BOOKS: The Big Goodbye: Sam Wasson

Published 10:00 am Saturday, February 22, 2020

“Chinatown” is a 1970s film classic set in a gritty, detective, drought-noir nightmare of 1930s Los Angeles.

Directed by Roman Polanski, written by Robert Towne, produced by Robert Evans and starring Jack Nicholson, “Chinatown” won only one Oscar for its screenplay but is still hailed by many critics as one of the best films of all time.

“Chinatown” is a film that delves into corruption and sin, a town built on the successful bad intentions of evil men to divert water for a property scheme, on the lies the daughter of one of those men tells others and often herself and a detective whose soul may possibly drown in both.

Sam Wasson gloms onto that story and the film’s prestige with an almost omnipresent vitality in his book, “The Big Goodbye.” It is a book worthy of the film.

He delves into Polanski’s shattered state of mind having survived the Holocaust and then the brutal murder of his wife, actress Sharon Tate, to the Manson carnage, as well as the later case that caused him to run from the law and spend the past several decades a fugitive overseas.

Wasson pieces together the saga of Towne writing the script. Saga is the appropriate term for the development of the script.

Nicholson is still the pre-“Shining” Jack here. The Jack Nicholson who was the versatile star of movies such as “Chinatown,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “The Last Detail,” “Carnal Knowledge,” “The King of Marvin Gardens,” “Five Easy Pieces,” “Easy Rider.” The Nicholson before the eyebrow waggling, imp-smiling caricature he later ran the risk of becoming.

Wasson tells the story of artists climbing the summit to greatness as well as their denouement after the film.

“Chinatown” ends with the memorable line, “Forget it, Jake, it’s Chinatown.” If interested in the film, it may be Chinatown, but don’t forget this book.