Truman's quest for fame and glory was his inevitable downfall

Rating: 10/10 (5 February 2006)

just saw Capote. Wow. Phillip Seymour Hoffman should win the academy award for that one. Hoffman immerses himself in the role. All the acting is superb.
On the other hand, ugh! No wonder Truman drank himself to death. He was a grandiose, defiant slimy little man, although he had a very charming, manipulative side.
At first, I was quite taken with the movie and Capote's method of writingand thought that Capote was simply immersing himself in the booksomething that is quite necessary when we create art. Butas the movie wore on, I began to seewhich is so telling in one of the scenes when Capote says something like: "It was as if we grew up in the same house (meaning Capote and one of the killer, Perry Smith). Only he went out the back door and I went out the front." Capote felt a real kinship with Perry Smith, they had similar childhoods, and was probably 'in love' with him.they were two peas in a pod, only one was rich and famous, and the other followed the 'dark side'. Truman couldn't deal with his own fame after recognizing their similarities.
The only difference between Capote himself and the killer Perry Smith was that Perry Smith went to prison and was executed for the end results of his resentments, defiance, and grandiosity. He lived his life as Master of the Universe. Capote, unable to deal with the metaphor, his narcissism, and his lack of a soul, drank himself to death. He died in 1984 from "complications" of alcoholism.
One of my favorite  and I think spectacular - authors, Anne Rule, writes true crime in a similar manner to Capote. However, she looks at the positive and how the people involved, the 'victims', are able to turn their lives around in spite of their circumstances as crime victims.
Capote never wrote another book although he did have some unfinished works. At the end, there is a quote from Capote that says something like "fame isn't as grand as it's cracked up to be". What is meant to me was, we'd better be humble in how we choose to share our gifts with the world. When Capote began the process of writing In Cold Blood, he thought only of fame and glory, yet it was his downfall.