Among its myriad alluring – and lurid – contradictions, Chinatown is overtly stylish yet understated, depicting inveterate moral decay and corruption so matter-of-factly that Huston’s emphatic refusal to accept any blame... makes your skin crawl.

In its total recapturing of a past, in its plot, its vivid characterizations, its carefully calculated and accelerating pace, its whole demonstration of a medium mastered, Chinatown reminds you again that motion pictures are larger, not smaller than life.

The film, set in the thirties, from a script by Robert Towne, is wickedly skillful, funny, and socially alert.

...a progressively enthralling piece of work that admittedly takes its time in wholeheartedly grabbing the viewer’s attention...