Examination of Character Noah Cross Essay

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Noah Cross from Roman Polanski's "Chinatown" provides the audience with a layer of complexity unseen in other films. On the surface, Noah Cross seems to the unaware soul as a jovial, pleasant man. When one hears him speak he appears untroubled and comfortable in his own skin. His facial expressions also give a hint of self-assurance and openness as he remains friendly-seeming no matter what words come out of his mouth. Along with his perceivable ease with words, he has a faintly chauvinistic charm with a smile always at the ready, managing to avoid displaying even the slightest trace of cruelty or psychosis.

As the film progresses, however, this appealing and harmless exterior reduces, shrinks into the mask that it provided him. Eventually he displays the inner, sociopathic nature the audience realizes he was hiding, making him all the more frightening. He does not care for others. He does not care about consequences. He feels basic laws of human decency do not play, especially society's laws as he treats people's lives with contempt. When questioned over the rape of his daughter, he places blame on humanity itself and the level of depravity people can achieve.

The way Cross calmly explains his horrific behavior with such absolute calmness is what perfectly highlights the depths of terror he is capable of. He feels no guilt nor does he care about how he is perceived. Aside from Cross' concern for only his own interests, he also displays a need to control everything and everyone around him. He does not let anyone see him squirm nor does he allow anyone to control how he feels. He makes himself behave and appear a certain way and that is what is most sinister, the deception. He convinces people of something else and only feels for people when he can truly possess them. From Katherine's and Evelyn's innocence, to the profitable valley land, and finally to the town's water supply, for anything to have value in his eyes, they must be his.

One of two notable quotes from the film that highlight the charming and dual nature of Noah cross concerns the idea of things becoming respectable as they age. "Course I'm respectable.

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I'm old. Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough." While Cross is talking about himself while at a lunch at the Albacore Club with another character named Jake, the line also relates to any character that holds some form of power within the film. The lunch locale, the Albacore Club provides a good example.

Though the club serves as a well-known front for large-scale venality and sleaze, the public only sees it as a gentlemen's social club with a good reputation of long standing giving charitably to those in need of assistance. Likewise, the same opposite appearance and reality example can be seen in the Water Department. The Water Department fuels the drought it is meant to fight and hides behind the cloak of "good deeds" by giving the appearance of having helped Los Angeles change the desert region into the way it is today, a beautiful and expansive city. Seeing the example in characters, the district attorney in Chinatown, instead of upholding justice, merely serves as a pawn doing the deeds of shadowy organizations teaching police the opposite of what they must do, ignore criminal activity.

This line also addresses the idea that the public will admire and respect any organization simply because they've been around long enough to get used to them. This implies that given regular exposure and enough time even the most shocking deeds can be accepted by society, letting those who practice evil deeds have complete freedom from intrusion. A notable example of this is Russ Yelburton's secretary who never doubted the Water Department. In the final scene of the film, Noah Cross is believed by the police over the less successful and younger Jake. Even Lieutenant Escobar, what some would deem a good and honest man, ignores the corruption, never questioning Cross, instead warning Jake to quit and….....

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