Chinatown, How To Get Away With Murder, Crossover

While some students used the Easter weekend to catch up on schoolwork, I used it to binge watch How To Get Away With Murder. In How To Get Away With Murder five college students have an epiphany

of authorities having the upper hand and being able to manipulate situations for their own benefit when seeing their teacher using her power in her other job as a lawyer. J.J Gittes, protagonist of Roman Polanski’s film Chinatown, has the same epiphany when he sees how powerful men control most of the city and the depths of their bottomless corruption.

J.J Gittes, played by Jack Nicholson, is a private investigator in Los Angeles who gets hired by Evelyn Mulwray to investigate and observe her husband because she believes he is cheating on her. Gittes agrees to work for her until he realizes that he had been tricked when he meets the real Mrs. Mulwray, played by Faye Dunaway. Gittes did investigate Mr. Mulwray, but only for a little bit as he suddenly dies which led to Gittes opening his eyes about how the world works. He begins to work for the real Mrs. Mulwray on finding out who killed her husband. On this journey, Gittes sees how corruption can lead to the destruction of innocent people.

Chinatown was made in 1974 and set in the 1930’s , so obviously men were still seen as superior and more powerful than women. In the movie, men had superior jobs while women were secretaries and the wealthy would go horseback riding. Women relied more on men which is why Mrs. Mulwray asked Gittes for help and why she has a butler. They were seen as delicate and kind of hopeless while men were powerful and daring. This contrast helps Gittes realize that men are evil and corruptive. They know they are more powerful, so they manipulate scenarios to get their way similar to Annalise Keating, who uses her dominant position to control cases to make sure people who are guilty are seen as not guilty. Gittes is trying to do his job, but Escobar and Yelburton, two other investigators, give him more obstacles to pass. Although faced with challenges, Gittes finds out who killed Mr. Mulwray, but it does not go as he planned. The powerful men know how potent they are which is why they do not fear anything since they know they have the power and money to get rid of their problems.

Watching How To Get Away With Murder really helped me be more engaged in this movie. The show reveals how superior people, such as Annalise Keating, wear facades to cover up the monstrous things that they do to. They care too much about themselves and their reputation that they do not care if they damage others to save themselves. As I was watching it, I kept connecting it back to the drama show, so if you enjoy shows like those, you should definitely watch Chinatown. The movie, although old, still does an amazing job at emphasizing both physical and emotional damage characters go through due to the white, pompous men. A line that really stuck with me was Cross’, “Most people, Mr. Gittes, never have to realize the fact that under the right circumstances, they are capable of anything” which is a dark analysis of the human condition, and his terrible hand washing of crimes.