I just saw Capote. Between all the diaper changes, it took me four hours, but I managed to see it all. It was much more sparse in its dialogue than I expected. And much more potent for it. Particularly strong is the parting between Perry Smith and his last "friend" in the world. Overall it was an excellent movie. A marketing major would call it a "thought-starter." One sees why Philip Seymour Hoffman got that bucket full of acting awards.
I like to read reviews of movies after I've seen them. Here's some I came across for Capote.
Nutshell summaries of movie reviews, with links from dozens of leading newspapers, is at:
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/capote
Particularly interesting is the review by the Miami Herald. http://ae.miami.com/entertainment/ui/miami/movie.html?id=435581&reviewId=19333
The Charlotte Observer also published a thoughtful review, though it also called Capote a movie "that's easier to respect than to connect with emotionally."
This -- from a journalist?? But I suppose it depends on your vantage and experiences. Has your work ever led you to find yourself sitting across a table from a murderer?
Truman Capote pried off the lid of Hell for a long look at the people down there. Then he reported back to us on what he saw. Unless you've had a chance to sit down and talk to a crazy killer, maybe it is hard to relate.
I was once involved in a civil case arising out of a murder in which a teenager went crazy and killed his mother's boyfriend. I had to talk to this boy to find out what he had to say about the murder, so I called up the psychiatric prison that housed him. When I told the administrator on the phone that I wanted to visit -- oh, let's call him John Smith -- the man replied, "Senior or Junior?" -- for both father and son were housed there. While I questioned the boy, I kept wondering what on earth I was doing there, listening to this idiot try to convince me he is schizophrenic by talking about the voices in his head. I reprimanded the kid and he dropped it. But it was an agony to sit there, to be polite to him, to cajole information out of him, while trying to keep the pity and disgust at bay, all while wondering whether he would at any moment lunge across the table at me.
And I have read many true crime accounts, including reports from murder trials. What do these reporters put themselves through when they cover the worst cases -- the Jeffrey Dahmer case, the Albert Fish case, any murder case for that matter? When they sit through the presentation of bloody evidence, when they talk to the victims' families, when they confront a cruel killer? Sit in that chair for a while, then tell me how "manipulative" Capote was, how you would have handled "things." And admit that his book, his life, the film taught you something.
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