Rent In Cold Blood (1967)

Hearts Of Darkness - In Cold Blood review by Count Otto Black

Based very closely on Truman Capote's book of the same name, this is a blistering portrayal of true evil that pulls no punches at all, except when it comes to showing us the gory details of the crime around which everything revolves. Which is just as well, because an explicit depiction of this event would have been almost unwatchable.

A film like this stands or falls by its central performances, and both the actors playing the utterly vile protagonists are extremely convincing indeed. The central theme of Capote's book is that evil isn't an abstract supernatural force; it's something that human beings inflict on each other for all kinds of twisted reasons. By understanding, even empathizing with these evil men without in any way condoning or excusing their actions, he was trying to show how a man becomes a monster, and how, if his life had gone differently, that monster might have been just a man. This movie does a chilling job of conveying the void that these two men are trapped in and consumed by, and how ultimately doomed they were right from the start. And when that doom finally comes to them, it's portrayed not as a glorious triumph of justice, but as a sordid procedure so terrifying that it's hard not to feel at least a shred of sympathy for the wretches who have to undergo it, no matter what they've done.

The characterization is perfect. We find out that both killers had horrible childhoods, yet the one who actually does by far the worst things is, paradoxically, the one who might have been a decent man if he hadn't gotten trapped in an escalating downward spiral of nihilism, and we understand that he feels guilt and self-loathing about what he did, though the fact remains that he did it anyway. The other, played by an actor who looks as though he must be related to Edward Norton but apparently isn't, is the true force of evil in the partnership, a psychopath who would have been bad no matter what, and doesn't even understand the concepts of guilt or remorse, yet is superficially charming because his incapacity to feel guilt makes him a superb liar.

It's not a perfect film. The supporting cast are mostly rather wooden, and Quincy Jones' background music is sometimes extremely obtrusive, particularly the syrupy Disneyesque "these are nice people" theme in the dreadfully overdone scenes establishing how innocent the doomed family are. Why is this even necessary? I think most viewers would get that they don't deserve to be slaughtered without seeing them being oh so very, very wholesome! And the interlude in the desert with the old man and the little boy is so obviously there to symbolically show that no situation is absolutely black and white, and even terrible people can have moments of goodness, that it feels (and presumably is) very fictional indeed compared with the rest of the film. But overall this is a very powerful and unflinching exploration of the dark side of humanity, and although it's not exactly fun to watch, it's hideously compelling.

Real Crime - In Cold Blood review by NO

A compelling film but not pleasurable as it depicts true events.Actors are good & monochrome suits it.What is interesting is that Robert Blakes

life is more melodramatic than this film-one of his wives was murdered (she had 10 husbands) & he was charged with her murder!Worth watchng I look forward to seeing the film CAPOTE>

True Crime. - In Cold Blood review by Steve

Landmark dramatisation of Truman Capote's non fiction novel which reports on the capture and execution of the murderers of a family in Kansas. Two ex-cons on probation, brutally slaughter four people during an attempted robbery. The film recreates the events using actual locations and artefacts. Robert Blake and Scott Wilson are disturbingly credible killers.

While the film argues against capital punishment, there isn't much editorialising. The Capote figure in the story, played by Paul Stewart, talks to the murderers but draws few conclusions. In profiling the killers, the police explain that those who commit motiveless crime are usually young men from a background of domestic trauma.

The killers are ostentatiously mentally sick. One of them hallucinates. The other is is a sociopath who feels detached from the consequences of his actions. They have been through the criminal system but never psychologically assessed. There's a liberal perspective, but the film doesn't underplay how horrific the crime is. The title is ironic; the film itself is unemotional, objective, cold.

This kind of True Crime docu-drama is everywhere now. There had been neo-realism in Hollywood going back to WWII. In Cold Blood is groundbreaking because of the how far it takes the genre. Everything looks and feels  squalid. Its cinema vérité makes few concessions to entertainment.