May 14, 2006 07:51 PM
Mother's Day and a Movie Review
When I was 20 years old, I was in college and had just chosen my major--journalism. My parents were upset about it, because they believed I'd never be able to support myself on a journalist's salary, and they felt I was wasting tuition money chasing a silly dream. I worried too, and for a while considered changing my major to computer science engineering. I loved to write, but the confines of traditional journalism didn't fit me very well, as I learned in my first few news-writing courses and in my first job writing for an aggressive, award-winning, student-run newspaper. Then I met a professor named Ben (who later became my mentor, my dear friend, and my unwavering champion) and he introduced me to the works of Tom Wolfe and Truman Capote. I fell in love with Wolfe's The Right Stuff, but it was Capote's In Cold Blood that really helped me decide to continue to pursue a writing career. The book, quite literally, changed the course of my professional life.
Yesterday, I finally got around to watching the movie Capote. (I'm not sure what took me so long.) The film focuses on the years Capote spent writing In Cold Blood, and, by doing so, helped change the face of American journalism. He is one of the writers responsible for what we students in the 1980s called New Journalism, and what later came to be known as Creative Non-Fiction, and Literary Non-Fiction: non-fiction work that includes some traditional elements of fiction writing.
I have to say that as I watched this film, I was nothing short of mesmerized. I laid in my bed watching the movie alone, although I rarely watch movies in bed or alone. But I needed to be completely free from distractions to take it in. Philip Seymour Hoffman portrayed the flamboyantly gay and brilliant Capote, and I can't think of anyone else could have done it any better. The story followed Capote (writing for The New Yorker at the time) as he befriended the people in a small Kansas town where four members of a family were brutally murdered in 1959. Ultimately, Capote also befriended the killers, as he dissected the crime, their motives, and their lives, trying to explain what lead them to the sad, inexplicable day when the murders occurred. I was also quite taken with the portrayal of Capote's relationship with To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee--Capote's dear friend and research assistant as he wrote the story. I'd known they were lifelong friends, but I never really understood the vital role she played in the writing of Capote's book.
So it was worth the wait. The movie was absolutely spectacular--deep, moving, complicated--and I loved it. But, of course, it was also Mother's Day! In addition to being left in peace for a couple of hours to watch the film, I got coffee in bed, some Estee Lauder perfume, and a book of poetry written by my son. My family also took me to an antique market and I picked out a vintage cameo bracelet. (I love antique jewelry, and had not added to my collection in a while.) I'd been looking for a 1940's cameo bracelet for a couple of years, and was happy that I finally found one that was in good shape and that I could actually afford. It was a fabulous Mother's Day. If you're a mom, I hope yours was great too!
Comments
Thanks for the review. I'll have to put Capote on my list of movies I want to see, though, I'm fascinated with Hemmingway, myself. I was a journalism major in the 1980's, too, but left before finishing to acquire another degree....my MRS.
Thanks, too, for adding me to your blogroll. Guess you figured out you're on mine. I've been meaning to tell you, but time's been short lately.
Posted by: Stacy at May 15, 2006 12:36 PM
Sounds like an absolutely fabulous Mother's Day, LC. Really glad you shared it. It's nice to know that the people you like got the royal treatment, too.
Thanks, too, for the CAPOTE review. We actually rented some movies on Saturday and that one was in hand, but lost out to LORD OF WAR (which was a dismal disappointment). It's DEFINITELY on the next trip list. I've heard nothing but good things about this flick. I can't believe it's taken me so long either. One of the side effects of being a working mom, I think.
Posted by: Tammy at May 15, 2006 08:47 PM
I also watched Capote alone- really alone, not just with darin asleep in the chair. I loved it- I read In Cold Blood probably 12 yrs ago, during my 'true crime' spree - I think I also read all the Vincent Bugliosi (sp?) books.
I was fascinated with the Harper Lee aspect- someone told me it was rumored Capote actually wrote Mockingbird, I haven't looked into it at all.
I plan on recommending ColdBlood for our book club next season - this year we did Little Women for our classic, we need to switch it up a little!
Posted by: Karen Girdler at May 16, 2006 05:10 PM
