Bravo
Well-Known Member
- Aug 27, 2004
- 5,822
- 15
Has anyone seen the film Capote?
I saw it yesterday with my wife and was riveted. Rather than being a full blown biopic - it describes the 5-6 year period in Truman Capote's life when he researched and wrote In Cold Blood - which was a blockbuster book/movie about a family in Kansas that was slashed and shot to death.
Truman Capote was one of the more facintating characters of the 20th century. Born in New Orleans, he moved at a very young age to a tiny town in rural Alabama where he lived with his aunts until the age of 9. While there, he met his next door neighbor - Nelle Harper Lee who became his lifelong friend.
At the age of 9, his mother (who had abandoned him previously) got remarried and he moved to NYC - where he lived the remainder of his life. His IQ was measured at 215 and he became a best selling author of Breakfast at Tiffany's. Capote was outwardly and unashamedly gay - in an age when most homosexuals kept their sexuality in the closet. He reveled in the NY cultural scene and moved easily between the straight and gay worlds. He had a long term relationship with a single partner for almost his entire adult life.
After moving to NYC, his small town next door neighbor, Harper Lee moved there as well and she became his "research assistant" when he decided to write a book about the heinous murders that occurred on a Western Kansas wheat farm. She accompanied him to Kansas on many occasions and became in many ways the 'icebreaker' for their inquiries into the town, its inhabitants and how it was reacting to this brutal crime. Because of his outward and blatant homosexual behavior, her participation was crucial.
During the time she is acting as his close friend and 'research assistant' she penned one of the greatest literary works of alltime - To Kill a Mockingbird, which also became a blockbuster film starring Gregory Peck.
The film Capote, is riveting because he developed strong relationships with so many people involved in the story including both the chief investigator as well as one of the perpetrators of the crime - Perry Smith. Smith believes that Capote is sympathetic to his cause, but ultimately the book describes in brutal and realistic detail the savagery of the crime. Capote started research for the book in 1960 - but could not write the ending until the story ended. Go see the movie for the rest...
Capote never forgot the aunts that raised him as a young child in rural Alabama after his mother abandoned him and he returned to see them almost every year. Despite his revelry for the Manhattan scene and his recognition as one of the highest profile authors in the world after the publication of In Cold Blood, he still somehow identifed with this tiny little town, because his aunts faithfully took care of him after his mother left him.
In 1975, I was a student at the University of Alabama and was on the University Program Council - which was the entertainment organization that brought major rock concerts to the campus including Rolling Stones, Billy Joel, Elton John and dozens of others. We also had a Cultural Series which featured poets and authors doing readings of their works in front of a small audience in a theatre.
We had Truman Capote to Tuscaloosa while he was on the way to see his aunts in Monroeville. He did a reading of a short story he wrote about when he was a child. Before the reading, he met with a small group of hosts, including myself. I have to say, he was a facinating individual - very short in stature and so obviously effeminate in his mannerisms -while at the same time being very level-headed and easy to engage in conversation...
Go see this film if you have not...maybe get a little background on the murders before you go. It will add much to your appreciation of the film...
http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/family/clutter/1.html
I saw it yesterday with my wife and was riveted. Rather than being a full blown biopic - it describes the 5-6 year period in Truman Capote's life when he researched and wrote In Cold Blood - which was a blockbuster book/movie about a family in Kansas that was slashed and shot to death.
Truman Capote was one of the more facintating characters of the 20th century. Born in New Orleans, he moved at a very young age to a tiny town in rural Alabama where he lived with his aunts until the age of 9. While there, he met his next door neighbor - Nelle Harper Lee who became his lifelong friend.
At the age of 9, his mother (who had abandoned him previously) got remarried and he moved to NYC - where he lived the remainder of his life. His IQ was measured at 215 and he became a best selling author of Breakfast at Tiffany's. Capote was outwardly and unashamedly gay - in an age when most homosexuals kept their sexuality in the closet. He reveled in the NY cultural scene and moved easily between the straight and gay worlds. He had a long term relationship with a single partner for almost his entire adult life.
After moving to NYC, his small town next door neighbor, Harper Lee moved there as well and she became his "research assistant" when he decided to write a book about the heinous murders that occurred on a Western Kansas wheat farm. She accompanied him to Kansas on many occasions and became in many ways the 'icebreaker' for their inquiries into the town, its inhabitants and how it was reacting to this brutal crime. Because of his outward and blatant homosexual behavior, her participation was crucial.
During the time she is acting as his close friend and 'research assistant' she penned one of the greatest literary works of alltime - To Kill a Mockingbird, which also became a blockbuster film starring Gregory Peck.
The film Capote, is riveting because he developed strong relationships with so many people involved in the story including both the chief investigator as well as one of the perpetrators of the crime - Perry Smith. Smith believes that Capote is sympathetic to his cause, but ultimately the book describes in brutal and realistic detail the savagery of the crime. Capote started research for the book in 1960 - but could not write the ending until the story ended. Go see the movie for the rest...
Capote never forgot the aunts that raised him as a young child in rural Alabama after his mother abandoned him and he returned to see them almost every year. Despite his revelry for the Manhattan scene and his recognition as one of the highest profile authors in the world after the publication of In Cold Blood, he still somehow identifed with this tiny little town, because his aunts faithfully took care of him after his mother left him.
In 1975, I was a student at the University of Alabama and was on the University Program Council - which was the entertainment organization that brought major rock concerts to the campus including Rolling Stones, Billy Joel, Elton John and dozens of others. We also had a Cultural Series which featured poets and authors doing readings of their works in front of a small audience in a theatre.
We had Truman Capote to Tuscaloosa while he was on the way to see his aunts in Monroeville. He did a reading of a short story he wrote about when he was a child. Before the reading, he met with a small group of hosts, including myself. I have to say, he was a facinating individual - very short in stature and so obviously effeminate in his mannerisms -while at the same time being very level-headed and easy to engage in conversation...
Go see this film if you have not...maybe get a little background on the murders before you go. It will add much to your appreciation of the film...
http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/family/clutter/1.html
