The Rewatchables: Chinatown
by Bob Schwartz
Here is one thing I’ve learned from having a near-infinite choice of media—music, movies, TV, books—to consume. The more I search, I still go back to the greats to relisten, rewatch, reread.
Today, after a search, I ended up at Roman Polanski’s Chinatown (1974), which I’ve watched countless times. It is fifty years old, so you do hear some newer generation movie aficionados saying “I don’t get why it is on so many best of lists.” Best of lists are never objective, even those generated by “experts”, because we are all still affected by different tastes.
But in the opinion of many lists, including mine, Chinatown is one of the greats, near the top. You can find millions of words written and spoken about it, so I won’t add to them. I will say that if you love movies as entertainment and/or as craft, you owe it to yourself to watch Chinatown.
Maybe you will never watch it again. Maybe you will think about the two hours and ten minutes you could have spent doing something else. Or maybe like me, you will watch it again and again, relishing and remembering every scene.
Bob Schwartz 
I would add to that Tombstone, All About Eve, Arrival, and, of course, Casablanca.
Those are movies I like, and I’ll put Casablanca on the infinitely rewatchable list. But the mention of Tombstone does remind me that John Ford’s My Darling Clementine is on that list, and is one of the all-time Westerns. And speaking of rewatchable all-time Westerns, Lawrence Kasdan’s Silverado is wholly underrated. Everybody should watch it.