Paper Summary:

This paper reviews and compares the male protagonists of Roman Polanski's 'Chinatown' (1974) and Elia Kazan's 'On the Waterfront' (1954). The paper discusses their evolved understandings of themselves in relation to their community.

From the Paper:

"While Roman Polanski's main character J.J. Gittes, as a detached, objective, and dispassionate private detective becomes involved, against his better judgment, with some members of the surrounding community as he works his case in Chinatown, Terry Malloy, on the other hand, in Elia Kazan's film On the Waterfront (1954), is, as a poor waterfront lackey on the docks of New York, integrally connected with, and related, in terms of both blood shared hardship, to members of his waterfront community right from the start. Further, Malloy himself, unlike the main character J.J. Gittes in Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974) is someone directly oppressed by the corrupt municipal power structure that controls his working life. used, In that sense, then, Malloy's own hardship and suffering is his community's hardship and suffering as well. J.J. Gittes, on the other hand, is (although Gittes does, little by little, become emotionally involved with other characters due to the many injustices and victimization he sees) more detached."

Sample of Sources Used:

• ""California Water Wars." Wikipedia. April 29, 2006. Retrieved May 17, 2006,from: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Water_Wars.html>. "Chinatown (film)" Wikipedia. May 16, 2006. Retrieved May 17, 2006,rom: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown_(film),html>. Dirks, Tim. Chinatown (1974). Top 100 Greatest Films. 2006. Retrieved May 17, 2006, from: <http://www.filmsite.org/chin.html>. Kazan, Elia. On the Waterfront. With Marlon Brando and Lee J. Cobb. Columbia, 1954. Polanski, Roman. Chinatown. With Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. Paramount, 1974.

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