Retrospective Film Review

Chinatown (1974) • 50 Years Later — investigating the dark origins of American society

A private detective hired to expose an adulterer in 1930s Los Angeles finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.

The detective genre has undergone many iterations since its inception. In plotting the dark, dangerous, and disturbing worlds that surround us, the detective figure becomes a living embodiment of the human desire for knowledge, understanding, and maintaining order. But what happens when the object of the detective’s investigation is the very origins of their own country?

In 1937 Los Angeles, Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is a private detective whose work verges on the obscene. Mostly, it involves trailing people suspected of infidelity. He’s hired for a seemingly straightforward case by a woman who suspects her husband, Hollis Mulwray (Darrell Zwerling), the chief engineer at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, is having an affair.