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Chinatown

Chinatown (1974)

You get tough. You get tender. You get close to each other. Maybe you even get close to the truth.

Release:1974
Runtime:2h 10m
Country:United States
Director:Roman Polanski
Language:English

Genre

CrimeMysteryThriller
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Keywords

Dying And DeathSeaPedophiliaRapeMistake In PersonRiverChinatownBarrage
iRank88

Chinatown rating: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic

IMDb8.1/10· 375K votes
Rotten Tomatoes98%
Metacritic92%
TMDb7.908/10· 4K votes

With 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, backed by 8.1/10 on IMDb and 92/100 on Metacritic, critical reception of this film has been very positive.

About Chinatown

Private eye Jake Gittes lives off of the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together.

Cast of Chinatown

  • Jack Nicholson

    Jack Nicholson

    as J.J. 'Jake' Gittes

  • Faye Dunaway

    Faye Dunaway

    as Evelyn Cross Mulwray

  • John Huston

    John Huston

    as Noah Cross

  • Perry Lopez

    Perry Lopez

    as Lieutenant Lou Escobar

  • Burt Young

    Burt Young

    as Curly

  • John Hillerman

    John Hillerman

    as Russ Yelburton

  • Darrell Zwerling

    Darrell Zwerling

    as Hollis I. Mulwray

  • Roman Polanski

    Roman Polanski

    as Man with Knife

  • Diane Ladd

    Diane Ladd

    as Ida Sessions

  • Richard Bakalyan

    Richard Bakalyan

    as Detective Loach

  • Joe Mantell

    Joe Mantell

    as Lawrence Walsh

  • Roy Jenson

    Roy Jenson

    as Claude Mulvihill

Chinatown facts

Budget
$6M
Box office
$30M
Collection
The Jake Gittes Collection

Our take on Chinatown

Polanski's 1974 neo-noir follows private eye Jake Gittes from a routine affair case into a vast conspiracy over water, money and unspeakable family secrets in 1930s Los Angeles. Elegant, cynical and crowned by one of cinema's bleakest endings, it's the genre's modern peak. If its labyrinthine mystery and moral despair gripped you, seek out detective noirs and conspiracy thrillers where the corruption runs deeper than any one crime.

Ranked by the iRankMovies editorial teamUpdated August 2026MethodologyData sources

Audience opinions

What the audience liked

  • •Sophisticated mystery unravels with intricate plotting and misdirection
  • •Cynical noir tone perfectly captures corruption and moral decay
  • •Femme fatale archetype receives nuanced portrayal rare in genre

What the audience disliked

  • •Dense narrative requires full attention throughout entire runtime
  • •Bleak ending subverts typical crime thriller resolution expectations
Saga: The Jake Gittes Collection

Trailer

Where to watch Chinatown(US)

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