Truman Capote's In Cold Blood: Comparison of Book and Movie

"In Cold Blood" is a tragic story of two men, Eugene Hickock and Perry

Edward, who murder an entire family in search of money and then find themselves

running from the law. While writing the book, Truman Capote used only facts to

create a novel out of an actual event. He had thousands of notes on the subject,

but his problem was making his book read like a novel. He accomplished this by

adding dialogue and describing characters feelings. This technique is used in

the film as well when flashbacks of characters childhoods are shown.

The different plots are handled very well in the movie. The main plot

obviously is the murders and the run from the law. Other subplots that are

shown are Smith's internal fight with his past in which his father deserted him,

and at one point, had a gun pointed to his head. Also there appears to be

tension between Smith and Hickock. They think differently at times, especially

when it comes to the discussion of the crime. You can't help but feel

sympathetic towards Smith, as it appears that he is forced into this by Hickock.

All characters in the movie were played well by the actors in my opinion. They

all seemed real and seemed to fit in with the setting and the time period.

I think that Hickock and Smith are not victims of forces beyond their

control, they are victims of, at least in Smith's case, a bad upbringing. The

two murderers have no direction in their lives. The only skills that Hickock

seems to know is...