Newswise — University of Alabama English professor Dr. Ralph Voss knows first-hand what the actors in the movie "Capote" were trying to portray.
"I was a high school junior in Plainville, Kan., when the murders occurred," he says, "and though I lived over 100 miles away from Garden City, you couldn't buy a padlock in our town in the days following the killings. Everybody in my town started locking their doors at night, and they'd never done that before."
He says the movie captures the times, "at least in Kansas, extremely well. Western Kansans were afraid after the murders, and after the killers were caught, they were mostly very vengeful."
Voss has studied Truman Capote and "In Cold Blood," and his study continues with the new movie. The film has received rave reviews, many awards and nominations, and is expected to receive many more. "I am not surprised that it is attracting awards and nominations," Voss says. "(Phillip Seymour) Hoffman's performance is brilliant, as is that of Clifton Collins Jr."
"(Truman Capote) was brilliant, full of himself, gossipy and stereotypically gay. You might imagine deeply frightened and homophobic Western Kansans would not be welcoming of someone like Capote in their midst so soon after the Clutter killings, and you'd be mostly right, but he had two things going for him from the get-go: (1) Harper Lee went out to Garden City, Kan., with him, and helped him win over locals; (2) he knew how to charm the local women of influence, who told their husbands he was okay in spite of the way he appeared and sounded. Lee's gracious and 'down home' manner neutralized the effects that Capote's natural flamboyance and speech would otherwise have caused among the Kansans."
While most people in Kansas at the time wanted quick justice, which meant execution, Capote felt bittersweet about the ending.
"I remember hearing quite often, as execution dates came and passed, complaints about how slowly the wheels of justice turned," Voss recalls. "This case made some people, previously unconvinced about whether capital punishment was right or wrong, make up their minds " in favor of the rope. I don't remember hearing complaints about hanging as a means of execution. The film makes it clear that Capote agonized over his relationship with the killers, realizing he needed them to be killed in order to finish his book."
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