Won applause at Harvard Loew's

Rating: 10/10 (24 October 2005)

Wanna know how seldom the sophisticates at Harvard Square clap for a movie? Very. Yes, Hoffman does a great job of mimicking Capote. Those who have pronounced characteristics as Capote did are easier to mimic than the more ordinary American. The guy acting the part of Perry Smith was fantastic in being able to show without camp, the "Po' little me, I shouldn't die for killing 4 people." charm AND the hard-eyed, conniving ex-con. Both very subtle characterizations.
As co-ordinator of the Gore Vidal Yahoo group, AND an Alabamian as Capote was, I can't pretend to be objective. This movie was a powerful depiction of the struggles that TC must have gone through internally: He needed them to die, he thought, to get the ending properly tied up....so there's his ambition and career. Yet he so much identified for this short half-native American, discarded child of an alcoholic, just as he was. Perry's brother had committed suicide, so did Capote's mother.
The fact that he never wrote another book after this is telling. As sensitive as Capote was, the sight of the executions and his empathy for Perry were probably fatal blows to his delicate psyche. Hoffman does a great job in the final scene, where he is fumbling all over himself, knowing he's a catalytic agent in these kids' deaths.....and the killers KNOW it, and still FORGIVE him for it, "We know why you didn't answer my letters", Perry says. "We understand." And you believe it. There's not even sarcasm there, but someone knowing he's about to die, shirking off pettiness and showing dignity.
Perry Smith is shown to be someone of a high intellect, if uneducated. Reminded me of Timothy McVeigh and Gore Vidal's interest in him, as he awaited death. Many similarities.
The movie does NOT give you any answers, as to why these 4 people had to die......other than as a result of the boys' frustration at finding only $50.00 in their search and wanting to eradicate witnesses. I can only guess that the hideous childhood of Perry and his life behind bars up till then produced these actions, someone who cared little for his own life, and therefore cared even less for this family's.
The cinematography is magnificent, with many horizontal shots: the train cutting through the middle of the frame traveling across the plain. The shot of the prison amidst the snowy winter landscape reminds you of the Doge Palace in Venice. The up close and personal shots of the last seconds of a person's life about to be executed is extremely powerful. Do they still read the Lord's Prayer to convicted murderers as they lethally inject them, frying their insides? I used to despise these 'ministers', considering them as I did the Army chaplains, complicit in the death industry. But I now understand why it is important for them to be there. "Dead Man Walking" gave me that understanding.
The director gives us an evenhanded treatment of the capital punishment quandary: seeing that mother with a cotton head mask in the coffin does a number on you. As someone whose stepfather was murdered and who testified to keep his murderer in prison 2 months ago, I must ell you that I cannot sanction the state murdering in my name-- by taking a murderer's life. However, that said, once a human being takes a life, he should forfeit his freedom for the rest of his own life. So I'll be heading to Montgomery every 5 years for the rest of my life, to keep this guy shut away.
The best line in the movie is when Harper Lee replies over the phone to Truman's protestations, "You may have THOUGHT you did all you could." as you see him turn down call after call, letter after letter from the murderer. She doesn't let him off the hook, since she knows Truman has condemned them to death by dropping the good lawyers needed to plead successfully before the Supreme Court.
By the way, I was one of those who showed my appreciation for this movie by applauding at the end, breeching the usual silence in a somewhat shocking manner and reminding me of why I go OUT to see a movie, rather than watching it here at home. I say Oscar for Hoffman, Oscar for the photographer, and Oscar for the Perry Smith actor.