Why did she say that to Capote? (spoilers)
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Capote
pheters — 13 years ago(May 30, 2012 08:46 AM)
At the end on the movie when talking on the phone with Capote, The woman says that she didn't believe Capote wanted to save the two criminals.
Why did she believe that was the case? -
GrizzyNGracie — 13 years ago(June 02, 2012 05:55 PM)
For one thing, Capote knew he could not finish the book until the men were executed. It was waiting only for the last moments, but could not be completed until the executions had occurred.It had been a long and difficult journey and he just wanted to be DONE with it all. I think he knew there would be no other end for Smith and Hickock but to have the death sentence carried out, and every delay just prolonged the agony.
Capote identified a lot with Perry Smith, their childhoods being similar, and once said that it was as if they had both walked in the front door of the same house, but only he (Truman) had walked out the back. Another time when Perry was expressing his usual self-pity, as in "Oh, the man I could have been," Truman pointed out that he had known a lot of the same kind of hurts, and had not grown up to murder anyone.
"In Cold Blood" was a masterpiece of writing, ahead of its time, actually, but it cost Capote everything, including the closeness he'd known all his life with Nelle Harper Lee (the woman on the phone) who had helped him so much with the work of interviewing for the book.and who he never really acknowledged properly in the finished work. He would not have been able to get nearly so much information without her help, because he infuriated so many people in Holcomb with his ways and mannerisms. He also allowed many people to think that he had written Harper's own masterpiece, "To Kill a Mockingbird," because he was so jealous of her fame and acclaim (including the Pulitzer, which he never won himself.) -
Green-Eyed-Girl31 — 11 years ago(December 08, 2014 08:42 PM)
Excellent summary of the back story to this whole movie GrizzlyNGracie. I think you got most of the points exactly right as I understood them. The book "In Cold Blood" continues to be one of my most favorite to read.
"You met me at a very strange time in my life" -
gary_overman — 10 years ago(November 25, 2015 08:54 AM)
For one thing, Capote knew he could not finish the book until the men were executed. It was waiting only for the last moments, but could not be completed until the executions had occurred.It had been a long and difficult journey and he just wanted to be DONE with it all. I think he knew there would be no other end for Smith and Hickock but to have the death sentence carried out, and every delay just prolonged the agony.
This was true and yet in reading
In Cold Blood
, one thing that I took away from it was that Capote was opposed to the death penalty.
Considering this, it is somewhat ironic that Capote was waiting for, and even look forward to Smith and Hickock's date with the hangman.