16. "Capote" (2005)

"It's the book I was always meant to write." 

(Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote)

This film is about Truman Capote's journey as he wrote the novel, "In Cold Blood." It was based on the true story of a murder in Kansas. Two men were charged with murdering an entire family in 1959, when Capote caught wind of the story. He went to Kansas from New York City, originally intending to write an article for The New Yorker, where he was a popular journalist. However, after meeting the accused murderers, especially Perry Smith, he decides that he needs to write an entire novel.

The film is about more than just murder - which is the center-stage event - but about small-town justice and prejudice, and the needs of people to find similarity even in the most uncommon of places. Capote finds that he is very similar to Smith. He forms a bond of friendship with Smith, paying for his attorneys for his many appeals, in exchange for information for his book. In the end, he realizes that Smith is only stringing him along, in hopes that Capote's popularity and prestige could save him from the electric chair.

In the end, the film was a curious look into 1960s culture and its effect on justice and fairness. Smith, like Capote, was a homosexual, and the small town of Holcomb, KS, did not care for that in their town. In some ways, he was condemned from the beginning, regardless of whether he was guilty of the murder itself. Capote is treated with disrespect and contempt, especially as it's viewed that he is protecting a known murderer. The two accused murderers are also condemned to death, thus the inevitable discussion of the death penalty makes an appearance. Even Capote's good friend, Harper Lee (of "To Kill a Mockingbird" fame) is a key character of the film.

I would recommend the film, especially as it is a look at the human aspect to think the best of people and search for the truth.