Chinatown

I have to break down a scene for my directing class and I'm doing a scene from Chinatown...I've watched this movie probably 12 times in my life. The first 3 or so, I was just trying to piece together the mystery and picked up on the perverse sexuality issues going on. The next 3 times I viewed it through the lens of a historical fiction, a fictional re-telling of the Catillac Desert, the story of how Los Angeles was born. The next 3 times I paid attention to the way the movie was filmed, with this arid dry look and great period costumes and Jack Nicholson's cut nose. These last 3 times I've watched the movie as a slapstick comedy. Every scene practically has an awkward, funny joke....that you never laugh at the first couple times watching the film because the subject matter is so dark and the music and tone of the entire film goes against being obvious for comedy. But it's freaking hilarious...the scene I'm doing is when Jack is caught looking at the farmer's oranges and he gets knocked out by the farmers...

The dialog:

I was hired by Evelyn Mulray.

Mulray. That's the sum-bitch who dun it to us.

Mulray's dead. You don't know what you're talking about, you dumb Okie.

The farmers jump Jack, but he kicks one in the balls, who squeals around hopping like a pig, while the other clubs him with his crutch.

Other hilarious scenes: At the old folks home an old man is rubbing the butt of the nurse. When Jack gets his nose cut, he asks Muldaville where he met the migdet. When trying to reveal to Jack the who the girl she is hiding is, Faye is crying with deep tears and lowers her head, honking the horn. The movie is a freaking comedy.