ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, November 24, 1996 TAG: 9611220036
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Tom Shales
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: TOM SHALES
One could easily argue that the Clutters have suffered enough, and that little is to be gained by dwelling on their horrible ordeal again. But the riveting new CBS version of Truman Capote's ``In Cold Blood'' justifies returning to the scene of the crime against them 37 years after it was committed, even though a previous movie version was made in 1967.
CBS's film, airing in two parts tonight and Tuesday at 9, is better and more emotionally involving than the first film, which took a mostly clinical approach. And remaking the film makes sense in another way, because the killing of the Clutters seems in retrospect a seminal American tragedy, a dark portent of unspeakable crimes to come, a prelude to the bloodshed of the '60s.
Herb Clutter lived on a farm near Holcomb, Kan., with his wife, Bonnie, and their two teen-age children Nancy and Kenyon. On Nov. 15, 1959, all four were murdered by two pathetic losers, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock. The two men thought they were going to find $10,000 in a safe in the Clutter home, but there was no safe and when they left the house, they were only $42 richer than when they broke in.
Many killings are called senseless, but this one seemed definitively so. In the CBS film, Sam Neill as an investigator with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation is the one who utters the now-famous line from Capote's book, ``Of all the people in the world, the Clutters were the least likely to be murdered.''
The new adaptation, written by Benedict Fitzgerald and directed by Jonathan Kaplan, explores the dimensions of the crime in an intelligent and properly disturbing way. But there is one major drawback, and that is the casting of Anthony Edwards of ``ER'' as Smith, the seemingly more coldblooded of the pair. Edwards is boyishly unconvincing in the part, and when he squints to appear more sinister, he looks like he's playing a pirate.
Eric Roberts, though a bit old for the role, does better as Hickock, the more soulful partner in crime who taught himself to play guitar, sings sad songs about his unfortunate life, and lives on a diet of aspirin washed down with root beer or orange soda. Grim black-and-white flashbacks show some of the childhood events that warped his life, but these are not offered as excuses for what he and Smith did.
The first hour of the film portrays the life the Clutters lived in their idyllic small town and shows the approach of doom in the form of their wayward attackers. In the world of the Clutters, a radio could still be the centerpiece of a living room, kids went to 4-H meetings to win blue ribbons, and milk still came in bottles. There's so much talk of pie in the first hour that ``In Cold Blood'' begins to seem more like ``Twin Peaks.''
In the last 30 minutes of part one, Smith and Hickcock reach the house. Director Kaplan focuses on details like the chrome grillwork of their old car as it moves quietly onto the Clutters' property. Part two begins on the Sunday morning that the bodies were discovered. The murders themselves are not shown on screen until a harrowing eight-minute sequence near the end of part two, and even then director Kaplan commendably relies more on artful suggestion than explicit gore.
The film was shot in Alberta, Canada, and many of the scenes have a haunting austerity to them. Details of the period - neon signs, old-fashioned gas pumps, a gaudy laundromat - are hauntingly observed. The only weak performance is Edwards'; all the others, including Kevin Tighe as Mr. Clutter and Gillian Barber as his distraught wife (who seems to be suffering from the aftereffects of a nervous breakdown), are exactly right.
Imagery is important throughout the film, and director Kaplan chooses to end on an image that is eloquently painful and beautiful, and perhaps unforgettable. This new version of ``In Cold Blood'' is a harrowing experience, but a rewarding one, too.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 linesby CNB