Regrets, bitter sweet memories, nostalgia, a pain that you don't want to escape, frustrated desire, a prayer whispered within your soul...these are the states that this soundrack trigger in me
@@alankirkby465 "Chinatown", like Polanski's other supreme masterpiece "Rosemary's Baby", is about a certain "experience" when one gets a taste of the hell that exists on earth behind the scenes. Many people go through this "experience" to various degrees and it's very specific in a way, so those who have been through "it" might relate to what I'm talking about here.
I'm going through a painful breakup at the moment and you described it perfectly, this is the soundtrack I've been listening to as it perfectly reflects the pain & regrets.
Totally. And I have a third movie theme. Listen sometime to David Raksin's theme from the 50's film The Bad & the Beautiful. Complex, haunting, masterful.
+Cosmic Dingo You might be right. Robert Towne wrote an alternative ending, a complex one, but Polanski wanted the shock effect, in the director's words, " If everything is wrapped up in a happy ending, just because the merchandizing people prefer it, the audience leaves and forget[s] about the problem right over dinner."
Just finished reading "The Big Goodbye," about the making of Chinatown. Producer Robert Evans, unhappy with Director Roman Polanski's choice of a music composer, showed up on Jerry Goldsmith's door step and asked the composer to "save my life." Goldsmith had the Chinatown score recorded in a week.
@@tedthompson7770 Being able to have feelings about music is a blessing that you, I and our peers in this comment string share. We are truly fortunate!
Jerry Goldsmith was a f……ing musical genius. No one else could have come up with an amazing score like this. “Chinatown” would not have been anywhere near the film masterpiece without this score.
Whenever I listen to this music I sense profound sadness, irretrievable nostalgia, a feeling of unforgiveness of past events. And so much more actually... I just love it.
I have to admit I was sad at the end of Chinatown and hearing this bittersweet nostalgic music made me cry seeing jake walk off into the distance when he just lost Evelyn
This is the sound of old Los Angeles as it was fading away, echos of better times gone forever...feeling the soft mist gently blowing in from the ocean...sitting up in Griffith Park, looking at the lights and wishing she was there beside you...
Did you know he played this all sightread after two weeks off playing trumpet and going to a football camp, he had no idea what the music was going to be
I was 12 when I first heard this in 76 when it was on tv. Couldn’t find it in a record store. It was way before the internet. So magical hearing it now as an extended version.
Goldsmith's genius is not that he wrote the whole score in ten days. Instead, it is that this theme so completely and thoroughly and perfectly evokes the spirit and atmosphere of the film itself! How'd he do it?
This is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard - at once romantic and heartbreaking, and thus so fitting for this tragic mystery romance. Uan Rasey has the most beautiful tone I"ve ever heard and I am a big fan of horns -- he needs to be famous. Just absolutely beautiful.
My dad was a studio trumpeter in L.A., and Uan was a good friend of his. In fact, I think he was everyone's friend... Uan was that kind of person: unfailingly warm, kind and positive. He had polio as a child and spent most of his life on crutches, but it didn't affect his attitude or his music one bit. He was a remarkable guy.
I just discovered that the musician who played the trumpet in the “Chinatown” theme was named Uan Rasey, who died at the age of 90 in 2011. Beautiful trumpet playing!
Uan was also a great friend and teacher, and a truly noble human being. He spent much of his life using crutches to walk, and yet he did not waste time feeling sorry for himself, instead playing beautifully and working hard at his music. I understand he was a very good friend to my trombone teacher, and those students of his I know all say he was a wonderful teacher. We all loved Uan, and he just seemed a natural in every way.
Still my favorite movie, everything in it is just perfect, acting, story, dialogue, costumes, production design, and of course the music, just fantastic!
"Chinatown" is a supreme masterpiece. Easily one of the top 5 greatest films ever made in all of cinema history. "Chinatown" is almost too real. And here's a secret truth about "Chinatown": it actually deeply connects to "Rosemary's Baby". When you understand that "Rosemary's Baby" and "Chinatown" are essentially about the same thing you understand what Polanski's art is exposing. It's the same dark depths of power and nihilism, the same gradual trip of almost innocent disbelief down the rabbit hole into the other world behind the world, the Jungian Shadow acted out in reality, a realm of almost surrealistic horror, too evil and grotesque to fathom until it's too late. The violations of trust, the shattering of faith and good will, the nightmare that lurks just below the thin veil of normalcy, the psychopaths and the webs they weave... they can be anybody, even the people closest to you, who suddenly become distrustful. Those harmless friendly old nextdoor neighbors, your struggling actor husband who wants so badly to make it in the world, a woman you meet almost by greater destiny whom you fall in love with and seek to help and protect until you find out her hidden truths. Who can be trusted? What really goes on behind the scenes when we're not looking? And is there any point in the end? Polanski doesn't just capture the nature of ordinary life, he captures the secrets of life that only get discovered when one wanders too close to the edge. Polanski's films are about monstrous conspiracies, rooted in pure evil that cannot even be humanized or explained because it hides in the shadows. The final scene of "Chinatown" is one of the most horrifying, disturbing, pessimistic, haunting scenes in cinema history. Like "Rosemary's Baby" it ends with an unrelenting look at the truth, finally exposed in a soul-eating nausea. The monsters remove their masks and their true faces underneath are too ugly to behold, yet they are witnessed regardless. In "Chinatown" it's ultimately an expressionist shout with nobody to hear, and it reverberates tragically out into eternity, like a cyclic awakening from a dream, the fatalistic endpoint of all roads of unknown destiny.
it can be explained. you said it yourself. it lies in the shadows. the shadow of the people, yourself. people get pushed, and that can end bad. the more pain you feel, no matter if you know it or not, the more you walk to the endge of the abyss. looking down, seeing others in the same state like you. or even worse. its bittersweet, and hell. ps: i like your text. very beautyful and moving.
He's a lot like Will Smith, really screwed up childhood came back to haunt them professionally and socially. Polanski was a great director in his prime.
This is one of the best pieces of cinematic critique I’ve ever read. Every filmmaker and critic should read this. You should forward to Polanski’s, Towne’s and Nicholson’s agents.
"The Pianist" and "The Death And The Maiden" are obvious additions to the list of one of the greatest directors ever (along with Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese). Intelligent drama or even comedy rarely if ever means happy endings, 'cause there always will be difference between adult fiction and fairytales (Top Gun! Die Hard! etc).
Just love the jazz scores they played in these 70s classic films...... they had some in Klute (1971) and Kansas City Bomber (1972). The tunes will make ya cry.....
Just os haunting, beautiful, nuanced, the perfect bridge between the fleeting moments of love and happiness... they just don't make 'em like this anymore.
Mr. Polanski changed that final scene the night prior to filming. Originally Ms. Dunaway’s character shoots & kills her rapist father,,it rainstorms ending the drought and she & the Jake character lives happily ever after.
not only its more shocking but its actually more realistic most of these things happen now and more back in the day but nirmally these kind of situations never see tye light of day in the news
Very few competitors: "On The Beach" (1959), "Fail-Safe" (1964), "Dr. Strangelove" (1964), "The Witchfinder General" (1968), "Don't Look Now" (1973), "The Wicker Man" (1973), "The Parallax View" (1974), "The Stepford Wives" (1975)... These came to mind atm.
i first heard this at the end of a simpsons episode, and have yet to see the film chinatown. its a sound that has been in my mind for as long as i can remember. easily the most beautiful piece of music to have graced my ears. the trumpet is absurd. the strings manipulate your mind.
Wonderful music! I always picture Jack Nicholson, Faye Runaway in that great movie every time I hear this song. Jerry Goldsmith really came through on this! Bravo!
I cannot think of a finer movie of its kind: the ultimate film noir accompanied by GREAT acting and the finest musical score (a score that bespeaks the nature of the film). It is PURE INSANITY that this picture did NOT win BEST PICTURE -- way better than GODFATHER PART II which wasn't a bad picture.
This haunting theme was so well written and well mixed into the film that until I bought the album I couldn't quite recall the music just walking out of the theater.
I like both films tremendously and I enjoyed Chinatown better on my first watch but if I put the two movies side by side, The Godfather Part II had awesome acting, especially from John Cazale, who wasn't nominated for an Oscar.
Why even concern yourself with how many dislikes there are? Kids, and some older folk that should know better, go scrolling through videos disliking everything they see. Pay them no mind, I say.
This is not just music, this is Uan Rasey, one of the most amazing trumpet players, who makes all of us feel what we feel! PS He contracted polio as a child and spent his career playing trumpet while using crutches. Check him out people!
The most fascinating and the most beautiful musical composition that we did for a noir film (with a very particular atmosphere) in all the history of the cinema, especially this short passage with the sax and piano ballad, the main theme is Pure Genius we find ourselves transported into the violent and dark atmosphere of these 1920s, chaotic like the private office that tries to get laid and to scrape crumbs in the process and get by without too much breakage.
This is a perfect score. Jerry Goldsmith is always sorta pitted as a runner up for Hollywood's greatest composer next to Johnny Williams, but with this it supersedes Williams sound. He couldn't have done it better if he tried. This is reflective of the period, noir yet is ethereal and timeless. Its music that represents an emotion.
He's so much more versatile then Williams and I'm a big John Williams fan. Although it's mostly comparing apples to oranges, if anyone listens to Goldsmith's work over the entirety of his career, he's the better composer. Hands down IMO. His arrangements are more complex, experimental and innovative.
Sums up all the evil and the hurt we get from life and then crumples me into a ball as I linger in loneliness, foregoing the thought that someone special could take it all away but no, no the shadows won't go and we just have to cry. :(
No matter how many times I listen to this music, I never get tired of it. It is so beautiful and mesmerizing. Always puts you in a great state of mind!🎶
That piano pierces through everything else that makes the song feel soft and dream-like. It makes it something more than just a traditional noir theme.
I remember I had to play this for trumpet, and I listened to this music before watching the film. I thought the music was extremely beautiful and peaceful and I thought this was for a happy scene. After watching the movie, this music always gives me the chills.
Tonight I worked up the courage to ask out a great friend of mine after not having seen her for a while. We held each others' hands and she told me that, in my absence, she had been accepted to a school out-of-state. I was okay until I got to my car and this track played on my CD. I had to cry just a little bit after that.
I’ve heard quite a few covers of this song and it’s always so emotionally resonant, just a beautiful piece of music. It doesn’t matter who plays it, the notes still hold the same power.
Gracias, gracias, gracias. Considero que este es uno de los temas musicales de cine más conmovedores y que más se ajustan al film que representan. El clima de enorme melancolía que genera es increíble. Gran creación de Jerry Goldsmith. Por otra parte, la interpretación del trompetista Uan Rasey es, simplemente... extraordinaria. Gracias, muchas gracias por este video. Saludos desde Argentina.
+Ralph Dratman ¡Qué bueno encontrar gente con tu sensibilidad Ralph!, me alegro que coincidamos en el gusto por este maravilloso tema y su interpretación. ¡Ah!, y de paso te comento que tu apellido (aunque distinto) me recordó al personaje protagonista de un famoso cuento de Jorge Luis Borges ("El Sur"); el personaje se llamaba Juan Dahlmann. Saludos
