Capote ⁞⁞ Queer Classics

With the Academy Awards coming this week, it's a great time to spotlight the Oscar-winning biographical film Capote. The 2005 drama followed gay writer Truman Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman), as he became fascinated by the grizzly Clutter family murders in 1959. Seeking to document the tragedy, the flamboyant and popular Capote traveled to Kansas, alongside his childhood friend and fellow writer Nelle Harper Lee (Catherine Keener). While there he interviews those involved with the investigation and those close to the Clutter family, just in time to receive news that the suspected killers have been caught. Using his interpersonal skills and insight into the human condition, Capote manages to secure interviews with the suspects, Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.) and Dick Hicock (Mark Pellegrino) in prison, after their trial and convictions. Looking to turn his story into a full-length book, Capote forms a connection with Smith, making regular visits to learn more about his life. This strains Capote's relationship with his partner Jack Dunphy (Bruce Greenwood). They attempt a getaway to Spain, where Capote spends his time beginning the book. 

As he gets closer to the imprisoned Smith, Capote forms an emotional attachment, while at the same time, attempting to get Smith to explain exactly what happened on the night of the murders. Capote works to get legal representation to file appeals for the killers, allowing him more time to bond with Smith, until he realizes his book has no end without resolution on the crimes committed. After finally getting Smith to open up to him about the night of the murders, Capote feels an achievement though soon realizes the cost to his own morality. With his needed information secured, he distances himself from Smith, waiting for their final appeal to be denied, knowing he cannot publish his book before the men are executed. As Lee's own novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is turned into a major motion picture, Capote finds himself unable to feel joy for his best friend's accomplishment, which does not go unnoticed by her. When Smith pleads for Capote to pay him one last visit, he yields to the pressure. He is present when Smith is hanged for his crimes, and relays to Lee that there was nothing he could do to stop it. Knowing him too well, Lee replies that she knows he didn't want to. In the end, Capote's book about the case, In Cold Blood, would become his most famous work, the last he ever finished before his death in 1984.  

  

Queer Classic Film Facts: 

• The film was based on the 1988 biography Capote, written by Gerald Clarke. 
• While Truman Capote himself never embraced the Gay Rights Movement during his lifetime, his openness about his own homosexuality and his encouragement of others to be open about theirs made him a celebrated figure when it came to the fight for equal rights.  
• Philip Seymour Hoffman won the Oscar for Best Actor. It was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress at the 78th Academy Awards. Though he was later nominated for three Oscars as Best Supporting Actor, this would be Hoffman's only Academy Award win, given his death in 2014.
• The film was written by actor and producer Dan Futterman, who previously starred in two other queer classics featured here on the blog, Urbania and The Birdcage. 
• Capote got its wide release in theaters on September 30, 2005, which would have been Capote's 81st birthday. As noted in the film's closing title card, Capote passed away in 1984 due to complications from alcoholism. 
• Jack Dunphy and Truman Capote's real-life relationship began in 1948, and while they experienced several long separations, during which Capote was involved with other men, they shared property until Capote's death in 1985. Dunphy was the chief beneficiary of Capote's estate. 
• Despite her extensive work and research for In Cold Blood, Capote did not allow a writing credit on the book for Harper Lee. Instead, he dedicated the book to her. This led to a brief rift between the two after the book was published. 
• In the time since the film's release, questions and contradictions have been reported when it comes to the true facts depicted in Clarke's book, the film adaptation, and Capote's nonfiction book In Cold Blood. 
• Hoffman attended NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in the Acting program at the same time that Capote director Bennett Miller was enrolled in the school's film program. The two collaborated on multiple school projects during that time. 
• The year after Capote was released, another film based around the writer and his work on In Cold Blood was released called Infamous. It starring Toby Jones as Capote and Sandra Bullock as Harper Lee. The film was ultimately overshadowed by the critical and commercial success of Capote.