Kiday, Peter Hellyer here, welcome to you.
Ain't seen nothing yet the movie podcast. We're outch out to a movie lover about a classical beloved the movie they haven't quite got around to watching until now. And today's returning guests is none of that. The comedian broadcaster writer Anthony Limo leman.
All below. I want to stay here with you, go to the jobble.
My hat, snake sucked my hail.
They couldn't happening right.
So you don't see nothing.
Yes, the great thing about a returning guess is I don't have to bang on as much as I did the first time. But I'm so stoked to have Limo back in the studio with me. His last three favorite films Word, The Life of Brian, Pulp Fiction, and The Blues Brothers. We'll get to his next three favorite films soon. Limo is just a bloody fun guy to hang around with. He is and it'scychopedia when it comes to stories.
He knows so many stories.
He's basically, if you have a dinner party and you have access to Limo, if you have his phone number or email, we may we may give out later on. Let's keep listening get on to him and get him. He's a middle seat guy at a dinner party. If you've seen the episode of Gooby Your Enthusiasm, the middle seat is the guy who can hold it together and bring people in and tell stories. Limo is that kind of guy. He's the guy you want at your dinner party. I've had the pleasure of having him in my life
for many years. We first met well basically through he was doing radio in Adelaide, but then he brought him over and he was basically running Adelaide Comedy there for a little while with great mate also Justin Hamilton and Mickey d and Craig Egan, who's Craig Egan still doing great job in the Adelaide with the Rhino Room, and then we just became mate. He came over to do before the game and things kicked off from there. I haven't been able to get rid of him since then.
But you'd know Lima for many years of He's done radio, he's done TV, like I said that before the Game, for the duration of that show, and more recently you've seen him on The Brilliant Utopia and The Great Minds at Working Dog playing Jim. I'll say this. I saw Limo in that role, and I saw him. He gave me a little short film that he did. I don't think I was seen by anybody, but he was him in a some kind of little soccer movie and I watched it and I said, mate, you're a good actor.
You can act. Do more of it. So I was stoked when I heard that he was cast in Working Dog's Utopia, and he bloody delivers. He is brilliant as Jim in a cast full of brilliant performances by of course Rob Sich and Silly Pacola and over the years Lee McGregor had dealer with Dry Singer, a whole bunch of great performances that Dave Lawson.
But he's really great in it.
So catch up on the on the latest season of Utopia on iView. And also you can catch him on to blem on Sunday mornings on Dead Set Legends, because he is in fact a Dead Set Legend. I'm bloody stoked to have Lima hanging with me today.
Hello, this is Laima, and it's wonderful to be on. You ain't seen nothing yet. My next three favorite films, Godfather.
And A Month from Navis.
I with big show's going to give you what too much?
It's too late. They started shooting in a week.
I'm gonna make them an off again.
Refuse lockstock and two smoking barrels armed?
What do you mean? Armed? Armed with what?
Bad breath?
Colorful language? Feather duster? What do you think they're going to be armed with guns?
You tit?
And the Coen Brothers classic Oh brother, We're up down?
Where did they well?
Give you a few?
So with the timing the play sere it gets a real good oh son for that.
You're traded, You're everlasting soul?
Well will you?
And up until last night, I had never seen the movie Chinatown.
A Yes, who would have thought of films set in nineteen thirty seven about the Los Angeles waterways and incests would eventually be considered one of the greatest films ever. It's certainly one of the great screenplays by Robert Town, who also wrote The Last Detail Shampoo, mccayb and Missus Miller, Mission Impossible, and Dasa Thunder. It also nabbed Chinatown's only oscar.
When knock About, Jake Giddis Jack Nicholson is hired by a certain Missus Evelyn Mulway to investigate her philandering husband, Hollis Mulway, the chief engineer of the Los Angeles Water Department. Things aren't quite what they've seen. What seems like an open and shutcase becomes about much more than adultery, and Jake Giddies is about to learn that evil lurks all around the city of Angels. It's even in the water.
This is filmmaking at its highest peak. The direction by the infamous Roman Polanski, scored by Jerry Goldsmith, produced by the legendary Robert Evans, who also famously put together The Godfather, with stunning performances throughout from Jack Nicholson, who Mind You is in every scene, alongside Fade, Dunaway, Bunny and Clyde, Network and ten time Oscar nominated legend John Houston, the Treasure of Sierra Madre African Queen who was also the
original Gandalff in nineteen seventy sevens The Hobbit Charlatan keeps asking questions and keeps us guessing and comes home in stunning circumstances that leaves the audience reeling LIMO, have you ever had your schnoz slice with a knife?
I've never had my schnoz slice for the Knight. I've had a broken once playing footy.
Yeah, it was as part of a warning by some local goons.
It was a teammate who was running through a bank trying to elbow and opposition player and missed him completely and got me right in the nose.
Friendly fire.
Friendly fire. And his name was Jason Leman. Not related, but it was a it feels like a start of Chinatown investigation. Things aren't always what they seem. Indeed, something did he work for the waterways? He worked for Adelaide water He could have would have I don't know. But what an extraordinary film.
And this is a big one. We did Psycho a couple of weeks ago with Frooms and when I was watching that and as we're recording, it really dawned on me that was a major film. Like doing Psycho was the first Hitchcock film we've covered on this podcast. But that is like it it's the modern you know, the modern horror at the beginning of like, it's that kind of horror film, and it was. It was a huge
film that lives in the public Psyche. I'm not sut necessarily Chinatown lives in the psyche the same way as a psycho does. But it is considered one of the great screenplayers by Robert Town I think in the American AFI it's number three, after Casablanca and The Godfather.
Absolutely. And if you well, you would be familiar with a guy called sid Field, yes, who has written the number of books about screenwriting. And I've read a few of sid Field's books and he always references. His favorite references are Filma and Luise, Butchcasid in the San Dance Kid, and Chinatown. They for him the three sort of standout screenplays that he references throughout his books.
Well, so Sidfield would be a very happy you ain see nothing yet listener, because we have now as of today, covered off those three films. So I said, you're welcome.
And he and and I know he's a b I know he's a big fan of the podcast. So I always knew it was a great film, But for some reason I was never really compelled to watch it though, like Film and Luise, I love, Butchcast and Sundan It's going I love, But for some reason I just never turned on.
It's not a sexy film. And we'll obviously get into what you thought of it and what you made of it. And it's so much to discuss this with this film, but I think the thing is Chinatown, the way it doesn't live in the public psyche. It is not necessarily there's a great line that is out. If you're a movie lover, you probably know the line you forget it Jacobs Chinatown.
Jack gets chair in Town.
But outside of that, if you describe the movie to somebody, it doesn't hook you in. There's there's not an in built hook. Like I said, it's about the you know, the corruption in the waterways in Los Angeles and incests like.
It's you know, the It reminded me a little bit because essentially it's about water theft or water manipulation. Yes, really when Utopia, if I can just be a little self referential Jim's Gyms in the House, the TV series Utopia, when we won a LOGI for the first season of Utopia and Rob Stitch in his speech said, well, who would have thought a comedy about infrastructure would prove to be so popular? And I just thought of that line when I was looking at this. I mean, it's es Senise,
it's about water manipulation. I mean, if you pitch that to someone, they'd go bad pass.
I know. And it's what's interesting is Robert Evans, Bob Evans puts this together. He's a producer, and there's one other producer who's like an associate producer, who is probably getting in coffee. Now apologies, that might be disrespectful to the other producer. Maybe he had a lot more to I'm sure he probably did have. He was doing a lot more things. But this is back in the day
where there were one or two producers. Now you look at you know, you look at the credits for movies, they are up to ten twelve producers that the actors are now you know, the three leading actors producers on the movie.
You know, when I was driving here, we were chatting on the phone and I said to you, I've got a little thing I want to say about the writer strike, And this is the exact point do it I wanted to make. Will you go to a movie these days? Barbie has fourteen executive producers. Now someone can honestly go and get stuffed. There are not fourteen. Really, I would love to go through with a fine tooth cone and see exactly what contribution each of those fourteen people made
to that film. But you see Oppenheimer has six. Good on your Oppenheimer mission, Impossible seven has twelve. I mean on a really and there is some TV series like Succession. I Reckon ended up with about twelve executive producers at the end. I would love if I write a strike. That's what you should be focusing on. But he kissed the producers off because they had chewing up all of your coin. And I bet all fourteen of Barbie's producers they're getting paid a shed load.
Yeah.
Well, well, and oftenly it just comes down to you have enough power to put it in your contract. Get right, Gosling across the line, we need to you know, have it, you know. And Margo Robbie, I'm not sure Margo Robbie's company was actually involved in it.
She's an executive producer.
Yes, and that's fair enough if your company, if you have a company that is co producing it. But what you're right in what are these people actually doing? And like I said, outside of the actors who you know, we know that sometimes sometimes it is a fandity thing. Margot Robbie, I do admire she has a production company that is putting work together they did a Tania.
You know, they're doing what they're doing, good work, but there'll.
Be some names on that you're think what, like really what, and their executive producers, and then you got all the producers under the associate producers, you know, underneath that.
And you get into tens twenty thirty of them. I saw Jerry Seinfeld being interviewed by Jimmy Fallon and they were talking about this type of thing, and Jerry Seinfeld said to Jimmy Fallon in a really awkward moment, he goes, I bet you see at least a dozen names on the credits of your own show and you have no idea what those people do. And Jimmy Fallon didn't really answer the question, but me made the point. He said,
it's the same. There are hangers on everywhere in entertainment who were just sucking cornerway while writers and actors who deserve the money, yeah, striking because they're not getting it.
Absolutely absolutely, And back in the day when Bob Evans was a producer, like because I often get asked what the producers do and sometimes like, yeah, I'm not really sure, and they think there's somebody who got a lime producer. They're very important that they basically do run the show. They're one a trying run the show. But what like a.
Producer like Robert Evans they should be doing.
And what he did was almost like a conduit between the studio and the and the director if you like, or the creators. Yeah, so they and if they're a good producer, which Bob Evans you know was even though him and a couple of fell out, but a good producer should have at least a foot and a half in the in the in the creators camp, like they should kind of be a wall in a way between
the studio and the artists. And then that sometimes the artist has to compromise and you know, we can't do it because of budget, and they have to explain, you know, working with the artists to kind of achieve the best outcome for the project.
And you're working with the two worst kinds of people. You're dealing with artists who are just a bunch of ego fueled megalomaniacs. You and I have been present company Yeah, president company accepted. And then you're dealing with studio executives who are ego driven meglomaniacs and you've got to stand in the middle and make both sides happy. That is a hard job.
If you haven't seen the series on Paramount plus the Offer, it is the making of The Godfather with Robert Evans. It is extraordinary. Matthew Good plays Robert Evans and he does an extraordinary job. Well, let's start, actually, let's start there.
Because well, will we get to this or are we going to talk about Bob Evans and Polanski's falling out over this film?
Certainly later, We'll do it later and we'll come back, and I just I'll just say right now in case I forget, we will. Obviously it's impossib to talk about Chinatown without talking about Rohan Polanski. Obviously he is problematic, problematic for those who don't know, very couple of caved man. He was basically his childhood hiding from the Nazis. There's actually a letter in the Shimleer's Museum from an eight year old rown Planski. Yeah, a note from him. He
had his Sharon Tate was made of Sharon Tate. She gets murdered by the Manson while carrying his child, well, carrying his child, this childe has made four years later, but it's important that I say we will be talking about Roman Polanski, who is problematic. He was convicted of rape of a fourteen year old girl in the in the States, and that he's not really face the judicial system, what I understand. So we will be talking about him
from a filmmaking perspective. We do not obviously condone any of those acts, obviously, but I just wanted to say that when we talk about Polanski, because his genius is on show as far as his talent as a filmmaker, and that's it. That's how we will be relating to him.
Hollywood's oddly compromised, isn't it with him? Like they loads of people still kind of support him, and I think he even got a standing ovation at a reward ceremony not that long ago.
Well, I think one of his film recent films is opening the Venice Film Festival.
It's a it's all very strange now and.
I think even Woody Allen might be have a film there.
Great as Bill Gosb We've got a film there as well.
He's opening He's seeing and that, yes, and you know Weinstein and Merrimax films. So I'm purely of the can we separate the art from the artists, and certainly in today's episode we will be doing that. Let's start with The Godfather. You mentioned it as one of your next three favorite films. If you miss a start, and if you skip through the start, I'm not sure we would, but get Life of Brian Blues Brothers in pulp fiction. Were your top three films? Great selections? First time round,
the first time? Yeah, first time, And so now you follow up with the three films The Godfather. I always say my favorite films are The Godfathers one and two. I have parts to a be stick in front of it, but I almost have trouble separating them, and I just kind of go, it's the Godfather films.
Yeah.
Look, part two has de Niro as the young Godfather, and that's just it's so delicious, that whole storyline. But for me, Michael taking over from his dad as the Godfather in Godfather won the scene where he's in the church with the baptism of his son and his goons are killing the five heads of the families and mow Green. I think that's possibly the greatest scene in the history of film because they just and there's not a word as spoken no, and it tells you everything about that.
And then if you're still a little bit confused, the final scene of Godfather is also you just can't say more without saying anything, because you have Connie runs into him first his sister and says, you killed my husband, and he's saying, calm down, calm down. Then Connie gets taken out. Then his wife says did you kill her? He says, don't involve yourself in my business. And he says, all right, I'll let you ask one question. She says,
did you kill her husband? And no, it just lies, he just lies, and then she walks out of the room and then the door gets slammed in her face. And it's say, oh, it's just so perfect.
Yeah it is. It is a perfect film. There's no surprises, and it's come up unsurprised, and it's come up a lot. Lucky Hume spoke about it in depth obviously, as you can imagine. Leams. Yeah, it's perfect.
Part two.
I just having in front of it, I think because I love the hymen Roth kind of story and the performance by Lestrauss and the Fredo Fredo. He's not in it much really, he's a bit of a bit part player in Part one, but parts I love. It's just heartbreaking. You know, he's the black sheep of the family. He doesn't quite fit in with the business. Godfather Part two wins the Oscar the year Chinatown is nominated.
That's right. In fact, I think Godfather Too had three nominations in Best Supporting Actor, Yes, which was won by Denier Yes.
Yeah, amazing year. Actually that that year this was talk about Chinatown to them was you know oldest.
Can I give you another one from that year? Yeah, not Godfather related. Also nominated for Best Film was Lenny Yes with Dustin Hoffman and Faye Dunaway, Who's in Chinatown dated Lenny Bruce for a year in the early sixties. Yeah right, yeah, they dated, so just an interesting connection.
Well, the Oscars check this out one by and I got to say, and let me know, I mean, I'll google him after the show. But Art Carney wins for Harry and Tonto, a film I haven't heard of. I mean, that must be a killer performance because you've beaten Pacino, beaten Pacino, Jack Nicholson, Albert Finney, a murder on the Orient Express, and Dustin Hoffman and Lennie that is a cracking field. Yeah, Fate Unaway loses to Alan Burston for Alice doesn't Live Here Anymore, which is a you know,
a Scorsese film that doesn't get spoken of enough. She's She's great and yeah, Got Father Part two wins. Also the Conversation is also in that year, so France for Coppola had a big year. Lockstock and two Smoking Barrels, a bit of fun from Guy Ritchie.
Yeah, I just that film came out in nineteen eighty eight, and I'd lived in London ninety five, ninety six to ninety seven, so I'd lived there for three years. I'd just gotten home, and I just have these beautiful memories of going to the cinema and just every my whole London experience came flooding back to me. And so that
was one reason that it really connected to me. And secondly, I loved pulp fiction as most people did, and I felt I looked at this film and it just felt to me like a British pulp fiction.
I feel that, and I was gonna mention it. I feel like Guy Richie was the biggest beneficiary of pulp fiction success. Lock Stock is a great film and deserves to be made and get up. But I think that I reckon his budget probably went up a bit, you know, knowing that this, yeah, this captures that pol fiction audience and it's different enough to kind of that it's not a copy, but it just lives in that kind of similar world with that, you know, not the linear, the
timeframe obviously, the violence, Gangsters. Yeah, I've watched it for many years, but it's a cracker.
It's just such a great film and to me it was part of a really exciting time in the UK. You had in music, you had Oasis, Blur, brick Pop, Spice Girls, right, and then you had this film come along as well, and it was a massive time in the comedy scene over there and it just for me fit perfectly in this sort of resurgence of British pop cultures. And it's a really cool film. It's shot beautifully, the characters are just classic. It's all East London bother boys,
you know. And then and to see Jason Statham in, I mean he may have done films before that, but to me, that's his first film. Yeah, and he's Jason Statham is a really funny He entertains me. Jason Satham. I know he's done films that people consider shit, but he always puts a smile on my face.
I think what he did, yeah, he was, I believe, not a trained actor, Olympic diver and pivoted and I think he just plays three strengths. He knows what he is good at, you know, in the same way Lee Neeson has kind of gone, you know what, these films kind of work where you know, I take vengeance on somebody. Denzel's even gone down that pathing you know what. They were like me being angry and taking revenge on people, this kind.
Of world and you know who tried it, But I don't think it's stuck for him. Is Bob Odenkirk, who has no better called Saul who made a film where he played that type of character?
Is it Nobody?
Yes?
And I watched it, loved it.
I really enjoyed it, but it just didn't have that Liam Neeson Keanu reeves there was almost a Denzel Washington impact.
Yeah, that was closer to john Wick that film. But yeah, I mean we all love Bobb Odenkirk obviously, and you know, I'll be happy if he doesn't necessarily go down that path.
Because I think, Yeah, he's great. Oh brother where at now?
Brothers? Now interesting? This is one I need to watch again because I watched it the first time with my expectations so high because they were coming off. I'm not sure he's a film directly the one after Fargo, but it's.
It's pretty pretty close. It might have been one in between.
Yeah, but very excited, and I just didn't get it. I thought Clooney kind of overplayed the comedy. I'd love to go back and watch it again because I could be wrong.
To me, it was just a joyous ride from start to finish. The music really brought it alive for me.
Yep.
I love the soundtrack and I've listened. I couldn't even tell you how many times I've listened to the soundtrack.
Just good.
It's like nineteen twenties country hic music and I love it. Yeah, and I love Clooney overplaying the comedy. I think he's like Justin Hamilton and I have regular jokes with each other about being a Dappradan man because he has to have dapper Dan in his hair, which is like a gel. And he goes and he's constantly if he loses his ten of Dapper Dan. He starts freaking out. Yeah, but
there's just so many great lines from himhere. He's in his shop and he says, can I get some dapper Don and they go no, no, no, that's a that'll take five days to get here. And he asked for something else and they go, no, we're out. That'll take five days to get here as well, and he goes, well, this place is a geographical normally, it's times from everywhere.
There's just so many stupid lines in it. And then there's the baptism scene down at the river, which is just joyous with all the people singing the hymns as they walk down to the river. It just it made me just so happy.
This film I had because it's come up a couple of times in people's three favorite films, so I do need to check it out again. Okay, let's get into this.
Okay, go home, But in case you're interested, your husband was murdered. Somebody has been dumping thousands of tons.
Of water from the city's reservoirs and we're supposed to be in the middle of a drought. He found out about it and he was killed.
There's a waterlog drunk in the Morgue involuntary manslaughter if anybody wants to take the trouble, which they don't. It seems like half the city is trying to cover it all up, which is fine by me. But missus mulray, I goddamn near lost my nose and I like it. I like breathing through it, and I still think that you're hiding something.
Laimo from nineteen seventy four, directed by the problematic Room Polanski, starring Jack Nicholson Fade Down Away, John Houston, written by the Legend that is Robert Town, put together by Bob Evans. I didn't mention in the intro in my synopsis of it, but John a. Alonso is the director of photography and dop. It deserves to mention because it's stunning. Did you enjoy China Down?
I absolutely loved it.
Fantastic.
That's a good start, yeah, I mean I was confident you would. Speaking of the start. Now, this film from nineteen to seventy four, I turn it, it's on, stand I turn it on. I'm waiting and it hit all the credits with the start, which I figure you forget. That's what used to happen in films. Yeah, but of course now everyone's so people will be walking out of the cinema now if you ran the credits at the start of a film, because I even found myself going,
come on, yeah, where's the film? Get on with it?
Yeah, And we find Jack Nicholson in his as a detective Jake Giddies, and we find him with Pauli from Rocky in the in the office. Where do you want to start?
Okay, well, I want to I want to start by just saying when the camera comes up on Jack Nicholson the first time, my very first thought was he's so cool. Yeah, there's just something like Jack Nicholson really does and I don't want to sound like a movie wanker here, but he really does burst off the screen. Yeah, like I found myself. I was distracted by his coolness.
Yeah, he seems effortless. He makes it look effortless, which is all part of the job. Let me take you through just so Jack Nicholson context where Chinatown fits in with his amazing filmography. He kind of burst onto the screen in nineteen sixty nine, so that's five years earlier with Easy Rider Down the Souper, which kind of was one of the revolutionary kind of kind of began almost
the indie film movement. Five Easy Pieces in nineteen seventy, Karlon Knowledge in seventy one, The Last Detail, How He Is the Last Detail in seventy three, and Chinatown seventy four,
so all really good film. So I think Chinatown is the beginning of you know, Jack becoming an absolute legends Tommy in seventy five, and then how's this for a bit of a run or back to back one flu have to cook on this in seventy five, so only a year after Chinatown, and the Shining Shining actually is about five years later in eighty and then you know, and then you know, The Postman, Lads Rings twice, eighty one, Red's eighty one, Terms of d and eighty three, pritches
On at eighty five. Eventually Batman happens.
Any So by the time the eighties roll around, he's well and truly established as a superstar.
Yeah, I discrees absolutely, and I think even but you know, when this film comes out, he's you know, he's probably one of the hottest guys in town.
Yeah.
I heard him speak recently, funny enough, just talking about like it took him a while he was a jobbing actor for a long time though, Like, yeah, right, you feel like now opportunities are happening quicker. You know, it's about this guy's heart, Kenny act. Okay, let's get him, Let's get him a big film vehicle where he wasn't like that back then, you know, like you still had to kind of do the hard yards and become an actor.
I'm trying to think of a bit. Okay, is Timothy shallomay? Yes, Okay, did he just was his first film? Was he the star of his first film?
Yeah, it's quite it's quite possible.
And and he is.
Look, he's great, he's grilliant, he's actually he's.
Actually really great. I really like Timothy chandwan.
But you're right, but why I'm the clock back.
And he would have been had to be a jobbing actor for a while because you just wouldn't get a gig. Yeahs unless you've done something.
Yeah he does. He does burst out of the scene. And he's I mean, that voice is one of the all the time great voice voices in movies. I swab Morgan Freeman maybe calling Golden tonsils when we had Asia Scott one. We'll talk about ShW Shank Redemption and Jack Nicholson's voices right up there as well.
And it's just that opening scene. And this is again, this is me diving back into the sid Field analysis of Chinatown. So you've got the opening scene and everything's a stay. You don't have to be openly told anything, you know. Okay, you know he's a private investigator, yeap, because he's provided photos to Pauli from Rocky about his wife cheating on him. You know, he's a pretty cool character. So right, Okay, that's all established. We know what's going on there, and.
He's been a knock about it. He's pretty pretty laxidaysical about this. This is his job. He's done before. He's supportive of Pauli pous him a scotch, but he's also not you know, he's done this before and he'll do it again and this is another job and it's.
Yeah, it's another job, and he's sympathetic to Paulie. This is another thing. He opens his booze cabinet. Does anyone actually have that much hard liquor in a cabinet that they drink straight? Because I see people in TV shows and films all the time, I mean, mad men it was prime example, and it just used to make me cringe thinking about drinking all that scotch.
Well, he is thirty seven, so it's just post prohibition. So maybe he's just like, let's just go as much as we can whenever we can.
Yeah, So he's very So you get a sense as well, you're right that he's a good bloke and he cares about the predicament that Paul he's in, but not but not not to the point where you know, he's not going to lose sleep over.
He's not gonna lose sleep This is a job.
And when the fake missus Melway comes in, like his ear is pick up a bit when he realizes who she who she's pretending to be, and he says, this is going to take some money, and she said, money's on this issue, and he's you know, he likes the idea, a bit of fame, he likes the money. He's good at his job, but you know he's not emotionally invested, which is important because he says no initially.
Yes.
So by discussing this film, hopefully we point out why this script and screenplay is considered one of the great screenplays. But what we first and foremost need is a character to go on a journey. So if he is too emotionally involved in Paulie's uncle ing Paula in Paulie's plight, then he's got nowhere to go. So we needed to be a bit kind of like yeah, cools in Jack cool, but as in you know, apathetic towards you know, the situation.
The stakes need to be raised a little.
Because he needs to go on the journey to where we get to him at the end.
And this is one of the great things about this film. As you say, Jack Nick Wilson is in every scene and so we see the story unfold from his point of view perspective, so we are we're with him the whole time. It's not like we know things that he doesn't know.
Yeah. One of the very early films to use like handheld cameras and shot a lot of shots from behind Jack Jake's back, over his shoulder, so you're literally seeing his point of view the whole time.
Yeah, so we get to we go on that sort of the this is a journey of discovery with Jack Nicholson.
Yeah. And one of the great things about the opening a few minutes, you know, it's not being seen. It's where Missus Malway comes in. No sorry, so it is with PAULI sorry. The the intention of the movie is pointed out. Pauly says, I'm going to kill it. I'm going to kill it. His wife's been cheating on I'm going to kill it. And he says Jack Nicholson says. Jake says, no, you're not. You're not wealthy enough to
kill her. Only the wealthy can cover up murder. Oh, I see this is and this is this is it's kind of shadowed and it doesn't like, it doesn't pop, it doesn't sound out, and it's you feel like it's true you know, Yeah, yes, I think okay, this is okay, this is what the movie is about. It's not on the nose. It is like played perfectly. It's it's it's it's subtle, but that is. Yeah. He basically said you need to be rich to get away with murder.
Yeah, it's funny.
Is that.
It's one of my favorite lines in Succession the TV series, is where Jerry, who's one of the sort of senior assistants to the family, she's arguing with Ray Kendall. Oh, no, Roman, She's arguing with Roman. Roman's telling her what he's going to do, and she goes, Roman, you're crazy. The money always wins, the money will wash your way, and it's like and again that's a theme in Chinatown.
Yeah, let's just kind of walk through what the conspiracy? Can I just say two things?
Yes, First, this batter film made in nineteen seventy four, set in nineteen thirty seven.
Yeah.
One, And this, for some reason, this just takes me out of a movie when I see it, No matter how old, people who don't lock the doors of their cars and leave windows down. For some reason, I'm going, really, did everyone leave the windows down in their cars? And did no one lock a door?
He's always then it's so weird.
But that's the really thing that grabs me.
And I'm like, ah, come on, really the things he's always grabbed me and I you know, food left uneaten, you.
Know, beers and cigarettes. Yeah, no one likes a dart and takes one drag and throws it away. That does not happen in real life.
And and the and pick up the not saying goodbye on phone calls.
Oh it kills me. Another one. Take away coffee cups that are clearly empty.
Oh no, it was sincerely, sincerely that drives you, Matt.
Whenever if I'm working on a production like How to Stay Married or it's a day, I was always put some fucking water. Yes, let's put some water in because it is so There's something about the way you grip and lift a coffee cup that you can tell that there's nothing in it.
And also why fake golp or drink? When you put some water in there.
You can actually drink. The movie Spotlight, what do you reckon? The budget was on that one hundred million.
Maybe not quite a hundred, but yeah, every time enough to get some water or some coffee or some tea in there.
You're trying to solve these horrific crimes from the Catholic Church, and all of a sudden, I'm like, no, I'm watching a movie they could have put just spend three dollars
filling up the cups. Let's tryle and the other one, sorry, the other one, Pete when they're in the Jack's out on the job and he's on a boat on a lake, spying on the client's partner in the rowboat and the rowboat and he takes a final drag of his cigarette and flicks it into the lake, and I'm like, oh, come on, mate, you can't flick your butt into the lake. That it's not on nothing. I was like, they would not happen in a movie today where the good guy would not flick a butt into a lake.
There would be protesters outside of that cinema the next session, no doubt about that.
Basically, what is happening.
You've got Noah Cross, one of the great villains, and we'll talk about him, you know soon. He's built. He has built based of the waterways and the department with his mate Hollis my away.
They've had a falling out. There was a dan that was built.
There was an accident, people were killed, which is something that was based on a real thing. I think the Sen Francis Dam in nineteen twenty eight. Four hundred and thirty one people were killed in that accident. So it's got a little bit of There is some historic historic truths in this movie, as how Los Angeles was built. So they had the fallen out. Obviously, we work out later that he's partner, Hollis married his door and so
his business part married married his daughter. But they were The plan was to be the build up reservoir that diverts the water, and the purpose is to dry out the land.
So then they buy the land at a at a it's been devalued, yeah.
Right, because it's essentially they force it into drought and then they are going to they drive out the land owners. They buy land at at the just prices, sometimes under fake names of people who you know, don't even know they have it there.
They're in a nursing home.
They redevelop it as part of the city of Los Angeles, and they went on the contracts obviously for everything that needs to be built in a developing city or town, schools, churches, all those things. So it is it is evil. It is evil and and and it's even more evil when we find out later of some of the twe no It Crosses is particularly evil. Now Across is particularly evil because he he's the kind of feelin that knows exactly
what he's doing. And there's like he never sweats, No, there's not one beat of sweat coming off Noah Crosses Brown.
He's in complete control. And there's a great scene where Jack Nicholson goes to his place and has lunch with him and the now a cross character is just in control the whole time. You're like, well, this is a bloke who has who gets his own way time and time again, and he is this is just a minor inconvenience that he's going to deal with, like a thousand other inconveniences he's had, and he just and there are so many little things in that scene that I just loved.
Just the full fish, the head on the fish. There's something about that that is kind of intimidating. Yeah, yeah, you know, and he even says, I like that, I like the head on the fish. He says that to him as if to say, I don't know, for you're going to deal things the way I like them, They're not the way you like them.
They're attaches all the way through this movie, in the script to the point I think it's in that moment where you have in the background that chauffeur, his chauffeur washing his car, which, like what is obviously a motif that flows through this movie. Yeah, and you know, and you see it with you know, there's references to water on the brain. There's you know, even the photos that developed obviously with chemicals in there, but there's kind of water gone in there, you know, and it's it's kind
of dripping. Yeah, you got the rowing boat, Noah Cross himself, Noah Biblical, you know, with the arc simple stuff like the shower. But the chauffeur, the chauffeur we're washing its cars, tells you everything about Noah Cross, Like there's a drought going on that you are forcing, and yet your chauffur is washing your car.
Is he is a she is a shocking bike who just lives.
It's a shocking bloke.
Here's a shocking bike. And there's the moment where Jack Nicholson says to him, you to be really rich and he says, yeah, yeah, I've got plenty of money. He says how much and he doesn't tell him exactly, but he's clearly worth a lot of money, and he's magnificance. Is why do you even want this?
Yeah? And it's just what more could you own? More?
Yeah? What more could you own? But it's all about power. Yeah, it's all about power, which inevitably it is. Yeah, And people who have got heaps of money, yeah.
Sometimes is not even an endpoint that they don't want the power. And he says it's about the future in the future.
Yeah, and yeah, he wants he wants his legacy to be someone who built Los Angeles. Yeah, even though but ironically he's starving half the place, Yeah, to build his build his legacy.
And you know, you would think at his age, you know, if he was in his forties, you can and go, okay, you could enjoy this power. But the chances are yeah, you know, and I wonder, I do wonder. I hadn't really thought of this, but like if his desire to be recon acted with his daughter who Okay, we can obviously this spoilers all the way through this, but is his daughter and granddaughter? So oh yes and granddaughter he has slept with his daughter fade done away, which is
one of the big twists in movie history. And let's actually have a listen to the way this actually plays out. Because Jack Jake, Jake and Jack, same person goes to her house thinking that he's caught her, she's guilty, he's wrapped it up. Classic film noir detective. You know, you need to make it look like or the detective. The protagonist needs to think he's solved the case a few times. Yeah, and obviously he's always wrong, wrong, until he's not, but he thinks he's got it and he wants to know
who this. He's seeing this girl, this younger girl who we later find out is Catherine, in her fight on the way his half thinking that she's tied up, that she's been held, they are against her will. He wants to know who she is. This is an extraordinary scene.
I don't know what you are talking about.
This is the craziest and most insane.
I'm gonna make it easy for you.
You were jealous, you had a fight, he fell, he hit his head. It was an accident.
But his girl is a witness, so you had to shut her up.
You don't have the guts to harm her, but you got the money to keep her mouth shut. Yes or no? No?
Who is she?
And don't give me that crap about your sister because you don't have a sister.
I'll tell you, I'll tell you the truth.
Good.
What's her name?
Catherine?
Catherine? Who? She's my daughter?
I said, I want the truth.
He's my sister, she's my daughter, my sister and my daughter. I said, I want the truck, my sister and my daughter.
So there's many things to discuss, yeah, with this, So to explain that the father now across rape her went she was fifteen, Yes, and then she got pregnant and had her daughter, who is her sister as well, Yeah, who is both. And that was I mean it was almost comedic, the slap sister, slap daughter. It was almost like a naked gun.
Yeah. Well, I imagine the making gun has used that.
And then and there's slapping, you know of women, even you know many films predate this that it's even more ridiculous, fright in a way. So to ask Jack Nicholson the slapper because she wasn't She felt like she wasn't getting into the scene as well as she could, and Jack didn't want to and felt pretty guilty about it. But you know, but he did agreed. I'm not sure if
you said seventy five times, Oh, I quite likely. So she did request that it does punctuate that those moments though, my sister, my daughter, because it is such a like there's only one time we'll ever see a scene like this.
Yeah, you are watching go what do you I don't understand. Yeah, it just because it doesn't make sense. Yeah, how can you be his sister and daughter?
Yes?
And then of course she explains.
It so it is rape obviously. I think she was fourteen or so well, fifteen fifteen, yeah, fifteen, And considering that the director is is there's you know, it's a dark irony there. It is danced around a little bit. I don't think she ever calls it rape. It obviously is it is rape. The idea is that that Noah Cross lost his wife it was an accident or the suicide, and then went through about a depression leading to this moment which is anyone is rape.
Yeah.
But it's kind of interesting whether it's a creative choice or a character choice that Evelyn never says that, like never says rape. But what happens at the end of this scene is like a power the power shifts, which I think is really interesting. It's like now that she's got it out and she's told and Jack Jake is like speechless.
He like the audience did not see this coming.
No, and he is now fully on his back on the back feet on the back foot yeah.
And she kind of says, I mean maybe got a fraction earlier. She actually says do you understand that now or is that too much for you? Or something like that, where it's like Jake has had all the power and you know, the accusations, and she's not been able to kind of whether she's thing tell him the truth. Now she said it, and now I feel like she's got the higher ground for a moment.
Yes, absolutely, And he's now he's fully sympathetic yeah to her cause. So he's gone from you're guilty, I know what you've done too. So that's a huge shift for him and the audience because, as we said earlier, we're on this where with Jack on this whole or Jake on this whole ride.
Yes, and what's starting to happen now, And this is why I wanted to mention at the start of where Jake is almost a little bit apathetic. He's a nice enough guy. Yeah, he paused Paula the Scotch and he's you know, but it's another job. He's now emotionally invested, which is you know, a classic film noir and the movie he's invested, and he's also starting to see the consequences of these clients and the actions of the cases that he's taking on where he's kind of lives in
this bit of a bubble. You know, he doesn't get emotionally involved. Now he is emotionally involved. They also do another really clever thing which relates back to that first scene. Paulie. You know, we know he's angry with his wife at one point that he goes to his pretending to go to the maid's house, yes, as a ruge, and he goes there, has to go, can I can I bring her out? To bring Evelyn out?
And he goes to Paulie's house.
He goes to police house and his wife answers the door and she has a black eye.
So I see, I didn't. I didn't notice that.
It's just another beautiful, fucking touch his world. He's seeing his world from a different point of view now, and he's seeing that the cases he takes on have real, real world consequences.
And you're also getting a sense through that that nothing's perfect. No, nothing's perfect. No, which is this whole that's the message essentially the end of this film. Nothing's perfect.
Well, yeah, and that there's and that's why what an amazing choice to have. I mean, the nose cutting scene, well, which is.
Roman Plans is the knife carrying dude. What I love so much about the nose cutting scene is he wears it for the rest of the film.
Yeah, for the large bog I think in the third act that comes off.
Before they on.
Yes, you still see the scar scar absolutely, So it's this constant reminder of the risk that he faces. Yet despite that constant reminder, he still pushes on because a lot of people would look in the mirror in the morning and go and I'm going to give this up.
Particularly look at me, Yeah, particularly somebody who we think is a little a little vain. He dresses very yeah, very nicely. You know, he's a bit of a man about town. But there is also another motif. It's not just water, it's it's this idea that because if you notice the well, obviously the nose is cut on one side. By the way, it's a stunning stunt, like how they actually would have done that. So you see him flick up the knife and the blood squirt out.
Yes, it looks it looks real. And I was reading about they said the knife Polanski used like it was a proper knife and it would have cut his nose, but he flicked it in a certain way using the blunt side of the knife, so it wouldn't actually cut his nose. So it was kind of a risky, Yes, stunt in the film, because you're right, it's really convincing.
I watched it a couple of times. He's trying to going to work out how they did it, so it's stunning. And then what happened. He starts wearing the bandage, and I think and and the bandage kind of is on one side obviously you know of his face. So there's a thing that goes on throughout this movie. If you notice about the two sides, that there's two sides. It's like the beautiful side of something, and then there's the fractured, ugly out of something, and and there's there's the nose.
There's the glasses that they find, which we can talk about later. One side, only one side is cracked. He takes out one of the tail lights, so when he's following, there's one side that's working and there's an the other side that's not working.
There is he uses that you see him hold early on the two watches next to each other. You know, you've got one watch under the back wheel of the car. Absolutely the two watches, that's another one.
And there's also just so there's those physical things, and then there's also I mean to get to the we'll get to the end. But she does get shut through one eye, yes, And it's also so you've got these physical things that happen, But then there's also it's a perfect metaphor for Los Angeles, it's a perfect metaphor for Noah Cross, it's a perfect metaphor for everyone.
A fate fade unaway who is beautiful and seemingly heeps some money, living this perfect life, but of course there's this dark other side to her. And that can be said of pretty much every character in the film. There's a flip side, with the exception of probably Jake Jack Nicholson, the main character who in many respects is you get what you see with him.
But he's discovering that now.
Correct.
Yeah, he's he's lifting the lifting the cover on all this stuff.
Yeah, he's living his bubble, but now he's working out that everything. Like like I said in the intro's there's evil even in the water.
You know the scene where he's at the barber and he's getting a shave, and this is so when he initially takes on the case from the fake Missus Mulray and he takes the photos of old mate with the young.
Woman and out in the in the street ares a car that's blown a gasket in the steam coming up again water.
Yes, yeah, yeah, and he that photo ends up in the paper.
Yeah.
Now did he send that photo to the paper? How did that photo get to the paper? Did he send it? I think so because there was the guy in the barbershop who accused him of doing that.
Yes, I think so. Yeah. My reading of it is that he sent it and then and that's why the real Evelyn Way comes in and there going to sue because he took the photos and he was not hired.
You know, this is way we start finding out, hang on, who was that original?
Was the other woman? Yeah?
Who ends up? This is there's so many things that are easy to miss. And I'll watched this in my teens and it didn't really have a big impact on me because I just thought it was you know, to watch the film about corruption and waterways and instant it's just been kind of like, I don't know, I don't really understand why this film is so great. I always wanted to go back to it. So I'm so glad we're doing this. So when he gets that call in the middle of the night to go through that apartment
and he goes there and somebody's murdered. That that's the that's that's the woman who was the fake Missus mulray. And there's there's a card as a sag card. Funny enough, the struck strikes on at the moment as I spoke about the sag card, so referring to the fact that she's she's an actress.
Yeah, so where were we? We were talking about the sliced up nose. And now the other thing I liked about that is just the patch up job the bandage on it was big and ugly, yeah, and really obvious, and I'd never thought about the two sided thing. But you're right because it is cool looking Jack on one side, but this mashed up nose with a huge bandage on the other side, which is a constant reminder of the
risks that he's taking. Which there were moments in this film where I thought, what did they just why an't they just kill him?
Well, it's interesting when he invites Noah Cross to the house and he thinks he's basically saying I know where the girl is, because remember Noah Cross highs Jake at one point, and so I want you to find and I'll give you ten thousand dollars and he says, come bring your check book. And then I think is later under he actually they meet and he realizes that Noah's
probably is guilty. He's onto him, and he gives him the glasses he has in the radiobituary and in a dimly lit house, and he reads it and that proves that the glasses. Wait, that the you know, because Hollis didn't wear those kinds of glasses that were found in the salt water little pool, they belong to Noah. Yes, so that's he finds out. And so he finds that out, and he tells Noah and then his goon comes along and he Noah says, give him the glasses. And you
do wonder was that is that? Was that part of his plan or is that just a mistake? That was that a bit of naivety? I understand from a story point of view, you want to bring all these characters together. Now, yes, you know you want to get them all together, but it seemed like that's the kind of thing that you might kind of go just try these glasses on. Okay, I know that now I know you're Goildy I'm going to call the cops.
I assumed it was a deliberate ploy to lead him somewhere else, but on reflection, I think it was just a mistake.
Yeah, let's have a lesson that. There's some there's some really interesting things that go on in that scene. Going to be a lot of.
Irate citizens when they find out that they're paying for water that they're not going to get.
Oh that's all he can care. See, mister Gibbs, either you bring the water to La, or you bring La to the water.
How are you going to do that?
Bineclock reading the value in the city, simple as that.
How much you're worth?
I have no idea how much you want. I just want to know what you're worth?
Over ten million?
Yes?
Why are you doing it? How much better can you eat? What can you buy that you can't already afford?
The future? Mister gets the future? Now, where's the girl? I want? The only daughter I got left? You found out everything was lost to me a long time ago. Who do you blame for that?
Her? I don't blame myself. See, mister Gitts. Most people never have to face the fact the right time, in the right place. They're capable of everything.
You refraid to that scene earlier, and that's a truly evil line because he is talking about he exists.
He's talking about riping his fifteen year old daughter. Yeah, and he says, and he says, I don't regret it.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's the thing. There's no regret, there's no guilt. He's truly an evil character.
He is and he and there's there's little things with him as well, like I mentioned the fish head but still being on the fish when he gets served up to Jack Nicholson. But he also Jack Nicholson's character's name is Jack Giddies, and he keeps calling him mister g Yes, which apparently was like being corrected loads of times by Jack Giddies. He just goes with mister gits, which is a classic power.
Play, absolutely but and works so brilliantly.
And I've seen a lot of people comment on, you know, the fact that like this power play and that you know, the arrogance of the man not to you know, listen to the correction and then use it. But apparently John Houston just kept on sucking up the name plancy, got Jack Nicholson to correct him, and then they just kept playing that they.
Played that, so it works perfectly.
That's and I love happy accidents like that like that. That is, if he was poorly, it doesn't work as well. You know that he's you know, it probably becomes because it's amusing if what he's doing. But with Noah Cross calling mister Getz, it's like Na's power plan.
I'll call you whatever I want to call you. That's the message there.
Let's let's talk about the ending. Actually before we get to that. This will get us to the ending. But were you expecting more of the story to take place within Chinatown?
I was.
I was confused for a lot of this film as to why it was called Chinatown. Yeah, I watching and even at the end when it finished, I was still found myself going, Okay, I'm going to sit down now and try and work out why it was called Chinatown. Yeah, so I'll perhaps give you the theory of the end. Well, yeah, I mean it's kind I guess it's kind of obvious.
Yeah, well it's it's I think Bob Evans or Robert Town has kind of said that Chinatown is a bit of a state of mind in a way. It's it's it's not about specifically Chinatown, even though like it is referred to quite a bit. And there's a great line which obviously comes to in the end where somebody says, what did you do in China? Because Jake was a detective or a police officer in in Chinatown. Yes, which is it's you know, they make quite clear, it's a
job that you don't want to be. You don't want to be stationed in Chinatown because crimes don't get solved, you know, and it's it's it's a mess. It's it's it's hard to govern, it's hard to police. But he says, what did you do in Chinatown? And he says as little as possible?
And it's so Chinatown is essentially a metaphor that's saying I don't expect justice and this place doesn't operate by the normal rules. Yeah, so that is that's essentially the message that comes through in this film.
And I think it's it's ironic because you know, they they think that's just in the movie. I think they think Chinatown's bit of it. It's a problem. It's it's hard to police because there's there's dialect issues, language barriers, cultural barriers. But it's actually a systemic problem across the whole city that we are learning about is like, so Chinatown is not just about China, It's about Los Angeles. It's about even you know, bigger than Los Angeles.
This is this is a problem everywhere.
Yes, yeah, it's worth mentioning that famously, and it's the Godfather had was protested by the Italian American Society. You know, there was a massive issue for them. There were protests in Chinatown from the Asian Americans Society. If they have an official name or not, they were like protests, which is it's just good to note because the characters who are Chinese in this are no stereotypical. There's Maids, is the gardener Jake. It is actually like a It is
a pop point, which I think helps. I think when the gardener is saying bad for glass and Jake kind of sees it, hears it as bad for grass, yes, or it might be the other way around. Actually he's seen bad for grass, but it's bad for glass anyway, that that kind of tips him into things salt water. That's what actually makes him go hang on a sec He goes back to the glasses that he's already seen earlier.
And this is that this is the pond in Missus Mulray's house. Yes, where because I had discovered that there was salt water and that's where Hollis was killed. And they work out Halas was killed in that pond because there was salt water in his lungs. Yeah, and they assumed it was in a fresh They thought it was in a fresh water lake, but he goes, no, it salt water, so he must have been drowned here, which is where the broken glasses were.
Yes, so Jake could always believed that he had been moved, that this murder did not happen. It wasn't an accident, which I was trying to pass off as something else was going on. Yes, so they discovered the glasses and that's we refreaded earlier. The glasses they assumed were hollises, but he didn't wear they.
We find out later he didn't wear those glasses.
Ye, Yes, it was. It was indeed, mister Cross.
And then the movie after these final scenes ends in Chinatown.
Yes.
Yes, so they get Poorly to help out, and he's becoming less interested in money as it goes on. Inact, he's saying, I'll clear your debts. I'll pay even more. I'll get a hundred bucks if you if you get these two women to Mexico.
He just was yeah, because now he's really seen the dark side. Yes, so money is no longer important. He just wants justice for the people involved now. And then he's sending her back fade unaway back to Mexico. And after she was raped, that's where she ran away to. Yeah, it was Mexico, that's right. And that's where she had the baby, yes, when she was fifteen. And she's sending her back there again because that, I guess is a safe, safe space for her.
So again, we want all our characters to be together. We achieve this in Chinatown. We're going to listen to this in two parts. Here is that they're trying to get the daughter, Catherine into the car. Paul he's there, Noah Cross arrives. Jake's with the detectives. I think you might be even handcuffed.
He's handcuffed, but he's with the two coppers.
Yes, yes, and just listen to this first part.
Way how many years so I got she's mine too. She's never going to know that.
You're a disturbed woman.
You cannot hope to provide.
He put that gun away. Let the police handle this.
He owns the police. Get away from her.
You have to kill me for it.
Get away, you have to close the door.
So the first shot you heard was a shot into the air warning shot, and then the last couple of shots the shots fired at the vehicle driving away with Evelyn and Catherine.
Well, actually the first shot you heard was Evelyn shooting now across. Of course, she shoots him in the arm, yes, absolutely, and he staggers backwards, and then they drive off.
Yeah, yea. And in the when they're shooting, Jake kind of handcuffed. It's a nice little ballet. Actually he he kind of stops the first I think lou from taking that shot.
Yeah.
And then but then the other cop comes in and takes a shot, and we see the car to stop about fifty meters away, and we don't know who's been shot, if it's fatal. Interestingly, in the script, the shot was taken by somebody else, like another cop who is had to be there closer to the car. And then let's have a listen to this next week. So this is they run down to see what has happened. This is basically the end of China. The film Chinatown considered one
of the great endings. It's pretty bleak, they do find it has been a point of that because you may not be able to tell with them the audio. But it has been Evelyn who slumps down dead when the door is open. She's been shot through the eye. Catherine is still alive. They're all there now, say Jake. The cops and Noah Cross have run to the car, as what's that?
What's that you want to do your partner a big favor? Take him home, take him home, Just get him the hell out of here. Jake, Go, Jake, I'm doing you a favor.
Ja forget that Jake in.
His China town.
Alright, come on, play the area? How the flag off?
So what happens there is Chef Faye down away is now dead, she's been shot in the head, and the daughter is taken away by Noah Cross, the bad guy. I didn't like it. As I'm watching it, I didn't like it. That's not the ending I wanted. No, that is not the ending I wanted. And it didn't. I was like, come on, the bar, he can't win, they can't win. It wins everything.
It's a tragic ending. And deliberately obviously chosen that they have chosen.
That, and then he and but and sadly, Jack resonates with the line i'd come on, come on, Jack, Chinatown, and he used to work in Chinatown, so he understands what that means, and it kind of resonates with him, and he's he's not happy about it.
What he says, he says, coling to himself, the line is as little as possible. He echoes the line that he said earlier in the film when there was asked about what he did in Chinatown. As little as possible. He knows nothing's gonna happen.
And even and be kind of, in a funny kind of way, the beneficiary of it because the cop and takes the handcuffs off. I'm not going to press charges anymore.
You can go yeah, yeah. Originally in the in the script, you had Jack Nicholson Jake almost screaming at that point, going no, take him my way. He's a murder, he's, you know, going nuts. I do love this.
I actually love this ending. I watched this when I was about sixteen.
It didn't necessarily resonate with me, so I was watching this kind of kind of forgetting the detail. I knew the line was coming, and I knew it was very much a down ending, but forgetting maybe who who was killed? And and I was watching it, and I can't remember a performance in a moment that was as guttering as the look on Jack Jake's face. Yes, it is his numb he's shell shocked. He's just absolutely stunned. There's no
hope in his face. He has been completely drained, and he knows what's about to happen is inevitable, to the point where he doesn't even try to stop.
It because he's real Because, as you say, he's stepped out of his bubble for the first time ever, and he's tried to do the right thing. He's seen the horrors of the real well, but he's realized he's powerless against it. Yeah, he's done his absolute best. His world has been knocked off its axis. You know, he's seeing the most evil man. He fully knows how evil this guy is.
Now, he knows all of his skeletons, and he's seen him take this young girl away and history will potentially repeat.
And the one person Jack connected with through this whole story was Faye Dunaway.
Yeah, and she's now dead. Yeah, yeah, it is. I understand.
You know, you watch it and you don't like it. You're not supposed to like it, but I'm certainly somebody who can. I'm sure you like you are as well, where you can step away and kind of go, wow, that was fucking hard to watch.
But that's a stunning it's a stunning ending, and it makes the movie stand out even more. It's already a great film. Yeah, but this is what Bob Evans and Roman Polanski fell out over the ending, because Bob Evans wanted a happy ending where everyone gets away with Catherine and they escape to Mexico. Yeah, but Polanski said, nah, yeah, no, no that's not that's not the ending.
Which again Bob Evans obviously in the end back to Polanski because I'm sure the studio was on, but well you must have, because that's what's in the movie.
I believe that can I believe Bob Evans never. I believe Bob Evans walked away at the end as opposed to arguing with him. He just kind of threw his arms in the air, which I guess is a form of saying okay, you win.
Yeah. Yeah, So that is like he's allowed to make his his beliefs and that you know, I dis but for a producer to agree to disagree, you know, even as frustrating as that would be, And it happened many times in the in the making The Godfather. It's it's it's good producing. Yeah, you don't have to agree. And I said the script was different.
It's like the you know, the true romance. Ridley Scott made true romance. And in Tarantino's original script, the Christian Slater character gets killed in the shootout and then Patricia Raquette as she's she drives off to wherever by herself at the end. But Ridley, it's got changed it so they both to be a happy ending. Yeah, so both survive. But this ending here, it just it's sad and infuriating, but it really it makes the film pop.
You want you want to have an emotional reaction to movies, I think, and this is like I just sat there in silence.
But also it fits with the with the Chinatown theme. Yeah, because it tells the story of how money and power it always wins.
Earlier in the film, Evelyn says to Jake, you may think you know what you're dealing with but you don't, which is amazing, and then Jake says, that's what the DA always said in Chinatown. Yes, so again people talk about this script. It's just these bread crumbs that are left that it makes when you look back at it and when you watch it again, and I don't know if you will watch it again. I encourage you to
because you will pick up things along the way. And so I was like, I like watching crime, you know, detective stories a game because you can start seeing where they have aids and bread crumbs. You'll see all the references to Chinatown are beautifully placed. And Yeah, it's an extraordinary film. I like, I said, I'm so glad we watched this film this week, And I'm so glad to have jumped in and done a little bit of research on it because there are things even I watched it twice, yeah,
twice this week and watch some docos about it. It's a really fun film to jump and jump into.
And there's just not a wasted moment anywhere, Like there's purpose to every single scene, every bit of dialogue the whole way through the film. Another interesting side note after making Chinatown, have you read this one? Jack Nicholson was informed by Time Magazine right by Time Magazine researchers that his sister in Inverted Commas was actually his mother.
Ah, I did.
I mean, I wouldn't have been able to recall that fact, but I did know there was something.
Yeah, that was right after this film where that's been a central theme and he's found it. That's his own life story. Amazing.
Also, Jack Nicholson at this time was dating Angelica Houston, John Huston's daughter. Yes, there is a scene and Jelica Houston was on set on this day where they're having lunched the fish, the fish where he says, are you sleeping with my daughter? That's right, awkward for everyone.
I've seen someone tell on a chat show in America and it's an actor retelling the story of Jack Nicholson telling him that story right, and he says and where Jack Nicholson says, you want to know something weird and he tells the story from Chinatown where he goes, are you sleeping with my daughter? And he's like, yeah, I am sleeping with your daughter.
Yes.
Robert Town was offered one hundred and twenty five thousand to write the script for The Great Gatsby, which gets made around this time. He said no, he he thought he couldn't live up to that. Obviously, f Scott Fitzgerald's fantasy book. He wasn't sure if he was up to doing the adaptation, so he instead took twenty five thousand to Chinatown. So it took lots of hundred thousand dollars, but I'm sure he was fine in the end. Wrote
it with jack Nibson in mind. It's always very powerful when you can because there is there's there's some great lines and he has when he's giving the other detectives, you know, a bit of shit. It's it doesn't surprise me that it was written with Jackie mind.
And there's the and the great scene where he's talking to his buddies and Faye Dunaway is standing behind him.
Yeah.
Well that comes after the barber scene, which you spoke about earlier, and I think it's such a fun transition. We've seen that scene before where somebody's telling a joke and the person's behind them and it's like kind of guys, you know.
So that's not the amazing thing about the scene.
What's amazing is that he's having this kind of argument with this guy in the barbershop. He's questioning what he does for a living, and he's just go, no, you know, I'll work hard for him. There's nothing wrong with all I do, like you know. Yeah, And at that point he doesn't know what's about to unfold and what he's actually about to uncover, and the fact that he was
hired by a fake Missus Mulway. But the idea that this guy breaks attention by telling this racist joke and then you transition, you use that as you don't even hear that, you use that, the transition to jack or happy. The tension has been gone. He just wants to tell this fun joke that he bleds his fun and funny to his workmates. It's just I've never seen a transition like that.
And he and the guy was a banker, the guy in the in the barber and he thinks bankers are evil at that point, Yeah, at that point to him, yeah, you bank No one worse than a banker. Yeah, but then forgives him really quickly because he obviously listens to his joke. Yeah, and then comes back Yeah. But then he discovers that there's people way more evil than bankers.
Absolutely Polanski, He and Theyd done Away didn't get along particularly well. Him and Jack got along, but they did have arguments. Polanski smash tracks TV with a mop because you like this. Jack always wanted to watch the Lakers play, which sometimes it would stall shooting. Let him watch the Lakers watch Lakers. And there was a voiceover originally, which is quite common with film noir, they have a voiceover, but Perlanski took out Nicholson's voiceover. I don't think the film.
We will never know unless we see it cut of that, But I don't film the film's pretty damn good. Yes it is. And Jack at one point says, towards the back of the film, give me five minutes, and there are exactly five minutes left. You can time it, and from that moment there are exactly five minutes left in the film, which was a happy accident.
I said it was.
They actually started funnily enough, they had the script was incomplete when they started shooting, which is amazing. The ending was the different idea.
Yeah, well maybe that's because of this argument that was housing between Bob Evans.
And yeah, maybe it's one of those things where I thought we'll get to it, well, you know, we'll come back to this argument later in LA The original Chinatown was demolished between nineteen thirty three and nineteen thirty six to make way for Union Station. The current Chinatown opened in nineteen thirty eight, which means the only time Los Angeles didn't actually have a Chinatown was the year this film was set in, which is nineteen thirty seven.
Fun, which is the year Jack Nicholson was born.
You know what I did enjoy? You know, movies choose all sorts of different ways to place themselves historically, and in this one, it's in one of the opening scenes where Jack Nicholson pulls out a newspaper and see biscuits on the front. Right, Okay, see biscuits.
Ellie McGraw was McGrath, McGrath Alan McGrath was going to play Evelyn, but she lost it. She lost a role because she had left Bob Evans for Steve McQueen when they made The Getaway, which is kind of featured in while he was making The Godfather, was subcess of making The Godfather, and he kind of let her, kind of let his relationships sleep and go to make this film with Steve McQueen. They hook up.
She missed out on this one.
She missed out on this the angry farmer in the in the scene like the town hall scene where Hollis is saying that this project won't work.
Where they let the sheep into the town hall.
Ye, yeah, which is it's also a great another great thing because at that point we think and we're you know, and we continue for a little while to believe that Hollis Is is the bad guy here, and they have a moment where farmers, who we are always empathetic towards, Yes, you know, we assume the guy standing up in the town hall is the evil one and the farmers are the good guys. Farmers are the bad guys. But they're they've got it wrong, we learn later on.
Yeah, no one's more honest and soul of the earth than a farmer.
Yeah, so they have farmers yelled. This guy again plants in our minds he's the bad guy. Yeah, it's really clever. The score was written. But the farm who yells out is Rance Howard, the father of Ron Howard and the grandfather of Bryce Dallis Howard.
A fun fact.
Yeah, two final fun facts. The score, which is a brilliant score. Again, everything is top shelf in. This film was written by Jerry gos within ten days, which is just phenomenal. And finally, this was a planned trilogy. There's gonna be a trilogy. There is a sequel called The Two Jakes, which Jake Niggson actually directs, which I haven't seen.
Which is a kind of a famous flop, isn't it.
I think it flopped. I mean again, it's what like go Father Part three, it's probably a decent film that this doesn't live up to. You know, it's pretty said way.
I didn't mind Godfather pat three. Like people shake their head when I say that, but I actually didn't mind it.
You know what. I suspect a lot of people who talk down Godfather Part three haven't seen Godfather Part three.
You know what the storyline and I know people are critical of who play Sophia.
Coppola who was born in very late because yeah, someone pulled out, pulled out.
But the storyline around the Catholic church, you know what that is? That is a great and a and a very real real Storylineeah. Absolutely, And I love that that that theme through Godfather three.
Yeah, and it's got one of those famous lines in Godfather, you know which which one is that every time I think I'm out, they put me.
So this is going to be a planned trilogy.
They obviously they make the second one and the third part was conceptualized, but they've actually written but elements involving a corrupt company buying up all the public transport in order to replace it with freeways. That was the idea, but that was used in another film, another noir film. If that plot sounds familiar, then obviously you're a fan of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
So China Down is related.
It's been a lot on Who fraind Rodger Rabbit, but a long time since I've seen Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Mate. This podcast, as you know, because you are a returning guest, comes with homework. I'm glad we found a film that I think will live in your memory at heart for a little bit longer than the first film we did, which.
Was with Naale and I, which I just didn't couldn't cop The problem with with Nall and I is it just didn't date.
Well.
It's a movie of its time, and I can see that if you saw with Naale and I in nineteen eighty eight in England in particular, you would have gone, this is an amazing film. Yeah, But to watch it today in Australia it's like, yeah, I don't know.
Yeah, but this film.
You could watch this film ten times and you'll still see little nuggets, yeah, sprinkled through the whole film. There's just so it's so dense, there's so much going on.
And there's no doubt there are things we haven't covered, like in this I came here a little bit intimidated that, but how are we going to cover this? This film? Like, there is so much, it's so love there's I mean, so much talk about this film over the years, so much analysis of it.
There's gonna be stuff. It's where do we start from?
Where do we? How do we there's a conspiracy and then there's the twist, and there's there's character stuff, there's motifs.
So hopefully I think we've done it. You know, it's been a fun chat.
But there's no doubt there'd be something like Apple Cole we when to get the Apple Core and the retirement homes and on that.
So there's there's stuff that you know, it's best just to go watch the film.
Yeah, just come and watch it. I'm going to watch it again because I'm sure I'm going to pick up a dozen more things through the film.
Yeah. Yeah, seriously, Like and like I said, always say this, this podcast is somebody who is just processing a film they've watched for the first time. I've now seen this film three times and done some research on it. I wouldn't have picked up some even the stuff like when he picked up the business cards, you know, I was like, what's he kind of doing that? And that's how you can get around as as the water department guy, you know, so he's not using he's basically faking who he is.
And even that the kid when he goes into the Place of Public Records and the kid, like the really arrogant kid sitting there who thinks he's the most important kid in the world. Yes, he works at the Center for Public Records, but the arrogance of the kid enables him to just walk away.
Yeah, classic detective to stealing records.
Yeah, stealing records and he gets the ruler off the kid and coughs while he tears the page off.
Yeah.
Well, it's also another point where one of the reasons we'd like Jake, even though he's a bit arrogant a bit, yes, smutty, not that it really bother. I mean, Jack Nicklson does bring a lot of that, so you're almost like on Jack's side, you know, watching we know who Jack is. But even removing that, I made this point in this podcast a few times. Your protagonist they need to be good at something, or good at their jobs, or good
at something. And we see through these little hacks that the watch under the tire, they're taking the business cards, they can get into places that he may not be allowed to get into the way he's he's getting to the retirement home like he's good at.
His job, and you forget sometimes that he's not a cop. Yeah, And he reminds you in the film as well. He goes, I'm not a cop, I'm a private detective and he is just a private detective. And he's like, yeah, actually, and he's now doing this for himself. He's not doing this for anyone else. He's doing it for himself.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
And also with the because he sleeps with Evelyn fade unaway in the film and then it's almost immediately after that that he finds out her backstory. Yeah, so he's on the back foot because that's a confronting story. But he's also just slept with her, so he probably feels some sort of guilt. Yeah, at such to that as well, with a certainly connection.
I mean, I'm not sure if they're in love and or I'm not sure, but you could make the argument that Evelyn potentially is using Jake to emotionally get him on her side, maybe even to help her get out of this situation, which you don't begrudge her for doing that at all, and that's she may be in love. That it's happened for analysis, and that's what's you know, also great about this script that you can we can have our opinions on when when Jake starts feeling something, you know, is it love?
Is it?
Is it you know, just he's getting one away? Is Evely in love? Is she just getting one away? Is she is?
She?
And she does say earlier in the film that she that she enjoys hooking up with men. Yeah, yeah, and she's and she's happy to hook up with different men.
Yes, that was really interesting.
She said something she specifically references you know, it's not just you know, I'm seeing somebody on the side. It's like that there's multiple men. I'm seeing multiple men on the side.
Yeah. Did you notice that when Jack Nicholson got out of the bed he just put his pants straight on?
No jocks?
Yea, he is going commando. Yeah, that happens to the movies. Sometimes I'm just like, really, how many people were wearing wearing a pant? I mean where sometimes there's a little bit of spilling still after you need that actual I'll wear three jocks sometimes if I'm.
Especially occasion, I'm on an adult pull up. Now, that's that's all I know.
Do you want to give them a plug? Any any brand that you found.
That trades I'm on the trades adult.
If the Honey Badger doesn't advertise those, maybe there's an opening there for you. Limo. All right, mate, great stuff. I really I'm really am stock. It's been a big series. We've covered some big films, Like I said, Psycho a couple of weeks ago, in Chinatown today, So yeah, I'm really glad we did that, mate.
Thank you, mate. I really enjoyed it, and I am going to go back and watch it again because it is It's true. It's an extraordinary film and I can't believe and I've known it's a great film for a long time. Yeah, you have just never gone there for whatever reason. I'd quite understand.
Well, like I said, I always as long as you see film, you think if I see it again, I'll give it another train. But I always actively wanted to go back and watch this film again. I'm glad we've finally done that. And yeah, good luck with the second viewing. I'm sure we'll talk about them more and we'll see on a golf course.
Indeed, all right, come on clear the area under fag what.
Get up? That was?
Limo?
Always fun the returning guests.
It has been fun this series to have a few more returning guests come through the show six or seventh seasons of have you only said nothing yet? So, yeah, you've got to have some old friends return. And great that we found a film that will live on in his head and heart more so than the first film we did, which is with Melee and I, which it was a bit luke warmon. I didn't mind with Alee
and I, but I do agree with his point. I think for maximum power, I think watching it maybe in London in the late eighties early nineties, it would have packed more of a punch.
Thank you so much for listening to this podcast.
You can reward everyone who puts this podcast together by going into your iTunes and giving us a review and five stars. I recommend why bugger around with three or four, give us five. It just keeps the algorithm nice and busy and gets it out to more people. Also, just hell your friends. I know it's an antiquator idea, but if you enjoy the podcast, recommend it to your friends.
I want to also obviously plug next week's show. In fact, before I do that, my tour Deconstructed Origami is on its last little legs as far as the tour goes. The actual show itself is Bloody Gun Gangbusters. Thanks everyone in ed Long and Smithfield who came long. But I think this Saturday night we're in Pacnam in Victoria. Still some ticket left or so some things left for the Perth show in I think August eleven and twelve off the top of the head, and we'll be finishing up
in Hobart on September. Sue, I believe, just check the Google it and check the websites. But I love doing the show. Time for me to pack it away after Hobart and start work on my next show, which I'll have details about later on, but we'd love to see you either in Pacnam or in Perth or in Hobart if you're in those areas. Next week on the show, we have a big one Jizu, following up Chinatown with another massive one. We've had so many people asking can
somebody do a Tarantino film. We had Phil Lloyd do Once upon a Time in Hollywood, which is a pretty quick turnaround. Usually we go a little bit further back, but we obviously wanted to get to peak Tarantino, and I think we're achieving it. Next week I found somebody who has not seen Pulp Fiction, one of the most important films of the last thirty years, talk about a game changer, one of Limo's top films, and we spoke a little bit before about the influence Pulp Fiction had
in regards to Guy Rich's career. It is a massive film, so quotable, se many great scenes, soe many great performances. And next week my great mate Damien Callenan who is a filmmaker himself. I think I think about Damien and I reckon if Paul Kelly, the singer Paul Kelly was a comedian, it'd kin'd of be Damien Caleman. I don't know. That's in my head and I'm bloody running with it.
I'm sticking with it. But next week Damien callenon, great comedian, great writer, great filmmaker, will be discussing and watching for the first time Quentin Tarantino's pulp fiction. Until then, by an hour and so we leave all Pete safe and salt, and to our friends of the radio audience, we'd been a pleasant good night