Written by Robert Towne, Chinatown is often cited as the perfect Hollywood movie script. Chinatown is a metaphor for the nightmare of urban Los Angeles where any attempt to discover what goes on or to make things better can only make things worse. Jack Nicholson is detective Jake Gittes, tricked into an investigation that links political corruption and unbridled ambition to personal immorality and family breakdown. Chinatown is not just as part of the urban landscape, but is the foundation of the modern city.

Released in 1974, the movie was directed by Roman Polanski, known for maintaining tight control over production and scripts. He also appeared in the move as a vicious and eccentric hoodlum. In 1969, Sharon Tate, Polanski's wife, and their unborn child were murdered by disciples of the messianic Charles Manson, themselves prototypically gormless runaways ripe to fall under the influence of a paranoid, violent salvationist. In 1979, Polanski left the United States, rather than face charges of sexual interference with a thirteen-year-old girl. The city he depicted was, of course, the place where dreams are made, filmed and distributed to the world.