HELP: What is the line before the famous last line?
Gotta be an important line, but I don't remember it.
shareGotta be an important line, but I don't remember it.No reason the previous lines should be important. Jake's second to last line is 'As little as possible' then it's just a succession of 'Go home Jake's and 'Get him outta here's until the big final line. The official second to last line is just the last line of that unmemorable tho' essential filler: 'C'mon Jake'. share
Ah. Pity.
shareBut what does Jake mean by "....as little as possible"? I love the movie, sorry to be kind of dense.
shareChinatown is a metaphor for a world that is irretrievably, pervasively corrupt. Jake's boss told him, when he was a cop working Chinatown, to do "as little as possible" - nothing he did was going to make any difference there. It's a nihilistic POV that the ending shatteringly hits home.
Jake's spent the whole movie doing as much as possible to find out who set him up to investigate Mulwray, then who murdered him, then who's behind the massive real estate scam he uncovers. The result is Evelyn's horrible death. If he'd looked the other way, she would still be alive. His last comment affirms the futility of fighting the powerful, whom the movie sees as intrinsically corrupt.
Thank you, roreyking. What a great answer!
shareIf I may expand upon roryking's explanation: it speaks to the Chinatown symbolism, but it goes both further and deeper.
On Evelyn's terrace, Jake has told her he used to work in Chinatown.
EVELYN: "What were you doing there?"
JAKE: "Working for the District Attorney."
EVELYN: "Doing what?"
JAKE: "As little as possible."
EVELYN: "The District Attorney gives his men advice like that?"
JAKE: "They do in Chinatown."
Later, in bed, Jake reluctantly reveals the very personal meaning that "advice" has for him: "I was trying to keep someone from being hurt, and ended up making sure that she was hurt."
As Noah had told Jake, "You may think you know what you're dealing with, but believe me, you don't," and Jake himself tells Evelyn, "You can't always tell what's goin' on." And then, employing some heavy foreshadowing tying Evelyn herself to the metaphor, the script has Jake add, "Like with you."
So it isn't merely a matter of nothing he could do making any difference, it's that his own actions, just as with "the last time" in Chinatown, have helped bring about tragedy. As he repeats "As little as possible" to no one but himself, it's a reminder of the very lesson he's failed to heed.
Poe! You are...avenged!
Thank you, Doghouse-6. This is why I love these message boards. I love this movie, I think it's just brilliant and I NEVER would have gotten all the meanings of those words without you all's help.
shareIt's like a complexly woven tapestry of repeating or complementary motifs and patterns, in which every thread connects to every other in some way. Absolutely nothing is without meaning or purpose, nor is anything wasted.
And still, with all that, it leaves portions of the weave obscured by presenting questions that remain unanswered; for instance, was Hollis killed over the dam and land swindles or Katherine...or both? The beauty of the construction is that the answer doesn't matter; regardless of which a viewer should settle upon to their satisfaction, any answer leads to the same outcome. And in this way, anyone watching the film, for the first time or the 20th, is in the position of playing detective along with Jake by contemplating those questions even after the film's over.
Brilliant indeed.
Poe! You are...avenged!
...it's that his own actions, just as with "the last time" in Chinatown, have helped bring about tragedy.
Hello? That’s what I said: “If he'd looked the other way, she would still be alive.” share
You omitted a key phrase: "...it isn't merely a matter of nothing he could do making any difference..."
The distinction I'm drawing there is between the futility of not making any difference and the role he played in bringing about the outcome: his own actions did make a difference, and the very opposite of the one intended.
Poe! You are...avenged!
The distinction I'm drawing there is between the futility of not making any difference and the role he played in bringing about the outcome
Which again is just what I said: "“If he'd looked the other way, she would still be alive.” LOL! share
I don't want to beat the thing to death, but as long as you consider it an issue, what I'm pointing out are the differences in your competing narratives:
- "If he'd looked the other way, she would still be alive."
- "...nothing he did was going to make any difference there. It's a nihilistic POV..."
One has her alive if Jake had done nothing; the other has her dead no matter what.
And what I was emphasizing in my reply to prairiesage is that, to Jake, there's a difference between being unable to prevent her death - the "futility" in a "nihilistic POV" to which you referred in your first post - and having an active role in bringing it about.
To put a finer point on it: the difference between despair and guilt.
Poe! You are...avenged!
His last comment affirms the futility of fighting the powerful, whom the movie sees as intrinsically corrupt
Movie lines often apply to real life, real time, real people situations.
Your analysis sums it up beautifully. share