Truman Capote Essay Example for Free

Truman Capote Essay Capote, the 2005 movie directed by Bennett Miller, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Clifton Collins, Jr., Chris Cooper and Bruce Greenwood, is the story of the making of Truman Capote’s 1966 non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood. Hoffman, playing Capote as a fish-out-of-water, a mincing homosexual researching his opus in a small Kansas town in 1959, shares screen time with Keener’s Harper Lee, a childhood friend of the author. The true story of how Capote researched his book is not as compelling as the story he actually wrote. Keener, playing Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird makes a more interesting figure and the viewer sometimes wonders why the movie isn’t about her and the making of her own opus.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Keener, as Lee, is the key to Capote being able to access the rural people of the little Kansas town. They are amused by, and wary of the little man with the lisp and extravagant dress. It is she who opens the doors for him and permits the work to be researched. Hoffman, as Capote, is technically on the mark, but his portrayal is still that of a hollow man. The audience is supposed to feel empathy for this tragic individual but there is little compassionate or passionate about him. The tragedy of the story is, in reality, the Kansas farm family who was slaughtered like animals by the socio-paths who will be exploited by Capote. The audience is supposed to care that the soulless sophisticated and dapper homosexual is attracted to the cold-blooded killer, and, most likely, is in love with him.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The film is bleak and also runs out of steam by midpoint. The acting is good but the subject is borderline disgusting. Capote exploited the community and the slain family.   The film version of the actual Capote work, In Cold Blood, is a much better movie.