Kris and Adam Discuss AFI’s Top 100: Chinatown

Kris Jenson, with whom I've had the best discussions of my life, is an old friend of mine from Boston. We are both finishing off the American Film Institute's Top 100 and writing joint reviews and thoughts as we go. Before you read my response, go read his review at The Daily Fanboy.

"Chinatown"

In college, a friend of mine got reamed by Ben Kingsley for asking him about Polanski's "girl problems." Apparently, Ben and Roman are BFF's. I could go on forever about how I think all Polanski films are dull, and how Conrad Hall's genius cinematography turns the barren L.A landscape into a thing of beauty. What I am going to talk about how Roman Polanski fucks kids, then makes films about fucking kids.



SPOILER ALERT

That famous scene where Jack Nicholson slaps around Faye Dunaway, while she screams, "Sister, daughter," is, for those of you who didn't figure it out, her way of explaining her wealthy, powerful father raped her, she had his baby, and now that baby's grown, Daddy Warbucks is coming back for more kid ass. In the surprise ending Kris was alluding to, Papa wins. Due to massive corruption in the LAPD, Grandpa walks off with this poor teenager, presumably to fuck her in his joy buggy.

Don't get me wrong. I think technically, this movie is brilliant, and like I said, Conrad Hall really knows how to shoot. It's an excellent piece of modern filmmaking. It absolutely should be taught in film classes, and it deserves its place as one of the best films of all time. I just can't get past Polanski.