Book in a Quick Look Research Paper

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Chinatown: A convergence of fraud, murder, and incest

Chinatown is the 1974 film noir directed by Roman Polanski. A modernized interpretation of classic film noir, Chinatown stars Jack Nicholson as J.J. Gittes, a Los Angeles private detective, Faye Dunaway as Evelyn Mulwray, a victim of incest and daughter of one of Los Angeles' most powerful men, and John Huston as Noah Cross, a corrupt business man and Evelyn's father. Chinatown, though released in 1974, is set in Los Angeles during the 1920s and not only revolves around a murder, incest, and a conspiracy to control the water supply in the city, but is also one of the few films to make reference to the California Water Wars.

In the film, J.J. Gittes is a private detective that has been hired by a woman impersonating Evelyn Mulwray who claims that she wants to hire Gittes to perform marital surveillance on her husband, Hollis Mulwray. In the process of following Hollis and attempting to catch him with his mistress, Gittes notices that Hollis has been checking in at major water drainage points throughout the city. Shortly thereafter, Hollis is found drowned in one of the drainage points that he was investigating.

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Incidentally, Gittes had found out that he had been duped by an imposter posing as Evelyn Mulwray when the real Evelyn subpoenaed him; it was only after her husband was murdered that Evelyn hired Gittes to investigate Hollis' murder. During the course of the investigation into what could have led to the murder of Hollis, Gittes also finds that Ida Sessions, the woman who had impersonated Evelyn at the beginning of the film, has also been brutally murdered. Furthermore, he uncovers that Hollis' murder was caused by his desire to make the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power a public entity; the Department of Water and Power was privately owned by Hollis Mulwray and Noah Cross. As Gittes looks further into the motivating factors that led to Hollis' death, he uncovers a conspiracy that would allow the Department of Water and Power to remain privatized; moreover, Gittes discovers that Noah Cross has been terrorizing ranchers in the San Fernando Valley by….....

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