When an old movie looks and feels like it was made at the time it was made, it’s an old movie. When an old film looks and feel like it was made yesterday, it’s a timeless classic. And yes, this one is a timeless classic. But brutal as well.

When the movie begins, you’re immediately awestruck by the amazingly evocative black-and-white cinematography and the powerful soundtrack by the legendary composer Quincy Jones. But it doesn’t take long before that third wall separating you from the movie is removed, and then all those nice things about the great cinematography, the music, and the acting really don’t matter anymore, because you’re no longer watching the movie, you’re in the movie.

The filmmakers presume that you know this movie is a true story, made famous by Truman Capote in his non-fiction novel “In Cold Blood.” You’re supposed to know from the very beginning that the thuggish Perry Smith, the charming con Richard Hickcock and the God-fearing Clutter family are all going to have a fatal encounter during a robbery attempt, and that every member of that family will be massacred. The goal of the movie (and the novel) is not to tell the story of “how,” but to try to tell the story of “why.” Why did they do it? Why would a human being commit a totally senseless crime, with no apparent motivation—not hate, not greed, not revenge, not anger? As it closely follows the events before and after the murders, this movie gets us into the killers’ heads and hearts, gets us to know them—how they are and why they are. It presents them as human beings, but beings culpable for a heinous act.

The film has a very strong documentary feel to it. You really get a sense that you’re watching things as they happen. The fact that the movie was filmed in the house where the murders took place accentuates that realism. Like the real life it’s based upon, “In Cold Blood” does not offer any simple answers. Instead, it presents things as they are, and allows us to make our own conclusions.

People will be watching this movie as transfixed 100 years from now as when audiences were when it was first released back in the 60s. The condition of the human heart doesn’t change. Even though you know what’s going to happen in the movie at a very superficial level, nothing can really prepare you for the film. And the last scene will haunt you. A great, and disturbing, movie.

Not for Kids

Extra:

• Robert Blake, the actor who played Perry Smith, had gone through a troubled childhood and then, many years after the filming of “In Cold Blood,” himself became embroiled in the 2001 murder trial for the killing of his wife. In 2005, he was acquitted of the charges in a criminal trial, but a jury in a civil case found him liable for the wrongful death of his wife.