'In Cold Blood' Review
'In Cold Blood' is a tragic story of two men, Eugene Hickock and
Perry Edward, who murder an entire family in search of money and then find
themselves running from the law. While writing the book, Truman Capote
used only facts to create a novel out of an actual event. He had thousands of
notes on the subject, but his problem was making his book read like a novel.
He accomplished this by adding dialogue and describing characters feelings.
This technique is used in the film as well when flashbacks of characters
childhoods are shown.
The different plots are handled very well in the movie. The main plot
obviously is the murders and the run from the law. Other subplots that are
shown are Smith's internal fight with his past in which his father deserted him,
and at one point, had a gun pointed to his head.
Rutherford Smith and Romeo Peters
Truman Capote, 1948
Truman Capote, 1959.Also there appears to be
tension between Smith and Hickock. They think differently at times,
especially when it comes to the discussion of the crime. You can't help but
feel sympathetic towards Smith, as it appears that he is forced into this by
Hickock. All characters in the movie were played well by the actors in my
opinion. They all seemed real and seemed to fit in with the setting and the
time period.
I think that Hickock and Smith are not victims of forces beyond their
control, they are victims of, at least in Smith's case, a bad upbringing. The
two murderers have no direction in their lives. The only skills that Hickock
seems to know is how to steal things and how to write phony checks. Smith
seems more sane than Hickock, but all he has is his guitar and that is stolen in
Mexico. This is...