Assignment paper for Film 102: Contemporary Cinema, taught by Joseph McBride at SFSU.
[Fall 2002]
If you haven't seen the movie, watch out, it's crawling with spoilers!
The role of water in Chinatown: its literal and metaphoric context
The plot of Chinatown revolves around water, and the way the character of the water scenes changes complements, and sometimes foretells, the
development of the events. Whether the water is rushing aggressively or is the surface of a placid lake (or pond) has direct connections to what's about to
happen. Water is a sinister character, controlled by the higher powers of business magnates such as Noah Cross. (By the way, the Boy on Horse is also a kind of
mysterious figure, an image perhaps relevant to the Horsemen of the Apocalypse.) Water symbolizes power, waste and corruption, and death.
The first encounter occurs when Jake Gittes follows the chief engineer of the Water and Power Department, Hollis Mulwray, down to the beach.
Mulwray stands alone on a cliff that stretches out into the sea, waiting for nightfall, a solitary figure in the landscape of his political isolation and powerless against
this vast but quiet mass of water. Jake meanwhile hides to observe him better in the mouth of a dry drain pipe above the beach. As night falls, the runoff
begins from one of the pipes, and this time Jake avoids getting drenched; he is as yet unsuspecting of what's happening, and the water has no effect on him.
As Jake gets nosier, however, the situation changes. While visiting the local morgue, he accidentally finds out that a drunk man had drowned in the L.A. River.
He pays a visit to the riverside, finding only a puddle of water. This is when, like a purposeful mirage, the Boy on Horse appears to reluctantly disclose that the
water comes in different places all over the valley. Suspecting that the mysterious runoffs have something to do with Mulwray's death, Jake trespasses at night to
the reservoir. The sound of water breaking free is identical to the sound of gunshots---and, tricked by the sound, he hides in the sluice of the huge drain, moments
later to be swept up by the onrush of water. Completely drenched and missing a shoe, he is soon caught by two henchmen and warned. From this point, his
investigation, and curiosity, will lead him on to the yet invisible employer behind "the midget" and his companion.
Jake's conversations with Noah Cross also touch on water through a couple of symbolic things. (Perhaps the choice of name for the owner of the Albacore
Club is not a coincidence as well). For example, when Jake suggests to Cross that he owns the police (they are discussing Lt. Escobar), he uses the common
phrase---we all swim in the same water---which Cross immediately turns against him, accusing him of extortion. Noah Cross observes the piranha-like creature
on Jake's plate through his bifocals. The hapless fish with its glazed eye is somehow reminiscent of Jake, which makes this brief interlude rather comical,
especially when Cross, indicating the fish, says, "I believe they should be served with the head" and Jake replies, "Sure, as long as you don't serve the chicken
that way." The last conversation Jake has with Cross is at Evelyn Mulwray's house, and in the background is the saltwater "pond" in which Hollis Mulwray was
drowned. It acts as a reminder of the murder and, in retrospect, signals the next death---that of Evelyn.
The events of Chinatown occur as if based on a kind of water power spectrum: the greater the violence of the water depicted, the greater the human violence.
Even in the last example, when water is represented by a dead pond, the deceptive tranquility reinforces the unexpected death of Evelyn. There is a strange
beauty in the drain pipes and the sudden runoffs---the wasting of water in the endless and pointless (at least to Jake) pursuit of money and power.
* * *
Gumball #01
fear, a sense of abandonment, and a search for approval and recognition by a cosmic parent or sibling.
