How the criminals are portrayed in the film

This is the film about how everything happened before and after he read the article, this was not the film to accompany the book 'In Cold Blood'

Unworried by their convictions, their death sentences. They also don’t seem very bothered by Capote, even though he takes pictures and thoroughly interviews them. When Perry is in prison he refuses to eat to try and kill himself.

Dick then thanks Capote for his new lawyer. But Dick wasn’t the one who interested Capote. Dick is shown as a one-dimensional figure. They both try and make Capote write about them ‘in a good light’.

Perry finds a copy of ‘in Cold Blood’ and reads it. This proves to him that Capote has been lying to him as Capote told him that he hadn’t started yet.

When Capote goes to meet the killers Dick is hateful towards Capote but Perry is deeply thankful and happy to see him again. Perry asks Capote to be at the Hanging, so that he can have a friend there when he is killed. 

How the film follows the book at the opening

This is the film about how everything happened before and after he read the article, this was not the film to accompany the book 'In Cold Blood'

The start of the film follows closely to the book. It shows the wheat plains, the drive up to house and the interior of the house. The film shows the contrast of Holcomb and New York, this also explains how different the two places are.

Capote is shown as the center of the many people’s lives. Many people, suck up, to him and ‘hang on his every word’. He is shown as a God-like figure, someone everyone wants to be and be close to.

How Truman Capote is portrayed in the film

This is the film about how everything happened before and after he read the article, this was not the film to accompany the book 'In Cold Blood'

He is portrayed as a very high-up figure in his celebrity community. He is very shocked when he reads the article and leaves as soon as possible to write his book. The article ‘stuck a chord’ with Capote. He goes to Kansas with Harper Lee. He also has a huge ego; an example of this is when he pays the train warden to ‘big up’ his books and Truman work. He is also very impatient and is not used to waiting to get what he wants. At first no one knows who he is and no one wants him to get involved in his or her case. Capote is disrespected and treated like the rest of the reporters. Capote is very nosey and goes to look at the coffins of the Clutter family.

Capote changes his clothes to try and get noticed by the people. He said that he tested the amount of words he can remember from a conversation. He receives comfort from one of Herb’s friends, Alvin. Capote and Alvin comfort each other. Capote looks at the pictures of the Clutters after they are killed. On January 6^th the killer were found in Las Vegas and taken to Kansas. 

Capote immediately becomes interested in Perry Smith. But Perry doesn’t like him. Then Capote offers him a ‘serious’ lawyer and to put him on the visitors list so Capote can visit him.

Capote buys the right to have full access to all of the prison whenever he wants. This means that he can interview them and see them alive. He would prefer to see Perry rather than Dick. Capote tries to force friendship between himself and Perry. Capote tries to gain Perry’s trust by finding similar, moral ground to try and get answers from Perry. He makes them seem like they have something in common.

Capote’s lawyer gets the murderers a hearing.

Capote takes advantage of the information Perry gives him; he calls Perry a ‘goldmine’. He wants to ‘dig deeply’ into Perry to try and get something valuable.

Capote is sad because his case fails and they are still on death row, waiting to be killed. When Capote next sees Perry he apologizes for leaving him and being away.

Capote lies to Perry many times as he tells him that he has not started the book yet when he has almost finished. Capote then has one last chance to squeeze the last drips of information from him, and Capote tells him that he wants to know about the killings.

After Capote interviews Perry about the killings he says that he wants to be done with it because at that time he had spent four out of the six years on the book. The killers plead for a new lawyer otherwise they face certain death.

Capote is soon back in New York to finish up his book, but his mind is not clear.

When Perry tells Capote that he has two ore weeks, and is going down to holding. Capote hoes to visit Perry one last time before he is killed. He is extremely saddened by the hangings.

Capote tells them that he tried everything he could to get them out. Capote bursts into tears when Perry asks for a friend to be there with him when he is hung. Capote and Perry look into each others eyes before Perry is dropped. 

Creative response 3

Nancy clutter always kept her self cleansed and would simply shiver at the thought of any type of deformity or scar on the skin. She would always look down on others if they had a problem with them, she was unlike the good smarten in the bible. However she was very holy, never did her necklace with a cross on it leave her neck, she considered it an insult if other weren't holy and would refuse to talk.

This was very much unlike her husband, Herb. Herb was a very smiley man, he thought a frown was a deformity, but he would never have the courage and disrespect to ignore them. his big, muscly figure wouldn't have been able to tell you that though, he hand't changed one bit since he had left his high school. he was always kept cleaned and holy when he was under the eye of his wife though.

Physical descriptions of Dick and Perry to give us a sense of their character

Sometimes the way people look is used to describe what they are like and who they are.

Dick hickok has a different personality to what he physically looks like. From the outside he looks thin and scrawny, but he is actually very toned and is quite athletic. Dick has lots of tattoos all over his torso, Truman describes it as a 'inky gallery'. If anyone were to look at him they would think that he didn't respect his body but to Dick all the tattoos serve a purpose. There are some in memory of his parents, his first wife and many more. However many of the tattoos juxtapose each other such as a dragon with a skull in it's jaw and holy rays of light.

Dick also has some deformities due to his motorcycle crash, his face is described as an apple which has been cut in half at put back together, unevenly. He is very much the character Richard III, deformed on the outside and the inside.

Perry has also suffered from a car crash, but his injuries were much worse than Dick's. Perry spent about a week in hospital recovering. after this disaster he was left physical and emotional scarred. Perry, like Dick has a lot of 'emotional baggage' which has sedimented in him, this makes him feel broken and misplaced where ever he goes.

How does Capote forebodes at the start of 'In Cold Blood'

Capote's description of Holcomb is extremely dull, bleak and miserable. It is implied that Holcomb is lifeless and past it's prime and even irrelevant.

Truman also uses words such as 'Until' and 'But' to implicate a change in story. This change is obviously about the death of the Clutter family. He reinforces the non-fictionness by stating specific facts and evidence, he also supplies the date at place of the murder.

He says that the you shotgun blasts 'break the silence', and that they are 'the sound of terror'. The deaths of the clutters spread 'fires of mistrust', which is an extended metaphor, in the community. this metaphor explains how rapidly and ferociously the fire is spreading.

Even though only four people were killed on that day, it is said that seven lives were ended, the Clutters, the killers; Perry Smith and Dick Hickok, and Truman's life.

Creative response 2

How much can we tell of a person's character from their posessions?

Herb Clutters barn, from the outside, looked like a couple of sheets of corrugated iron leaning against some more sheets. But the inside was more nurtured than the house, all the corn and wheat together, then came the came all the different shears, shovels and spiked-machinery. Then there was, for Holcomb, the state of the art sit-on-lawnmower, this was kept away from everything else, it was in pristine condition, and he cared for this like a newborn baby. He even had all the separate parts and the correct colored paint incase of scratches or dents.
   
Herb oils up the lawnmower everyday, it moved about smoother than his car, in fact one time he rode it into, what the people of Holcomb call, a town. He has done everything possible, and bought everything possible to get his lawnmower to be the best in the county.
   
Kenyon is very different to his father, his room has no floor, there are piles of clothes, rubbish and unopened, unread mail. however his desk was clear, when he wasnt helping his dad that is where he would be found. He was one of the hardest working people in the town, and he was only fifthteen. Kenyon had huge dreams of escaping Holcomb and heading for New York or just somewhere where he be succesful, be somewhere, doing something which was useful. He was a dreamer and got teased for it.