THE TWO JAKES
1990,
Paramount,
137 min,
USA,
Dir: Jack Nicholson
The follow-up to one of the most acclaimed films of the 1970s, THE TWO JAKES picks up a decade after CHINATOWN ended, with private eye Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) still shadowing unfaithful spouses. At least that’s how the job starts out when Julius “Jake” Berman (Harvey Keitel) hires him. In the sting operation to catch the guy his wife is cheating with, Berman ends up shooting the man - who just happens to be his business partner. Now Gittes must figure out if the shots were fired in rage or if he’s been deliberately set up as an accomplice to murder. From the same producer (Robert Evans) and screenwriter (Robert Towne) as the original, THE TWO JAKES digs into the dirt of Southern California’s oil industry much like CHINATOWN dug into the secrets of Los Angeles’ water table.