Customer Reviews

In Cold Blood

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is quite simply one of the most entertaining movies I have ever watched. The characters are well developed and the acting is first rate. Other movies have attempted to imitate "In Cold Blood" but pale in comparison.

"In Cold Blood" is the 1967 movie based on Truman Capote's non-fiction book about the murder of a family of four by Perry Smith (Robert Blake) and Dick Hickock (Scott Wilson). Although the killers were expecting to get about $10,000 from the safe, it turns out there was no safe and they only got $40.

Filmed in black-and-white, the movie has very good cinematography, and includes several interesting cuts from scene to scene. In one shot, as Perry is in jail telling a rather sad story about his life, the shadows of the rain running down the window falls on his face and gives the impression of cascading tears. There are also several intercut flash-backs, mostly having to do with Smith's early family-life and abusive father, including the finale on the gallows.

The blues/jazzed-based score was composed by Quincy Jones, and was very good.

It was almost shear luck that the pair got nailed for the murders. Although they had passed bad checks and stolen some cars after the murders, the police had no evidence to connect them to the killings - except for some personal effects that Smith had mailed back to himself from Mexico and picked up just shortly before being arrested. After being found guilty in only 40 minutes of jury deliberation, the pair sat in jail a few years awaiting execution.

As it turns out, although Hickock actually came up with the plan, Smith did all the killings, mostly out of anger. So, as some have asked, was the killing "In Cold Blood" really theirs, or ours? Near the end, when a couple of journalists see the hangman go up the steps, they have this bit of dialog:
"Is he the, uh...?"
"Uh-huh..."
"How much does he get to hang them?"
"Three hundred dollars a man."
"Has he got a name?"
"We the people."

Well-acted by Blake and Wilson, and supporting roles for John Forsythe, Gerald S. O'Loughlin and Jeff Corey. Some of the jurors and other small parts are played by the actual people. Much of the locations are the actual locations, including the house where the killing took place.

The very last scene is not one you find in many movies.

DVD has nice anamorphic wide-screen movie, English or French spoken language, subtitles in 7 languages, chapter selection, and for once, a trailer worth watching. R-Rated, 134 minutes. The no-frills DVD is a bit pricey, but I'm giving the movie five stars on its own.

Truman Capote's best-selling "non-fiction novel" was brought to the big screen by Richard Brooks and is a suspenseful, entertaining yet dark, spare film that details the slaughter of an innocent farm family by two ex-convicts. The moody black and white cinematography emphasizes the lonely, dreary, bleak Kansas prairies where the murders were committed and underscores the single-minded purpose and detached optimism with which the killers planned their deed. The events of that fateful night are told in a flashback, near the end of the film, a brilliant touch by Brooks to illustrate the horror and senselessness of the act by Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. The Clutter family's last day on earth shows them going about their tasks on their farm as the normal, content family they seem to have been, never realizing that evil forces were moving their way to destroy them. The authorities spare no effort in trying to bring the killers to justice and finally do so because of a reluctant prison informer and good fortune. Alvin Dewey [John Forsythe] and his three crack investigators pursue the two killers, and Paul Stewart's Jenson, who narrates the film as a reporter and criminal psychologist, may or may not represent Capote as he reconstructed the crime for his book. Quincy Jones' throbbing score is the perfect accompaniment to the film's somber narrative, suggesting Delta-type blues themes for some cues, and then switching to jazz rifts highlighted by a heavy base line for other scenes. The offbeat casting is perfect, with star-quality names left out of the film so the viewer's attention will focus on this tragic, true life story.

When Truman Capote published his 1966 novel IN COLD BLOOD--a story based on the actual 1959 murder of wealthy Kansas farmer Herbert Clutter and his family--he single-handedly established a new type of printed literature. Factual accounts of real-world crime had made it into print before, of course, but in writing HIS book, Capote combined in-depth journalistic research with the techniques of fiction writing, openly folding the facts of the case into invented dialogue and, for aesthetic purposes, sometimes combining the case's less important actors into single fictional characters. Capote himself referred to IN COLD BLOOD as a "non-fiction novel," and this approach to retelling real-life crimes in a pulp-like literary format would eventually evolve into the true-crime genre that is popular today.

Maverick filmmaker Richard Brooks saw the potential of Capote's work as a basis for an aesthetically literate and thematically powerful film and subsequently adapted it for the screen. Producing and directing the film himself, Brooks collaborated with talented cinematographer Conrad L. Hall to create a film that challenged the established Hollywood conception of what movie is supposed to be. Brooks rejected studio pressure to make the film in color, to cast well-known stars in the leading roles, and to soften the story's matter-of-fact depiction of the murders. Instead, he wanted to make a film that, like the novel upon which it was based, seemed raw, hard-boiled, and true to life.

In spite of the violent and senseless nature of the real-life murders, Capote's novel was intended to ultimately evoke feelings that would make the reader repudiate support of capital punishment. Having grown close to the murderers during his research, the author attempted to depict them as merely misguided human beings who were deserving of sympathy, understanding, and, above all, mercy. Capote wanted the reader to understand that a state-enforced, publicly sanctioned execution of the two killers would, in effect, simply increase the number of victims in the Cutter murder case by two, and he thought that his pseudo-journalistic approach would disguise his real message in a seemingly objective narrative account of the events. Brooks wanted to retain Capote's underlying intent, and he and Hall both realized that stark, somewhat grainy black-and-white photography would give the film a documentary feel and thereby reflect the novel's pseudo-realistic tone. Brooks also knew that casting big stars as the primaries in the film would skew the audience's perception of both the story and the characters, as would any softening of either the murders or the executions. Brooks was so obsessive about creating a sense of verisimilitude, in fact, that nearly all of the filming was done on location in the places where the events depicted occurred--including the same Kansas house in which the Cutter family was murdered. In addition, six of the actual jurors from the trial of the killers appeared in the film's trial scene, some of the extras in the film were real-life neighbors of the murdered family, and the hangman in the execution scene was THE hangman at the execution of the real-life killers!

So Brooks stood firm and got to make the film he wanted to make. And as the writer/director undoubtedly expected, IN COLD BLOOD generated controversy for its gratuitous violence (this in spite of the fact that the killings in the film occur outside the frame), its sympathy for the murderers, and its anti-capital-punishment stance. However, if the film--as well as its source material--has any flaw, it is the fact that it does not achieve its intended socio-political goal. The filmmakers and actors create such a sense of realism in the depiction of the cold-heartedness of the killings and the lack of contrition in the killers that, instead feeling a sense of injustice or cruelty when the murderers are executed, even the most liberal anti-death-penalty members of the audience generally go away feeling as though the killers got their just deserts. Nonetheless, IN COLD BLOOD is a well-made piece of noirish crime drama that has held up incredibly well over the years. As killers Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, actors Robert Blake--best known for his role in TV's BARETTA in the 1970s--and Scott Wilson deliver riveting, wholly believable performances. Conrad Hall's excellent cinematography does indeed give the film a gritty, documentary feel, and his excellent frame compositions simultaneously give an almost painterly quality to the imagery. Also notable is the jazzy score by Quincy Jones, which generates an early 1960s flavor without being too intrusive to the narrative.

IN COLD BLOOD earned Oscar nominations for Brooks' direction, his screenplay, Hall's cinematography, and Jones' score.

For the contemporary audience, IN COLD BLOOD might seem more socially or politically germane than ever in light of Robert Blake's relatively recent arrest and pending trial for the alleged murder of his wife. Ever since Blake was taken into custody, one of Conrad Hall's most famous shots from IN COLD BLOOD keeps popping up on TV in newscasts and such. The shot centers on Blake's face the night his character, Perry Smith, is scheduled to be hanged, and as he gazes out a rain-spattered window, the light shining through gives the impression that a torrent of tears are streaming down his face.

The DVD from Columbia/Tristar offers relatively nothing by way of extras, but the digital transfer is very good. IN COLD BLOOD is presented in anamorphic widescreen in the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and though some filmic artifacts like scratches and dust appear from time to time, there are no visible digital artifacts. The black-and-white photography comes across with what is obviously the intended amount of contrast and graininess. The soundtrack is available in English via Dolby Digital 3.1 SurroundSound and in French via Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono, with little noticeable hiss or distortion. Would've been nice if Columbia/Tristar had included a little bonus documentary about the real murder of the Clutter family, but this is nonetheless a very worthy disc to add to the collection of any film aficionado.

Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" was hailed as a "non-fiction novel"; Richard Brooks' film adaptation is a semi-documentary film. Brooks doesn't sensationalize, however; the blood and gore of four horrible murders is kept to a bare minimum. We hear the gunshots but we don't see the carnage, and we don't need to; the power of suggestion does it all. Brooks keeps the movie strictly on track, from the night of the murder to the discovery of the crime the next morning; the killers' flight across country and the investigation by the detectives of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation which solved the crime and brought the perpetrators to justice.

The actors are all competent in their roles and there are some very good performances indeed in the supporting parts. But the outstanding performance in this film is Robert Blake as Perry Smith, and to a lesser extent, Scott Wilson as Dick Hickock. Blake's haunted expression as he says, right before his hanging, "I'd like to apologize. But who to?" makes the viewer feel all the tragedy of a wasted life.

The one problem with this otherwise fine screen adaptation is that we see far too little of the Clutters. We don't get to know them as people, their lives, how they interact. They're just people who get murdered one night. In the book they became living characters, people we felt we knew. In the movie, they're almost reduced to bit players. The book is about the Clutters, who were killed by Hickock and Smith; the movie is about Hickock and Smith who murdered a family named Clutter.

The book raced along with the speed of a good novel; the film moves at a slower pace, that of an investigative report. If we see too little of the Clutters, we really get inside the minds of Smith and Hickock, and it isn't very nice in there. Shooting the movie in black and white lends to the newsreel quality of the film. It's a stark, bare-bones movie, the right kind of film to depict a senseless crime that ultimately destroyed six lives.

Hollywood has never given Robert Blake the respect as an actor which he so rightly deserves. In Cold Blood marks Blake's breakout as a star. This film has been often imitated, but never duplicated.

Blake, just out of prison, teams up with a friend. Together they imagine a scheme to get rich by robbing a wealthy family. Everything goes wrong. Told in a rambling style, with flashbacks and dreary scenery, this film is based on a true story.

Perhaps my favorite plot point is Robert Blake's murder of a man in Las Vegas. Watch for it.

The In Cold Blood DVD is a very interesting movie to watch because it makes the reader get a better understanding of how the author; Truman Capote wrote the book. It is horrifying what Dick and Perry (the killers) do to the Clutter family. The sad part is that they were both psychologically bad from their minds, specially Perry. Truman Capote wrote an excellent book because he makes it interesting, puts in clues and makes us think what will happend next. The story also has a turning point where it starts to get interesting but at the same time confusing because it talks about the past of the killers. I recommend this book to anyone or someone that does not like reading. I think this is an interesting book to read.

The Murder of the four members of the Clutter family in 1959 was an incident described masterly by Truman capote. In 1967 the director Richard Brooks decides to put together his filmic experience and Capote's master piece to make a film recreating the event with a very realistic touch that makes this movie needless of blood and special effects to consider it disturbing.
The director makes a very realistic job by filming the movie with actors that look identical to the real murders and the clutter family members. He couldn't make a more faithful portrayal of the event in 1959 by making the movie in the same house where Mr. Clutter, his wife and their two young kids were murdered with a shotgun scarcely a few inches from their head.

When the Murders get into the house, they don't use much violence but the setting of the scenes make them chilling throughout the terrible event. The shots are heard, but the faces of the Clutters being blown up are not shown. This doesn't take any disturbing element from the scenes.

The combination of realistic components, and descriptions made by Capote make this movie have no need for blood in order to make it disturbing during the entire movie.

This movie is about the murder of four innocent members of the Clutters family. Two psycho men, Dick and Perry, in search of a safe inside the Clutter's house, led them to coldly kill four people in order to leave "no witnesses". It was a saturday night November 15, 1959 when the murder occurred. The fact that the movie was filmed in the same house and almost all the same places where Dick and Perry traveled, make this movie very real which, personally made a great impact of credibility and a great connection with the book. The end of the movie is very sentimental because it shows how Dick and Perry suffered waiting for their end. Personally, the movie made me feel sorry about Perry before he was hanged, which the book did not. In my opinion they deserved what they got because they had no right to take no one's life. Lastly I think it was a good movie but it doesn't compare with the book, which has more details.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, was brought to life by the creation of the movie. By the film being made in the exact house that the Clutters lived in and with actors that closely resembled the victims made the moive hair rising and more interesting to watch. The dramtic scenery was amazing because the picture was in black and white along with the music that made the film more suspenseful. This is a very good movie and I recommend it to anyone who thinks they are brave enough to view such a gruesome crime.