Wednesday, December 11, 2024, 6:30 pm to 10:00 pm
Instructor: Rachel McCabe, Ph.D., LaSalle University
Building on the success of Truman Capote’s best-selling novel, Richard Brooks’s In Cold Blood (1967) brought the 1959 murder of the Clutter family and the subsequent trial of their killers to the big screen. Starring Robert Blake as Perry Smith and Scott Wilson as “Dick” Hickock, the film captures the different personalities of the murderers as described by Capote after extensive interviews with both men. The film utilizes the actors’ uncanny resemblance to the two killers, along with filming on location at the crime scene, to deliver a sense of “realism” and authenticity to audiences who wanted even more details about these murders that shocked the nation.
Discussion of the film will focus on the impact of In Cold Blood on our cultural fascination with the true crime genre, particularly through the exploration of crime “motive” through a postwar psychoanalytic lens. The film brings together counterculture attitudes toward authority with a commitment to realism that challenges the conventions of the police procedural, and functions as a pivotal docudrama and an existential inquiry into the effectiveness of the criminal justice system. These thematic choices are paired with the artistic techniques of cinematographer Conrad Hall and the musical score by Quincy Jones, both of which ask audiences to examine their expectations of true-crime narratives.
Are you interested in “just” seeing this movie? Visit the public screening page here.
$25 for members, $35 for non-members
Schedule