Plot
The film opens in Kansas with the discovery of the dead bodies of four of the members of the Clutter family by a family friend. While reading The New York Times, Truman Capote is riveted by the story of the Clutters and calls The New Yorker editor William Shawn to tell him that he plans to document the tragedy.
He travels to Kansas with his childhood friend Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird. Capote sets about interviewing those involved with the victims, the Clutter family, with Lee as his go-between and facilitator. Capote is initially brushed off by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation's lead detective on the case, Alvin Dewey. Dewey's wife, however, is a fan of Capote's writing and persuades him to invite Capote and Lee to their house for dinner. She is starstruck by Capote's stories of being on movie sets with film stars. Dewey warms up to Capote, and eventually allows him to view the photographs of the victims. The Deweys, Lee, and Capote are having dinner when the suspects are caught. Flattery, bribery and a keen insight into the human condition, facilitates Capote's visits to the prison where the suspects (Perry Smith and Dick Hickock) are being held. Capote begins to form an attachment to Perry.
Following their trial and conviction, Capote is able to gain access to the murderers by bribing the warden. Capote spends the following years regularly visiting Perry and learning about his life, excepting a year-long stint when Capote abandons Perry and writes the "first three parts" of the book with Jack Dunphy in Morocco and Spain. The story of Perry's life, his upset and remorseful manner, and his emotional sincerity impress Capote. The writer becomes emotionally attached to Perry and feels sympathy for him despite his involvement in the murders. Perry refuses to tell Capote what happened on the night of the murders, which greatly angers the writer. Eventually, Perry tells him in great detail. The story becomes a meditation upon the need for redemption even in very grave circumstances.
The last appeal is rejected, and Perry and Dick are hanged, Perry's hanging being explicitly shown. Truman talks to Harper Lee about the horrifying experience and laments that he could not have done anything to stop it. She replies, "Maybe not; the fact is you didn't want to." This is the last line of the film. The next and last scene shows Truman looking at photos and some of the writings and drawings that Perry gave him.
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Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“Morality for the novelist is expressed not so much in the choice of subject matter as in the plot of the narrative, which is perhaps why in our morally bewildered time novelists have often been timid about plot.”
—Jane Rule (b. 1931)
“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)