Comparing and Contrasting the Novel and Film Versions of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood
Having now read Truman Capote's American crime classic In Cold Blood, and then seen the movie version of it, originally released in 1967 and recently out in a newly-formatted DVD version starring Robert Blake as Perry Smith and Scott Wilson as Dick Hickok, I must say that the novel and the film, although they each tell the same story, are both excellent, but still, necessarily, different from each other. I liked them both equally: Capote's novel as a novel, and Richard Brooks' newly re-released 1967 film version of it. A novel is capable of exciting the individual imagination, and also demands imaginative visualization from the reader, i.e., of characters, places, etc., in ways a film does not. A film version of a book, as a consequence, may seem visually disappointing to someone who, having previously read the book, happens to visualize the characters; places, situations, etc., differently than the movie director presents them. Or, conversely, one may feel very satisfied with a directors' visual sense of characters, settings, objects, etc., if his or her view matches one's own. I believe that this is because the human visual imagination, during the reading process, is so strong and powerful, so therefore a movie
Robert Blake, who played Perry in the movie, was very convincing. Perry, as Truman Capote describes him in the book, gives me the willies, and so did Robert Blake's inte3rpretation of him, even more so, in fact, than the book. In the book, Perry seems more vivid to me than Dick, but in the movie, Scott Wilson does an excellent job of bringing Dick to life, and giving him a distinctive, equally disturbing character much different from Dick's. When Dick and Perry are on the run in the book, it feels less suspenseful than it does during that same portion of the movie, since we know in the book they will eventually be caught (and if we have any doubt, we can always skip ahead to the end). In the movie, this part feels more like a police chase. The director, through music, dialogue, weather conditions, etc., manages to make the pursuit of Perry and Dick suspenseful and full of tension, even though we know that they will be caught. In terms of differences between the two versions, one is that within Capote's novel, Dick's and Perry's respective personalities; quirks; family and social backgrounds; fantasies; fears; reasons for murder; relationships with each other, etc., are described more slowly and deliberately, with much more detail, over what seems a longer chronological period, and in many places, with greater suspense. We also learn more details, e.g., what Perry's father thinks of him and why from a letter Perry's father once wrote about him, saying that Perry was a "normal" child, and "goodhearted". Dick's criminal history; how the two play off of one another and together make possible the carrying out of the crimes, th
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1116
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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