Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood’s effect on 21st Century Television and Storytelling
Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood tells the gruesome story of the Clutter families murder as well as the trial and background of their murders. Capote’s extensive research and detail describing the murders, their trial, and all angles regarding the Clutter family murder is truly a piece of literature that was unlike anything else in its time. Capote wow’s readers with his objectivity, extensive research and content on the event (as well as the important events pre and post-murder) on the Clutter family, the murdering act, the towns reaction, the police investigation, the gathering of evidence, and the upbringing and background information on the two murders. In Cold Blood’s authentic, polarizing candor cast itself into a genre all its own; a genre in the modern day know well as True Crime. Capote’s specific writing style and extensive research, combined with the sourness of a real-life crime that was undoubtedly grotesque in its nature turned out to be the formula for a narrative that had the ability to captivate audiences. This formula has been mimicked and cited throughout the 20th and 21st centuries as a central creed for how to captivate audiences with tales of non-fiction.
Capote’s 1966 interview with George Plimpton provided some insight into the mindset and views of Capote on In Cold Blood. In this interview, Plimpton uncovers Capote’s beliefs that journalism is “underestimated” as a medium, and that people’s fragility regarding their egos, makes writing about real people uncomfortable for the people who are getting written about. “The truth seems to be that no one likes to see himself described as he is, or cares to see exactly set down what he said and did.” Capote also went on to talk about the pushback he got when suggesting the idea of a “non-fiction novel.” He stated that writers thought that he was having a lack of imagination wanting to write non-fiction, yet Capote thought that the lack of imagination was exclusively theirs for not realizing the potential for writing a story like this. Above all else though, what really drew Capote to writing narrative reportage was the necessity of having a 20/20 eye for visual detail. The reporter must be able to empathize with personalities outside his usual imaginative range, mentalities unlike his own, kinds of people he would never have written about had he not been forced to by encountering them inside the journalistic situation. Capote went on in his interview with Plimpton to talk about his interviewing process. He talked about the lengthy process of transcribing his interviews and all the information he gathered while in Kansas.
At this point, it is clear that all of the work Capote had proven his doubters wrong. And with great work, research, and interviews he had managed to put together a “nonfiction novel” that was a sure-fire literary hit. Now, almost sixty years later, the effects of In Cold Blood are still being felt. Countless True Crime documentaries, movies, and true account recreations have hit streaming services as well as cable television in recent years. With the exception of documentaries exposing famous celebrities wrongdoings (Surviving R. Kelly and Leaving Neverland), the ones surrounding murder and its circumstances are still the most dominating in terms of audience engagement and entertainment value.
Free-lance journalist Alexander Huls recently interviewed Trey Borzilleri co-producer of Netflix’s original True Crime doc Evil Genius, about what it takes to make a good True Crime documentary. Borzilleri touched on a couple of points that he thinks True Crime directors should live by. First, he suggests crafting something that the audience can participate in. the importance of fostering uncertainty and debate is what is going to keep your audience intrigued. In other words, ensure audiences don’t get a passive viewing experience. Borzilleri states, “The audience can have almost a participatory experience in just viewing.” This is a point that Capote would agree with; it is something that he notes that engages the people of Holcomb. The uncertainty and mistrust of any and all clues and evidence keep people intrigued and on their toes. Borzilleri also talks about the importance of taking a non-traditional approach. Again Capote would agree with this as he had his own doubters when suggesting he wanted to write a non-fiction novel. For Borzilleri though, his curveball was taking on a case that was never solved. This was non-traditional for sure and gave the Evil Genius Docu-series a suspenseful and puzzling feel. Huls states “ Unconventional approaches can lead to compelling opportunities that create compelling work” (Huls). Another point that Borzilleri and Capote both touched on was the importance of picking the right story. Capote stated he had several ideas regarding what he was going to write, and that when he picked the Clutter case, he began to realize that murder had a shelf life longer than any other kind of true account he could think of (Plimpton). While Borzilleri, on the other hand, is creating during a time where the market of True Crime documentaries is over-saturated, so it is important to make sure you have the right story.
The two interviews conducted by Huls and Plimpton have some baffling similarities despite being nearly sixty years apart. This is most certainly because of the profound knowledge both Capote and Borzilleri have regarding the subject of telling non-fiction stories. Both stress the importance of doing research, picking the right story, having a keen sense for detective work, being original, and most importantly keeping their audience guessing.
Cornell University Press published a peer-reviewed journal regarding Writing and Crime. They refer to Michel Foucault Discipline and Punish. In which Foucault referrers to the “romantic doubling of the monstrosity and beauty as the ‘aesthetic rewriting of crime.” Foucault goes on to argue that criminals were no longer little men but great ones. And that the act of committing a crime was no longer a symbol of one social class averaging itself against the injustices of another, but rather an act of self-fulfillment exemplifying ones own importance over society and more importantly governance. When put like this, those who commit crimes against humanity and or crimes to improve one's own life, whether they be psychological or physical, view themselves as powerful beings, not peasants or plebs This idea of glorifying crime is precisely what makes True Crime so interesting. It is not that Perry and Dick killed a whole family in cold blood that makes the story interesting to most, but their reasons and rationales for doing so.
Author J. Madison Davis wrote about how Americans recognize the art of nonfiction and literary excellence in True Crime. In his piece, he refers to Capotes In Cold Blood as the Everest of true crime writing. He goes on to state,
“The brilliance of its portrayal of murderers Perry Smith and Richard Hickock is still stunning. Despite the monstrous brutality of the murder of the Clutter family, the insights into the character of the killers allow a reader to understand them as deeply damaged human beings, creating the profoundly unsettling feeling that real crime elicits. The Clutters are slaughtered for no reason. The long process of hunting down the killers, convicting, and hanging them cannot undo the crime and provides little comfort. Fiction usually achieves a feeling of resolution. It is what allows most readers to enjoy a good crime novel despite the often-hideous violence and cruelty at its core. Hanging a man is a cruel thing to do, even if what he did to deserve it is even crueler. No book has ever captured these disturbing feelings as well as In Cold Blood.”
It is important for a True Crime writer/director to state the facts and inform truth, but it is equally important for entertainment sake that they select, shape, and interpret the material so that it gives the audience the shell-shocking feeling of emotion that the creator set out to induce.
Some successful documentaries/True Crime media-productions worth mentioning, that are able to cultivate an inquisitive curiosity in their viewers include: True Story (movie Jonah Hill, James Franco) Mind Hunters, Making a Murderer, Mommy Dead and Dearest (recently depicted into a Hulu original titled The Act), The Central Park Five, Madeline McCann, Conversation with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, The Staircase, Abducted in Plain Sight, Manson, Jonestown, and Waco: The Rules of Engagement to name a few. Many, if not all of the directors of these documentaries use central themes and literary techniques made famous by Truman Capote.
Moreover, one of the main takeaways readers get from In Cold Blood is an overall feeling of unrest. This unrest can come from many different places for many different people. Some may feel unrest over the brutality and gruesomeness of the murders themselves, while others may feel uneasy with the idea that two cold-blooded murders were able to be at large for such a long period of time. Both of those angles could be argued as legitimate concerns for our societies moral compass and the American justice system. Yet, there is one specific ideal that causes the most unrest for audiences in the modern-day, and that would be the million-dollar question(s). Why Perry and Dick did it? What caused them to do it? Is their upbringing to blame? Should they have been tried on the grounds of insanity? Should mentally unstable people be subject to a different standard in a court of law? Capote’s ability to shine a light on American outlaws sparked a conversation about mental health and the ever-long debate about nature vs. nurture. Perry and Dick both had very different upbringings, with Perry being neglected and physically and mentally scared throughout his life, while Dick, on the other hand, did not seem to have the capacity for remorse, and was nurtured in such a way that his parents refused to believe their son had a problem. This is a theme that is the central idea of the Netflix original series Mind Hunters.
This binge-worthy Crime Drama follows FBI agents in the late 1970s as they attempt to further their knowledge about what goes through the head of someone who is a so-called “psychopath.” The series involves two FBI agents interviewing several inmates on death row who they interview intensely to try and better understand, why they are the way they are. In most cases, it has to do with childhood trauma. Again, here lies another theme of a television show in which the framework for the show was layout out originally by Capote because of his insight and abundance of information on Perry and Dick.
The everlasting effect that In Cold Blood has had on non-fiction storytelling cannot be understated. Capote’s ability to give real-life accounts the feel and weight of a fiction piece have revolutionized the genre. Now, a half-century after the first ever nonfiction novel, journalists, directors, writers, and patrons of arts, all recognize and utilize ideas, themes, and techniques made famous by Capote in our everyday multi-media. The humanization of societal antagonists, patience for the rightmost interesting story, and dedication to extensive research, are just a few of the many techniques and styles that Capote made famous with In Cold Blood. And they have both affected and helped catapult the True Crime genre to the forefront of American entertainment in the 21st century.
