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| Joe Vitus |
 Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 9:58 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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| Out of curiousity, I remember Kael and I think others complaining about the movie of In Cold Blood being softer on the killers, or trying to make them seem more appealing. For instance omitting the scene were they swerve across the road just to run over a dog or some animal. Would people here agree this was the intention with the changes, or no? |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 1:48 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Joe, In Cold Blood is a compelling read and one of the best books of the last half century. I think I've read it only three times.
I thought the movie was pretty great. Sad, dangerous, relentless. Some great editing choices, memorable images, soem directorial flourishes at the right moment and in aid of the mood and context.
It's funny, at first I was worried that Quincy Jones was going to drown out and overwhelm the proceedings. But that dies down, and later there is a great scene where Perry is wistful talking to bound-and-gagged Nancy Clutter (after preventing her rape), and there's silence as he talks, with the score only kicking in when he is on the ground in pain trying to retrieve the silver dollar.
There's a great image when Dick says something to the hogtied Mr. Clutter, gets no response, so he cocks the shotgun and Clutter looks up in this contorted hunched pose as Dick shines the flashlight on him. Powerful.
A few of the flashbacks I would have treated differently. But why quibble. And the rain reflected across the face at the end is brilliant (apparently an accidental discovery).
The film goes easy on the killers?
News to me. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 3:41 am |
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| Thanks. I liked what I saw of the movie, and don't remember now why I didn't watch the whole thing (I rented, I think, when I was still in high school). I have mixed feelings about Capote as a writer, but I probably should read In Cold Blood. |
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| ehle64 |
| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 4:02 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: NYC; US&A
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| you both make me wanna vomit -- sorry -0- tis true |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 6:14 am |
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Don't get ehle's response, but I am shocked--shocked!--that Joe has never read In Cold Blood. Truly, truly, one of the greatest books I've ever read. Unbelievably powerful, subtle, gorgeously written, and with one of the most--yes--poetic endings I've ever encountered anywhere. Even if you don't like Capote, I would find it impossible to believe you'd dislike In Cold Blood.
I still remember reading it in its original form (a four-or-six-or-something-part series in The New Yorker) on my lunch breaks at one of my first day jobs in NYC. Walking around 42nd and Tenth, where I worked, my nose in The New Yorker, jaywalking, taking my life in my hands, unable to remove myself from this phenomenal work of art.
In other words, read it. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 6:17 am |
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| Due to all the praise in this forum, I shall resee the film. The reason for the Bonnie and Clyde comparison, Yam, is that they are both crime dramas but Bonnie and Clyde was not so documentarian in feel and therefore had more of what I think the Capote book has--an aesthetic distance and an artistic view of the crimes. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 6:39 am |
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But isn't the whole feel of the book documentarian? I was under the impression that it was a somber book with a very subdued emotional quality.
I hate Capote, Billy. That's the long and short of it. He stole from everyone. Carson McCullers, Christopher Isherwood, and ultimately Gore Vidal (the liftings from Myra Breckinridge in both Music for Chameleons and Answered Prayers are so embarrassingly obvious; he hijacks the whole "I shall write in the style of the French New Novelists" thing, to mention one example.) I've brought this up before, and Capote fans don't want to acknowledge it. Don't really feel like running around that racetrack again. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 6:44 am |
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Joe Vitus wrote: But isn't the whole feel of the book documentarian? I was under the impression that it was a somber book with a very subdued emotional quality.
I hate Capote, Billy. That's the long and short of it. He stole from everyone. Carson McCullers, Christopher Isherwood, and ultimately Gore Vidal (the liftings from Myra Breckinridge in both Music for Chameleons and Answered Prayers are so embarrassingly obvious; he hijacks the whole "I shall write in the style of the French New Novelists" thing, to mention one example.) I've brought this up before, and Capote fans don't want to acknowledge it. Don't really feel like running around that racetrack again.
It is certainly a somber book--how could it be anything else?--but I would not call the emotional tone "subdued." It's certainly not anything like gushy, but I cried frequently while reading it. During the film I shed not one tear.
Again, even if you hate Capote, I think you'll like In Cold Blood. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 7:26 am |
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Haven't read In Cold Blood, or any other Capote except some short stories which I remember liking. I liked the movie. I especially remember the scene where they are hitch-hiking and a car with a couiple of clean cut black guys stop for them and they don't get in. As they drive away Hickock says something to the effect of "They could have killed us."
Quote: Walking around 42nd and Tenth, where I worked, my nose in The New Yorker,
Billy would that have been around '71-'72? I walk by there often on my way to and from the taxi garage. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 7:53 am |
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billyweeds wrote:
Again, even if you hate Capote, I think you'll like In Cold Blood.
I think you're likely right about this. |
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| lshap |
| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 7:59 am |
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| Never read In Cold Blood, either. Note to self to go to the library before leaving on vacation. |
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| lshap |
| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 8:15 am |
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On topic post alert!
So my 9-year-old boys watched West Side Story for the first time last night. Aside from the giggling at dated choreography and dialogue ("I feel pretty and witty and gay!") they really got swept up in the Shakespearian theme and the Bernstein score. Despite it being very much of an old-style musical brought to the screen, the deaths still had impact, making it barely if acceptably kid-friendly.
I was struck by how this film portrayed New York at the beginning of the 60's, and what a radical, jarring, violent turn New York took by the time it arrived at the end of the 60's with Midnight Cowboy. Curious to see how my boys react to Joe Buck.
Yes, I'm kidding. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 8:31 am |
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marantzo wrote:
Billy would that have been around '71-'72? I walk by there often on my way to and from the taxi garage.
No, this was earlier, like 1966-67.
Just checked The New Yorker website. It was 1965. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 12:34 pm |
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marantzo wrote: Haven't read In Cold Blood, or any other Capote except some short stories which I remember liking. I liked the movie. I especially remember the scene where they are hitch-hiking and a car with a couiple of clean cut black guys stop for them and they don't get in. As they drive away Hickock says something to the effect of "They could have killed us."
Close. That was their plan, but he says, "They could of robbed us."
And the guy that does pick them up they are planning to do in, until he picks up another hitcher. So you're probably mixing it together with that.
Surprised that so many here haven't read In Cold Blood. I found it to be one of those books which was so gripping that it was hard to really notice the author's style or structure, because it was too compelling. |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 1:34 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
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Location: Lawrence, KS
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lshap wrote: On topic post alert!
So my 9-year-old boys watched West Side Story for the first time last night. Aside from the giggling at dated choreography and dialogue ("I feel pretty and witty and gay!") they really got swept up in the Shakespearian theme and the Bernstein score. Despite it being very much of an old-style musical brought to the screen, the deaths still had impact, making it barely if acceptably kid-friendly.
I was struck by how this film portrayed New York at the beginning of the 60's, and what a radical, jarring, violent turn New York took by the time it arrived at the end of the 60's with Midnight Cowboy. Curious to see how my boys react to Joe Buck.
Yes, I'm kidding. |
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