A Vision of Los Angeles, part 1: Chinatown (1974)

Introduction to ‘A Vision of L. A’ (Los Angeles)

Welcome to my series ‘A Vision of L. A’ . It is a two part series and each part focuses on a different film and the vision of L.A that was expostulated in that particular film. The two films that will be reviewed for this series are: Chinatown (1974) and Blade Runner (1982). I chose these great films because it is their vision of L.A that has shaped how people see the city of Angels and has elevated their detective stories into special case studies of humanity. It is through the detective work of the two protagonists: Jack Nicholson in as J. J Gittes in ‘Chinatown’ and  Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard in ‘Blade Runner’ that the viewer gets a more resonant picture of the layers of the city that lay hidden to the passerby. The soul  of the city is built on corruption like most cities of the world and this is all done in the name of profit and this is why, after awhile, the bourgeois class is able to sooth all the naysayers. They say that the naysayer should look at the rapid advancement of wealth that has occurred in the city as a result of their actions despite the fact that many lives and the wealth of the earth’s natural resources had to be lost in the process.  ‘Chinatown’, from an ideological perspective delves most into the heart of Los Angeles in the 1930’s however ‘Blade Runner’ subsumes these ideas to create a vision of the City of Angels in 2019. In other words in the 1930’s Los Angeles is still a desert community however with the passage of time the city expands and becomes the bastion of capitalist/material values that we see in Blade Runner in the year 2019. I will still review these films separately but will compare and contrast the vision of the filmmakers of both films as I go along.  This series is a part of a wider work that explores how the vision that various filmmakers had of the cities in which a particular film was being made elevated that film into the realm of greatness. The tragedy or success of the players is normally a result of the  machinations that take place behind the scenes. Aside from this series there is a vision of New York; a vision of Rio De Janeiro; A Vision of Kingston and so on which will be dealt with later on.

Chinatown (1974)

Introduction

Chinatown is one of the superlative mystery films released during the twentieth century along with films such as The Big Sleep (1946), ‘Vertigo’ (1958) and ‘The Maltese Falcon’ (1941). The superlative mystery films are classics because the mystery does not involve only solving the case but the motivations for the culprit to commit his dastardly acts. The mystery often leads the protagonist into the dark side of human nature where things are not what they seem; oftentimes the motivations to commit some felony is greed and, after the crime is committed, to cover ones tracks. When I say greed I am not speaking of the man who steals to feed himself I am speaking of the ones who steal to make more than is necessary for their lifestyle. In some mystery films the drive to accumulate wealth is disregarded by the villain in the name of power for having engrossed all this wealth what more is there to achieve but power.  In this case I mean that if you have 1 billion what more can you do with it for you now have Rolls Royce’s, Cadillac’s, Benzes and the mansion in the hills. There is not more to be got because more money is almost redundant at this stage-unless it is to maintain your luxurious lifestyle- however power is something that is worth more than all this accumulated wealth. With power you can do what you like by controlling the actions of others and the functions of institutionalised systems which will ensure complete security. When Mankind assembled at the beginning of the world there came a time when one was chosen to lead over the multitude and the multitude gratefully ceded this power to the individual. The individual at first relied on his spiritual prowess to rule (divine right) but in the L. A of the 1930’s it is wealth that determines the right of one to rule. Those without power are now exiled to the fringes of society unable to grasp the fundamentals of life as they watch their life waste away through the decay of flesh and spirit. Chinatown captures this era where there was a scramble for power and those unwilling to take the cutthroat measures to stay afloat are killed and disposed of and by the end there can be only one winner.  It is a scramble for power because the film opens when L. A is still considered a desert community suggesting that it was recently formed and is expanding. Any sign of expansion in a city is an indicator that money is there for the taking as well as power because after the expansion takes place there comes a time when growth stagnates or slows considerably; however when expansion is curbed and most of the city and the surrounding areas are settled one set of individuals would have assumed the right to rule having defeated their opponents. In modern western societies the rulers are known as the bourgeoisie and the defeated class is the proletariat, those who have to do the bidding of the bourgeois class to survive unless they realise that it is their labour power that ensures that the ruling class continues to engross wealth while sucking them dry. ‘Chinatown’ captures all of this thereby ensuring that it will remain a classic film. In this review I will discuss the landscape of Chinatown as it is portrayed in the film. The landscape is not just the physical space of a Chinatown but a state of mind. In the film the 'Chinatown' is portrayed as something inscrutable or something that cannot be discerned because in the physical space of Chinatown there are things that you cannot understand because of the intrinsic values or the culture of the place. ‘You might think you know what you’re dealing with but you don’t’, says Noah cross (John Huston). I will also discuss the vision of the city, Los Angeles that was built in the middle of the desert and how this reflects the nature of cities in western society or those influenced by the precept of industrial growth or the accumulation of capital.

Chinatown stars Jack Nicholson as J. J Gittes, a private eye, who has escaped the wiles of Chinatown and has established himself as a reasonably successful person. At the beginning of the film he is approached by a woman (Ida sessions played by Dianne Ladd) who pretends to be Mrs. Evelyn Mulwray to spy on Mr. Mulwray who she accuses of having an affair. It is discovered that Ida sessions was not the actual Evelyn Mulwray and when Gittes is exposed in the papers he encounters the actual Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) at the same time Mr. Mulwray is supposedly drowned. Gittes realises that Mulwray was actually murdered and that whoever hired Ida sessions (to play Evelyn Mulwray) was planning to set up Mr. Mulwray from the start for his downfall. This is all because Mr. Mulwray is the chief engineer of water in L.A which at the time is going through a mysterious drought. It is learned that water is being diverted to orange groves in the Northwest valley because some mysterious persons have bought the land in that area for cheap having starved the products and the livestock of the farmers of that region by denying them water thereby forcing them to sell the land for a lower value. Having bought the land these mysterious persons intend to make '30 million' more than they paid for the land because as soon as the land is bought from the starved farmers ‘for peanuts’ they will divert the water from L.A, which is supposed to be in a drought into those valleys, and so increase the value of the land which will now become fertile and more productive and make more money. Gittes now has to find out who is at the heart of this scheme. He develops a relationship with Mrs. Mulwray and finds that everyone has their own form of a Chinatown: A physical space that caused too much pain because of its inscrutable nature and a place one would rather not revisit because of the pain that emerged from a long term association with the place. Knowledge is Power but it is almost powerless in this case and this is at the heart of the film.

The film won one academy award, out of eleven nominations, for best original screenplay although it was favoured to win for best picture having won the golden globe for best dramatic film.   It lost the academy award for best film to ‘The Godfather, part 2’ and so not too many people could complain because being the follow up to ‘The Godfather’(1972) it is no surprise that ‘Chinatown’ was defeated especially since some consider parts 1 and 2 to be one film. ‘Chinatown’ can hold its head high however because the screenplay by Robert Towne is one ripe for discussion through the ages.  It was initially planned that the film would be a trilogy of Los Angles however after ‘Two Jakes’ (1990) did not meet with much acclaim it appears the project was scrapped.

The Physical Landscape of Chinatown in ‘Chinatown’

The literal definition of Chinatown is not much to go by i.e. it defines itself as a physical space inhabited by Chinese immigrants or immigrants with similar facial features as those of the Chinese such as Japanese, Koreans,  Thais, Indonesians and so forth. It has gained a distinctive association by name in the United States however as a place inhabited primarily by Chinese. The Chinatowns flourished in the West during the 1860s after the Chinese fled their country in droves as a result of the depredation by the Europeans, particularly the British, who waged the Opium wars in China 1839-1842 so that China would be forced to trade in drugs with the East India company a conglomerate of corrupt and venal members of the bourgeois class involved in the mercantilist trade. The Chinese were defeated and were forced to partake in the drug trade (the British should be proud of their heritage) and this demoralized the people for following this defeat they were forced to ingratiate themselves to the British and other European countries particularly after the Treaty of Shimonoseki  in 1895(between Japan and China following the Sino-Japanese War) which reduced China to a semi-colonial state following the intervention of Russia, Germany and France . (China now has reclaimed her place in the world)With the further impoverishment of China, through trade imbalances brought on by the European territories (particularly Britain) who forced countries such as India and China to buy their overwhelming amount of  exports thereby ruining their indigenous industries, many Chinese migrated to the West to seek work. Everyone is aware of the work done by the Chinese on the American railroad and with their knack for the retail business they set up various establishments thereby introducing a Chinese element into America especially as they transferred various elements of their culture particularly the language and the architecture (although the architecture is a vulgar version of the architectural styles of China with its admixture of commerce and is a cheap attraction for tourists). There are of course several Chinatowns in the Americas and they are known primarily for their food and retail shops. The swelling number of Chinese immigrants in the United States has obviously been enough to create distinctive physical spaces on the American landscape. These are the Chinatowns as we know it from the literal definition. In Los Angeles, the setting of the film ‘Chinatown’, there were two Chinatowns designated as old and new. The old Chinatown founded in 1880 and lasted for 30 something years before it was demolished to make way for a rail terminal, the Union Station. The new Chinatown sprang up in 1938 and has remained till this day. In the film it is more than likely that the references to Chinatown by Jake and his friends refer to the Old Chinatown which was known to be a den of thieves: corruption, venal tactics and opium smoking. There are many references to its decay which was not only physical but spiritual and mental based on the descriptions of the characters that resided there. According to Wikipedia  (whose sources are fairly reliable) despite the construction of the New Chinatown the Old Chinatown still existed until the early 1950’s where it was ‘situated between Union Station and the Old Plaza. A narrow, one-block street known as Ferguson Alley ran between the Plaza and Alameda, and was the location of a Buddhist temple and several businesses.’ In the film when Mrs. Mulwray is seeking to flee Jake tells her to go to her butler’s (Kahn) house. When he asks where it is she says 1712 Alameda ‘Do you know it?’ The grimace on Jake’s face when she tells him says it all.  This is why it is clear that the many references  to Chinatown throughout the film are to the old Chinatown: a den of thieves.  The film takes place in 1937 and so by then the old Chinatown would have been transformed into the narrow one block street. While Jake was in Chinatown it must have been before the erosion by the railway station meaning that he was there when it was more populous and more significant with regards to infrastructure. In the film the Chinatown that is shown by the end does not seem to be spewing the degradation that was so visible to Jake when it was so populous for it seems like any other Chinatown. The actions  that take place during the climax have little or nothing to do with the actual physical landscape it is only the bitter irony for Jake that the tragedy of the death of Evelyn Mulwray takes place in the very place where he lost a former lover who died in mysterious circumstances while he was working as a police officer in Chinatown when it was more vibrant as a community (it is mysterious because we are never told what actually took place but can infer from the dialogue that his former lover passed).

The Metaphysical Landscape of Chinatown: A State of Mind

Robert Towne came up with the title Chinatown after speaking with a Hungarian vice- cop ( a type of cop that investigates illegal dealing in drugs and other activities associated with vice such as gambling, prostitution, loan sharking (usury) etc) who worked the old or new Chinatown beat (it is not clear which Chinatown). Here is what Robert Towne said transpired in that conversation:  

'I had bought Hira form a Hungarian vice-cop, who was breeding these dogs (the type like his dog Hira) and we got to talking. I said “Well what do you do tony?” And he said “Well, you know, I work in Chinatown.” I said “doing what?” He said, “Nothing.” I said, “Wait a minute. You’re working vice in Chinatown and you’re doing nothing?” And he said, “oh, yeah”. I said, “Well why is that?” And he said, ‘That’s what they tell us to do, is nothing.” I said, “Why?” “Well, because the problem is that we can’t get inside that culture. The dialects and the tones are just...we’re just shut out. And so we can’t’ really tell if something is going on, whether we’re helping somebody to commit a crime or preventing it.” And that really stuck in my mind. I thought, “What a great notion.” And so I gave Gittes a background in Chinatown, where he did something and it didn’t work out because then Chinatown as a notion begins to stand for the futility of good intentions.’ (taken from  the Special DVD collector’s edition)

Chinatown, as a concept in the film, then stands ‘for the futility of good intentions’. This concept is still abstract however and should be elaborated on so as to understand the metaphysical landscape although as a place that stands for the futility of good intentions it does fit the description to some degree. Screenwriters however are very subjective so I intend to give a more objective view of this metaphysical landscape. Chinatown in the film, through the experience of Jake and others, is clearly a place that they are not fond of especially as the intrinsic elements of power seem indecipherable. Jake experiences another parallel of his experience of Chinatown through his investigation of the mysterious drought and this is the ultimate point of the film: this parallel of Jake’s Chinatown experience through this investigation. Jake has his first sit down with Noah Cross, Evelyn’s father, who amusingly says Mr. Gitts instead of Gittes. Noah Cross,  after prodding Jake as to whether or not he has slept with his daughter and so taken advantage of the fact that she is a woman in mourning for her husband, says after Jake gets up to leave, ‘You may think you know what you’re dealing with. But believe me you don’t. You really don’t. Why is that funny?’ Jake responds, ‘That’s the same thing the district attorney used to tell me in Chinatown.’  ‘Was he right?’ Jake does not answer because the district attorney was right.  This is one of the abstract features of the concept ‘you may think you know what you’re dealing with. But you don’t.’ This is a reference to ignorance of the truth; those deprived of it are plunged in a morass of uncertainty. The vicissitudes of life come to the fore more forcefully when you remain ignorant of the truth and the tragedy for some individuals is that they go through life holding on to a system of beliefs that are shattered when the truth is revealed to them. It shatters them because to have belief one must have faith and the leap of faith off the building never prevented you from splattering yourself all along the pavement. You thought you would fly but the wings never took flight. In this sense Jake does not know what he is dealing with because he is ignorant whereas Noah Cross who is the culprit is fully aware of the entire situation which is why he escapes at the end. The action that takes place in the climax still highlights that right up to the end Jake was ignorant. Jake says, ‘Evelyn. Let the police handle this’ (since it is revealed that Noah Cross is the culprit) Evelyn responds ‘He (Noah Cross) owns the police.’ I repeat for emphasis ‘You might think you know what you’re dealing with but you don’t.’ Plato in The Republic had an analogy to knowledge by referring to the Cave (which I will explore more fully in part 2 of this series when I discuss Blade Runner) where those at the bottom of the Cave were always flitting among the shadows the only visible light was the flames that would flicker on the wall. This was symptomatic of ignorance according to Plato however those who left the cave were exposed to the glare of the sun’s rays and, after a period of adjusting their eyes, came into full knowledge since the sun would not reveal shadows but the forms as they actually are. Therefore while  in the cave when I see a phone I won’t see it as it actually is I will only see an impression of it which is the shadow. When I have climbed to the surface and I am exposed to the sun’s rays i will see the phone as it actually is and not the shadow. 

This brings me to the next reference to Chinatown in the film which actually precedes the exchange between Noah Cross and Jake. Jake is about to discover that Hollis Mulwray (chief engineer of water and works) has been murdered but before this he is reacquainted with one of his former partners Lou Escobar (played by Perry Lopez). They do not discuss Chinatown in any great detail but there is a reference that cannot be missed and should be discussed. Jake jokingly asks one of Lou’s lackeys ‘Tell me you still putting china men in Jail for spitting in the laundry?’ Lou says, ‘You’re a little behind the times Jake. They use steam irons now. And I’m out of Chinatown’. Jake asks, ‘Since when?’ Lou: ‘Since I made Lieutenant.’ He made it out of Chinatown since he made Lieutenant implying that most of the police that work the beat are of low rank or are only lackeys for the district attorney. They are drones that do the bidding of others and ask no questions.  The Police are certainly a group designed to protect the interests of the bourgeois class and keep the mass of the proletariat in check so that they will not seek to overthrow the bourgeois class when they discover the deceit that is rampant in the closet. Jake’s sly reference to putting china men in jail for spitting in the laundry suggests that these vice-cops were simply there as a symbol of authority designed to keep the so called lowly Chinese immigrants in check fearing that this section of the proletariat would erupt in violence. The reference also implies the use of oppressive tactics. They arrest for the slightest misdemeanour and because of the culture they are probably doing more harm than good. An element sent in to maintain law and order while at the same time estranging themselves from the culture. The means used to maintain order involve brutish tactics and it becomes more necessary for them to use these tactics because the culture seems impervious and so a lack of understanding is born. When the subject of immigrants is discussed the world over this lack of understanding on the part of the authorities always comes into play.  In Europe there is some bias towards Muslim women who wear the hijabs and this is  because it is assumed that all Muslims have some association with terrorism. In the great United States of America the opposing factions of European and Native Americans was mostly hostile in the early years of settlement because of this lack of understanding.  When the whites of America and the rest of the world used to hear African drums and celebrations it was deemed to be a hostile element that would provoke rebellion. It was this lack of understanding that made them hostile to blacks and so deemed them to be savages. It is this lack of understanding that was evidently prevalent when Jake was in Chinatown: this use of hostility on an alien people because you were instructed to maintain order. Just do as you’re told and ask no questions. With Lou now promoted to the rank of Lieutenant he no longer has to act as a drone for now he gives the orders. It is also a means of escape.

The last reference to this metaphysical landscape is the discussion between Evelyn Mulwray and Jake after they had sex (some people prefer to say making love). This scene fully explains the phrase ‘the futility of good intentions .’ Prior to making love there is a brief discussion in the outdoors.

Evelyn says, ‘Tell me Mr. Gittes, Does this often happen to you?’ ‘What’s that?’ ‘Well I’m judging you only on the basis on one afternoon and a evening and if this is how you go about your work, I’d say you be lucky to get through the whole day.’ ‘Actually this hasn’t happened to me for a long time.’ When was the last time?’ (a break because he asks why? etc) ‘In Chinatown.’ ‘What were you doing there?’ ‘Working for the district attorney.’ ‘Doing what?’ ‘As little as possible.’ ‘The district attorney gives his men advice like that?’ ‘They do in Chinatown.’ ‘Why did you leave the police force?’ There is a break here because it is clear that Jake is uncomfortable with the discussion. The conversation continues after they make love. ‘No why does it bother you to talk about it?’ (Jake’s past in Chinatown) ‘It bothers everybody who works there. ‘Where?’ ‘Chinatown. Everybody’ ‘To me it was just bad luck.’ ‘Why?’ ‘You can’t always tell what’s going on. Like with you.’ ‘Why was it bad luck?’ ‘I was trying to keep someone from being hurt. I ended up making sure that she was hurt.’ ‘Was there a woman involved?’  ‘Of course.’ ‘Dead?’. The phone rings and this is the last real discussion of Jake’s past in Chinatown.

It is clear that the woman does die because Evelyn dies and this also brings out the parallel in the story concerning Jake’s investigation into the mysterious L.A drought.. This is a very good scene in the film because it is clear that Jake does not wish to open a can of worms and you can almost see the demons flitting about when he speaks so obscurely of his past. This is where the metaphysics in Chinatown plays out most effectively. There comes a time when we will experience some form of emotional pain and normally we associate this pain with the physical space where the event that caused the hurt took place. (this also applies to the place where we experience the most joy.) We are often reluctant to go back to that place because it will open old wounds and you feel it is by not going back to the place either mentally or physically that the hurt will heal. This is why Jake refuses to discuss what transpired in Chinatown. There is also the question of the woman that was involved. He obviously felt he was helping her but he obviously was not. This happens to many men and it is not clear what happened to this female. This is one situation that happens to a lot of men. You love her and try to give her everything she wants however she is very secretive and you don’t know what is going on and it comes to a head when her creditors/loan sharks start to knock on her door while the two of you are fast asleep and then you realise that you have been living some form of a lie and then you become desperate to wring the truth out of her. It would be better to know she had another man but you find out some shocking events about her past and this explains why she is so secretive and unwilling to share with you. Then she ends up dead but you‘re still left in the dark. When she told what you thought was the truth you tried to help her but there are two sides to every story, probably multiple sides. This film was intended to parallel the experiences of Jake in Chinatown (which we only have few references to) with the investigation into Water and Power. The truth hidden within Evelyn which Jake has to coax out of her near the end through repeated slaps to the face suggests that she too has her own form of Chinatown. A place she would rather not visit. It is this confusion that exists in the world today: too many people have secrets carrying around and so we are only treated to the superficial appearance but everyone in fact has his or her Chinatown.   It is clear however when the climactic events of the film do take place in Chinatown that Jake’s presence in the landscape, mentally and physically, forces him to confront his demons. When Walsh says,  ‘C’mon Jake. It’s Chinatown.’ It is clear that Jake comes to the conclusion ‘As little as possible.’ And so we can conclude that the district attorney was right when he said, ‘you might think you know what you’re dealing with. But believe me you don’t.’ The character of Jake stands for many of us who will always be ignorant of the plans of the ruling classes and why we are affected by their policies. The end does not seem as redemptive as a film like ‘Casablanca’ where a similar theme was explored but not to the extent of Chinatown. In that film Rick and Ilsa have a whirlwind of a romance in France although they know nothing of each other. When she does not meet him at the station where they are supposed to flee the onslaught of the Germans it breaks Rick’s heart. He becomes bitter until he meets Ilsa again, on the arm of her husband Victor Lazlo, in his cafe in Casablanca. When all is revealed and Rick decides to help Ilsa and Victor escape using the transit visas he says to her, ‘It doesn’t take a whole lot to know that the problems of three people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.’ Rick also adds by telling Ilsa ‘We will always have Paris.’ Once it was a space of despair in his mind and it has been transformed into a positive one. Hopefully Jake came to the same conclusion. The final shots in both films are similar with the aerial shot however in ‘Casablanca’ it ends on a more optimistic note whereas in ‘Chinatown’ the mood is one of despair.

The Expansion of L.A in Chinatown: The Mysterious Drought

‘We’re in the middle of a drought and the water commissioner drowns. Only in L.A’

The first discussion in this film of Los Angeles and its foundations comes when the municipal council is debating whether or not to construct the Alto Vallejo Dam. This is where Jake first meets Hollis Mulwray who he is supposed to be tracking to determine if he is in fact cheating on his wife. Hollis Mulwray is opposed to building the dam because he claims the foundations won’t hold having built the Van Der Lip  dam on similar terrain where the result was ‘subsidence and then collapse’ (expression borrowed from a female Jew engineer in Schindler’s List). Jake is not at this time interested in the discussion that is taking place and this can be deduced from the yawn he gives however this discussion of the dam is instrumental to the plot. One of the supporters for the construction of the dam says of L.A in 1937:

‘Gentlemen, today you can walk outside your door, turn right, hop on a street car and within 25 minutes end up smack in the Pacific Ocean. Now you can swim in it and you can fish in it, but you can’t drink it and you can’t irrigate a orange grove with it. Now remember we live next door to the Ocean but we also live on the edge of a desert. Los Angeles is a desert community. Beneath this building, beneath our streets, is a desert. And without water the dust will rise up and cover us as though we never existed. Now the alto Vallejo can save us from this and I respectfully suggest that $8.5 million is a fair price to pay to keep the desert from our streets and not on top of them.’

Hollis Mulwray, commissioner of water and power, refuses to build the dam because he claims it won’t hold. After he makes his decision a man with his sheep enters the room. .This is what makes Chinatown seem about everyone and although Jake finds it funny at first by the end he won’t be smiling. This is what the herder says to Mulwray:  ‘Tell me where to take ‘em (his sheep)? You don’t have a answer for that so quick, do you? You steal water from the valley, ruin the grazing, and starve my livestock.  Who’s paying you to do that Mr. Mulwray.’ This is the crux of the matter for the Northwest valley is not yet incorporated into L.A. because part of it is in Ventura County. Then who could be stealing water from the valley? What purpose would it serve to deprive these farmers of their livelihood? When Jake goes to the Hall of Records to scroll through the plat books he discovers that a lot of sales have taken place in the valley in just a couple of weeks thereby placing a large extent of the valley in the hands of a few profiteers. The land in the valley is cheap as Jake discovers when he goes to one of the orange groves in Ventura county. After he is shot at for trespassing he encounters the owner of the property on horseback. The first thing the owner asks is whether he is with the Water Department or the real estate Office. Jake says, ‘A client hired me to see if the water department was irrigating your land.’ The farmer is dumbfounded, ‘Irrigating my land? The Water department has been sending you people out here to blow up my water tanks; they put poison down three of my wells.  I call that a funny way to irrigate.’ Jake then discovers that the Dam (alto Vallejo) is a con job because the water is not going to go to L.A it will go straight to the Ventura county where the profiteers are driving out the farmers by ‘blowing up their water tanks’ and depriving them of water which, along with the sun, drives growth in agriculture. When they do this they will force these farmers to sell their land for ‘peanuts’ and then use the water from the dam, which they have been diverting from L. A water containment facilities  during  the drought at night (the drought is just an excuse),  to make Ventura county a thriving section of Los Angeles by incorporating the valley. This would add great profits to the city of L. A while the dispossessed farmers will be forced to waste away into nothingness both physically and mentally having been reduced to penury. They will be reduced to a landless class of labourers on the hunt for starvation wages to generate surplus value for the bourgeois class that will grow fat on their wealth. Surplus value is the amount of unpaid labour time that goes into a product so the more unpaid labour time the greater the surplus values and this is the ultimate goal of the capitalist system in which the west lives.  The bourgeois class will confront the dispossessed wage earners,  with  the landed property they acquired from them, as their masters for it is only through the bourgeois class who pay them starvation wages that the dispossessed farmers will be able to survive. The irony here is that the land once belonged to these said wage labourers.  Another element of Chinatown that one might miss is the presence of the young Mexican boy on his burro who used to inform Hollis Mulwray which direction the river flowed at night (Hollis knew that there was some illegal diversion of the water). His people, the Mexicans, were also dispossessed by the Americans in their expansion policy in the West during the 1870's and this is what gave birth to Los Angeles in California. His presence has a residual effect in the film.

This is the same brutish tactic employed by the Bourgeois class in England, home of industrial capital development during the 17^th,  18^th  and 19th centuries, against the yeomanry class or small land owners. They resorted to such tactics as sending the storm troopers to pillage and burn the farms even resorting to the murder of the occupants all in an effort to get them off the land. The Governments of the day sanctioned this move primarily because they were now indebted to this class of bourgeois thugs. It was all done in for the sake of advancing the wealth of the nation and this is why Noah Cross who is at the centre of all this subterfuge taking place in the film will get away with it. As mentioned several times the bourgeois class rapes and pillage the territories of other classes and then advances the argument that the riches of the country have been greatly enhanced as a result of the murder of thousands. In the early days of the development of industrial capital in England the bourgeois class of England turned on their own people by driving them off their land and following this they turned to other countries so that they could expand the markets for their goods. This is why the people of India experienced severe famines and the subsequent destruction of their industries as English goods flooded the market. This also occurred in China with the opium wars (1839-42) where the British prised open their markets and flooded it with contraband. The desperate drive for diamonds and the erosion of Africa’s indigenous agricultural industries at the turn of the 20^th century (so that the bourgeois class can live in luxury) as well as the experiments of the pharmaceutical companies on the starving African population so that the unproductive class of doctors of the world can prescribe medications is all done in the service of capital. The only thing required from the great industrial nations from the lesser ones is the raw materials for they do not wish for the lesser developed nations to manufacture for themselves as this would affect the distribution of the capitalists to additional markets overseas when the domestic economy is flooded. This is why institutions such as the IMF and world banks are created to put the lesser developed countries in debt stating that they must fix their balance of payments deficit which is rubbish (an old bankrupt mercantile philosophy) by buying cheaper goods from abroad with the dollars they are going to lend them at a certain interest rate.  The result of this foray by the capitalists into eastern markets and those of lesser developed countries of the west is an overwhelming mass of unemployed workers prepared to work for the lowest pay imaginable which will generate an overwhelming amount of surplus value for the bourgeois class. This is why there are so many immigrants flooding the rich industrial nations. The capitalists allow the immigrants to flood their markets when they want to drive down the price of labour however when there is overproduction they seek any means to get them out of the country, even murder, because at this time-since overproduction results in a recession and loss of jobs- the capitalists will have to make do with the members of his own country. While the bourgeois class sipped cocktails the struggling peasant was forced to drink water with worms out of the swamps. The unproductive retainers of the bourgeois class such as politicians in the state machinery who impose burdensome taxes on the proletariat and the lawyers who bend the law so that this bourgeois class can enhance its profit through criminal procedure are all in it together. There is also the class of police officers who are on the payroll of the bourgeois class so that they can thwart any revolutionary attempt of the proletariat.  I challenge anyone to say that the police are not on the payroll of the bourgeois class since as an unproductive sphere the police depend on the labour of the productive sectors which are headed by the bourgeois class. The screenplay of Chinatown explains it well through the character of Claude MulviHill, the night train, who is the enforcer of Noah cross but was once a Sheriff. How many times have we heard of several police officers leaving the force to become private bodyguards of the affluent. The false impression is that the police force is a government agency when in fact it is the fortunes of the capitalist class, the productive sector, that keep it and the government afloat.  (Reference for this discussion is the great work of Karl Marx Das Kapital which comprises 4 volumes)

Jake discovers that Noah cross is the culprit behind the murder of Hollis Mulwray and that he raped and impregnated  his own daughter at the tender age of 15. Noah Cross in his defense says: 

Hollis was always fascinated by tide pools. You know what he used to say? “That’s where life begins.” Sloughs, tide pools. When we first come out here he figured if you dumped water into desert sand and let it percolate down to the bedrock it would stay there instead of evaporate the way it does with most reservoirs. You’d lose only 20% instead of 70% or 80%. He made this city. (Jake asks ‘that’s what you’re going to do in the valley’). That’s what I am doing. When the bond issue passes Tuesday, there’ll be $8 million to build an aqueduct and a reservoir. I’m doing it.’ Jake says, ‘There’s going to be a lot of irate citizens when they find out that they’re paying for water they’re not going to get.’ ‘Oh that’s all taken care of. See Mr. Gitts either you bring the water to L.A or you bring L.A to the water.’’ How’re you going to do that?’ ‘By incorporating the valley into the city. Simple as that.’ Jake asks how much is he worth and after a rough estimate of 10 million is arrived at he asks, ‘Why are you doing it? How much better can you eat? What can you buy that you can’t already afford?’ ‘The future Mr. Gitts! The Future!’ The bourgeois class has been using this as a justification for their underhanded actions for hundreds of years. Cross says in defence of his raping his daughter Evelyn,   ‘I don’t blame myself. See Mr. Gitts most people never have to face the fact that at the right time and the right place they’re capable of anything.’ Jake futilely tries to explain to Lou that Noah Cross is rich and thinks he can get away with anything but he does not know that Noah cross owns the police force and he more than likely owns it through his generous contributions.

In part 2 I will explore this vision of the future of L.A in my review of Blade Runner: the Final Cut to see how far L.A has developed under the influence of the growth of capital.

Thor (2011) **/ 5. Panache over substance

‘Thor’ is a film overwhelmed by its special effects and fails to deliver the definitive experience it seemed to promise. The glossy production values obscure the plot or is it the other way around the plot obscures the visual effects. It is all the same with films such as this.  It will be up to the viewer to decide when they see the climactic events in the last 15 minutes or so. Thor works as generic entertainment because it has recycled clichés and makes the god of thunder more impressive for his power rather than for his character.  You know when Thor takes hold of his hammer Mjolnir a lot of power should be on display and this will help to obscure the holes in the plot. As action it delivers on an epic scale however the CGI is hardly artistic when one considers the scale of Asgard; the Bifrost Bridge and world of the frost giants, Jotunheim. There are moments when the director tries to slow the film down to reveal character but it appears tacked on.  The story is about Thor (Chris Hemsworth), heir to the throne of Odin (Anthony Hopkins), who is brash and arrogant and has much to learn. One moment of impudence which reignites the war between Asgard and the frost giants sees him banished to the realm of earth (there are 9 realms including earth) and stripped of his power. He must learn what it truly means to be a hero with the help of his love interest Jane foster (Natalie Portman), an astrophysicist,  so that he can regain his power and establish himself as a worthy successor to the throne of Odin. His brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) however has other ideas and being the God of mischief it is no surprise that he is the main villain. In this review I will suggest alternatives that could have made the story more poignant and reflective of the grandeur that is the mighty Thor. This film does not make Thor seem more than just a poster image.

What’s good about this film?

Thor does several things right: it delivers on the action and it provides some moments of humour for the audience to keep the momentum going. The story although it is generic does have elements that make it credible. The wise Odin, having banished Thor to the realm of earth stripped of his power, hopes that his son will understand that a leader must learn to sacrifice for his citizens as much as he would for his own interest. Thor, in the beginning of the film, seems intent on proving that the might of his arms is sufficient to secure his rule on the throne. There are several moments where Thor is taunted about his immaturity and his eagerness for war. Thor leads the attack on the frost giants when there really is no need to since the source of the power for the frost giants lies safely within Asgard. It is almost fool hardy to wage war on a defeated race because there is nothing to gain, economically or politically, from such an enterprise.  When Thor finally realises that his power is gone he is humbled and must resign himself to his fate however the film does not build on this premise. This premise where the once mighty individual is forced to share food with the people he once frowned upon and then seeks redemption for his or her past arrogance is a very interesting one. ‘Oh how the mighty have fallen’.  If this film was not a marvel venture, where money is expected to roll in and so story has to be sacrificed for action, this film could have said many poignant things about this premise. This would obviously rely on less action and more dialogue about human or godly nature and would have created a more positive emotional response from the audience.  For instance let us consider that the mighty Thor has fallen what the filmmakers could have done is to do away with the bureaucratic elements which are manifested in this film in the form of SHIELD and turn this film into a genuine quest for redemption. Firstly Thor would discover the hammer and realise that he cannot lift it and he would be broken and in that small town he would spend at least several months or a year learning what it means to work for the good of the community.  In this film he learns the life lesson in two weeks it seems (too hasty which is why it does not deliver emotionally). One of the hooks in the campaign for this film was that this film comes to you from the people that made ‘Iron Man’(2008). In ‘Iron Man’ they used a clever device to alter somewhat the selfish personality of tony stark and acknowledged that shifts in personality do not occur over night. Tony stark spent at least 3 months as a captive in the deserts of Afghanistan learning to do without his wealth and being forced to seek assistance from Yinsen, another captive in the cave with him. Stark usually did things his own way. With the death of Yinsen Stark learned something in that cave about doing first for the good of the cause. He also witnessed the death of American soldiers caused by his own weapons and he says (not exact quote) ‘we have grown accustomed to a system with zero accountability’.  This means his company would sell weapons to the highest bidder regardless of political persuasion. He then decides to shut down his weapons plant and focus his creative genius in building a suit to protect rather than to destroy. His crowning moment comes when he saves the residents of Gulmira. The creators of ‘Iron Man’ realised that the learning process takes time so how could they have missed this with ‘Thor’ who is redeemed after only two weeks through an artificial romance with an astrophysicist . An artificial romance was not the element that would have redeemed Thor. Apart from the loss of his power it would have required more telling incidents to fully ingrain in his mind that his days as ‘Thor’ are over. It would have taken ‘Thor’ a couple of months or a year to fully realise his potential to be a leader. If this film had a more dramatic edge one would see ‘Thor’ painfully adjusting to his new life  working odd jobs, hanging out in the saloons speaking to Jane about his glory days. He would reveal who he is because having fallen from grace one thing people in that position do is to try and convince people that they were once great. The mind is broken at this point and so the myths of Thor would have come alive on screen while telling Jane of the things he once did when he was the God of thunder (she would convince herself that he is telling the truth because she feels for him. He could also convince her by showing her the Bifrost bridge which is, supposedly, a mythic representation of the Milky way. She would see only the Milky Way but Thor would see the bridge and this would have helped to put her profession into some context). There would be flashbacks of Thor duelling with giants and leading various campaigns (in Norse myth Thor had very interesting adventures particularly the one in jotunheim) or witnessing the magnificent sights in his own realm. This would require melding the stories of Thor in actual myth with those from Thor in the marvel comics so as to create a richer character. His chariot of goats is not even mentioned also in this film when the hammer lands on a plain that actually diminished the greatness of Thor. In actual Norse myth he was considered the god of lightning, thunder and mountains. If the hammer landed on a mountain top it would have added some gravity to the myth of Thor. In my alternative when the hammer lands on the mountain there would be streaks of lightning not a thud on the plain as it is portrayed in the film and it would be a place where the average mortal would fear to trod because of the sporadic lightning and thunder generated from the hammer. When Thor is convinced that he is ready again (and here he would be urged on by Jane or some message in a dream from Odin) to retrieve his hammer he would go to the mountain, braving the sporadic lightning and thunder and then retrieve it. In this film the hammer comes to him and he does not have to do much work and there is then no sense of redemption.  When Thor does fall from grace you get a sense of why he does miss the days of his glory and his desire to see them restored.    In this film he withholds who he is because it would make for a good moment in the film where Jane along with her co workers are stunned into (dis)belief. In this film because the exploits of Thor as a god  in Asgard, apart from his raid in the realm of the frost giants, are not given much credence you do not fully understand how powerful this man really was haven fallen from grace. The only indication in this film is in one scene where he is shirtless and the women in the audience go ooh and aah.  I believe that in the film that was presented the expediency in the story was due to box office receipts more than anything else.   The sibling rivalry between Thor and Loki is also quite generic but seems necessary for the plot to advance and so the casual viewer will take heed of it but will know that it is necessary for the story to have a villain. The twists however are not satisfying and do not follow through on the premise at the beginning so that when a certain revelation about Loki is revealed it does not hold water for hints of Loki’s mysterious origin should have been hinted at earlier considering there is no record of it in actual Norse mythology. When I say earlier i am speaking earlier on in his childhood for there is only one reference to Thor and Loki's childhood in the film. The quantum leap made by the filmmakers into the present missed one crucial element. If they hinted that Loki felt left out not only because he was overlooked by Odin but because there was something innate in him that made him seem different from the rest of the family then his behaviour would be more understandable. His connection with the giants is also not developed sufficiently so one will understand the depth of his trickery or mischief.  For instance he is able to elude the ever watchful eyes of the guardian of the Bifrost bridge: Heimdall(r) however they never show you how he is able to do this which probably means that they (the screenwriters) did not know either.

What’s  Bad about this film?

Firstly the CGI in this film did not deliver as much as I would have liked because it was quite generic. Although you see Asgard in all its magnificence there is not much interaction with the environment and so you do not get a proper sense of how magnificent it really is. The majority of the action takes place in the hallowed castle and on the Bifrost Bridge and on the planet of the exiled frost giants. There is no real description of what constitutes the many layers of Asgard. The great fantasy “The Lord of the Rings’ did this really well. When members of the fellowship would encounter a new environment it would add credence to the fact that this is what constitutes middle earth therefore the world seems more palatable or more believable. In this film Asgard is presented as one big place which could have been invented by any creative artist:  just make everything shiny and sparkling and the audience will buy it. This oversight is probably due to the scale of Thor because the characters fly in between the nine realms as if it’s a stroll in the park therefore no time can be spent acquainting the audience with a particular feature of the environment. In original Norse mythology the Bifrost Bridge was one that transported the gods in the realm of Asgard to that of earth. In this film there are nine realms (this is overkill. It is made worse because the screenwriters do not bother to explain what worlds constitute these other realms). This is why the climactic 15 minutes did not generate as much tension as it should have. The plan of the main villain was convoluted and not very thorough and it ends up almost sounding very silly and when you, as an audience member, see it you will understand what I am saying. His plan relies on connecting the realm of Asgard to that of the Frost giants(No spoilers here).  If they wished to make Loki a true villain they could have simplified it by saying point blank: Loki, following the banishment of Thor, usurped the throne from the feeble Odin knowing that with Thor gone no one could stand in his way. The once sparkling Asgard would now be shades of grey. This would be more effective and clear to the audience. When Thor learns his lesson he returns to Asgard and there Ragnarok, the famous battle of Norse Myth, would be waged. In this film Loki’s plan seems nonsensical because when the plan is thwarted by Thor all roads are blocked to the other realms however  in Norse myth there are only two realms: earth and Asgard. What about the other seven realms. When you watch the climax for yourself you will grasp what I am saying about the realms. The element of astrophysics is also woefully developed and it is best explained by saying that Jane witnesses patterns of stars that do not belong to this universe (realm). It would have been a clever device to actually see her use her telescope rather than relying on bursts of energy through the clouds to the earth to prove her point. Odin also does not appear very wise when he tells Loki the nature of his origin. It would have been smarter had the screenwriters acknowledged from the outset that Loki is different from the rest rather than throw everything on him at once. What did Odin really think was going to happen should the day come where a truce with the giants was to come about? Did he think Loki would really lap up all he had heard  from the floor? He would have made that truce long before and heralded to the world the nature of Loki. This is a poor example of screen writing.

Conclusion

All in All Thor relies on its superficial special effects, action and moments of humour to make it credible as good entertainment. The story is passed over (no pun intended) so that there will be some redemption of Box Office receipts.  The final climactic 15 minutes are very convoluted and so the tension one would expect at that moment is not there simply because no care was taken in making the story more thorough or the motives for such a plan more interesting. It would also have been helpful if more elements of actual Norse myth were melded with the fables of Marvel comics to make the character of Thor seem more credible and not simply as another marvel poster image. As a fan of Norse Mythology I was disappointed with the slap dash approach of the screen writers and I am recommending this film because of the possible alternatives that were presented to me while watching it. When a casual viewer feels that he or she could have written a better movie, you are either doing something right or something bad.