"In Cold Blood" Review "In Cold Blood" is a tragic story of two men,
Eugene Hickock andPerry Edward, who murder an entire family in search
of money and then findthemselves running from the law. While writing
the book, Truman Capoteused only facts to create a novel out of an
actual event. He had thousands ofnotes 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 characterschildhoods are shown. The
different plots are handled very well in the movie. The main plotobviously
is the murders and the run from the law. Other subplots that areshown
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. Also there appears
to betension between Smith and Hickock. They think differently at
times,especially when it comes to the discussion of the crime. You can't
help butfeel sympathetic towards Smith, as it appears that he is forced
into this byHickock. All characters in the movie were played well by the
actors in myopinion. They all seemed real and seemed to fit in with the
setting and thetime period. I think that Hickock and Smith are not victims
of forces beyond theircontrol, they are victims of, at least in Smith's case,
a bad upbringing. Thetwo murderers have no direction in their lives. The
only skills that Hickockseems to know is how to steal things and how to
write phony checks. Smithseems more sane than Hickock, but all he has
is his guitar and that is stolen inMexico. This is reason that these two
resort to crime to solve their problems. The film was very well structured
in comparison to the book. Capotepurposely didn't tell the detailed
version of the deaths until the end of thebook, and the same procedure
was followed in the movie. This technique isused to keep the viewer or
reader interested throughout the entire story. Thefirst part of the movie
moved a little slowly, but I think this was necessary toshow all the
background information about the Cutter family and to showhow the two
murderers developed their plan. Once the night of the murdersarrived,
the plot moved very quickly and there was lots of suspense to keepthe
viewer interested. At the end of the film, after the hanging of the two
murderers , I did notfeel that justice had prevailed. After an entire family
has been murdered,there is no justice because the people are already
dead and there is nothingthat can be done to change that. Even though
Smith says that he apologizesfor what he has done, it is meaningless
because it doesn't change anything. One reason the film
seems like it was a real event is how the producersrecreate the setting of
the late 1950's in America. Everything is correct fromthe social lives of
people to the music that was popular in that era. The US isin a period of
transition, and this is shown by the way people react to thecrime. After
this crime, people become suspicious of even the closest of theirfriends,
and they begin to lock their doors at night to prevent more crimes likethis.
Truman Capote became extremely successful as a result of this
novel. I think that it is very similar to novels written today, and if it was
published inthe 1990's, it would be just as successful as it was when it
was first publishedin 1966. Today big writers such as John Grisham and
Patricia Cornwellcould be compared to Capote, but they do not use real
world events for theircrime-fiction novels. This is what sets Capote apart
from other writers andmakes him one of the great writers in American
History.
. " ;In Cold Blood& quot; Review " ;In Cold Blood& quot; is a tragic story of two men,
Eugene Hickock andPerry Edward, who murder an entire family in search
of. forced
into this byHickock. All characters in the movie were played well by the
actors in myopinion. They all seemed real and seemed to fit in with the
setting