Capote (film)
Encyclopedia
Capote is a 2005 biographical film
Biographical film
A biographical film, or biopic , is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people. They differ from films “based on a true story” or “historical films” in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a person’s life story or at least the most historically important years of their...

 about Truman Capote
Truman Capote
Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...

, following the events during the writing of Capote's non-fiction book In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood (book)
In Cold Blood is a 1966 book by American author Truman Capote detailing the brutal 1959 murders of Herbert Clutter, a successful farmer from Holcomb, Kansas, his wife and two of their four children. Two older daughters no longer lived at the farm and were not there at the time of the murders...

. Philip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman is an American actor and director. Hoffman began acting in television in 1991, and the following year started to appear in films...

 won several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Actor
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...

, for his critically acclaimed portrayal of the title role. The movie was based on Gerald Clarke
Gerald Clarke
Gerald B. Clarke was the principal secretary to the Rhodesian Cabinet throughout the existence of the Rhodesian Front Government...

's biography Capote. The movie was filmed mostly in Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

 in the autumn of 2004. It was released September 30, 2005, to coincide with Truman Capote's 81st birthday.

Plot

The film opens in Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

 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
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, Truman Capote
Truman Capote
Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...

 is riveted by the story of the Clutters and calls The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...

editor William Shawn
William Shawn
William Shawn was an American magazine editor who edited The New Yorker from 1952 until 1987.-Education and Early Life:...

 to tell him that he plans to document the tragedy.

He travels to Kansas with his childhood friend Harper Lee
Harper Lee
Nelle Harper Lee is an American author known for her 1960 Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which deals with the issues of racism that were observed by the author as a child in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama...

. Lee was then in the process of writing To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was instantly successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature...

which the film refers to several times. Capote sets about interviewing those involved with the victims, the Clutter family, with Lee as his go-between and facilitator. When the murderers are apprehended, 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. Mrs. Dewey is starstruck by Capote's stories of being on movie sets with film stars. Dewey warms up to Capote, which facilitates Capote's visits to the prison where the suspects (Perry Smith
Perry Smith (murderer)
Perry Edward Smith was one of two ex-convicts who murdered four members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, United States on November 15, 1959, a crime made famous by Truman Capote in his 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood.-Family and early life:Perry Edward Smith was born in Huntington,...

 and Dick Hickock
Richard Hickock
Richard "Dick" Eugene Hickock was one of two ex-convicts who murdered the four members of the Herbert Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas on November 15, 1959, a crime made famous by Truman Capote in his 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood...

) 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
Jack Dunphy
Jack Dunphy was an American novelist and playwright, perhaps best known today for his long-term relationship with American author Truman Capote.-Early life and dance career:...

 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, notwithstanding 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 is explicitly shown. Truman talks to Harper Lee about the horrifying experience and laments that he couldn't 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.

The film showcases Philip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman is an American actor and director. Hoffman began acting in television in 1991, and the following year started to appear in films...

's portrayal of the openly gay Southern author with his weaknesses for fame, alcohol, and attention. Capote became an international figure upon the release of the book In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood (book)
In Cold Blood is a 1966 book by American author Truman Capote detailing the brutal 1959 murders of Herbert Clutter, a successful farmer from Holcomb, Kansas, his wife and two of their four children. Two older daughters no longer lived at the farm and were not there at the time of the murders...

, which he would publish after Smith and Hickock were executed. Hoffman portrays Capote's conflict between personal literary ambitions and trying to maintain his role as a confidant to Perry, one of the two condemned killers.

Cast

  • Philip Seymour Hoffman
    Philip Seymour Hoffman
    Philip Seymour Hoffman is an American actor and director. Hoffman began acting in television in 1991, and the following year started to appear in films...

     as Truman Capote
    Truman Capote
    Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...

  • Catherine Keener
    Catherine Keener
    Catherine Ann Keener is an American actress. She has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Being John Malkovich and Capote...

     as Nelle Harper Lee
    Harper Lee
    Nelle Harper Lee is an American author known for her 1960 Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which deals with the issues of racism that were observed by the author as a child in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama...

  • Clifton Collins Jr. as Perry Smith
    Perry Smith (murderer)
    Perry Edward Smith was one of two ex-convicts who murdered four members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, United States on November 15, 1959, a crime made famous by Truman Capote in his 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood.-Family and early life:Perry Edward Smith was born in Huntington,...

  • Chris Cooper
    Chris Cooper (actor)
    Christopher W. "Chris" Cooper is an American film actor. He became well known in the late 1990s. He has appeared in supporting performances in several major Hollywood films, including The Bourne Identity, American Beauty, Capote, The Town, The Kingdom, Syriana, October Sky, Seabiscuit, and...

     as Alvin Dewey
  • Bob Balaban
    Bob Balaban
    Robert Elmer "Bob" Balaban is an American actor, author and director.-Personal life:Balaban was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Eleanor and Elmer Balaban, who owned several movie theatres and later was a pioneer in cable television...

     as William Shawn
    William Shawn
    William Shawn was an American magazine editor who edited The New Yorker from 1952 until 1987.-Education and Early Life:...

  • Bruce Greenwood
    Bruce Greenwood
    Bruce Greenwood is a Canadian actor and musician. He is generally known for his roles as U.S. presidents in Thirteen Days and National Treasure: Book of Secrets and for his role as Captain Christopher Pike in the 2009 Star Trek film...

     as Jack Dunphy
    Jack Dunphy
    Jack Dunphy was an American novelist and playwright, perhaps best known today for his long-term relationship with American author Truman Capote.-Early life and dance career:...

  • Amy Ryan as Marie Dewey
  • Mark Pellegrino
    Mark Pellegrino
    Mark Ross Pellegrino is an American actor of film and television. He is best known for his work on Lost as Jacob and for playing Lucifer on Supernatural.-Career:...

     as Richard Hickock
    Richard Hickock
    Richard "Dick" Eugene Hickock was one of two ex-convicts who murdered the four members of the Herbert Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas on November 15, 1959, a crime made famous by Truman Capote in his 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood...

  • Allie Mickelson as Laura Kinney
  • Marshall Bell
    Marshall Bell
    Archibald Marshall Bell is an American actor. He has appeared in many character roles in movies and television. His best-known movies are probably A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge , Stand by Me , Twins and Total Recall .-Early life:He was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he lived until...

     as Warden Marshall Krutch
  • Araby Lockhart as Dorothy Sanderson
  • Robert Huculak as New York Reporter
  • R.D. Reid as Roy Church
  • Rob McLaughlin as Harold Nye
  • Harry Nelken as Sheriff Walter Sanderson
  • C. Ernst Harth
    C. Ernst Harth
    Cary Ernst Harth is a Canadian actor.Harth was born in Galt, Ontario, Canada. He got his first taste of acting in grade school when the drama club cast the school's largest child to play Santa in their Christmas pageant. Harth was just a kindergartner at the time...

     as Lowell Lee Andrews
    Lowell Lee Andrews
    Lowell Lee Andrews was a University of Kansas sophomore convicted of the murders of his parents and his sister on November 28, 1958; a crime for which he was later executed.-Background:...

  • George Dangerfield as Jury Foreman

Production

Capote was in principal photography for 36 days, from October 25, 2004 to December 1, 2004.

Acting awards for Philip Seymour Hoffman

  • 2006 Academy Award for Best Actor
    Academy Award for Best Actor
    Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...

  • 2006 Golden Globe
    Golden Globe Award
    The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...

     for Best Actor in a Drama
  • 2005 Satellite Award
    Satellite Awards 2005
    The 10th Satellite Awards, honoring the best in film- and television making in 2005, were given on 17 December 2005.-Best Actor - Drama: Philip Seymour Hoffman - Capote*Jake Gyllenhaal - Jarhead...

     for Best Actor in a Drama
  • 2005 Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
  • 2005 BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
    BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
    Best Actor in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.-Superlatives:...


Critics' awards

  • Broadcast Film Critics Association
    Broadcast Film Critics Association
    The Broadcast Film Critics Association is the largest film critics organization in the United States and Canada , representing approximately 250 television, radio and online critics....

    :
    Best Actor — Philip Seymour Hoffman
  • Boston Society of Film Critics
    Boston Society of Film Critics
    The Boston Society of Film Critics is an organization of film reviewers from Boston, Massachusetts, United States, based publications.The BSFC was formed in 1981 to make "Boston's unique critical perspective heard on a national and international level by awarding commendations to the best of the...

    :
    Best Actor — Philip Seymour Hoffman, Best Screenplay — Dan Futterman, Best Supporting Actress — Catherine Keener
  • Chicago Film Critics Association
    Chicago Film Critics Association
    The Chicago Film Critics Association is an American film critic association.-Members:Current members include:*Sarah Knight Adamson*Zbigniew Banas*Shelley Cameron*Dave Canfield*Vittorio Carli*Erik Childress*Camerin Courtney*Bonnie DeShong...

    :
    Best Actor — Philip Seymour Hoffman, Most Promising Filmmaker — Bennett Miller
  • Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association
    Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association
    The Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association is an organization of 35 print, radio/TV and internet journalists from Dallas-Fort Worth-based publications...

    :
    Best Actor — Philip Seymour Hoffman, Best Supporting Actress — Catherine Keener
  • Independent Spirit Awards
    Independent Spirit Awards
    The Independent Spirit Awards , founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glass pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the paltry budgets of independent films. In 1986, the event was renamed the Independent Spirit...

    : Best Actor — Philip Seymour Hoffman, Best Screenplay — Dan Futterman
  • Kansas City Film Critics Circle
    Kansas City Film Critics Circle
    The Kansas City Film Critics Circle is a group of media film critics in the Kansas City metropolitan area. James Loutzenhiser, a local psychiatrist and film buff, who died in November 2001, founded the group in 1967...

    :
    Best Actor — Philip Seymour Hoffman
  • Los Angeles Film Critics Association
    Los Angeles Film Critics Association
    The Los Angeles Film Critics Association was founded in 1975. Its main purpose is to present yearly awards to members of the film industry who have excelled in their fields. These awards are presented each January...

    :
    Best Actor — Philip Seymour Hoffman, Best Screenplay — Dan Futterman, Best Supporting Actress — Catherine Keener
  • National Board of Review: Best Actor — Philip Seymour Hoffman
  • National Society of Film Critics
    National Society of Film Critics
    The National Society of Film Critics is an American film critic organization. As of December 2007 the NSFC had approximately 60 members who wrote for a variety of weekly and daily newspapers.-History:...

    :
    Best Film, Best Actor — Philip Seymour Hoffman
  • New York Film Critics Circle: Best First Film — Bennett Miller
  • Online Film Critics Society
    Online Film Critics Society
    The Online Film Critics Society is a professional association for film critics who publish their reviews, interviews, and essays on the Internet.The OFCS was founded in 1997...

    :
    Best Actor — Philip Seymour Hoffman
  • Southeastern Film Critics Association
    Southeastern Film Critics Association
    The Southeastern Film Critics Association is an organization of film reviewers from publications based in the Southeastern United States....

    :
    Best Actor — Philip Seymour Hoffman
  • Toronto Film Critics Association
    Toronto Film Critics Association
    The Toronto Film Critics Association is an organization of film reviewers from Toronto-based publications. As of 1999, the TFCA is member of FIPRESCI.-History:...

    :
    Best First Feature — Bennett Miller, Best Performance, Male — Philip Seymour Hoffman, Best Supporting Performance, Female — Catherine Keener

Nominations

  • 78th Academy Awards
    78th Academy Awards
    The 78th Academy Awards honored the best films of 2005 and were held on March 5, 2006, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. They were hosted by The Daily Show host Jon Stewart, with Tom Kane making his first appearance as the show's announcer...

    :
    • Best Picture
    • Best Director – Bennett Miller
    • Best Actor – Philip Seymour Hoffman – Won
    • Best Supporting Actress – Catherine Keener
    • Best Adapted Screenplay – Dan Futterman
  • 59th BAFTA Awards:
    • Best Picture
    • Best Actor – Philip Seymour Hoffman – Won
    • Best Supporting Actress – Catherine Keener
    • Best Director – Bennett Miller
    • Best Adapted Screenplay – Dan Futterman
  • Berlin Film Festival: Golden Bear
    Golden Bear
    According to legend, the Golden Bear was a large golden Ursus arctos. Members of the Ursus arctos species can reach masses of . The Grizzly Bear and the Kodiak Bear are North American subspecies of the Brown Bear....

  • Broadcast Film Critics Association
    Broadcast Film Critics Association
    The Broadcast Film Critics Association is the largest film critics organization in the United States and Canada , representing approximately 250 television, radio and online critics....

    :Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress — Catherine Keener, Best Screenplay – Dan Futterman
  • Directors Guild of America
    Directors Guild of America
    Directors Guild of America is an entertainment labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...

    : Best Director – Bennett Miller
  • Independent Spirit Awards
    Independent Spirit Awards
    The Independent Spirit Awards , founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glass pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the paltry budgets of independent films. In 1986, the event was renamed the Independent Spirit...

    : Best Picture, Producers Award – Caroline Baron
  • Online Film Critics Society
    Online Film Critics Society
    The Online Film Critics Society is a professional association for film critics who publish their reviews, interviews, and essays on the Internet.The OFCS was founded in 1997...

    : Best Supporting Actress – Catherine Keener, Best Breakthrough Filmmaker — Bennett Miller, Best Screenplay – Dan Futterman
  • Producers Guild of America Awards
    Producers Guild of America
    Producers Guild of America is a trade organization representing television producers, film producers and New Media producers in the United States. The PGA's membership includes over 4,700 members of the producing establishment worldwide...

    : Best Theatrical Motion Picture
  • Screen Actors Guild Awards
    Screen Actors Guild Awards
    A Screen Actors Guild Award is an accolade given by the Screen Actors Guild to recognize outstanding performances by its members. The statuette given, a nude male figure holding both a mask of comedy and a mask of tragedy, is called "The Actor"...

    : Best Supporting Actress – Catherine Keener, Best Ensemble Cast
  • Writers Guild of America Awards
    WGA
    WGA is a three-letter abbreviation for:* Writers Guild of America, an American union** Writers Guild of America, East** Writers Guild of America, West* Web Gallery of Art* Western Golf Association...

    : Best Adapted Screenplay – Dan Futterman
  • Cinema Brazil Grand Prize (Brazil
    Brazil
    Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

    ): Best Foreign-Language Film

See also

  • Infamous
    Infamous (film)
    Infamous is a 2006 American drama film, based on the 1997 book by George Plimpton, Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career....

  • In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences
    In Cold Blood
    In Cold Blood is a 1966 book by Truman Capote.In Cold Blood may also refer to:* In Cold Blood , a 1967 film and 1996 miniseries, both based on the book* In Cold Blood...

    (book)
  • In Cold Blood
    In Cold Blood (film)
    In Cold Blood is a 1967 film based on Truman Capote's book of the same name. Richard Brooks prepared the adaptation and directed the film. Some scenes were filmed on the locations of the original events, in Garden City and Holcomb, Kansas including the Clutter residence...

    – The 1967 film based upon the book.
  • Truman Capote
    Truman Capote
    Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...

  • Lowell Lee Andrews
    Lowell Lee Andrews
    Lowell Lee Andrews was a University of Kansas sophomore convicted of the murders of his parents and his sister on November 28, 1958; a crime for which he was later executed.-Background:...


External links

Databases

Reviews, interviews, and more
  • Allmovie  link
  • Arizona Republic  link
  • Chicago Reader  link
  • Chicago Tribune
    Chicago Tribune
    The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...

      link
  • Empire
    Empire (magazine)
    Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...

      link
  • Film critic link
  • Houston Chronicle
    Houston Chronicle
    The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...

      link
  • Orlando Sentinel
    Orlando Sentinel
    The Orlando Sentinel is the primary newspaper of the Orlando, Florida region. It was founded in 1876. The Sentinel is owned by Tribune Company and is overseen by the Chicago Tribune. As of 2005, the Sentinel’s president and publisher was Kathleen Waltz; she announced her resignation in February 2008...

      link
  • Premiere
    Premiere (magazine)
    Premiere was an American and New York City-based film magazine published by Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., published between the years 1987 and 2007. The original version of the magazine, Première , was started in France in 1976 and is still being published there.-History:The magazine originally...

      link
  • Roger Ebert
    Roger Ebert
    Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...

      link
  • Rolling Stone
    Rolling Stone
    Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

      link
  • Toronto Star
    Toronto Star
    The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...

    link
  • Capote at Seegest
  • Lawrence Journal-World (November 28, 2005): "A crime for all time" by Mike Belt
  • Lawrence Journal-World (December 7, 2005): "Actor portrays KU student in ‘Capote’" by J-W Staff Reports
  • London Magazine's Entertainment Movie Review
  • Capote review
  • Capote Mottled review
  • Movie stills
  • Opening titles designed by Trollbäck + Company
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