While crime films touch on the worst of humanity, some of the movies from the gritty genre make for an incredible viewing experience. Collider recently released a list that spotlighted some of the most acclaimed films from the crime genre.
The ranking, titled “The 10 Best Crime Movies in Film History,” included hit movies like Goodfellas (1990), Fargo (1996), and Pulp Fiction (1994). The publication put the Oscar-nominated film Chinatown (1974), which stars Jack Nicholson as J.J. “Jake” Gittes, at the list’s top spot. According to Collider, the Roman Polanski-directed movie deserves the title of the “best crime movie in film history,” largely due to its intense and dark screenplay, written by Robert Towne.
Chinatown holds a score of 98 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and a 92 on Metacritic.
Robert Towne Discussed Writing ‘Chinatown’
In a behind-the-scenes interview about the making of Chinatown, Towne, who died in 2024 at the age of 89, noted that the movie is quite different from a typical crime film. As opposed to being “about heists, jewels, weird crimes of one kind or another,” Chinatown takes a look at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
“That was unusual,” said Towne, who won the Oscar for Best Screenplay for Chinatown at the 1975 Academy Awards.
Towne also noted that the character Evelyn Cross-Mulwray, played by Faye Dunaway, went against the audience’s expectations of a female lead in a mystery movie.
“The classic female in noir films is a black widow. The Faye Dunaway character, in a way, is a character, who gives you those expectations as being potentially that, but in fact, she’s the heroine of the movie. In fact, she’s the one person in the film that is operating out of decent and selfless motives,” said Towne during the behind-the-scenes interview.
In addition, Towne shared that he wrote the character of Jake with Nicholson “in mind.”
“His temperament, his manner, and the way he uses language, all of it was part of the inspiration for the character,” said Towne.
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