Capote
Maybe it’s because I was fixed upon intensely hating Truman Capote, as he is depicted in this film, or perhaps because I had just seen the crisp, ratiocinative Edward R. Murrow as portrayed in “Good Night and Good Luck” the night prior. “Capote” doesn’t strike me as nearly as interesting a film, and Truman Capote doesn’t…
Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote.
Photo by: Attila Dory, courtesy of United Artists/Sony Pictures Classics, all rights reserved.
Maybe it’s because I was fixed upon intensely hating Truman Capote, as he is depicted in this film, or perhaps because I had just seen the crisp, ratiocinative Edward R. Murrow as portrayed in “Good Night and Good Luck” the night prior. “Capote” doesn’t strike me as nearly as interesting a film, and Truman Capote doesn’t strike me as nearly as interesting a subject for a film.
However, this is not a complaint, it’s an explanation to put into perspective the tone of what I have to say about “Capote.” Like “Good Night,” this movie centers on one particular aspect of the subject’s life—in this case, the events behind the nonfiction work, In Cold Blood, which made Capote unimaginably famous.
The title card reads “November 15, 1959”, as the film opens. A young girl, Laura Kinney (Allie Mickelson), enters a farmhouse to find the Clutter family viciously murdered. After attending a cocktail party, Truman Capote reads a story in the New York Times, “Wealthy Farmer – Family of Three Slain.” The story piques his interest, and you’ll understand why I describe it in such terms as I continue. So, he boards a train to Kansas accompanied by a companion, fellow author Nell Harper Lee (Catherine Keener).
At a young age, Capote’s mother left him with his relatives in Alabama. Harper Lee lived next door to his aunt. Thus, the two became close friends.
The baggage handler compliments Capote on his last book, “Just when you think they’ve gotten as good as they could get.” Harper sees through Capote and intuits that he’d paid the baggage handler to say that.
Capote replies, “How’d you know?”
Human nature, I suppose… or at least his nature. Capote is an incredibly vain individual. When he visits the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, he insists to one of the staff that they pay him a compliment for his scarf. He’s to meet Alvin Dewey (Chris Cooper). Unfortunately, for Capote, the Sears Roebuck Catalog representative has an easier time gaining access to the press conference the Kansas Bureau is about to hold.
Dewey informs the reporters that a $10,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest of the killers. Lee and Capote go to a local school to find Laura Kinney to question her regarding the murders. Lee understands the sensitivity of the subject matter, and of her potential interviewee, so she wishes to find Laura alone. This doesn’t sit well with Capote.
Having visited the funeral home to get a look at the Clutter family’s coffins, Truman notes, even in as grotesque a series of murders as this, the dead comfort him. They make him feel normal. This is, of course, an early insight into the Truman Capote of this film. Whether or not he really was as self-centered as the film portrays is not relevant to this film so much. Hoffman plays Capote as an introverted, extreme narcissist. The world is comprised of people, places and events that exist purely to satisfy his curiosity or amusement.
He gloats on his ability to recall entire passages from books, his recent book deal (Breakfast at Tiffany’s), and gossips on about names of the many people with whom his shoulders have barely rubbed. “They drank like famished water buffalo.” Capote says of Bogart and Huston.
Truman Capote, it is often said, introduced a new kind of literary style. His investigative abilities are difficult to follow if you’re not thinking as far through the observations as he is, but, as with any good movie, critical thinking skills are required here. Capote observes, for example, that one of the children had a pillow put over his head. Why would a cold-blooded killer do that? Remorse, perhaps?
While Harper Lee and Truman Capote appear to be close friends, it’s clear that Capote’s egotism takes precedence over their relationship. Lee manages to get away with mocking his self-reverential attitude at Alvin’s. However, he’s visibly distressed when she announces that Lippincott has picked up To Kill a Mockingbird.
On January 6, 1960, the press converge at Alvin’s notice. He’s been told to call the chief of police as soon as possible. The suspects, Richard Eugene Hickock and Perry Smith, have been apprehended. In their hearing, the defense requests a waiver of rights.
Truman arranges, by way of a bribe to the prison warden, a meeting with Perry, and befriends him—so it seems.
Like Capote, Perry Smith was abandoned by his mother. While the night shift is on suicide watch at the prison, Truman tells Perry his story needs to reach the public, “If I leave here without understanding you, the world will see you as a monster.”
As Truman entagles himself in the story of Smith and Hickok, they’re found guilty on all four counts. At first, Truman wants to find them a better lawyer. However the appeals drag on and Capote grows tired of the story, wanting only to finish it.
Perry continues to call Truman, but Truman does little to help him. While working on the book about the murders, which he’s decided to title In Cold Blood, Capote says to his friends of Perry, “He’s a goldmine.” Yet Truman cannot be as truthful with Perry—dodging his questions about the book.
One year later, Capote still doesn’t have his book finished. It’s evident that the series of appeals continue to delay the book’s ending… the ending he wants. Hoffman as Capote exudes petulance at the thought. And that is where the core of this movie resides, in Hoffman’s portrayal of Capote as an erudite yet parsimonious bastard.
In his usual disengaging manner, Capote recuses himself, confiding in his publisher, William Shawn (Bob Balaban), “One day he went out the back door while I went out the front.”
A stay of execution is granted. However, three years later the case, as history tells us, was denied appeal by the Supreme Court. With that, the fate of Perry Smith and Richard Hickok is finally sealed. Only then does Capote lift a finger, but even so, his entire trip serves one purpose—chiefly to reassure himself that he did all he could, when in fact he never did a thing for anyone but himself.
Capote • Dolby® Digital surround sound in select theatres • Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 • Running Time: 98 minutes • MPAA Rating: R for some violent images and brief strong language. • Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics
