Still confused

In Cold Blood is one of my favorite books - I've read it at least ten times. Capote is very straightforward about the events and the killers - I wouldn't call that blasting them. At the end he's grown to see them as people and has feeling toward Perry. That's the emotion at the end.

That being said - Im re watching the movie Capote as I type this - maybe I will think differently when it ends.

I think a big part of Capote's emotion when he sees them for the last time before the execution is that he's realizing how much he's used Perry. He spent huge amounts of time with Perry, but once Perry told him what happened on the night of the murders, Capote was through with him and stopped visiting. That shame, of using Perry to get what he needed to write his book and them discarding him, is what kept Capote away for so long -- not wanting to face him, knowing what he was doing. Plus, others at times accuse Capote of being in love with Perry and there's also the pain of realizing that he's used someone he loved and now has to watch him die. In real life, Capote watched Hickock's execution but couldn't bear to see Perry Smith die.

I think the guilt was because of more than one reason:

1- He could have assigned more lawyers and he didn't, I am not sure why.

2- He probably blasted them in the novel or at least showed them as criminals but the way he treated Smith was different. He was a little bit of a hypocrite on both sides in my opinion, to get his work done.

3- He fell in love with him, but let him go (die).

As I understand it, he never recovered from the guilt he felt for wanting Perry and, to a lesser extent, Dick executed. He needed and wanted this to happen so that he could finish his book.

Some good theorizing and analysis here pertaining to possibly some of the best segments of the movie.