Capote

Theatrical Release Date: 2005 09 30 (USA - Limited)

UPC: 043396126480

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Violence, Adult Situations, Profanity]

Summary: The creation of one of the most memorable books of the 1960s -- and the impact the writing and research would have on its author -- is explored in this drama based on a true story. In 1959, Truman Capote (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) was a critically acclaimed novelist who had earned a small degree of celebrity for his work when he read a short newspaper item about a multiple murder in a small Kansas town. For some reason, the story fascinated Capote, and he asked William Shawn (Bob Balaban), his editor at The New Yorker, to let him write a piece about the case. Capote had long believed that in the right hands, a true story could be molded into a tale as compelling as any fiction, and he believed this event, in which the brutal and unimaginable was visited upon a community where it was least expected, could be just the right material. Capote traveled to Kansas with his close friend Harper Lee (Catherine Keener), herself becoming a major literary figure with the success of To Kill a Mockingbird, and while Capote's effete and mannered personal style stuck out like a sore thumb in Kansas, in time he gained the trust of Alvin Dewey (Chris Cooper), the Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent investigating the murder of the Clutter family, and with his help Capote's magazine piece grew into a full-length book. Capote also became familiar with the petty criminals who killed the Clutter family, Dick Hickock (Mark Pellegrino) and Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.), and in Smith he found a troubling kindred spirit more like himself than he wanted to admit. After attaining a sort of friendship with Smith under the assumption that the man would be executed before the book was ever published, Capote finds himself forced to directly confront the moral implications of his actions with regards to both his role in the man's death, and the way that he would be remembered. Capote also co-stars Bruce Greenwood as Capote's longtime companion Jack Dunphy, and Amy Ryan as Mary Dewey, Alvin's wife who became a confidante of Capote's. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: Best Picture – Independent Spirit Awards Best Screenplay – Independent Spirit Awards Best Actor – Independent Spirit Awards Best Cinematography – Independent Spirit Awards Producers Award – Independent Spirit Awards Best Actor – Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress – Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Screenplay – Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Picture – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Actor – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Screenplay – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Actor – Boston Society of Film Critics Best Supporting Actress – Boston Society of Film Critics Best Screenplay – Boston Society of Film Critics Best Actor – National Board of Review Best Picture – National Board of Review Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama – null Best Actor – Dallas/Fort Worth Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress – Dallas/Fort Worth Film Critics Association Top Ten Film – Dallas/Fort Worth Film Critics Association Best Director – San Diego Film Critics Association Best Actor – San Diego Film Critics Association Best Adapted Screenplay – San Diego Film Critics Association Top Ten Film of the Year – Phoenix Film Critics Association Best Picture – American Film Institute Best Screenplay – Chicago Film Critics Association Best Actor – Chicago Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress – Chicago Film Critics Association Most Promising Director – Chicago Film Critics Association Best Adapted Screenplay – Writers Guild of America Best Actor – Kansas City Film Critics Association Best Actor – Toronto Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress – Toronto Film Critics Association Best First Feature – Toronto Film Critics Association Best Actor – Screen Actors Guild Best Supporting Actress – Screen Actors Guild Best Ensemble – Screen Actors Guild Best Director – Directors Guild of America Best Picture – National Society of Film Critics Best Actor – National Society of Film Critics Best Director (Runner-up) – National Society of Film Critics Best Supporting Actress (Runner-up) – National Society of Film Critics Best Screenplay (Runner-up) – National Society of Film Critics Best Actor – Online Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress – Online Film Critics Association Best Adapted Screenplay – Online Film Critics Association Breakthrough Filmmaker – Online Film Critics Association Best Actor – Iowa Film Critics Association Best Picture – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Director – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Adapted Screenplay – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Actor – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Supporting Actress – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Producer of the Year – Producers Guild of America Producer of the Year – Producers Guild of America Producer of the Year – Producers Guild of America Best Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Supporting Actress – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Adapted Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best First Film – New York Film Critics Circle Film Presented – Telluride Film Festival Screenwriter of the Year – London Film Critics Association Best Actor – London Film Critics Association Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association

Features: cc2 behind the scenes documentaries
"Answered Prayers" - a documentary on Truman Capote
Philip Seymour Hoffman and director Bennett Miller commentary
Director Bennett Miller and cinematographer Adam Kimmel commentary

Capote

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 03/21/2006

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Cinemascope

Audio: DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1

Runtime: 114 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French

Subtitles: English,French,Spanish,Portuguese

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Capote
1. Start [:00]
2. Problem Novels [:00]
3. Alvin Dewey, KBI [:00]
4. People Here Won't Talk to Me [:00]
5. Pretty Shattered [:00]
6. Just Talk [:00]
7. 94% Recall [:00]
8. Apprehended [:00]
9. First Impressions [:00]
10. Guilty [:00]
11. Worlds Converge [:00]
12. Unlimited Visitation [:00]
13. Not So Different [:00]
14. In Cold Blood [:00]
15. One Missing Piece [:00]
16. You've Got Your Ending [:00]
17. Outsider [:00]
18. 1st Public Reading [:00]
19. What's He Got to Lose? [:00]
20. One Singular Reason [:00]
21. How Could I? [:00]
22. November 14, 1959 [3:27]
23. Desperate to Be Done [4:42]
24. Torture [3:22]
25. Unable to Make It [3:57]
26. Goodbyes [3:29]
27. For the Life of Me [3:50]
28. End Credits [4:23]

Cammila Albertson

Capote is spellbinding and awe-striking, an almost perfect film. This accomplishment is even more remarkable when you take into account that this is director Bennett Miller's first feature, producer/writer Dan Futterman's first film, and that it's adapted from Gerald Clarke's first full-length biography. The craftsmanship apparent in Capote is clever and quick, creating scenes that are sometimes bizarre or funny, but never heavy-handed. Without plodding speeches or Oscar-bait tantrums, Capote weaves together a hauntingly realistic portrait of the charismatic and the grotesque. The movie isn't about the slaying of a family in Kansas, and it's not about Perry Smith, the convicted killer in the case -- whom Capote became so famously close to while writing his book. When it comes right down to it, Capote isn't even really about the writing of that book -- though the bizarre process of it is detailed almost completely. The story of the film is eerily captivating, but in the end, its narratives are just the pieces that eventually come together to form an almost impossibly intimate psychological portrait of Truman Capote the man. Capote sheds a gradually overwhelming light on its subject, revealing with a quiet intensity how a man of such superhuman charm and skill could in fact be so crippled by a near sociopathic narcissism. The minimal awareness portrayed in Capote's character make him all the more intriguing and compelling, even as his power over another man's life ripples distantly in his consciousness as little more than a component of his success as a writer. This heartbreakingly real performance is what makes the film such a masterpiece, and denotes perhaps the most breathtaking turn in the film -- Philip Seymour Hoffman's. While Hoffman is far from a new face and has enjoyed a highly respected career in a multitude of films, a role of this magnitude is a first for him; the kind it's instantly certain that he will be remembered for. As a profile of the character's inner life, the aforementioned production team behind Capote most certainly pursued the project with the knowledge that it would fail without such a perfect fit. As a result, even Hoffman's tremendous success can be seen as a component in the synergy that made this one of the best films in years. ~ Cammila Albertson, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Jim Shepard  Actor 
Jeremy Dangerfield  Actor 
Marshall Bell  Actor 
R.D. Reid  Actor 
John B. Destry  Actor 
Allie Mickelson  Actor 
Harry Nelken  Actor 
Robert McLaughlin  Actor 
Araby Lockhart  Actor 
Adam Kimmel  Actor 
Bob Huculak  Actor 
C. Ernst Harth  Actor 
Kwesi Ameyaw  Actor 
John MacLaren  Actor 
Kerr Hewitt  Actor 
Dan Futterman  Executive Producer 
Dan Futterman  Screenwriter 
Philip Seymour Hoffman  Executive Producer 
Caroline Baron  Producer 
Mychael Danna  Composer (Music Score) 
William Vince  Producer 
Bennett Miller  Director 
Kerry Rock  Executive Producer 
Michael Ohoven  Producer 
Danny Rosett  Executive Producer 
Philip Seymour Hoffman  Actor 
Catherine Keener  Actor 
Clifton Collins, Jr.  Actor 
Chris Cooper  Actor 
Bruce Greenwood  Actor 
Bob Balaban  Actor 
Amy Ryan  Actor 
Mark Pellegrino  Actor 

Country: USA