Robert Towne is DEAD TO ME

You beat me to it. I was just about to post this.

RIP to one of the greatest screenwriters in Hollywood history.

"Chinatown" is one of my all time favorite movies. RIP

[quote] "Chinatown" is one of my all time favorite movies. RIP

I already forgot about it.

Whew. I thought this said Robert Townsend at first. RIP to this talented guy.

His dog was nominated for an oscar.

My sister, my daughter.

Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown.

RIP and fuck AI.

[quote] My sister, my daughter.

My sister AND my daughter!

AI can be fun.

If Chinatown hadn't been competing with The Godfather Part II it would have won. They were both excellent.

The useless AI asshole is back with more vomit. Time to block another of his socks.

Or three is more like it.

Oh god I blocked the AI freak and he was the OP! I knew I should’ve posted my Robert Towne thread instead.

She's my sister *and* a dessert topping!

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. People see Towne’s name on Chinatown and assume the writing credit is clean. Far from it.

Towne had this grand story of the movie being about how the old Los Angeles was being destroyed by the new. He wrote that story to some extent but his friend Edward Taylor wrote at least half of the screenplay — certainly more than Towne did.

Then Polanski got it and realized it was completely unworkable as a movie. He made MASSIVE changes. The final screenplay not only changed most of the words, but the story as well. In Towne’s story, Evelyn shoots her father and gets custody of her sister/daughter.

Let’s face it. Towne is basically completely absent from what you see on the screen.

Oh, bonus points — Towne was an evil, vindictive, spiteful asshole of a man. I’m glad he’s dead.

Oh dear R16 we really missed your remarkable insight and analysis. Do share them, I know the Cahiers du Cinéma will be dripping with envy.

[quote]Towne was an evil, vindictive, spiteful asshole of a man. I’m glad he’s dead.

I’m not saying you’re wrong, I bought the book about Chinatown that came out a few years ago but never read it, but

That’s a little weirdly personal and malevolent don’t you think? Did he get you fired as Sherry Lansing’s assistant or something?

[quote]Towne was an evil, vindictive, spiteful asshole of a man. I’m glad he’s dead.

He hit 𝙢𝙚 in the head with a fondue pot.

Chocolate or cheese?

His reputation was always mixed within the industry.

"The Big Goodbye" portrays him as a degenerate drug-addict with serious issues with women. Peter Biskind's "Star" depicts him as perpetually in debt due to his substance abuse. Tom Cruise hired Towne for "Mission: Impossible" and De Palma found him to be undependable. His (pre-rewritten) script for the first "Mission: Impossible" and his final script for "Mission: Impossible II" is filled with these bizarre misogynistic asides.

That said, with the exception of his ex-wife, all of these sources are known assholes themselves. Towne has written or rewritten too many great films to be cast aside. Even Towne at his worst is capable of writing excellent dialogue.

And he usually tried to find an unusual and distinct dramatic trajectory to just about every film he made. You don't even need to examine "Chinatown", but look at "Without Limits" - a sports film not about winning (or even "the big race") but about an attitude to life.

Oh, and he wrote this scene - a sequence that manages to be an identifiable and heart-warming father-son bonding while also being a horrifying statement of power.

"We'll get there, pop. We'll get there."

[quote] Even Towne at his worst is capable of writing excellent dialogue.

Not anymore.

[Quote] You don't even need to examine "Chinatown",

In fact, you really shouldn’t, as his writing credit on that is basically a fraud, lol.

[quote] lol

LoL! :)

In addition to "Chinatown," a masterpiece, I liked "The Last Detail" and thought "Greystoke" was kind of fun. I found a few of the movies he directed, "Personal Best," "Tequila Sunrise," and "Ask the Dust" (based on an excellent novel), to be completely underwhelming--"Maybe he should never have got out from behind his Smith-Corona."

R18, I heard this is covered in great detail in the book The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood. I need to read it.

Interestingly, "Chinatown" is celebrated as one of the greatest screenplays in Hollywood history, but it was mostly Polanski's revisions that made it the celebrated classic.

Chinatown could have only been made by Roman Polanski like Rosemary’s Baby could have only been made by Polanski. Someone from behind the Iron Curtain who could see the things Americans hid from themselves. The misery behind a young middle-class marriage with its Western conveniences and amusements; the corruption spilling out of every promise of civic progress in its government. The ability of evil to carry on in plain sight when “success” or “progress” was involved. And of course Polanski himself gave himself to.

Polanski is/was a superior director.

"Chinatown" was very much a collaboration.

Polanski might be one of the greatest living filmmakers, but he became more of a sculptor of other's material in the latter part of his career - adapting fiction, non-fiction and plays to the screen than formulating his own original screenplays.

His worst film might be "What?" - which he made just prior to "Chinatown" - and is very much his own vision.

Polanski may have cut down and reshaped Towne's drafts, but he needed the material in the first place.

Plus Robert Evans himself intervened in post-production to reject Phillip Lambro's score and hire Jerry Goldsmith.

Do we really think the film would have been better without Goldsmith?

Nope.

Chinatown works so well in part because Goldsmith used the musical cues of a horror movie. His greatest score, Planet of the Apes, did as well.

[Quote] Polanski may have cut down and reshaped Towne's drafts, but he needed the material in the first place.

Yes and it was good of Ed Taylor to provide it (without demanding a writing credit).