The California water wars of the early 20th century were conflicts over the water supply for the rapidly expanding city of Los Angeles.
Local ranchers fought developers and politicians to keep their water, and ultimately their livelihood, from being taken away.
Roman Polanski’s neo-noir detective drama Chinatown (1974) takes place within this setting and conflict.
A private detective called J.J. “Jake” Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is hired to follow Hollis Mulwray (Darrell Zwerling) by a woman claiming to be his wife (Diane Ladd) because she suspects him of infidelity. But when the affair is made public, the real Mrs Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) confronts Gittes with a lawsuit. Then Mulwray, the chief engineer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, is found drowned in a reservoir in the midst of a drought.
Over the course of the film, Gittes slowly unravels the threads of a water conspiracy involving politicians, oligarchs, and other people of questionable morals and actions.
At the same time, he uncovers a more personal, human drama that ends very unpredictably. No one, and nothing, is as it seems in Chinatown.
The film won Robert Towne the Oscar for best screenplay (the film was nominated for 10 more), and it is easy to see why. The story moves along with assured patience, slowly unfolding in ways that make the narrative both plausible and affecting.