Chinatown Roman Polanski's Chinatown Roman Term Paper

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Claude Mulvihill could also be a major subplot character. His confrontation with Gittes leads to Gittes getting his nose slashed.

Ida Sessions, the woman who was hired to play Evelyn in the beginning of the film, would be considered a supporting character in Chinatown. She does not play a major role in the narrative, but she is there at key moments (it is her clues, for example, that allow Gittes to pursue the water scandal.) Walsh and Duffy, Gittes's partners, are also "helping characters" in this respect.

Part Four

With a film as complex in its plot as Chinatown, it certainly helps to reconstruct events chronologically when evaluating the plot of the movie.

As Chinatown is essentially a detective movie, there are numerous clues dropped throughout the movie that the viewer is expected to pick up on and draw inferences out of. One example is the fact that Gittes, who is obviously doing well for himself, was not always in such a situation. In the past, he was struggling to make a living. This can be inferred from the following bit of dialogue with his former partner, Escobar:

Escobar: You look like you've done well by yourself.

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Gittes: I get by.

Escobar: Well, sometimes it takes a while for a man to find himself. Maybe you have.

Loach: Yeah, goin' through other people's dirty linen.

Gittes: Yeah. Tell me. You still puttin' Chinamen in jail for spittin' in the laundry?

Escobar: You're a little behind the times, Jake. They use steam irons now. And I'm out of Chinatown.

Gittes: Since when?

Escobar: Since I made Lieutenant.

Gittes: Congratulations.

Another example is the death of Mulwray. While his death is initially deemed to be "accidental," it is obvious to anyone who has watched film up to this point that he was most likely the victim of foul play, owing to his mysterious activities.

The "concealed" story is key to a mystery film like Chinatown. While there are various hints as to what is really going on that are revealed throughout the film, nothing is ever revealed outright. Rather, the viewer must work, alongside the detective protagonist, to put the bits and pieces together until they form a coherent whole. For this reason, Chinatown is a movie that one can watch over and over again......

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"Chinatown Roman Polanski's Chinatown Roman", 24 May 2008, Accessed.20 May. 2025,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/chinatown-roman-polanski-chinatown-roman-29650