Customer Reviews

Biography - Truman Capote (A&E DVD Archives)

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If you're looking for a documentary on the life of Truman Capote, you have two choices:

* Truman Capote, A&E DVD Archives (2005) [ASIN: B0009HMTFS]; and

* Great Writers: Truman Capote (2000) [ASIN: B000FC2HNG]

Neither one is inexpensive, so I would have liked a review saying which one is better. As it turned out, I ended up buying and watching both. Although both programs are of roughly the same length, the differences are significant.

The Arts & Entertainment (A & E) version is clearly better. It has more information, photographs, film footage, and interesting interviews than the Great Writers version, which seems to be trying to make some sort of artistic statement of its own - lots of pictures of grass waving in the wind, country roads, etc., none of which are terribly relevant.

You will be better off buying the A & E program.

A&E's Truman Capote bio is head and sholders above the Great Writer's bio. A&E uses rare footage, new reasearch, and exclusive videos to bring the experience to life. The only problem is its just too short at only 50 minutes. As it is, it won't lose your interest, and touches all the important bases. See why Truman Capote is also known as "the tiny terror"!

The video is everything you'd expect from the A & E Biography series. Factual, balanced, highly relevant film clips are all part of this film biography. This work gives one a better understanding of and appreciation for Capote's major works, particularly "In Cold Blood". I've viewed it three times and on each occasion, I pick up something new. Very good.

Despite facing homophobia, heightism, and anti-effeminacy, Truman Capote became a star. Unfortunately, like so many others, drugs and alcohol did him in. Many viewers will relate or be fascinated by the subject's extreme highs and lows. For those who loved the film "Capote," this will give them a longitudinal look at his life, not just his Kansas days. For those who read Gerald Clarke's biography, you actually get to see Mr. Clarke speak. Unlike most men with clefts that look like the dot of an I, Mr. Clarke's cleft is shaped like an upper-case T: it is soooooo adorable. As many say comparing fictional books with movies, the biographical book was better than this A&E special, though the special is laudable too. This A&E work doesn't talk about Capote's intense rivalry with Gore Vidal. It doesn't mention the author of "To Kill a Mockingbird" who got exceptional coverage in the "Capote" film. Also, it is not mentioned that one of Truman's photos was the cover of a record by Morrissey's ex-band, The Smiths.

I'm interested in literature, so naturally, I purchased this DVD. I am also regularly impressed with the quality the BIOGRAPHY series put out by A and E. That said, this "Biography" doesn't focus upon the things that interested me, but focused upon Truman Capote's celebrity connections and his demise by alcohol, loss of purpose, and drugs. The last twenty minutes show a Capote that could be any stumblebum -- except for the fact that this stumblebum is videoed in one of the most embarassing dispays of talent loss since Jack Kerouac went on a talk show lo those years ago.

The DVD corruptly focuses upon the years where Capote was doing the Club scene during the last years of his life. The focus upon his regalia by A and E is just a cheap shot, and the omission that he was despised by Gore Vidal is never mentioned--- even though they were the competing writers of their decade. And the praise heaped upon Capote by Norman Mailer is selective Pabulum.

I think the film, Capote, offers a better understanding of Truman Capote's faults; however, this A and E is not a biography of much worth.

In this video we follow American novelest Truman Capote as he goes from a poor backwoods southern town, to international celeberty.