as you know, but is a book called The Big Goodbye Chinatown in the last years of Hollywood by Sam Wasson. It's literally all about the beginning and ending of the making of Chinatown with all the players Nicholson done away Town, but mostly Town, and uh Polanski and dealing course with Paramount Charlie Bloodhorn stuff. But it's a great book if you are a fan. Of Chinatown, and it's a very I'd say it's a lot easier read than the actual script of Chinatown. So and then Chuck, I hear you have a pick for us as well.

55:16 Yeah, you know the script that I picked up off of Amazon. It was it was a two fer of Robert Town scripts, one being Chinatown, but the second one being the Last Detail. Yeah, and I enjoyed the script for the Last Detail that I scratched an episode that we were going to do, and I plugged Last Detail in along with the movie Scarecrow for our March episodes of traveling movies that you might not have seen before. And you know it is again, it's one of those films that I had. Honestly, I had not even heard of the Last Detail until I started doing cinematic flashback, and I did not realize that it was by Robert Town until I picked this book. Up, and yeah, it was one that I had to put in because I liked it. I watched the film, had a lot of fun with it. Jack Nicholson plays Billy Bdesky and you have a very very young Randy Quaid as the man that he is escorting to naval prison.

56:25 Oh yeah, you'll get you'll understand the term pulk's like a sailor. You will definitely hear that. And another thing that town was very it was not only good friends with Nicholson, but I think he knew even though you feel like, oh, that's Nicholson kind of going off and doing his thing. No, it's written like that. We saw it, you know, so. That's going to be a rap on the first episode of a script by I think it went okay, Chuck. I'm assuming you had a good time. You know. You can't see, but he's got a big smile on his face.

57:07 No, we had a great time here tonight. In fact, it's just I am probably gonna start trying to read more of these screenplays as they come up. I'm I am eagerly looking looking forward to others in your series, So I will probably pester Jeff to let me know what you're doing so I can grab a screenplay and read it before I listen, and best of luck on this series. This is a fantastic idea. Yeah, we're gonna do twelve right now, one a month. You know, like I said, it's it's not a film by as much as this film is great, you know, we we just focus. On the script. And like I said, we why you know you keep hearing why is this considered such a great thing?

57:49 You know, well we'll tell you why. And I just want to put a shout out and a huge thank you to all of my film by colleague buddies for welcoming back with open arms and being so supportive of the show. You guys are the best. You know exactly who you are. But next time on. A script by we will turn the page to another Landmarks shreingplay. It's going to be. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid a screenplay or a script by William Goldman, basically a screenplay that changed how character, banter and friendships were written in film. So remember everyone, before it was a film, it was a script. Please join a film buy On social media, you can find us all on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and x we love interacting with you, sharing your opinions, taking your request for future episodes, and debating great movies. You can check out our website at wwwafilmpipodcast dot com. Any questions or emails please email at a film by Podcast at gmail dot com.

59:05 The same as an Overhand and a Candil t Some Trailing And Silent in duping Yan