[Spoilers Ahead]
Watching Capote left me with a lingering thought. Did Perry Smith know that he had been betrayed by Truman Capote? Did he understand that he was merely used as a pawn so Capote could write the ONE defining book of his career?
Look at the climax. Despite being constantly ignored, Smith sends letter after letter to Capote literaly begging him to visit him. When Capote refuses to reply, he calls him, even on the day of execution. When all fails, he sends him a telegram, written in a language which forces Capote, despite all his misgivings to fly to Kansas and see him. Even in their short meeting, Smith quietly accepts his faith and thanks Capote for all he has done. Then he makes a strange request, he asks Capote to watch his execution, forcing him live with a nightmarish experience.
Well, if it was really his revenge, then he succeeds because Capote never completed another novel after In Cold Blood. In fact , he died of complications arising from chronic alcoholism and drug abuse.
Btw, if you haven’t watched Capote, please do so. Well worth the time.
Filed under: Cinema
A Question from Indian Readers,
I saw India is aggressively campaigning against child labor. My question is how India is fighting this problem as just making people not to hire kids is not enough. Most of the times poverty forced parents to send their kids to work. Are they planning to give some financial assistance so parents don’t have to worry about kids’ upbringing? If that so how are they going to implement it. I’m just asking so I can learn and try to make Pakistani govt. to do the same.
The sly exploitation of the two killers by Capote was very disturbing. The movie was great.
I also recommend reading In Cold Blood, the book.
Did he understand that he was merely used a pawn so Capote could write the ONE defining book of his career?
Even more intriguingly, if he understood this, did he at some subconscious level corroborate with Capote in filling out the myth (perhaps by saying and doing things that made the story even more dramatic and novel-worthy)? Realising that this was his only opportunity to win lasting fame rather than just end up as a scribbled name in the Death Row files? Might there have been a morbid synergy between the author and his victim? Questions, questions…
My Capote review is here btw.
Mariam,
Right now, Indian govt is doing just that. Banning. Your mail id works right? Will send you some links.
Ruchira,
True. But did the hunter become the hunted?
Jai,
Great point. And they both strived for the same thing-recognition. Thats almost a scary thought. I read your review, and I felt the same thing-Harper Lee is the Atticus Finch of the movie. Even when Capote is down in the dumps and asks her if he had done everything to save the killers, still she says-maybe not, maybe you wanted to see them dead.
And my sad little post has elicited a response from one of my favorite reviewers. Makes me feel good.
Confused:
You don’t always have to be “brilliantly literary” to exercise the power of pursuasion. Sometimes a review is good enough if you let readers know whether they should or should not sample the artistic ware. I do it both ways – wax eloquent when I have the mental energy and keep the reviews short when I don’t.
I once did five word book reviews of half a dozen books as a challenge to see if I could keep my loquaciousness under control. In retrospect, they were not all that much less informative than some of my lovingly and passionately written wordy ones.
I think that there was some speculation that the Smith – Capote mutual(?) exploitation had a homosexual undertone. Who knows? It is just supreme irony that the name of Capote’s brilliant book served as such a fitting title for his own little cleverly plotted venture.
As for Capote never writing another book, it may be comforting to believe that it was due to the gnawing at his conscience. I doubt it. By all accounts, Capote comes across as a pretty narcissistic person who probably didn’t give a hoot about whom he trampled upon to get what he wanted. More likely, he never could come up with anything else that would trump the sensational coup he managed to pull off with In Cold Blood. Capote was a drama queen, brilliant and given to painful theatrics. He probably died trying to configure the next fitting backdrop for his next big literary event. We don’t know why Capote didn’t write another book. I feel more intrigued and deprived that the wonderful Harper Lee never did.
Yes, it does.
This post ia about a movie right? I havn’t seen a movie so I’m avoiding all the reviews.
While I thoroughly enjoyed Capote, Infamous was, IMO, a better film.
As good as CAPOTE is, there is another movie, INFAMOUS, that is appreciably better.