Smile!
Jake Gittes in many ways is the typical noir private eye. He is an investigator who’s bread and butter is investigating infidelity and Gittes keeps a professional detachment that is at first seen as cynicism, but at his core Gittes is a decent person. Gittes’s decent nature is shown in the scene with Curly. Gittes talks the man out of murdering his wife and gives him time to pay off his debt.
Gittes remains detached to a point but if he feels some ones going to far he care enough to try and help, which is his fatal flaw and why Chinatown is bad luck for him. Gittes learns in Chinatown that caring and interfering only makes things worse. His mantra is to do “as little as possible.” This is not a cynical detachment but a defence mechanism. He learns you don’t always know what’s going on in a complex situation and good intentioned meddling can make things worse. His mantra is a protection against causing harm through ignorant action. Just investigate and observe. Gittes breaks this rule once again to help Evelyn but his mantra proves true once more and Evelyn is killed.
The detective archetype is often penniless, on the outs, disreputable, addiction prone and looking out for number one. Gittes is unusual in noir in that he is a successful detective. He has cash and reputation and connections. Gittes is skilled, he is subtle, he charms his way into things and uses violence only as a last resort. He also caries no gun, which actually seems to improve his ability to deal with people like the angry farmer. Being armed signals a certain hostility and danger. Being an unarmed citizen makes people more prone to open up. Besides, Gittes proves fast thinking and tactical fighting are just as effective, as when he escaped from Mulvihill.
Chinatown comes to mean several things in this story. It is the physical place where the story inevitably concludes. It is the dark past the Gittes is hiding from. It is the consequence of sticking your nose into other peoples business, of well intentioned action leading to dire consequences. It is the idea that life is complex and messy and never what it appears to be, secrets hiding within secrets. When one dam bursts, they all give way like dominoes and the consequences destroy everything in it’s path. Then all you can do is leave it behind. That’s Chinatown.
(By: Michael Zepf)
CineSpeak 