Just Read IN COLD BLOOD… That or This is Almost Fictional
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Capote
cultfilmfreaksdotcom — 9 years ago(April 08, 2016 12:26 AM)
If you read the incredible novel IN COLD BLOOD, well, it's incredible. It's some of the best writing and detail-work and journalism and gathering of documents and quotes of any book, ever, and started the TRUE CRIME genre, the fiction-like telling of a non-fiction story, but Reading the book and watching this movie, you realize many things:
- CAPOTE: He waits and waits till Perry tells what happens ICB: Perry tells everything, in the book AND the Robert Blake movie, when he's being driven across country by Alvin Dewey. So was it that Capote, in CAPOTE, had to hear Perry tell it to know it was true?
- The lady who holds Perry in her cell. In CAPOTE, she's a way to get in with Perry. In the book, she's pretty much everything; she's Capote in the book, right?
- The book is basically AS TOLD TO BY PERRY SMITH, and sometimes gets a bit sickening. But, in the movie, it's the same way; once Scott Wilson faints, Dick's story is over and in the book, you never do get any of Dick's side of the story, really, and in CAPOTE he's not but a cameo, so, for a guy who didn't fire one bullet Even though he set it up Hmmm Me thinks Perry should have hung alone and let the con artist do a life's sentence Did Capote have anything to do with making both swing together? I know he was against Capital punishment, but in CAPOTE he sure as hell needs an ENDING TO HIS BOOK and it's not that Dick and Perry are possible for parole in 14 years.
- In CAPOTE, he makes it seem like his lawyers didn't try anything, but in the book they tried a lot but couldn't go anywhere, but tried and opened the doors by having them called Insane. And then in CAPOTE you learn that Capote himself bought them all their appeals but in the book you learn about a lot of on-fire liberal lawyers who wanted the boys to get a new trial. So did Capote, in real life, merely back up these lawyers or hire them? Because ALL the lawyers seemed to want to get the boys a new trial wherein, the movie CAPOTE makes it seem it was all on his shoulders.
- In the movie, CAPOTE, Perry is the cool guy who nods politely and shakes Alvin's hand, which is a great moment. But in the book, IN COLD BLOOD, Dick is the one who shakes ALL the KBI's hands, and Perry spits on the priest's hand.
- Last but not least, how on EARTH did they not make a movie or any book or ANYTHING center solely on the two young good looking Army guys who travelled cross country killing people These were, along with Andy the fat kid, Perry and Dick's cell mates. I just think, wow, their story would be incredible. Call it WE HATE THE WORLD, which sounds like a Smith's album, but it's what they said when asked why they killed the people. They were like a Beach Boys version of Dick and Perry. Forget their names, but one is named Ronnie. I mean really, truly, their story would be everything Tarantino would wish for and beyond.
Many many other things wanting to discuss with anyone who's done the TRIAD: Read the book, seen the movie, and seen CAPOTE. There are a lot of things that seem a bit off. Wherein this movie seems like the book was very fictional.
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nhamer — 9 years ago(September 28, 2016 11:35 PM)
Spoilers
- The quote Perry gives in Capote ("I thought he was a very nice, gentle man. And I thought so right up until I slit his throat") is almost the quote In Cold Blood that Perry confesses to Dewey in the car ("I though he was a very nice gentleman. Soft-spoken. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat"). It seems like this was moved in the movie to add some drama to the prison meetings and so I am inclined to think that the book version is the corrector at least closer to correctone.
- This link gives a few challenges to the veracity of In Cold Blood:
https://web.archive.org/web/20090911105758/http://list.msu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0101b&L=aejmc&T=0&P=7693
Among the challenges it makes is that Mrs. Meier's never heard Perry say what is quoted in the book. Truman Capote makes no mention of himself as an actor in the events of the book, so perhaps he used what Perry Smith told him directly and then just substituted in Mrs. Meier as the audience instead of himself. Of course, this is just speculation on my part. - I think legally Dick would be held accountable for murder. He planned the murders and they were done during the commission of another crime; so my understanding of the law as it applies here is that both parties can be tried for murder.
To the extent that Wikipedia can be a legal source, this article says as much:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_purpose#When_the_outcome_is_death - This seems like another case where he was in fact involved but tried to remove himself from the book. In the book he makes it out that Dick's letter writing campaign is the sole cause of the investigation into the trial; in the movie it is Truman Capote himself that does it. This is again pure speculation, but I suspect he was actually involved but then downplayed his own role to maintain a third-person narrative.
- As you said, Dick's role in the movie is basically reduced to a cameo. The movie essentially treats Perry as a composite character of both Dick and Perry; so at the end Perry shakes the KBI agent's hand as he is the only one we focus on throughout. I chalk this up to just film making convention with biopics more than an inaccuracy.
- The story of Latham and York would probably make an interesting story on its own if somebody had been able to put together a narrative in the vein of In Cold Blood. Given that it hasn't happened yet, it likely never will.
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SealedCargo — 6 years ago(April 17, 2019 09:25 AM)
thanks for the feedback. this is the same account but this is my filmboards account being that imdb killed the other.
i think they had blake not spitting on the priest to keep the agenda that he was an artistic angel. but i am glad they also had dick being polite in the end. had they had them switch, that'd've been very weak. not like I'm a dick fan, but, I do think Capote should have shown like, just a little bit of Dick's side of the story.
as for not making a movie about the spree killers: i guess what you're saying is they'd need a sympathetic protagonist within the story like perry (the murderer) is in IN COLD BLOOD.
i guess that's true, but man, with the likes of Tarantino and all his followers making body count films about killers, it's really very, very shocking those two didn't have a movie.
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