Chinatown

Great music, fantastic plot, well written dialogue. Jake represents the quintessential jaded ex cop turned PI and although not a typical example, Noah Cross really is one of the more evil characters in cinema. From the incest to the water wars to the indifference about his real daughter and the facade of a caring man he puts up when she actually dies. Corruption is very well represented in this movie and it shows how, oftentimes, the little guy actually loses to the big guy. Jake cares a great deal about the whole case because he feels he can redeem himself from the vaguely explained situation that happened in Chinatown when he was a cop. But at the end of the day the system and corruption are so intertwined that they end up becoming one and the same. This isnt ”the bigger they are, the harder they fall”, Chinatown shows how the bigger they are, the harder they are to topple. At the end of the day, the bad guys win and Jakes associates say ”Forget it Jake, its Chinatown” indicating a mindset where all of this is an unwinnable fight. This mindset greatly benefits the oppressors, in this case Cross, and feeds the idea that its not worth the trouble as one is going to lose anyway. This is why Jake ultimately loses despite not having this mindset throughout the movie. Everyone else does and they drag him down with them at the end where he is the closest to bringing down Goliath but has to give up.  Overall a fantastic movie that kept me at the edge of my seat throughout the watch and mimicked the 40s detective atmosphere beautifully.