The moral climate of the U.S. has for some time been ripe for a work of art along the lines of the wasteland motif, the country plagued by its own ruler…. [With] Roman Polanski's outstanding film, Chinatown, an important segment of popular culture has fulfilled what might truly be called a need….

The moral impact of Chinatown suggests another inspiration besides the modern detective story, a "detective story" of universal significance. Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, a work that itself uses a familiar story or cliché as framework. (p. 249)

The basic idea behind the comparison … lies in the atmosphere of decay that predominates in both works. There is an allusion in Chinatown with its 30's setting to … "the decadence of the 70's."… Oedipus Rex, too, alludes to a sterility of moral values in its own era, although the play symbolizes the drift in public life more subtly than the...