Chinatown: Roman Polanski and Gittes Essay

Submitted By EvaSolomon
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In the film Chinatown, directed by Roman Polanski a private investigator, Jake Gittes is hired by “Mrs. Mulwray” to follow her husband because she suspects he is having an affair. Only it isn’t really Mrs. Mulwray who hired him, but (spoiler alert!) a phony pretending to be Mrs. Mulwray. The rest of the film consists of Jake following people around and trying to figure out who is behind the plot to hiring Ida Sessions to pose as Mrs. Mulwray, who killed both her and Mr. Mulwray and why. In the film Chinatown, Jake Gittes is portrayed as a smart, curious young guy who’s always two steps ahead. As a result of his line of work, Gittes is very observant, even when he’s not on the job, such as when he asked Evelyn about her maiden name Cross and connected her to her father Noah Cross who was partners with Mr. Mulwray, her husband. Other occasions where Gittes illustrates his voyeuristic ways is when he watched Mr. Mulwray go down to where the water is and talk to the little boy on the horse, who proves to be useful later in the film, and when he followed Mrs. Mulwray when she went to console Katherine after she found out Mr. Mulwray was dead and found out that Mrs. Mulwray was hiding her. Gittes is also quite a prideful fella. An example proving this is when Gittes was at the barbers and a banker bashes him about his job. Stating how heartless he is for putting peoples business out there to the public and Gittes busts out with a, “I make an honest living,” and proceeds to chastise the banker of the corruption of his line of work. Another example of this is when he pays Mrs. Mulwray a visit and says that he doesn’t care about the
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