While I know that CHINATOWN has a great reputation and has received many 10s from reviewers, as a fan of Film Noir, I saw a few minor problems that kept the score from being a bit higher--though it's still an exceptional film. First, as any devoted fan of Noir knows, Noir is always, and I repeat, always filmed in black and white. The great shadows and camera angles are an important trademark of the style. While this Roman Polanski film is beautifully filmed (with a lot of sepia tones) and it definitely has the look of a late 1930s Warner Brothers gangster film, it just isn't true Noir because it's in color! Second, and this is a problem shared by THE BIG SLEEP, is that the plot is very, very complicated--perhaps a bit too complicated--making the resolution of mysteries and complications a bit too simple. The end, in particular, just seemed too convoluted a solution and left a lot of loose ends. BUT, getting past these factors, the film is still exceptional. Jack Nicholson was terrific and so was the rest of the cast. And the film was definitely interesting and exciting. It's definitely one of the better films of the 1970s--but I just can't see this as a better film than many of the earlier Noir films, such as THE KILLERS, KISS OF DEATH or DOA.

In Chinatown, Jack Nicholson gets one of his best roles, definitely in the top five as Jake Gittes, a throwback private eye to the forties of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe. Had Chinatown been made in the Forties Humphrey Bogart who played definitive versions of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe would definitely have been cast in the role of Jake Gittes. Nicholson however is one worthy successor to Bogey.

Very little action takes place in Chinatown in Los Angeles and only some peripheral characters are oriental. What Chinatown is here is a metaphor for a place you don't want to go and a culture and way of life you cannot penetrate or understand. Back when Gittes was a cop he was stationed in Chinatown and always felt alien there. He couldn't do his job because he didn't understand the people.

Gittes goes back to Chinatown so to speak when he's hired by Diane Ladd to shadow her husband. It's the kind of peep job Nicholson is used to and he does. Later the husband turns up dead and it turns out Ladd was posing as the wife. The real wife Faye Dunaway shows up and threatens to sue him.

Nicholson keeps on digging and he comes up with a juicy political scandal involving a scheme to defraud essentially the whole city of Los Angeles with their water supply. But he comes up with far more than that involving Faye Dunaway's personal life.

The lead villain here is John Huston in probably his greatest role before the camera with only The Cardinal as a rival. Huston is Dunaway's father, a rich gazillionaire who can just about buy everything and everybody and usually does. But as it turns out he's far more malevolent than that, a truly terrifying evil soul.

Faye Dunaway does a great job playing a woman carrying one huge burden on her soul. Look for good performances by Perry Lopez as the dogged police lieutenant trying to keep everyone happy and Diane Ladd as the hapless fake Dunaway.

Chinatown is one timeless film and will be getting raves centuries from now.

No scratch that. Chinatown is actually my personal favourite of Roman Polanski's movies. It is a wonderful movie, as well as an affectionate and inspired homage to film noir, with a lot to love about it.

• Roman Polanski's direction is superb. He always directs with such precision in this movie and it shows loud and clear.

• The production values are terrific. Chinatown does look ravishing, the costumes, detail, scenery and cinematography are all exemplary.

• I am a big Jerry Goldsmith fan, since seeing The Wind and the Lion and hearing his amazing score for that. His music score up here is up there with his best, it doesn't feel hackneyed or generic in any way, it really shows a master at work.

• The script is brilliantly organised. In fact along with Casablanca, Shawshank Redemption and All About Eve I think Chinatown has one of the best screenplays ever written.

• The story is never less than compelling. It is a wonderful story thet has just the right amount of intensity without being too convoluted and paced really well.

• The acting I also can't fault. Jack Nicholson gives one of his best performances and he is terrifically supported by a ravishingly beautiful Faye Dunnaway and a truly terrific John Huston.