In Cold Blood In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood is a 1967 film based on Truman Capote's book of the same name. Richard Brooks prepared the adaptation and directed the film. Some scenes were filmed on the locations of the original events, in Garden City and Holcomb, Kansas including the Clutter residence, the site of the murders.

Robert Blake Scott Wilson John Forsythe Paul Stewart Gerald S. O'Loughlin Jeff Corey John Gallaudet James Flavin Charles McGraw Will Geer

drama crime

134 mins   More details at IMDb / TMDb

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  • Jon

    Review by Jon ★★★★½

    "In Cold Blood" could have been crass, tasteless, and exploitative, but director Richard Brooks (who adapted Truman Capote's book) turns the true-crime locations and characters into the stuff of a timeless classic. Excellent performances, fluid black-and-white cinematography (the cross-cutting is second to none), and a somber tone that makes a case for understanding a crime from each person's perspective without being a bleeding-heart "message" fest.

  • Robert Fuller

    Review by Robert Fuller ★★★½

    Suffers from the same problem as Capote, which is that it clearly wants us to sympathize with Perry Smith, and I don't (and this despite the fact that I'm ardently anti-death penalty). Not so much because he's a mass murderer (though of course there's that), but because the movie so often bends over backwards to make him sympathetic that it made me naturally resistant. All that drunken father/mother background stuff? It's not needed. We certainly don't need his father delivering an unsolicited soliloquy to the police detectives on his paternal failings. On the other hand, this film has three weapons in its arsenal that Bennett Miller lacked: Conrad Hall, Quncy Jones, and Peter Zinner. It's certainly a great looking and…

  • Antares

    Review by Antares ★★★★

    I don't know why, but for some reason this film never gets a nod for being one of the best films of the 1960's. It's story is based upon Truman Capote's best seller about the Clutter family massacre in Holcomb, Kansas in 1959. Almost everything about this film is first rate, the acting, screenplay, music score by Quincy Jones and most important of all, Conrad Hall atmospheric black & white cinematography. If I can find one fault that keeps it from being a perfect film, it has to be the exposition of Perry's childhood, which goes on for too long at times, and slows down the narrative. One other thing that bothered me was the presentation of Perry's last moments on…

  • Aaron King

    Review by Aaron King ★★★★½ 3

    I read this book my freshmen year of college and enjoyed it as much as you can with the subject matter but I have never read it again even though I own it and always wanted to and somehow never got around to watch the movie until today and it is a great film. It is similar enough to the book but its order is changed it at least it feels like it from what i remember. The film Capote kind of follows the subject matter but at the same time it was more about him and not as much about the crime but more what reporting it did to him and how he felt about it. The film shows the bad and other side of the criminals that did those terrible murders.

  • Lee

    Review by Lee ★★★★★

    My knowledge on In Cold Blood prior to seeing it is surprisingly limited; it’s based on the celebrated Truman Capote novel, and it centers on a murder. That’s it. Even knowing every little detail about it could not prepare me for the utter insanity of Richard Brooks’ classic 1967 masterpiece. In Cold Blood, as mentioned prior is based from Capote’s novel, which focuses on the true life murder of a family by Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, played by Robert Blake and Scott Wilson respectively. The film which allows its audience into the minds and life’s of two cold blooded killers is a sure call as one of the greatest usages in cinema to display any kind of vicarious nature…

  • Mitchell Beaupre

    Review by Mitchell Beaupre ★★★★½

    In Cold Blood is another movie that I've seen appear on several lists of the "best courtroom movies of all time" that ended up not being a courtroom movie at all. Thankfully, as a huge fan of Truman Capote's novel, my expectations weren't as shaken as they had been from some other movies I had watched based on similar lists. This one had been near the top of my to-see list for quite some time, and within five minutes of starting it I knew that I was going to be very pleased to have finally gotten around to watching it. A stunning examination of a horrific crime from genesis to fatal consequence, In Cold Blood is directed by Richard Brooks…

  • Timcop

    Review by Timcop ★★★★★

    Watching this I was struck by how skillful and modernized the editing was. That and the way Brooks used flashbacks were way ahead of their time.

  • Leighton Trent

    Review by Leighton Trent ★★★½

    A horrifying and sad story because of its real life basis. The black and white cinematography and the music from Quincy Jones give the film, more-so in its first half, a great noir feel. The camerawork from Richard Brooks is terrific and while it does feel lengthy (especially in the middle section where they're on the run), overall its an expertly crafted film. The revisit to the crime is gripping and terrifying seeing it played out, and the execution scene is haunting.

  • fengypants

    Review by fengypants ★★★★½

    One of the best first half hours of any movie ever. Everything is set up perfectly. (I've never read the book, or even seen Capote, but it seems like the structure of the movie takes its cue from the book — or at least that's what I gleaned from this Tom Wolfe quote cited in the all-knowing Wikipedia.) Anyway, it's right up there with Badlands and Bonnie and Clyde as far as sucking you into the world of likable pathological killers. Great Quincy Jones soundtrack, too.