My thoughts on the movie: That was an amazing movie. I just wish I’m going to have some time to read the book. That’d truly be an interesting read along with MANY OTHER BOOKS that I’ve been wanting to read. =( So little time … Anyways.. here goes
Richard Brooks’ film In Cold Blood portrayed several aspects of Modernism. It also had a film noir touch to it. A list of Modernist attributes could be ascertained here. The most noticeable modernist attribute is the nonlinear structure of the story. Notice how the story is told at the beginning. Truman Capote began the story with the following of the murder and how Perry Smith and Dick Hickock react afterwards. The film, then, turns back around and shows the murder scenes. Finally, it is brought back to the persecution of the two murderers. In addition to the restructuring of the plot, many flashbacks occur throughout the movie. Evidently, the story is not traditionally told sequentially and thus reveals a truly important modernist attribute.
These two kids are 2 out of the 4 children in the Clutter family. Unfortunately, these two were murdered.
Another aspect of modernist literature includes the psychological interior. Much of the reason why Perry Smith and Dick Hickock perform such murderous acts is because of their deprived childhoods. Perry Smith is traumatized by the split of his parents and the witnessing of his mother’s sexual activities with other men. Perry Smith relives the past constantly as he sees his mother and father as other people at certain times. He is haunted by his terrible childhood, in which his own father threatened to kill him. The psychological interior concerning Dick Hickock is quite interesting. Hickock is a manipulative person–a back-slapping, playful– who never fails to keep smiling. He seems to be optimistic but truly is not, as he says his last words before his persecution. He says that dying would bring him to a better place than this world ever was.
Thus, we are caught into the experience of reality. Are these characters really being truthful in their actions and thoughts? At times, Smith is not regretful, while at others he cannot understand why he even does such evil acts like killing the Clutter family. Hickock, on the other hand, is always laughing and smiling– getting the last word in on everything. Yet, he truly believes that this world is one filled with cruelty and emptiness, since he believes life after death will be better than living ever was for him. Another important attribute is the search for a meaning in life. These two people, Smith and Hickock, obviously have difficulties in searching for their meaning in life. Just as they were deprived of decent childhoods, their adulthood could not be fulfilled as much as possible. They live during each moment without thinking about the future. This is evident with the murder of the Clutter family. Smith and Hickock, then live tentatively, improvising on whatever they could possibly achieve.
As a result, Truman Capote’s novel In Cold Blood is one inundated with modernist attributes. The film involves not only modernist attributes, but it also has a Film Noir taste to it, as shadows and bars fill each room. There is a detective trying to find the murderers and there are seductive women, such as the “senorita” that Hickock brings home. In Cold Blood is another novel/film that does not fail to have many attributes of modernist literature.
Works Cited
Wikipedia. “In Cold Blood.” 10 May 2008.
