Lange, Jason Film 101 M-W 12-1:50 Paper #2 ChinaTown ChinaTown, directed by Roman Polanski, is a non-traditional hard-nosed detective film made in the 70's. The typical elements of character type are there; J.J. Gittes (a private detective in LA) played by Jack Nicholson is the central character, sharing the spotlight is Fay Dunaway playing the femme fatale Evelyn Mulwray. This film breaks all types of norms when compared to the hard-nosed detective films it is modeled …showed first 75 words of 1281 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1281 total…is still being copied today, however loosely, on TV series and Movies. The movies have some obvious similarities, but as finished products they are totally different. Polanski is able to twist the ideas he uses from The Big Sleep so much so, that as a whole ChinaTown can transcend any correlation it might have with The Big Sleep. Taken in its smaller parts by character analysis or in some scenes, the films resemble each other.