Capote chronicles the life of author Truman Capote as he chronicles the murders in Holcomb, Kansas which would become the basis for his book In Cold Blood. The quadruple-homicide may have permanently damaged the innocence of the country as the task of researching and writing the book harmed the conscience of the author.
The Kansas scenery comes to life, albeit in the drab colours of winter. Instead of a stark conflict between good and bad, black and white, there are many varied interests at play. The contrast between the values of the upstanding citizens of Holcomb and those of Perry Smith and Dick Hickock is supplanted by the disparity between Capote and his city lifestyle and the simple existence in the countryside.
Capote is initially rejected by the citizens of the town as an outsider then embraced when some of the more literate members of the town hierarchy recognize him. Towards the end, he is greeted sarcastically when the police and citizens begin to sense that he is involved solely for his own purposes. For example, when Capote arranges for a lawyer to appeal Smith and Hickock’s conviction, the previously hospitable police detective warns that if their sentence is commuted, he will come to New York City and hunt the author down.
Although there may be some cause for his sympathy for the defendants, it becomes clear that Capote is only involved in the story for himself. He may have initially travelled to Kansas with Harper Lee because of a headline that caught his eye and his desire to explore the issue further but he soon becomes focused on his book and the adulation that will come with its publication. It is not that he wants Smith and Hickock to appeal their conviction because they were wronged but so he can keep them alive long enough to talk to them.
Capote may have been one of Smith’s only friends but he is not a very devoted one, disappearing from his life for months at a time. Once he reaches his thesis: that there are two components to American society which collided that night, he ceases to investigate further. Whether he could have delved deeper into the case and uncovered a more complex cause of the unfortunate series of events or arranged a more just sentence for the two men is debated but as his friend Lee states, “the fact is, [he] didn’t want to.”
In Cold Blood is a memorable and influential work, inspiring hundreds of other true crime books and sparking public curiosity about the judicial system. As Phillip Seymour Hoffman artfully performs, for Capote the non-fiction volume was as much about its author as it was its subject. Every interview was an occasion to put himself on a pedestal, every public reading was a chance to place himself at the centre of the issue.
Had it been a work of fiction, Capote would have invented the particulars of the crime and concluded with the execution of the two men; since it was based on fact, he had to wait until one of the perpetrators revealed the details to him and for every last appeal to be exhausted so Smith and Hickock could actually hang. Perhaps the recognition that real people are behind the stories in the real world, as opposed to the fantastical realm of fiction, curtailed his subsequent writing or perhaps Capote was merely resting on his laurels. Hoffman marvelously portrays the regret that Capote experiences after finishing In Cold Blood, which turns out to be the last complete book published by the author. ***½