Chinatown

Private eye Jake Gittes lives off of the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together.

Chinatown is the most perfect neo-noir ever filmed. Towne's screenplay is a masterpiece of precision, and its ending is the darkest and most honest in American genre cinema. Jack Nicholson delivers the finest performance of his classic career.