A welcome rediscovery at this year's Regus London Film
Festival, In Cold Blood is an adaptation of Truman
Capote's fact-based novel about two criminals in 1950s
America. The film features some stunning black and
white cinematography from Conrad Hall (American
Beauty) and hypnotic performances from Robert Blake
and Scott Wilson in the lead roles.
After a bungled robbery, Perry and Dick (who have
resolved to stay friends to the end) leave behind a
house full of dead bodies and attempt to escape from
the police across a desolate American landscape. As
the chase ensues, events from the criminals' past are
subtly interwoven into the present, offering possible
explanations for their violent crime. The men's
complex relationship forms the core of the film, and
both the script and the lovers-on-the-lam scenario
suggest some homoerotic ambiguities.
Made in 1967, Richard Brooks' film has a haunting,
nostalgic tone as it depicts events from the previous
decade using many of the real life locations in
Kansas. Even though the film is now over thirty years
old, the camerawork and narrative structure still feel
impressively fresh. Brooks (who also wrote the
screenplay) deftly handles the film's pace and
maintains a high level of tension throughout, from the
original crime to the men's journey to the prison
gallows. He uses a series of striking visual rhymes to
connect the present with the past and these also help
to move the action on swiftly, so that the
unflinchingly detailed depiction of the men's
execution jars powerfully with the earlier, more
fast-paced part of the film. Brooks makes intelligent
and often horrifying use of sound and there is a
wonderful jazzy score from Quincy Jones. The real star
of the piece though is Hall, whose shots of both the
landscape and the men themselves are instantly iconic.
Reviewed by Chris Wiegand
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