A dark episode in LA’s History The quality of the DVD was fine. As to the film itself I’ll leave the detailed criticism to others. I’ll just say if you have only seen the original version as broadcast then this version is worth watching.
Era defining Sunshine Noi This 1974 alignment of great writing, acting and directing, drops you into flashy 1930’s Los Angeles and what lies beneath it. Nicholson as Jake Gittes PI snooping around the threads of murder, untangling big time corruption and dark family mess. The very hardest of hard boiled where badness wins and decency shrivels. Sharp Jack is our tour guide (he’s in every scene), as we get what LA is. A desert town killing off it’s violent Chinatown past off, priming for the baby boomers of the 50′ and 60’s and always onwards. The land of opportunity undressed.
No Clue what this movie is! Wish I could give a good review here but I’ve never seen this movie! Bought this as a gift for my boss who’s a long time and big fan of this film. He was very very happy with the quality of all the extra collectibles, they’re all quite important to the film too apparently.
If you’re buying this as a gift for someone who loves the movie, go for it!
A true detective is a 1974 American neo-noir mystery film directed by Roman Polanski from a screenplay by Robert Towne. The film stars Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. It was inspired by the California water wars, a series of disputes over southern California water at the beginning of the 20th century, by which Los Angeles interests secured water rights in the Owens Valley. The Robert Evans production, released by Paramount Pictures, was Polanski’s last film in the United States and features many elements of film noir, particularly a multi-layered story that is part mystery and part psychological drama.
Chinatown was released in the United States on June 20, 1974, to acclaim from critics. At the 47th Academy Awards, it was nominated for 11 Oscars, with Towne winning Best Original Screenplay. The Golden Globe Awards honored it for Best Drama, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Screenplay. The American Film Institute placed it second among its top ten mystery films in 2008. In 1991, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant”. It is also often cited as one of the greatest films of all time.
A sequel, The Two Jakes, was released in 1990, again starring Nicholson, who also directed, with Robert Towne returning to write the screenplay. The film failed to match the acclaim of its predecessor.
No compression issues: Why not get the best version of this around? Paramount really stepped up their 4k game, with the release of John Carpenters Escape from LA. Before then, a paltry set of releases set all hopes for its fantastic catalogue, to be deep dived for a 4K disc release, aside. After Escape, we have seen a slurry of great releases – some better than others in terms of picture quality (the underlying restorations are always fantastic, the compression on disc being the culprit).
And now, finally, we have Chinatown
Sorry folks, I’m going to have to be boring
The film looks and sounds amazing.
The 4K HDR Dolby Vision presentation is brilliant, not too harsh in overextending the colours.
Considering the film stock and speeds used, there is a great deal of dynamic range seen here (the difference between the darkest and lightest parts of the image, compared with the increased information [more discrete shades of colour being revealed]); when compared to the Blu Ray and DVD in SDR.
So your getting more then you’ve seen since the theatrical release in the US (as long as you saw a pretty pristine, brand new or around 4th/5th generation print).
The soundscape in 5.1 matches the integrity of the picture, for the range it covers; I would recommend it over the Mono in Dolby Digital. But the Mono is a welcome addition.
If you haven’t seen the film, your about the have an experiance that will stay with you forever
If you have seen it, you don’t need me to reiterate.
Please support this release, I doubt we will get its sequel in 4K (it deserves to be seen more, the Two Jakes – starring and directed by Jack Nicholson, how could anyone say No?), but we can hope to see many more classics released in the future
Stunning 4K! Well worth the upgrade. Picture looks stunning. I’d love an Atmos track, but the 5.1 DTS-HD services the movie well. The goodies that come with the 50 year edition 4K are a nice, fun touch, particularly the JJ Gittes business card.
Chinatown - 2024 4K Blu-ray release. The film itself probably requires little said, in its story of a 1930’s private eye hired by a rich socialite to investigate a supposedly unfaithful husband. From that simple beginning spins off a dizzyingly labyrinthine plot that gets darker and darker all the way to its famous final moments
Picture quality seems excellent and you get the 4K disc plus the standard Blu-ray.
Extras are plentiful but most are ported over from previous editions. You get a multipart series of featurettes on ‘Chinatown’ itself through production and legacy, you get the fascinating (though now a little out of date) documentary ‘Water & Power’ which covers the history of the city of Los Angeles and the ‘water wars’ with the Owens valley/Mulholland aqueduct which contextualises the story of ‘Chinatown’, plus a commentary by writer Robert Towne and David Fincher and a trailer. There’s also a new shorter featurette that runs about 15 mins but isn’t all that useful in comparison.
The set also includes several posters and art cards (the set of 6 postcards on their reverse you can use to create a map of the area of Los Angeles where the finale takes place).
The five stars is for the film and picture quality and the extras would warrant that as well if they weren’t all historical material.
![Chinatown 4K UHD [Blu-ray] [Region A & B & C]](https://k4s.uk/posts/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/81nP-3YXfYL.jpg)
A dark episode in LA’s History
The quality of the DVD was fine. As to the film itself I’ll leave the detailed criticism to others. I’ll just say if you have only seen the original version as broadcast then this version is worth watching.
Era defining Sunshine Noi
This 1974 alignment of great writing, acting and directing, drops you into flashy 1930’s Los Angeles and what lies beneath it. Nicholson as Jake Gittes PI snooping around the threads of murder, untangling big time corruption and dark family mess. The very hardest of hard boiled where badness wins and decency shrivels. Sharp Jack is our tour guide (he’s in every scene), as we get what LA is. A desert town killing off it’s violent Chinatown past off, priming for the baby boomers of the 50′ and 60’s and always onwards. The land of opportunity undressed.
No Clue what this movie is!
Wish I could give a good review here but I’ve never seen this movie! Bought this as a gift for my boss who’s a long time and big fan of this film. He was very very happy with the quality of all the extra collectibles, they’re all quite important to the film too apparently.
If you’re buying this as a gift for someone who loves the movie, go for it!
A true detective
is a 1974 American neo-noir mystery film directed by Roman Polanski from a screenplay by Robert Towne. The film stars Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. It was inspired by the California water wars, a series of disputes over southern California water at the beginning of the 20th century, by which Los Angeles interests secured water rights in the Owens Valley. The Robert Evans production, released by Paramount Pictures, was Polanski’s last film in the United States and features many elements of film noir, particularly a multi-layered story that is part mystery and part psychological drama.
Chinatown was released in the United States on June 20, 1974, to acclaim from critics. At the 47th Academy Awards, it was nominated for 11 Oscars, with Towne winning Best Original Screenplay. The Golden Globe Awards honored it for Best Drama, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Screenplay. The American Film Institute placed it second among its top ten mystery films in 2008. In 1991, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant”. It is also often cited as one of the greatest films of all time.
A sequel, The Two Jakes, was released in 1990, again starring Nicholson, who also directed, with Robert Towne returning to write the screenplay. The film failed to match the acclaim of its predecessor.
Classic film noir in briillant 4k a must own.
Paramount really stepped up their 4k game, with the release of John Carpenters Escape from LA. Before then, a paltry set of releases set all hopes for its fantastic catalogue, to be deep dived for a 4K disc release, aside. After Escape, we have seen a slurry of great releases – some better than others in terms of picture quality (the underlying restorations are always fantastic, the compression on disc being the culprit).
And now, finally, we have Chinatown
Sorry folks, I’m going to have to be boring
The film looks and sounds amazing.
The 4K HDR Dolby Vision presentation is brilliant, not too harsh in overextending the colours.
Considering the film stock and speeds used, there is a great deal of dynamic range seen here (the difference between the darkest and lightest parts of the image, compared with the increased information [more discrete shades of colour being revealed]); when compared to the Blu Ray and DVD in SDR.
So your getting more then you’ve seen since the theatrical release in the US (as long as you saw a pretty pristine, brand new or around 4th/5th generation print).
The soundscape in 5.1 matches the integrity of the picture, for the range it covers; I would recommend it over the Mono in Dolby Digital. But the Mono is a welcome addition.
If you haven’t seen the film, your about the have an experiance that will stay with you forever
If you have seen it, you don’t need me to reiterate.
Please support this release, I doubt we will get its sequel in 4K (it deserves to be seen more, the Two Jakes – starring and directed by Jack Nicholson, how could anyone say No?), but we can hope to see many more classics released in the future
Stunning 4K!
Well worth the upgrade. Picture looks stunning. I’d love an Atmos track, but the 5.1 DTS-HD services the movie well. The goodies that come with the 50 year edition 4K are a nice, fun touch, particularly the JJ Gittes business card.
Chinatown - 2024 4K Blu-ray release.
The film itself probably requires little said, in its story of a 1930’s private eye hired by a rich socialite to investigate a supposedly unfaithful husband. From that simple beginning spins off a dizzyingly labyrinthine plot that gets darker and darker all the way to its famous final moments
Picture quality seems excellent and you get the 4K disc plus the standard Blu-ray.
Extras are plentiful but most are ported over from previous editions. You get a multipart series of featurettes on ‘Chinatown’ itself through production and legacy, you get the fascinating (though now a little out of date) documentary ‘Water & Power’ which covers the history of the city of Los Angeles and the ‘water wars’ with the Owens valley/Mulholland aqueduct which contextualises the story of ‘Chinatown’, plus a commentary by writer Robert Towne and David Fincher and a trailer. There’s also a new shorter featurette that runs about 15 mins but isn’t all that useful in comparison.
The set also includes several posters and art cards (the set of 6 postcards on their reverse you can use to create a map of the area of Los Angeles where the finale takes place).
The five stars is for the film and picture quality and the extras would warrant that as well if they weren’t all historical material.