Mise en scene is masterful

This film does a brilliant job of evoking a location. Probably one of the top ten US films in terms of mise en scene.
I would go as far as comparing to Japanese master Kurosawa and his day time film noir High and Low in it's capturing 3 dimensional geography,the urban environs, and translating it to the 2d big screen.
The other film noir I would compare it to is Polanski's Chinatown. Another film shows off the geography of a place,this time Manhattan, is Naked City. Also the ultimate noir masterpiece,shoot in crumbling postwar Vienna: Third Man- the genre Outdid itself at birth with this film.

"Trees cause more pollution than automobiles." Ronald Reagan