Chinatown & The Last Detail
~ Robert Towne - 9780802134011

Robert Towne is one of America's most influential screenwriters

His screenplays are revered in Hollywood, and his lines and scenes are quoted from memory by countless fans. Collected here are two of his most famous and critically acclaimed scripts - Chinatown and The Last Detail

Each earned Towne a nomination for an Academy Award

Chinatown follows a seedy private investigator, Jake Gittes, as he becomes embroiled in a case far more complicated than he ever imagined and uncovers a conspiracy reaching to the economic foundations of Los Angeles

The Last Detail is about the lost weekend odyssey of two Navy lifers, Buddusky and Mule who are assigned to escort a court-martialed recruit to prison. The film celebrates their determination to enjoy their taste of freedom as they try to postpone the moment when they have to face the inevitable

Released in the mid-1970s, these two movies revolutionised Hollywood film-making with scriptwriting that is political and uncompromising in language and event, and complex in design and execution