I believe that the final scene in Polanski's Chinatown is meant to state that humanity is cruel and often the criminal gets away with the crime. Social boundaries are broken, and in the end of Chinatown everything unravels into chaos. I think that Polanski wanted to make this scene leave the audience wondering why things should have ended up that way. Polanski changed the final scene with the responses of Gittes, Cross, and Escobar. In the actual script for the movie, Gittes is much more responsive and and violent as he himself holds Evelyn's dead body and threatens Cross. In the film, Polanski made Gittes much less responsive, giving him an expressionless face as he gazes at the mess in front of him. Cross, instead of holding Evelyn's dead body and crying (ike in the script), approaches the car unseen by the crowd, and takes Evelyn's daughter/sister from the car. I think Polanski's interpretation of the final scene is much more significant because he allows the audience to further question what will result from all of this, and makes the whole thing seem even more deranged and unnerving. He leaves it almost in a way, unfinished. The way he makes the characters respond makes the audience uncomfortable and unsure as to what will happen to Eveylyn's child/sister and Gittes.
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