The Two Jakes
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The Two Jakes | |
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Directed by | Jack Nicholson |
Produced by | Robert Evans Harold Schneider |
Written by | Robert Towne |
Starring | Jack Nicholson Madeleine Stowe Harvey Keitel |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date(s) | August 10, 1990 (USA) |
Running time | 138 min |
Language | English |
Preceded by | Chinatown |
IMDb profile |
The Two Jakes is the sequel to the 1974 movie Chinatown. Directed by and starring Jack Nicholson, it also stars Harvey Keitel, Meg Tilly, Madeleine Stowe, Richard Farnsworth, Frederic Forrest, David Keith, Ruben Blades, Tracey Walter and Eli Wallach. Also appearing in the movie to reprise their roles from Chinatown are Joe Mantell, Perry Lopez, James Hong and, in a brief cameo, Faye Dunaway. It was released by Paramount Pictures on August 10, 1990. The film was neither a box office nor a critical success. Plans for a third movie about the character of J.J. Gittes near the end of his life have at this time been abandoned.
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[edit] Plot summary
Los Angeles, 1948. Jake Berman has hired private investigator Jake "J.J." Gittes to catch his wife in the act of committing adultery. During the sting, Berman shoots the man who turns out to be his partner in a real estate company. Gittes, now under intense scrutiny for his unwitting part in the crime, must figure out if it was justifiable homicide or murder and how it connects with California's booming oil industry as well as his own past after he stumbles upon a wire recording during the investigation that mentions Katherine Mulwray, the daughter of Faye Dunaway's ill-fated character from Chinatown.
[edit] Trivia
- Screenwriter Robert Towne originally planned a trilogy of movies involving private investigator J.J. Gittes. The third movie, called Cloverleaf was to take place in the 1950s and concerned the creation of the L.A. Freeway.[1]
- Originally, producer Robert Evans was to the play the "second" Jake but Towne, who was going to direct the film at that time, did not think he was the right choice and fired him. Nicholson ended up directing the film and not Towne.