Chinatown

Chinatown was one of the more interesting film noirs in this unit. It might have been my favorite film for this unit if it didn't take us like 3 weeks to watch the hole movie.

It didn't exactly feel really film noirish, in the sense that it was more of a detective movie to me. Most of the movie in the beginning of the film was in brood day light, and it didn't give you the feeling of hopelessness or powerlessness like many people describe film noirs as. Instead it felt almost optimistic and upbeat. JJ wasn't in too much trouble if he didn't investigate the murder case it was just showing that he had made a mistake when he got hired to see if molry was cheating, since it wasn't really molry's wife that hired him.

At any point in the film he could have stopped investigating the case and carried on like nothing happened. In the other film noirs we watch the main characters were in it no matter what from the beginning, like Mike Hammer watching the naked girl being killed or in Out of the Past, having the main character have no choice but to do as he is told or he will get killed.

The ending of the film was the only real film noir scene in the movie and Beau R. pointed out. It was the only scene with obvious shadows and low lighting plus it was the only time you felt the hopelessness. The confusion with the police and Cross, plus Cross being the girl's father and grandfather which is just nasty. Then having evil win over good just made it feel dirty and in a sense more noiry.

Over all I did like the film even though it didn't give me the noir sense in its entirety but it still was a great movie. I would recommend it to just about anyone.