#781: BROOKS, Richard: In Cold Blood (1967)

BROOKS, Richard (United States)
In Cold Blood [1967]
Spine #781
Blu-ray


Truman Capote's best seller, a breakthrough narrative account of real-life crime and punishment, became an equally chilling film in the hands of writer-director Richard Brooks. Cast for their unsettling resemblances to the killers they play, Robert Blake and Scott Wilson give authentic, unshowy performances as Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, who in 1959 murdered a family of four in Kansas during a botched robbery. Brooks brings a detached, documentary-like starkness to this uncompromising view of an American tragedy and its aftermath; at the same time, stylistically In Cold Blood is a filmmaking master class, with clinically precise editing, chiaroscuro black-and-white cinematography by the great Conrad Hall, and a menacing jazz score by Quincy Jones.

134 minutes
Black & White
5.1 Surround
2:35:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2015
Director/Writers


Based on the book by Truman Capote.
Richard Brooks was 55 when he wrote and directed In Cold Blood.

The Film

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Ten-page wraparound featuring an essay by criic Chris Fujiwara.

Commentary

None.

Interview 1

With DP John Bailey about DP Conrad Hall’s work in the film.

Interview 2

With film historian Bobbie O’Steen on the film’s editing.

Interview 3

With film critic and jazz historian Gary Giddins about Quincy Jones’s music for the film.

Interview 4

With writer Douglass K. Daniel on director Brooks.

Interview 5

With Brooks from a 1988 episode of the French television series Cinéma cinémas.

With Love from Truman

A short 1966 documentary featuring novelist Truman Capote, directed by Albert and David Maysles.

Two archival NBC interviews

With Capote: one following the author on a 1966 visit to Holcomb, Kansas, and the other conducted by Barbara Walters in 1967.

Trailter

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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