Format: DVD from Northern Illinois University Founders Memorial Library on The New Portable.
I’ve put off watching In Cold Blood for a few reasons. The first was that I wasn’t sure of how well it would hold up to Capote and the non-fiction novel written by Truman Capote. This is one of those instances where I’m familiar with the source material, and in this case, that source material has earned all of the acclaim it has gotten. The book is staggering and brilliant. But I’ll admit that a part of this comes from the odd story of Robert Blake. Do I really want to spend time watching a movie starring Blake as a murderer when he may well be a non-convicted murderer in real life?
That is the entirety of the movie, though. In Cold Blood is essentially the story of the murder of the Clutter family in Kansas by Dick Hickock (Scott Wilson) and Perry Smith (Robert Blake). Where it differs is the focus. While Capote’s book takes a more clinical and omniscient perspective and the film Capote sits entirely in the world of the author’s struggle, the film version of In Cold Blood is significantly focused on the story of the criminals. We won’t spend the entire film there, but we do spend a great deal of the film’s running time in the company of Dick and Perry.
