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Mar 26, 2018kidparco rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
A brilliant adaptation of what could be the most honored true story-based literary work in American literature. Truman Capote's book casts a long, deep shadow, but this 1967 movie stands on its own merits as first-rate filmmaking. Writer-Director Richard Brooks makes the material his own, with skilled support from an outstanding cast. Leads Robert Blake and Scott Wilson make their damaged and damaging characters real in all dimensions. Editing and photography strike hard--some of the best black-and-white moving images I've viewed. The Quincy Jones score is perhaps the cake icing, full of irony, wit, and pathos. Adding to the film's worth and weight are the on-location settings, which feature Kansas in all its severe glory of a half-century ago. These include scenes shot in the very house where the Clutter family lost their lives to Perry Smith and Richard Hickock. Brooks's In Cold Blood deserves to be taken as seriously as Capote's does. The picture should impress those who have read the book along with those who haven't, and to me that's the highest praise. My review cites the Criterion DVD version of this movie, which is a two-disc deluxe. One DVD is the feature, the other is supplements, which I haven't seen yet, but from my experience, Critierion always gets it right and then some.