The DVD Package Makes CAPOTE Even More Gripping

Rating: 10/10 (22 March 2006)

CAPOTE is a great movie. Let that be said at the beginning of this review. The superb screenplay by Dan Futterman based on the book by Gerald Clarke in turn based on that part of the life of Truman Capote when he was obsessed with writing his final and finest novel 'In Cold Blood', and the extraordinary directing by Bennett Miller who influenced a fine production crew and coaxed brilliant performances from his cast is all a well established fact. That all of this could be brought together in the featurettes that accompany the film on the DVD release is an example of just how fine additive commentaries can be. This is not only a superb film; it is also an equally superb DVD package.
Philip Seymour Hoffman as the idiosyncratic author Truman Capote probes the psyche of this strange but gifted writer from his first newspaper clipping of the November 15, 1959 brutal murders of the Clutter family in Holbrook through his immersion in the tiny Kansas town accompanied by his friend and fellow writer Harper Lee (Catherine Keener) absorbing the atmosphere where such a deed could happen, ingratiating himself with investigator Alvin Dewey (Chris Cooper) and his wife Marie (Amy Ryan) to gain access to information that will eventually result in material for his projected book. He becomes obsessed with the murderers Perry Smith (Clifton Collins, Jr.) and Richard Hickock (Mark Pellegrino), connecting with Smith in particular on a very basic level and providing the men with lawyers to appeal their conviction for a long enough time to eventually hear the truth of the night of grisly mayhem that fascinates Capote so. The story ends with the execution of Smith and Hickock in 1965, an occasion that further bewilders the now fragile mind of Capote as he gains the end to his story while simultaneously watching the loved Smith dangle from the scaffold in death. Each actor is exceptional here: Hoffman does indeed deserve his Oscar for a brilliant portrayal.
But it is the aftermath that brings even more poignancy to the film. Hearing Bennett, Clarke, and Futterman discuss the origin of the cinematic idea blends naturally with the production crews' commentary about the choice of Winnipeg, Canada as the location to depict Kansas, the thorough preparation of the design and costuming and color palette and camera techniques, and then the comments by four of the main actors (Hoffman, Keener, Cooper, and Collins) illuminate not only the characters they depicted in the film but also the dynamics of entering into this strange world of bleak winter murder. The effect of the featurettes is staggering and makes the viewer want to immediately replay the entire movie.
This DVD package should serve as the template for future releases: the disc in its entirety is an art form that has few peers. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp