California’s Heated Water Wars Make for a Modern ‘Chinatown’

It’s an icon of American cinema: the 1974 neo-noir Chinatown shone a gritty light on the California Water Wars of the early 20th century, when politicians of a parched Los Angeles schemed to divert water used by ranchers and farmers in the Owens Valley. Spoiler alert: at the end of the movie, almost everyone’s kicked the bucket, leaving Jack Nicholson’s wearied gumshoe to ponder the bleak lesson that power stays with those in power and nothing really changes.

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