Watch: Video Essay Explores The Tragedy Of Roman Polanski's 'Chinatown'

Even though it was made decades after the golden age of film noir, “Chinatown” is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, example of the genre. Much has been written about the film’s adherence to the rules of film noir. In fact, Robert Towne’s masterfully plotted screenplay, considered to be one of the best in film history, is usually the first script that film students are asked to study when dissecting the noir style and formula. But like many other masterpieces, “Chinatown” works in various layers, and it’s as much of a perfectly telegraphed and surprisingly typical Greek tragedy as it is a prototypical film noir. It turns out that Towne and director Roman Polanski’s influences for the story go a couple of millennia further back from the 1940s.

READ MORE: 5 Things You Might Not Know About Roman Polanski's 'Chinatown'

Perhaps since the classical tragedy angle of "Chinatown" is not mentioned as much as its command of noir, the good folks at Filmscalpel have...