Source: Some information on this page may have been sourced as part of the 2023 Wikimedia Australia Partnership Projects grant, with the purpose of improving and expanding the use of Wikidata on our website. Wikidata is a free and open knowledge base that can be read and edited by both humans and machines. Read more about this project here.
Truman Capote’s account of the slaughter of a Kansas farming family by two violent drifters has been transformed into a chilling and brutal examination of the nature of violence by director Richard Brooks. The almost paradaisical black and white cinemtography seduces the viewer who is then confronted by the horrific reality of psychotic murder. “In Cold Blood”, as does Capote in his novel, refuses easy moralising, simple sociological explanations and resists turning the material into melodrama or conforming to the dictates of the gangster genre. Edited with sharp precision, this film shocked American viewers on its release by revealing the sadism and ugliness underneath the frontier myth of rural America. Music by Quincy Jones. Starring Robert Blake.
Content notification
Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.
Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.
How to watch
This work has not been digitised and is currently unavailable to view online. It may be possible for approved reseachers to view onsite at .
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
304432
Language
English
Audience classification
MA
Subject categories
Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Sadism in moving pictures
Anthropology, Ethnology, Exploration & Travel → Kansas
Courtroom, Crime, Espionage & Thrillers
Courtroom, Crime, Espionage & Thrillers → Crime films
Courtroom, Crime, Espionage & Thrillers → Gangster films
Courtroom, Crime, Espionage & Thrillers → Suspense
Courtroom, Crime, Espionage & Thrillers → Thrillers
Crime, Espionage, Justice, Police & Prisons → Murderers
Crime, Espionage, Justice, Police & Prisons → Violent crimes
Family, Gender Identity, Relationships & Sexuality → Masochism
Family, Gender Identity, Relationships & Sexuality → Sadism
Family, Gender Identity, Relationships & Sexuality → Sadism in moving pictures
Feature films → Feature films - United States
Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Masochism
Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Sadism
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Black and White
Holdings
VHS; Access Print (Section 1)