In Cold Blood
Review: Based on a true crime turned into a non fiction book by Truman Capote, In Cold Blood is the story of a heinous crime gone wrong. The main characters are Perry Smith (Robert Blake) and Dick Hickcock. Dick was convinced by an ex cell mate that a family called the Clutters have a safe containing $10,000 in their house. The duo break into the Clutter's farmhouse and fail to find any money and ruthlessly murder the Clutter family, killing all 4 family members. They came away with only $43, a pair of binoculars and a radio. I would recommend paying strict attention to this movie if you tend to talk throughout them, there is a lot of scene jumping throughout this movie which builds up to the last 45 minutes. The murder scene is not shown at the beginning but at the end, I was a little bit stunned when the killers walked up to the house and then it cut to a scene of the police arriving at the house, but it adds to the realistic grimness of the last 45 minutes, it makes more of an impact because you are constantly wondering what they did,what happened. The killers drive down to Mexico after the killing, and hold up there for a while before returning to the states where they are captured. In Mexico, Perry has a flashback of his Mother seducing a man in front of her kids, a man proceeds to barge in; he whips her and pours alcohol all over her body. These little insights to Perry's background indicate that maybe he was crazy / damaged- his Father or "The Lone Wolf" offers detectives stories of Perry as a child and insists he raised him well; Perry on death row tells of a psychotic Father who pointed and shot an unloaded gun at him for eating a biscuit. "the film exudes such a realistic quality that you forget its a movie" Perry and Dick waited on death row for five years. They were both sentenced to be hung, originally on Friday the 13th. The gallows scene in the film was pretty bad, I sympathized with Blake's character Perry, that and the fact that he was pretty suave and an interesting character with his leather jacket, limp and rockabilly hair. This film made me come away from it feeling sick, in the final scene Perry's body is dangling and the words "In Cold Blood" come on the screen. We all have our own opinions pertaining to the death penalty, but the ending made me cry, and for once I couldn't say...''It's just a movie'' . The film looks amazing with its brooding black and white / film noir lighting. At times the film exudes such a realistic quality that you forget its a movie, it feels as if you are watching footage of the real event. The jazz soundtrack by Quincy Jones reminded me hugely of Angelo Badalamenti and Twin Peaks, (there is even a mention of cherry pie). I found no major flaws to this film, so if you are a goof nerd go find them at IMDb I am not going to be picky/bitchy over a make of guitar or someone saying $40 then $43. But here is a little bit of trivia for you, this was the first movie in the US to use the word shit and the film was shot in all the actual locations, including the Clutter house where the murders were committed.
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