IN COLD BLOOD
US, 1967, 134 minutes, Black and White.
Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe, Paul Stewart, Jeff Corey, John Mc Liam.
Directed by Richard Brooks.
In Cold Blood is Richard Brooks' version of Truman Capote's book. It is a sombre account of two small-time criminals who plan a robbery. On discovering that there is nothing much to be had, they affect each other so much that they kill the family whose house they are robbing. After a short time in Mexico, they return, are caught, tried and, finally, executed. The story is true and Capote spent many months with them trying to get inside their personalities. Some people consider that Capote was also making a case against capital punishment and, more, that capital punishment is a brutal murder on the part of society similar to that committed by Perry and Dick. It is said that this does not come through in the film.
The film is disturbing in its picture of arbitrary violence in American society and its puzzling over what society is to do with its criminals. Brooks reconstructs the drama well, showing Dick and Perry meeting, planning and their long drive; this is intercut with quiet scenes of the Clutter family at home. The film keeps the details of the murder until the end, when the audience has got to know Dick and Perry and the murders are shown in Perry's flashback.
The film is semi-documentary in effective black and white (using technicolour film) and widescreen photography of the Kansas towns and countryside. Robert Blake (Willie in Tell Them Wil1ie Boy is Here) and Scott Wilson give effective interpretations of their roles. Director Richard Brooks (a former novelist) has made a number of films from literary sources: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Brothers Karamazov, Elmer Gantry, Lord Jim.
1. What did the title refer to? The murder? Or to society's brutal execution of Dick and Perry? (It is said that this is the main message of Capote's book.)
2. Was the film well constructed?
- the introduction to each character;
- the preparation and sense of journeying to the robbery;
- cross-cutting to the ordinary life of the Clutters ;
- the build-up to the robbery;
- cutting to the aftermath;
- the escape, Mexico, the return;
- Perry's graphic flashback to the crime in detail;
- prison and execution.
Would it have made any difference if the film had been told in a straightforward chronological manner? What was the effect in the film and in judgments in Dick and Perry of not seeing the crime until the latter part of the film?
3. Why did they plan the robbery? What did they hope to get out of it?
4. Dick - what kind of man? Criminal, slick, without feeling, a great planner, a great lover, no regard for human life, friendly, smooth? What did the scenes
with his father reveal?
5. Perry - what kind of man was he? Vain, thought he was mature, quick-tempered, yearning to be a pop-star, in search of drama and hidden treasure? What did the detectives' visit to his father and the memory of his early life - rodeo father, mother later a prostitute - add to understanding him?
6. It was agreed that neither of the too could have been so brutal, but together they made a third personality. What does this mean?
7. Why did they kill the Clutters? Did this, and their gross miscalculations about - the robbery reveal what -they really were?
8. Did their Mexican venture ever have any hope of success?
9. Why were they so quickly arrested? Did the police handle the situation well?
10. Were they treated well as prisoners? How did the reporter help their cause?
11. What did their interrogation and imprisonment show of modern police and prison methods?
12. Capote would say that society which made theme two men what they were turns aggressively on them and murders them as brutally as they murdered. Does the film show this?
13. Does the film make a case against capital punishment? What hope is there of rehabilitating such prisoners?
14. How did the film make its impact? Comment on the editing techniques.
15. What do the following quotations from the film suggest?
. There are too kinds of law: one for the rich and one for the poor.
. Everybody steals something sometime.
. Nuns are bad luck.
. Terrible thing, that! The average man's quasi-disinterested
comment).
. Who would kill a whole family for a radio, a pair of binoculars - and $40 in cash? ... Take your pick - on any crowded street!
. If this can happen to a decent God-fearing family, nobody 'a safe any more.
. The whole crazy stunt had a life of its own; nothing could stop it.
. I despise people who can't control themselves.
. The Clutters never hurt me; they just happened to be there!
. They who had no pity now ask for yours; they who had no mercy now ask for yours; they who had no tears now ask for yours!
. Either one of them couldn't have done it alone. Together they made a third person; THAT person did the murder!
. Four innocent and two guilty people murdered - three families broken!
. I think I'd like to apologise, but who to....!
