Yeah, yeah, stayed up too late again with Atticus watching a movie. Capote is an amazing film. Of course I had to close my eyes at several points (when the Clutter family was found, when Capote views the photographs from the crime scene, when Perry finally details the night of the killings for Truman) but for the most part, this is an incredible character study and the very sad tale of a man who was so determined to write a great book that he sold his soul in the process. The movie doesn't pull any punches -- it is clear what Capote was doing, and it's clear, in the end, that it destroyed him.
Not enough time to write a thoughtful review, but why bother when I can refer you to this review from Roger Ebert?
One thing I loved about the movie (and Ebert alludes briefly to this, but doesn't give a lot of the detail) is the way in which Harper Lee is portrayed as the grounded, moral center of the film, and the counterpoint to what Capote is doing. She's just as I would imagine the author of To Kill a Mockingbird to be. (Lee and Capote were childhood friends, and he's the person on which the character of Dill, in her book, was based.)
It's an amazing movie.
1 comment:
I haven't seen Capote yet, although I'm hoping to once it gets to this area. I was unaware of the connection between Capote and Harper Lee. I read In Cold Blood ages and ages ago, it wasn't until later that I realized the extent to which Capote really used the murderers. It seemed to me at the time that he was less than sympathetic to the Clutter family. I sort of assumed that it was simply that as a non-rural writer he didn't simply couldn't identify with the life of a middle America farm family. The book certainly has a different take on true crime than say Ann Rule's stuff which is definitely written to be sympathetic to the victim, not the perpetrator. I don't really know about deal about Capote himself, I've seen caricatures of him, but never really looked that closely at his life. I'm looking forward to getting to see this one, especially because I loved To Kill a Mockingbird and it will be interesting to find out more about Harper Lee. How interesting that Lee and Capote were childhood friends. How sad that his life turned out as it did.
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