Chinatown (BFI Film Classics) [Paperback]

Mick Eaton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 22, 2008

This study analyzes Chinatown in the context of the figure of the detective in literature and film from Sophocles to Edgar Allan Poe and Alfred Hitchcock.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

How did an avant-garde director, a script doctor with only one major screenplay to his credit, the producer of The Odd Couple and Love Story, and a lead performer despised by the Hollywood establishment come together to make one of the greatest and most enduring films of the 1970s? Chinatown, directed by Roman Polanski, written by Robert Towne, produced by Robert Evans, and starring Jack Nicholson, is a lush, mysterious, thrilling work whose influence still resonates in movies as different as L.A. Confidential and The Big Lebowski.

This little book, part of a remarkable series published by the British Film Institute, guides you through Chinatown's production history. Author Michael Eaton also summarizes its complex plot and offers intriguing interpretations. Eaton is particularly interested in the symbolism of the movie's title, which he sees as having multiple meanings: it is a state of mind, an image of the world, even a metaphor for filmmaking itself. Breaking with critical tradition, he credits Evans--not Polanski, Towne, or Nicholson--as the major creative force behind the movie. Breaking with interpretative tradition, Eaton displays sympathy for Jake Gittes, the film's hero, characterizing him as a man trapped in a detective plot turned on its head, a world where "it is better not to act, much better not to know" the truth. --Raphael Shargel

About the Author

Michael Eaton is a screenwriter and playwright. His screen credits include Fellow Traveller, Signs and Wonders, Shoot to Kill and Why Lockerbie?

Product Details

• Paperback: 8 pages
• Publisher: British Film Institute (January 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0851705324
• ISBN-13: 978-0851705323
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #292,201 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A great film inspires a fair book, June 24, 1999

By 

John Grabowski (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chinatown (BFI Film Classics) (Paperback)

I wish I could say Michael Eaton's Chinatown is required reading for film buffs, or for people who love the movie as I do, but I can't. It's not a bad book by any means, but I'm somewhat ambivalent about recommending it. The author deals in great detail with some aspects of the work in great (too much?) detail, while glossing or ignoring other important aspects of the film and why it is a masterpiece (and coincidentally why its ill-advised sequel failed). He also gets bogged down on some trivial coincidences in which he sees all too much meaning, as well as his Freudian interpretations. (What is it with film "scholars" and their "Freudianization" of everything?) But most of all the structure of the book is just flat-footed and monotonous, with too much scene recitation and too little insight. It reads more like a set of Cliff Notes than anything else.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good essay., October 12, 2011

By 

Joey D (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chinatown (BFI Film Classics) (Paperback)

After reading the BFI books on DOUBLE INDEMNITY (which spends most of its 66 pages detailing the careers of Wilder and Hammet) & CITIZEN KANE (which offers absolutely nothing new) this edition on CHINATOWN is head and shoulders above the aforementioned. Nicely written, informative and evocative of the film itself.