Word: film
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Dates: during 1990-1990
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...line that divides reality from fantasy and horror, and blurs the lines between text and truth. It maturely treats serious and powerful themes like death, guilt and self-knowledge. And though Flatliners may occasionally remind the audience members of their worst nightmares, it is a rich, thought-provoking film that finally does a much-maligned genre justice...
...Jake" Gittes, the chain-smoking private detective made famous by Jack Nicholson in the 1974 classic China-town, is walking the streets of Los Angeles again, but not without haunts. As he tells himself repeatedly in the new film, The Two Jakes, the past is something every person must confront at one time or another. It is a tortuous process, Gittes realizes, which requires treading a very thin line. "I don't want to live in the past," he says, "I just don't want to lose...
Both Gittes and The Two Jakes successfully navigate that line. The Two Jakes is a wonderful film, a rich tale about the past, that most frustrating and elusive element of human life. The success of The Two Jakes is made all the more impressive considering the difficulty of creating a tenable sequel to the earlier, complex Academy Awardwinning Roman Polanski film...
That difficulty is reflected in the 16 years required to created The Two Jakes. Originally scheduled for release in the mid-80s, the film became mired in disagreements between three of four of Chinatown's creative forces. Producer Robert Evans, screen writer Robert Towne, and Nicholson. (Polanski, according to Nicholson, was not involved in the process, partly because of cost overruns). When The Two Jakes finally made it to production, Nicholson had assumed the directing responsibilites. In addition, the freshman director took it upon himself to rewrite parts of the script as he went along...
...Jakes is set in 1948 post-war Los Angeles. Eleven years have passed since the fateful events of Chinatown which shaped Gittes' life. Those events have a crucial impact on the events of this current film, and having seen Chinatown makes seeing The Two Jakes much richer...