• Format
  • Publications (documents)
• Type
  • Text
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Identifier
  • HL_WesternCarolinian_1968-04-11_Vol33_No41_03

Thursday, April 11, 1968 CRTTICOSCOPE ****** THE WESTERN CAROLINIAN Page 3 In Cold Blood The Cat's Paw •fcwXvX-X-X-XvX-X-X-XvX-: There must have been a number of viewers, who, like myself weren't overly enthusiastic a- bout seeing the film version of Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood." The prospects of setting in front of a screen for two and a half hours watching the reconstruction of the tragic events in the Clutter home on November 14, 1959 weren't exactly delightful — especially since the events are of a gruesome reality we'd all like to forget. The idea that an innocent family can be savagely murdered by soma unknown, violent force thatmaterializes out of the night makes for nightmarish material, fictional or not Any qualms I had were purely suppositional. The film version of Capote's work that Director Richard Brooks had supervised is an honest, excellent, first- rate product no cinemaphile will want to miss. "In Cold Blood" is not, nor do I feel Brooks conceived it to be, an entertaining film in any sense of the word. How any relations of the Clutter family could sit through the reinactment of the painful ordeal is beyond comprehension to me. "Cold Blood" is a film of distinct social awareness that exemplifies rather than preaches lessons any viewer can appreciate. flhe Internationalist East In his version of the story, Brooks has side-stepped any temptation to pass the buck for the responsibility of the crime to society or present a sermon on the evils of crime. He has, instead, weighed the film cautiously between the motive for the crime and the futile attempts of criminals to escape today's highly efficient police force. Court Evidence Court evidence maintained that Smith and Hickock were completely aware- and thus le gaily responsible - . of their crime at the time of the murder. Understandably, then, both Capote and Brooks were intri qued in exploring any deeper psychological motives that might have provoked two men to mutilate and murder four people they had never known. Capote had the leisurely length of his journalistic novel to pursue these inquires; Brooks was limited by a time element that may have served for the better. Capote's lengthlyprob- ings and documented background studies seemed, at times, to serve as a possible vendication for the two murderers. Brooks deals with bleak backgrounds just long enough to define the lives of his criminals, and, he uses flashbacks to delve into the mind of Perry Smith—the more neurotic of the pair =- only because his deeply disturbed fantasies seemed to have perpetuated the actual shootings. This technique saves "Cold Blood" from being nothing more than a case ft Germany By Bill Biggers :xxx:% Twenty-three years ago the war in Europe ended. The victorious Allies then split up the country into four zones of occupation, one for each of the four Allied Powers. Due to the cold war and western relations with the Soviet Union, Germany is still a divided nation. This conflict has also resulted in the failure of the Allies to reach a final agreement concerning the fate of Germany. As a matter of fact, even today there is no peace treaty with Germany. By 1948, it became evident to the Western Powers that the Soviet Union neither desired the reunification of Germany nor the installation of democracy on German soil. As a result the Western Powers took steps to reestablish a democratic German government in the three Western Zones. Finally in September of 1949 the German Federal Republic was established. To counteract this step, the Soviet one month later established the German Democratic Republic in their zone of occupation. Two Nations Since 1949 Germany has in fact remained two separate nations. Each nation has developed along different paths, West Germany became the most prosperous. Western aid was not the only reason for the prosperity of West Germany. The territory that is today West Germany was the industrial area of pre World War II Germany. East Germany was the bread basket The Soviets have faced many problems in their administration of East Germany. In June, 1953 the population of East Germany showed its bitterness to Russian dominance by a revolution. This revolution was brought to a bloody end by Russian troops. Since then, German reunification has been little more than a hope. There have been two basic plans for the reunification of Germany. One plan has been proposed by the W'jst and the other by the Soviet The Western plan is divided into five steps. The first is for free elections to be held throughout all of Germany. This is to be followed by the formation of a government based upon the election results. After the new government is set up it will have the power to conclude a peace treaty between itself and the four wartime Allies. In this treaty will be settlement of all territorial questions resulting from the war. The new government would then safeguard its freedom of action and government by adopting to the framework of the principles and aims of the United Nations, Divided Germany Unlike the Western Plan, the Soviet Union calls for a division of Germany into three distinct states. There will be a CONTINUED, Page 9.. . study via "The Three Faces of Eve," but leaves no doubt in the viewer's mind that the crime, after all Freudian aspects are said and done, was still completely senseless—the killers found all of forty-three dollars in the Clutter home, Admires Police There is little doubt, too, that Brooks admired our diligent, modern police network that is remarkably co-ordinated considering the vastness of their responsibility, infectives like Javert are dedicated servants - for lack of a better phrase— whose harsh tactics and occasional ineptitude can be excused when we pause to consider the odds—many of them posed by the news media surprisingly enough- against them. Brooks point of view, lends to the film an air of involvement and self aware- ment often missing in Capote's generally objective book, Brooks' screenplay, then, is a brilliant example of succinct construction. The story begins with the loose ends of the account—Smith, Hickock and die Clutters—early on the morning of the day that is to end so violently. The strands begin to braid together with speed and fascination until the killers are sitting in front of the Clutter home. The viewer knows what is to follow and it seems the climax is too soon. But the scene fades out. We then see Smith and Hickock escaping to Mexico, living squalidly off cash they had stolen, and eventually—insanely it seems—returning to Kansas where they are captured and interrogated. During a phase of the interrogation, Smith breaks down and tells a version of the story that forces the most hardened viewers to flinch. Denoument Quick The denoument is quick. The prisoners are tried and the final footage reveals the revelations in character experienced by the killers in the years while they are waiting to be executed. By the conclusion, Brooks has his audience so involved with the film that we wonder what opportunities to study the criminal mind were lost with Smith and llickock's hangings. Brooks wisely chose a relatively unknown cast that im mediately excluded any glamour azation and he is ex cellently served by the actors playing the killers. The lo cation-shooting as well as the superb black and white cinematography of Conrad Hill cast a historically accurate moodover "In Cold Blood" that suggests a responsibility painfully lacking in most pictures today. The story is morbid, the treatment, unsensational— the result, however, is one of the finest films of this or any other year, There will be no Tuesday Carolinian because of the Easter Holidays. The Peace Corps, which was having trouble with its recruiting program on college campuses last fall, has reported a sharp increase in the number of applications received during the first three months of 1968. The recent increase in applications will more than meet current plans to put 8,000 persons into training during the current program year which ends August 31. By The Inimitable PAW Well, well most of the excitement is all over again for another year, Yep, student elections are about wrapped up, and more could be said, I suppose, about the stupidity of the Senate elections but enough is enough. Bring on the House Governments! Did I say most of the excitement was over? There's still Easter Weekend, whichever nameless beach you decide to go to. Come to think of it, the only wet substance at the beach may be the ocean. Finals and graduation are the last big stimulating events of the year, If you live through finals without cracking a book, congratulations. You should make a fine soldier, 0.1 the other hand, if you're somehow forced to be here for all the formalities, I hope you can sometime find the will to crack a smile. On second thought, it's quite a comedy to see all the pseudo-serious faces sitting around resigned to the fact that they're leaving Cullowhee for good ole Southeast Asian security, .lust in case you don't come up with anything better to do, let me offer a few suggestions on how to spend an eventful final month of school: -Do a fake job of being ;ill torn up about Martin Luther King and have a march, You'd only get stoned by the citizenry. -Start you a fraternity or sorority— the campus needs m ire trash cans. Pretty ones yet -Become an active member of the Garden Club-enough said. -Get a group of activists and take over the campus, It works well, and we need some kind of power play not engineered by the fraternities, -Grow a beard and put yourself above everything so you can spend all your time looking down, like a few people in the Bird Building do without beards. -Start a petition protesting the closing of liquor sales-and mail it to Governor Moore- should do wonders for the school. -Frolic during May Week-it may be your last chance. -Go see movies that won Oscars, OK, I don't know who Oscar is either, -Help the construction crews work on the new dorm. If you have a purpose in life, it will mean more to you, (Nobility!) -Polish three bushels of apples to give to professors to help you get through finals. -Build you a drug store, and start competition for the infirmary's money. Competent pharmacists are hard to find. PAW'S PLATITUDE Do, or forever hold. If you don't and don't hold, it multiplies and becomes a monopoly. FOOD FOB THOUGHT 1 see somebody else took offense at this little bit of sorority horseplay. Thanks, We need business in Cullowhee - not tongue-twisted pretenders. If somebody would use all these pretty garbage cans, things might look a little better here, Gripe, gripe, humans and paws are never satisfied. Neither are individuals who like to cut classes. Please LIBERALIZE. \ So .lay and the Americans are coming. You should turn out for that, you know. Speaking of turning out, watch the Cats play baseball and tennis, and you might help. They may be catching some hard knocks, but these won't last with the right kind of support So back 'em baby. The Broken Window By Freeman D. Jones Oncet upon a time there was this black knight who wasn't really black because he was a Communist (from all indication) and therefore a red knight but as the famed philosopher Bo- konon said, "It is all immaterial,* Well, there wasalso the white knight (you were expecting him) (of course) (I hope) who was the epitome of all things a good white knight should be. He had in former years been a Boy Scout, attaining the rank of fledging eagle before compulsory expulsion at the age of 30, and now was residing in his nice brick castle over in the development and charged around on his charger with his Lion's Club and Rotary and Moose and Elk and Aadvark and U.F.W, medals dangling around in various places catching the gleam of the sunshine and reflecting it all over the place, Needless to say or should I even bother to say as if it were actually necessary the black knight and the white knight-how do you say-did not get along. The black knight, being red, had a different slant on life from the slant the white knight had. He stood back to look at a situation while the white knight always took a firm stand ON the situation. This to the black knight or the red knight depending on how you look at it left the white knight in a particularly awkward and conspicuous position. They subsequently hated each other with the white knight hating more hotly and purely because he was true blue. Well the red knight and the blue knight kept getting in each other's hair which was especially bad for the red knight for he was naturally, typically, and in the fashion of his day a "Longhair" not of the Mozart variety but simply because his cranial covering extended to his shoulders. The red knight charged around one day standing back from the situation in order to see it there with the blue knight standing conspicuously thereon and just could not stand it any more and just up and attacked the ole blue knight and so doing wounded his pride seriously almost fatally, you see, because a great deal of the blue knight's id was involved in pride. The white knight being wounded as he was an! al*o being true blue bled blue blood which is a hell of a note in any Knights tend to be shortsighted be they red or black, blue or white or any variation. No matter who gets in whose hair or whose blood bleeds blue CONTINUED Page 8. ..... .

The Western Carolinian is Western Carolina University’s student-run newspaper. The paper was published as the Cullowhee Yodel from 1924 to 1931 before changing its name to The Western Carolinian in 1933.

• Creator
  • Western Carolina University
• Format
  • Publications (documents)
• Type
  • Text
• Date
  • Date original: 1968-04-11;
  • Date digitized: 2017-10-27
• Extent
  • Dimension: 15.75" x 11"
  • Pages: 8 pages
• Subject - Topic
  • College student newspapers and periodicals
  • Cullowhee (N.C.) -- Newspapers
  • Universities and colleges -- North Carolina -- Cullowhee -- Newspapers
• Location
  • Jackson County (N.C.)
  • Cullowhee (N.C.)
• Source institution
  • Western Carolina University
• Source Collection
  • WCU Students Newspapers Collection
• Identifier
  • HL_WesternCarolinian_1968-04-11_Vol33_No41
• Repository
  • Western Carolina University Hunter Library