User Reviews

An exquisite adaptation of one of the landmark novels of American literature, In Cold Blood tells the tale of two men who murdered a Kansas farm family in the late 1950s. It's a tremendous film, not just because of the excellent acting, beautiful direction and intelligent writing it showcases, but because it succeeds in showing us that no matter how extraordinary evil may seem, it is the very ordinariness of evil that is most compelling.

Perry Smith (Robert Blake) and Dick Hickock (Scott Wilson) were two-bit criminals looking for the perfect score. They thought it would be robbing the Clutters (John McLiam, Ruth Storey, Brenda Currin and Paul Hough) of the $10,000 dollars a cellmate of Dick's had told him Mr. Clutter kept in their farm house. There never was any $10,000, though. Just 40 bucks, a radio, a pair of binoculars…and 4 brutal murders. As Alvin Dewey (John Forsythe) of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation takes on the case, Perry and Dick flee to Mexico, only to run out of money and have to crawl back to the United States. As the two men responsible for one of the most sensational crimes of its time desperately scrabble along, Dewey and the forces of the Law inch closer and closer.

Perry and Dick are eventually captured in Las Vegas, confess and are shipped back to Kansas for a trial that ends with a jury taking only 40 minutes to sentence them to death. It takes 5 years on death row for their appeals to be exhausted, 5 years of waiting before Perry and Dick have their date with the hangman's noose and executions even more cold blooded than the slayings of the Clutter family.

What first attracted Truman Capote to this story must have been the idea of American innocence shattered by savagery. What he ended up writing was something that forced us to confront the humanity in the men who committed such inhuman acts. This motion picture by Richard Brooks follows that same path. Perry Smith and Dick Hickock aren't monsters. They aren't even exceptionally bad men. They're both battered dreamers who were born into life's ditch and never managed to crawl out of it. Yet this film makes no excuses for Perry and Dick as they never made any for themselves. As they drive 400 miles to the Clutter farm, there's no attempt to deny the chilling self-centeredness of our two soon-to-be killers and their disregard for everything but their own wants and needs. That's what most evil is in this world. It isn't a compulsion to hurt others. It's simply not caring who you have to hurt to get what you want.

The performances by Robert Blake and Scott Wilson are superb. Blake has the showier role as Capote was drawn to the inner turmoil of Perry Smith and the paradox of such a seemingly bright soul driven to such dark deeds. Blake brings out the deep well of emotion in Smith, depths that allowed him to revel in childish fantasies of buried treasure and gave him the strength of will to obliterate an entire family. Wilson, though, is just as good in capturing the shallow, shark-like quality of Hickock. He lets you see that it's Dick's lack of emotional depth that makes him both more functional than Perry in normal society and weaker than Perry in moments of crisis. If Perry feels the world too intensely, Dick lives in a state of denial so profound it couldn't be cracked with an atom bomb.

Shot in black-and-white, In Cold Blood has some of the most stunning images you'll see. Even after decades of increasingly stark and graphic violence in popular culture, there are still moments in this movie that will grab your heart and squeeze. And a scene with Perry looking out a window on death row, the rain outside reflected onto his face like tears, is absolutely beautiful.

If you haven't read In Cold Blood, watching this movie will make you want to read it. If you've already read the book, watching this film will make you want to read it again. That's about the highest praise you can give this sort of work and I give it without hesitation.

When the unexplained brutal murders of a family of four came to the attention of Truman Capote in 1959, he immediately decided that he would write a book on the subject and the result was "In Cold Blood" which became an international bestseller and won him a considerable amount of acclaim from the literary critics of the time, who referred to it as a "non-fiction novel" and a masterpiece. The murders were committed in the small community of Holcomb, Kansas at 2.00 am on 15 November 1959 and after years of detailed research; Capote's book was published in 1966. Almost inevitably, a movie adaptation followed in 1967 with Richard Brooks directing, producing and writing the screenplay.

When a couple of prisoners, who'd been released on parole, meet up in Kansas City, Dick Hickock (Scott Wilson) tells Perry Smith (Robert Blake) about a robbery that they could carry out which would be a "cinch". Using some information that he'd gained from a prison inmate who'd been employed some years earlier by a farmer called Herb Clutter (John McLiam), he tells Perry that they could easily steal the contents of the man's safe which should contain about $10,000 in cash. Scott had intentionally picked Perry to be his accomplice because his short fuse and propensity for violence would be perfect in a situation where they needed to ensure that they'd leave no witnesses behind after committing their crime.

After making the long road journey to Holcomb, the two men enter the Clutter family's home and on discovering that there's no safe or large sum of money present, ruthlessly slaughter the innocent family and leave with only $43, a portable radio and a pair of binoculars, before fleeing to Mexico where Perry wants to go hunting for Cortes' buried treasure. When this endeavour proves to be a waste of time, Dick decides that they should head back to the States and make their way to Las Vegas. This proves to be a serious mistake because, by this time, Dick's prison buddy had turned informant and then later, Kansas Bureau of Investigation's lead investigator Alvin Dewey (John Forsythe) easily traces their progress by following the trail of bad cheques that they leave in their wake.

The two fugitives are then soon arrested, interrogated and tried for the four murders that they'd committed.

Wherever possible, Richard Brooks filmed the action in the actual locations where the original events had taken place and featured some of the Clutter family's neighbours, jury members from the murder trial and the hangman who'd executed Smith and Hickock, in some of the movie's minor roles. This type of realism and the documentary-style presentation serve the material really well and ensure that the right tone is maintained perfectly throughout the whole movie. It's also commendable that Brooks avoids any form of sensationalism, any glamorisation of the two murderers or any attempts to rationalise their senseless actions. Conrad Hall's cinematography also complements Brooks' work magnificently and strongly emphasises the chilling, bleak and highly disturbing nature of the story as it unfolds.

Predictably, the movie's most notable performances come from Robert Blake and Scott Wilson who both make a huge impression. Blake looks troubled as the asprin-addicted son of a violent father and an adulterous mother and lives with constant pain as a consequence of a motorcycle accident. Wilson is also excellent as the swaggering, manipulative Hickock who exploits Perry Smith's gullibility for his own ends and displays some talent as a con-man.

"In Cold Blood" is an immensely powerful and gripping tale that is particularly thought-provoking and unsettling because of the fact that it's based on a real-life case.

Filled with expert match cuts, elegant dissolves, and great shots this film is equally interesting both in its photography and plot. The main characters, Dick and Perry, create an interesting dynamic. At first Dick seems like the nicer, more controllable side of the alliance. But by the conclusion we find him to be the one who is truly disturbed. Perry, while haunted by his past as shown in well handled flashbacks, develops into a character with humanity and conscience. The style of the film I found interesting as well, made during the mid 60's but shot with the feel of classic 40's Hollywood. The editing, lighting, and photography are all handled terrificly, with standout moments such as when Perry throws something off a bridge and there is a cut to the impact of a crane dropping a magnet into a river. But the greatest shot of all comes during Perry's final monologue, with rain running down a window which projects the illusion of tears on Perry's face as he looks out and speaks about his estranged relationship with his father.

The acting and direction in the movie adaption of In Cold Blood played an important and effective role in the characterization of Dick and Perry. In order for this film to work, Scott Wilson needed to play Dick as a cunning and charming personality. The suit store scene perfectly displays these tendencies. In this scene, Dick demonstrates his cunningness by giving the salesman a believable and ordinary story for why he needs a suit. He then uses his charm when he tells the salesman he is the best man and this is his wedding present to Perry. Now, the salesman has an emotional interest in helping Dick instead of merely wanting to make money. After picking out the suits and Dick's continued charm and wit, the salesman believes he has a bond with Dick when he treats him as friend by trusting him with the check. The top notch acting from Scott Wilson, convinced the viewer of Dick's personality and abilities which aided the movies attempt to display an authentic crime.

The emphasis in each scene, provided by the director, successfully made the audience sympathize with Perry. The constant pain Perry showed from his accident that created his aspirin addiction demonstrated his vulnerability. Perry's flashbacks throughout the movie, initiated by a mini deja-vu, informed the viewer of Perry's troubled past. For example, when Perry is near his death, he recalls his father aiming a gun at him while telling him to "take a good look" because this is the last thing he will ever see. This scene came before his hanging when he was concerned about his last moments in the world and how they would feel. The flashback allowed the audience to almost pardon Perry's action as a result of a troubled childhood. All of these vulnerabilities culminate during Perry's account of the murder when he reluctantly goes into the Clutters house followed by his attempts to persuade Dick to leave the house. This direction, along with the acting, allowed an accurate, gripping, and entertaining film adaption.