The viewer sees a private investigator and a handsome client. First thought was, “It's definitely another Hollywood crime movie.” On the surface, Chinatown has all the elements of a film noir: the presence of a beautiful but dangerous woman, otherwise known as the femme fatale, a gritty urban setting, compositional tension (highly contrasting light and dark colors or oblique camera angles), and themes of moral ambiguity and alienation. Chinatown, however, is different. Polanski shot Chinatown on color film, and although his colors appear particularly vivid, color film precludes the intensity of contrast offered by black-and-white film. Furthermore, Evelyn is not the classic femme fatale. Although Jake initially mistakes her for her husband's killer, Mrs. Mulwray ultimately emerges as the story's most tragic victim. Yes, Chinatown for the most part conforms to the film noir structure, but this film deviates from the overall genre, creating an entirely different element in which Roman Polanksi examines not only the corruption of the rich and his malignant obsession with money, but also, more human themes such as ignorance, authority and the pervasiveness of evil. Like the film noir detectives that came before him, Jake displays some of the common traits of the typical private dick. He is a crass joker, is willing to get violent with both men and women who cause him trouble, and never lets physical threats scare him away from a case. The standard film noir private investigator is a passive, cold, cynical, and masochistic character who maintains a subjective view of the case and can sift through people's stories to solve the mystery. What's different about Jake Giddes is that he doesn't always seem to make the obvious, or even correct, choice. A...... middle of paper ...... you, further demonstrates the realist view that, no matter how hard you try, it is impossible to fight the cycle of corruption. Chinatown builds on the film noir tradition of exploitative taboo social expansion. Polanski added a whole new dimension to the classic film noir by connecting its darkness with the paranoid and depressed mood of post-Vietnam and post-Watergate America, thus extending the noir sense of corruption beyond the mean urban streets and into the upper echelons privileged governmental and economic sectors. places. Chinatown may be set in 1930s Los Angeles, but it embodies the 1970s. The film stands as an indictment of capitalism and patriarchy spiraling out of control. It implies that we are powerless in the face of this evil corruption and abusive power that is capable of everything, including incest: one of the most horrific violations of human decency and social morality imaginable..