Roman Polanski directed this film set in 1940's Los Angeles before his wife, Sharon Tate was murdered by Charles Manson's Family' and before he fled the country to avoid charges of statutory rape of an under-aged starlet. Jack Nicholson plays a detective who is dragged into the middle of a mystery too large and too strange to describe. Along the way he encounters Faye Dunaway and John Huston and receives a nasty wound from director Roman Polanski. Lots has been said about the direction of Roman Polanski and the acting of Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway and John Huston in this classic (and I don't mean to diminish their accomplishments here at all) but major credit has to go to Jerry Goldsmith for the music, John A. Alonzo for cinematography, and Richard Sylbert for art direction. When you look at lists of best movies written by most critics you are bound to run into some that may be classics but are just plain boring, this isn't one of those. It's a classic film that is also a great movie!
