Chinatown is a dry film - devoid of both water and hope. It’s also a film that contains one of my favorite villains, ever. He doesn’t have any powers or abilities - he isn’t even a Joker-style manipulator of chaos with the ability to plan eight steps ahead. No, the antagonist of this film, Noah Cross, is such a fantastic villain because he’s real. He represents the true evildoers in our world: the people who care about nothing but what they can own and the magnitude of the mark they’ll leave after they're gone.

He rapes his own daughter to leave a mark on her, so she’ll never be able to forget him. He plunders all the water from his state to leave a mark on it, ensuring that future generations will remember that he was the man who did it. He doesn’t show any remorse for his actions, not even trying to justify them. He says that in the right time and at the right place, anyone would be capable of doing exactly what he did. He’s a textbook sociopath, caring only about his legacy. Even when our idealistic hero, Jake Gittes, points out that there’s nothing more on the planet that Cross could own and asks him in exasperation WHAT more he could possibly want, Cross grins and declares, “The future, Mr. Gittes! The future.” It's worth noting that Cross intentionally misprounounces Gittes' name as "Gitts", another tactic to demean the man and show his ownership of the situation.

Noah Cross displays no empathy for his victims throughout the film. This is exemplified early on, when it’s revealed that he eats his fish dinner with the head still on the fish. The eyes looking up at its killer don’t seem to bother Cross as he takes a bite out of its flesh, and neither is he bothered by his “granddaughter’s” screams of horror when abducting her, even though she just saw him murder her mother in cold blood. He’s still smiling and acting like he did nothing wrong.

Perhaps the worst part of this entire film is that Cross’ only protection, the only thing stopping him from being punished by his multitudes of unabashed cruelties, is the society that he himself is destroying. The law offers no recourse to Jake to stop this monster, and the best thing Jake can do to solve the problem, is to “forget it”.

You should all watch this film if you haven't yet. It's truly one of the best films ever shot and I give you my word that you'll be moved by it.