Review of In Cold Blood (1967) by Elgan D — 16 May 2009
Watershed film that, as the Production Code died, managed to bring Capote's classic "true crime" book to the screen with much of its disturbing content and explicit brutality intact.
Robert Blake's Perry Smith and Scott Wilson's Richard Hickock are polar opposite characters, studies in the duality of criminal behavior. Hickock poses as the macho alpha male but ultimately cracks under pressure while Smith seems submissive until his violent, impetuous side comes out.
The juxtapositions Brooks uses - especially during the film's magnificent first hour - between the doomed Clutter family, their fated killers, and the police investigation to find Smith and Hickock give the film a dynamic quality missing from other, fictional cinematic tales of life on the lam (like Terence Malick's contemporary movie, "Badlands").
This review of In Cold Blood (1967) was written by Elgan D on 16 May 2009.
In Cold Blood has generally received very positive reviews.
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