Within the film Chinatown, symbols place the largest role in the aesthetics of the film. One the most prominent symbols is a broken, damaged, or imperfect lens. Gittes uses two watches to help aid him when he was tailing Mr. Mulwray. The idea behind it was that Mulwray would run it over and stop the time so Mulwray can determine when he left. The broken lens symbol was also shown when Gittes was investigating the farm involved in the government scandal, where one lens in sunglasses was broken. It is important to point out that one of his headlights was also broken. The symbol is again pointed when Gittes notices that one of Mrs. Mulwray’s eyes has a dark spot in one eye. Then later on, Gittes is able to follow her when she leaves to see her daughter because one of her taillights is busted. Finally at the end of the movie Mrs. Mulwray is killed after the cop shoots her in the eye and destroys her eye socket. The symbology is very apparent in all of these examples and the all involve a glass lens or eyes. The other appearances of glasses, binoculars and cameras causes a lot of focus on the attempt to see and understand but lacking that ability.
There are also a lot of racial elements to Chinatown. This can be seen with the Asian housekeepers at Mulwray’s mansion. There is also an abundance of racial …show more content…
The film features a basic detective story structure that is fundamentally apart of the film noir genre. Gittes also showcases quite a few stereotypical film noir elements. He is a male detective that has been contracted into solves intricate crime mysteries, all while figuring out his own morality. This connection is made clear in Jon Tuska’s analysis of noir men in his book Dark Cinema. Tuska’s states that ““these actors in their roles were passive receivers of the actions of outside agencies and their responses, instead of being initiative, were strictly reactive.”(6) Furthermore, he states of the noir
There are also a lot of racial elements to Chinatown. This can be seen with the Asian housekeepers at Mulwray’s mansion. There is also an abundance of racial …show more content…
The film features a basic detective story structure that is fundamentally apart of the film noir genre. Gittes also showcases quite a few stereotypical film noir elements. He is a male detective that has been contracted into solves intricate crime mysteries, all while figuring out his own morality. This connection is made clear in Jon Tuska’s analysis of noir men in his book Dark Cinema. Tuska’s states that ““these actors in their roles were passive receivers of the actions of outside agencies and their responses, instead of being initiative, were strictly reactive.”(6) Furthermore, he states of the noir