Capote vs In Cold Blood

If Truman Capote had written Breakfast at Tiffany's today, he'd probably get to be on Oprah's book club. And he'd probably be a riot, coming on the show with anecdotes and Southern charm and mint juleps for everyone. But the real draw would be to find Truman later that night, in the VIP room of a bar, drunk on bourbon and talking shit about Oprah. Like all the best storytellers, he'd exaggerate all the right parts, and eventually wind the story around so that it was actually all about him. Scenes of this nature occur frequently in Capote, with the title character enthralling roomfuls of drinkers with his foul-mouthed gossip. That he was a startling talent and not just a camp wiseacre makes him all the more compelling a subject for biographical film. He's like if one of the Hemingway kids had been raised by Joan Rivers and Paul Lynde (so that's, what, Kathy Griffin? I might need help with my analogy.) I think I would have liked him. You can never know enough adults who might enter a room and then do a little twirl to show off their coat.

Capote focuses on Truman Capote mid-career, just before, during and after he wrote his masterpiece In Cold Blood, a book I've actually read. Capote was in a place in his career where he could really call his own shots, providing he call them quickly enough and come through with good results. He's not working on anything in particular, other than dressing well, but a newspaper story about a farmhouse massacre has captured his imagination. The Clutter family of Kansas was killed, seemingly without motivation and with hardly any evidence. Truman decides this story would make a fine magazine article, and heads to Kansas with his best friend, the writer Harper Lee (Catherine Keener, subtle and funny in a practical way that real people often are but movie characters almost always overdo).

When they arrive, Truman realizes the story isn't in the crime scene, but in all the souls of the community, including the killers. He interviews everyone in town, bringing Harper along for her insight, patience and compassion, as well as for the fact that she brought the comfort level way up for the people of Holcomb, Kansas. She gets the difficult interviews, gets them in the homes, because she knows that Truman has good intentions, and that his talent and charm will show once people get to know him.

And it's funny, because it works for us too. Capote's life was one of turmoil, mainly, and it seeps out of him during conversations, as we, and the people of Holcomb, begin to realize that his lispy, Droopy Dog dialect and hooded eyes might not have been tools of his snobbish sarcasm, but rather Capote's last line of defense against depression and loneliness. Also, sometimes that's just how drunks talk.

Capote is a really good movie. I figure I should drop that in at some point, right? In the title role, Phillip Seymour Hoffman is doing something other than acting. I'm not sure how accurately he apes Truman Capote, but in this movie, Phillip Seymour Hoffman exists. That guy doesn't take a non-Truman Capote breath the entire movie. It's such a full performance, so rich at every level, that to call attention to anything he might be doing to add to the impersonation seems to cheapen the overall result. Hoffman's most engrossing scenes are with Clifton Collins Jr, who plays Perry Smith, the murderer of the Clutter family. At first, their meetings have sort of a Clarice/Dr. Lecter quality, with Truman trying to understand the mind of a killer. And then, they become friends. It looks like Truman is falling in love with Smith, but as Truman explains, “It's as if Perry and I grew up in the same house, and one day he went out the back door, and I went out the front.” Truman brings Perry books and art supplies and friendship, and even hires him a new lawyer to win an appeal. Eventually, he realizes that if he's ever going to finish his book (and it took years), the case will have to be wrapped up and the killers will have to pay for their crimes. Capote's behavior in those months--as he goes from severe depression, lying on his couch eating baby food spiked with bourbon; to turning into a rabid investigator, demanding answers from Smith regarding the night of the murder—is devastating.

Capote was directed beautifully by Bennett Miller. I love when a movie is completely framed. Capote is an intimate movie, but it's filmed for the big screen. The winter is presented more starkly than in any movie since Fargo, and the final moments, with the execution of the killers, is chilling without being melodramatic. Perry Smith is given a moment for final words, and can't think of any. I'm sure Truman could have written some for him.

After Capote, I really wanted to watch Fargo, with its bleak winter setting, brutal crime scenes and faux “Based on a true story” claims. But Capote, more than any other movie I've reviewed here, practically demands its own double feature. And so I listened. After Capote, for a truly fascinating and creepy combo, watch the original In Cold Blood.

In Cold Blood tells parts of the same story as Capote. On a false tip of hidden money, Perry Smith and Richard Hickock head out to Holcomb, Kansas, to rob the Clutter Family. Early in the movie, we meet the Clutters and their killers in contrasting scenes. The Clutters are sitcom fresh, with daughter Nancy making the biggest impression. The killers, in any other movie, could be fun anti-heroes. They're rotten, sure, but maybe they're just out for one last con, and then they'll settle down in Mexico, just like they planned. But no, the events of In Cold Blood actually happened, and there's no money to be found at the Clutter ranch, and Perry Smith just can't shake memories of his bullying father, and his legs have been hurting so badly, and that money would have helped him start over. The murders are awful, and so randomly violent (they're executions, really) it's shocking they weren't completely premeditated.

In Cold Blood, as you can imagine, is a scary movie, but not in any traditional horror sense. It's a crime thriller, and a docudrama, and a bit of a psychological cautionary tale. And it's very, very good. In Cold Blood and Capote share several images (the execution is filmed in a similar manner on an almost identical set, and the description of the killings in Capote is carried out word-for-word in In Cold Blood), and I suspect that the character development in Capote carried over a little sympathy for the characters in In Cold Blood. As Perry Smith, Robert Blake is a revelation—you probably didn't realize he was this good—and it's a wonder he didn't do more work of this caliber. Although, I have to admit, when I saw his face on the DVD menu, I did one of these: “AAAAAGGHHH! ROBERT BLAKE! KILLING!” John Forsythe, the spitting image of young Dan Rather, is great as the detective (played expertly by Chris Cooper in Capote). In Cold Blood was directed by Richard Brooks, and although I expected it to be comparable to Psycho and other thrillers of that time, In Cold Blood stands instead as a gateway into the realism and brutality of the better movies of the 1970s. Plus, it's set to this finger-snapping jazz score that is almost jarringly out of place, which, when you consider the characters and the events of In Cold Blood, and how that story came from Truman Capote visiting Kansas, means it's just about perfect.

Capote: A
In Cold Blood: A