What is the meaning of the line at the end of Chinatown

Question

At the end of the amazing film Chinatown (nominated for 11 oscars, won only one incredibly), Jake Gittes is told, 'Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown'.

What are supposed to deduce from this? Is it that Jake is powerless to prevent or challenge what had just occurred?

Is it that horrible things like this happen all the time in Chinatown and therefore nobody cares?

Answer 1

I believe the author left it up to interpretation, as I didn't find an "official" answer on the web.

There's a FAQ on IMDB about a similar question, though the answer doesn't source anything.

What is the meaning of "Chinatown" and the last line of the movie?

As a young man, Jake was a police officer in Chinatown. He once tried to protect a woman, but as a direct result of his intervention, she was "hurt" (an implication that the woman died). As a result, Jake became cynical and apathetic. Over the course of his investigation in the film, Jake again tries to protect a woman, and once again, she is killed as a direct result of his intervention."Forget it, Jake; it's Chinatown" is an encouragement to Jake to forget this set of circumstances, just as he "forgot" the circumstances surrounding his time in Chinatown. The dramatic irony of this is that the viewer knows that Jake has never forgotten what happened in Chinatown, and that he will probably never forget the events depicted in the movie, inevitably leading to him becoming even more cynical and apathetic than he was already.

I think the line is a simple reaction to tragedy. What can you do to carry on but "forget" (and possibly forgive yourself)?

More importantly, what does the line mean to you? That interpretation is just as valid as any.

Answer 2

I found a good answer for this question from here,

"Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown" means "you can't change things, it's the way things are and the way they will be, regardless of how much you tilt at windmills. The line is about the futility of fighting injustices and darkness in the world. It's about giving up and looking away, because nothing can be done anyway lest you become another casualty of injustice.

Chinatown is the world. Jake is everyone. Forgetting about it is what we all do anyway, and so what we may as well keep doing.

Answer 3

You also can't separate the ending of the movie from the recent happenings in Polanski's life at that time, given the cruel and purposeless way in which his wife and love, Sharon Tate, was killed in cold blood by the Manson "family" only a few years prior. A sad reflection of Polanski's life experience unfortunately