I've also never read any of Capote's books, but I had heard of his most famous one, In Cold Blood. The movie focuses on Capote's personal pursuit of the murder story that led to his writing of the book. Interestingly, the film's credits noted that Capote was never able to finish another novel after In Cold Blood.
In the film, Capote befriends one of the jailed killers and persuades him to tell his side of things. Their friendship is at the heart of the movie. But was it a true friendship? Or was Capote merely taking advantage of a man sentenced to die, just so he could do his novel? We see that Capote cozies up to all sides in the single-minded pursuit of his story. But his own conflicted feelings about the killer he befriended takes their toll on him.
So at the end of it all, the movie made me think about these ethical/moral questions:
- As a writer, how ruthless and manipulative are you willing to be in order to get the story that you want?
- If the subject of your story is a convicted killer, does it matter how you use him for your purposes?
- And since we are talking about a multiple murder here, should there be any sympathy for the killers at all?
The movie doesn't pull any punches in showing the violence and cold-bloodedness of the crime, yet the killer Capote talks to is shown to be a haunted man from a broken family, not a monster. But just when we think that maybe he deserves some sympathy, his sister whom Capote visits warns the author that her brother may act nice, but he'd just as easily slit a man's throat. The movie leaves us to decide just how much or how little sympathy we want to spare for these convicted men.
Just recently the National Society of Film Critics in the US voted Capote the best film of 2005. Yes, it's a fine film, but I'm not ready to call it the best of '05. It's basically all about Philip Hoffman's outstanding performance.
Finally, as a shameless plug, the movie was shot here in our province of Manitoba, which stood for Kansas. The filmmakers had tried to use the real locale, but apparently aggressive urban development had eradicated a lot of older buildings and landmarks which the film needed for a Fifties small-town look. Enter Manitoba, and our city of Winnipeg, where many turn-of-the-century buildings are preserved as 'heritage' sites. And I guess Manitoba's flat prairie landscape can fill in for rural Kansas any day of the week.
The upcoming Assassination of Jesse James (starring Brad Pitt) also used our streets to depict the old West.
