MovieChat Forums > In Cold Blood (1967) Discussion > Murder sequence--equisitely directed?

Murder sequence--equisitely directed?


In another thread the OP thought the Clutters' reactions were dull and therefore ruined the murder scene. I copied this reply:

Part of being raised from that solid Midwestern stock is that people get stoic and quiet in the face of danger. We use our brains and not our screams. Perhaps if the scene had been shot in Brooklyn, Beverly Hills or Miami Beach, you would have seen the victims reacting hysterically. But the scene in the film played out just like Perry Smith said it did in the book. It may seem weird to some but not to those of us raised west of the Mississippi.
Besides, what good would screams and yells have done? The Clutters were in the middle of nowhere, and nobody would have heard their cries for help.

I completely agree. Myself having been raised and nearly always lived the urban life (Seattle/Minneapolis/Chicago) I get that we folks might tend to find the film characters' portrayal unsatisfying. However, there was a 6-year period of my life spent in the Nebraska sandhills, and I learned a lot about the stoic survival-brand of Americans that get no press nor accurate movie representation. Deeply good, unknown and quiet people that are too often mischaracterized by the rest of us. I now feel the director's rendering of Capote's Clutter family rang about as true as I could possibly have imagined given my experience in that genuine part of this country.

Add to that the difference of eras. Any of us who saw the movie in the 60's/early 70's had not seen the hyper-sensational style of horror film that really began to proliferate by the late 70's and onward. We were young then and were frightened by Hitchcock, and Vincent Price, and maybe Night of The Living Dead('68), but nothing prepared us for the nightmares of In Cold Blood. There had never been a "reality TV" before. Vietnam and the cold war were the nightly background, but this movie had many people seriously locking doors by the end of the decade. Does anyone else think that the b/w film, the understated horror graphics and diminished gore serve the novel correctly?


Beer--now there's a temporary solution ~ Homer Simpson

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I think the depiction of taking the Clutter fgamily hostage and then kiling them was realistic. Although the director chose to avoid gore for censorship reasons. Thus the true violence of the murders was not apparent.

I had no problem with the reaction of the Clutter family, that was a simpler time and as you said these people were stoic and reserved, not loud and brash.

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I'm glad the film AT LEAST got four Oscar nominations (without winning any), but it should have received more.

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Is it at least possible in this world to avoid gore for aesthetic reasons?

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Yes, less is sometimes more.

Richard Brooks was a pretty versatile director --- you'd never know the guy who made CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF also made IN COLD BLOOD.

IN COLD BLOOD is an excellent movie... Among other things, it has that third-quarter-of-the-'60s, post-apocalyptic thing going for it, like NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and that society-has-just-collapsed, hellish vibe which distinguished the real-life Texas Tower sniper shootings and Richard Speck's murders of those eight nurses: it's as if spree killings were somehow a new, shocking concept and metaphoric for what was happening in a post-JFK assassination America where the population now understood that The System really didn't care about them at all and men's trousers were uniformly just a little too short and black horn-rimmed glasses never seemed so tragic.


And somehow John Forsythe, in all his cold, pinched glory, seems to fit right in. (So much so, he not only appeared in IN COLD BLOOD, but also in the later TV movie about those Texas Tower shootings).


"Angst" simply had no meaning until 1966/67. Everybody just feels like they're on the edge of losing it.


Fascinating.


But that's the movie, of course. The Clutter murders really happened in November of 1959. :D

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The most profound of sin is tragedy unremembered.

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"Angst" simply had no meaning until 1966/67. Everybody just feels like they're on the edge of losing it.
You said it. Every venerable elder I've had the chance to interview over time said if there was one year of irreversible change it was the year 1965. It started out one way, and finished out in a completely different way, and there was no turning this country around.

And good on you for remembering Austin. So many don't. Poor bastard had a brain tumor, but for all anyone knows, PTSD was there all along, long before anyone knew. Angst all right.

What I'd like to know is what role did PTSD play in Robert Blake's life insofar as it had a perversely favorable effect on his performance and in the final print. Was this the perfect part for him? Ah, that's another thread.

_____________________
I love you, Sheriff Truman ~Albert Rosenfeld

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You said it. Every venerable elder I've had the chance to interview over time said if there was one year of irreversible change it was the year 1965. It started out one way, and finished out in a completely different way, and there was no turning this country around.


Interesting point about 1965. And it makes some sense, because there was a thick black line down the middle of the '60s, such that you could bifurcate not only the decade but almost the century -- at the very least, the '60s was two decades in one: there was this early-'60s, eerie, slightly sacred, pre-apocalytic tone that ran thru 1964, and then this more-overtly-threatening, post-apocalyptic vibe from 1965 onward. And it certainly affected the flavor of films, intentionally or not.

You could kind of contrast PSYCHO with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and that sort of captures it. For a horror film, of course.

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The most profound of sin is tragedy unremembered.

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You could kind of contrast PSYCHO with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and that sort of captures it. For a horror film, of course.
Tree-mendous!

_____________________
I love you, Sheriff Truman ~Albert Rosenfeld

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Wow, your last paragraph said it so well. We had not yet been inured to the blood and guts and horror that was offered up by the platter full in the early 'seventies and beyond. Well said!

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learned a lot about the stoic survival-brand of Americans that get no press nor accurate movie representation. Deeply good, unknown and quiet people that are too often mischaracterized by the rest of us. I now feel the director's rendering of Capote's Clutter family rang about as true as I could possibly have imagined given my experience in that genuine part of this country.
i agree; it's a part of the country not everyone is familiar with. i spent some years in upper state new york, far from new york city, and it's the same with people up there, almost exactly the same as the clutters were depicted.

after the break-in, herb clutter tells his wife "these men just want some money, then they'll go away", or words to that effect. i don't think he or they others thought they would be killed, until right near the end. i agree that the direction, the black and white cinematography, and lack of gory details was handled perfectly - showing blood and guts and having it in color wouldn't increase the impact of the murders.

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It was a botched robbery that turned into a murder scene. The family probably felt that screaming or resistance would only worsen the situation. And given the home's proximity to surrounding properties, who would have heard them anyway? In Brook's Looking for Mr. Goodbar Diane Keaton's Theresa Dunn is killed as Tom Berenger is trying to subdue and silence her. I'm not blaming a victim but pointing out an indiviual's reaction can affect the outcome of a situation. I've heard stories of people who are killed for refusing to give a robber/mugger their money.

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I think the family believed if they did what they were told and didn't put up a fight that the killers would leave them alive. I think Nancy was the only who realized ahead of time they were all going to die and that's because she heard the gun shots as they killed her family.

Siri
Don't Make Me Have to Release the Flying Monkeys!


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