Robert Towne, Chinatown, and the Bewitchments of 'Tone'

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Date

2006

Authors

Cameron, Evan Wm.

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Abstract

Screenwriters during the 'studio era' were required to work in sequence upon the screenplays of movies. After the studios collapsed, however, they were obliged increasingly to work alone, many striving to secure above all what Robert Towne was to call the 'tone' of a movie – the 'feel' of its scenes. Towne wrote the screenplay for CHINATOWN, released in 1974, and among the most acclaimed movies of the last half of the twentieth-century. The ending of CHINATOWN, however, lacks power, as he acknowledged. Why? Because the scenes before it, when encountered in sequence, fail to cohere. Within this essay I unpack the weaknesses of the 'story' of CHINATOWN, concluding that screenwriters ought to avoid working alone, especially if bewitched by 'tone'.

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Keywords

Bonnie and Clyde (Motion picture), Chase, Borden, Chekov, Anton, Chinatown (Motion picture), Cliff, Montgomery, Cooper, Gary, Double Indemnity (Motion picture), Duryea, Dan, Filmmaking, Godfather (Motion picture), Ireland, John, Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer, Lancaster, Burt, Last Detail (Motion picture), Lubitsch, Ernst, Maltese falcon (Motion picture : 1941), Marathon man (Motion picture), Polanski, Roman, Postman always rings twice (Motion picture : 1981), Raphaelson, Samson, Riskin, Robert, Room with a view (Motion picture), Screenwriting, Screenwriting, History of, Screenwriting, Teaching of, Stewart, Jimmy, Tone (of scenes), Towne, Robert, Two Jakes (Motion picture), Wayne, John, Winchester '73 (Motion picture), Zanuck, Darryl, Cameron, Evan

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