When Capote Walked the Line

An article reflecting my thoughts after watching ‘Capote’ and ‘Walk the Line’. These two films are connected in my mind, not just because they are both biographies, but also because their heroes seem to share a lot..
More tears are shed over answered than unanswered prayers..
This is what Truman Capote wrote in the preface of his last, unfinished book. Dying from complications of alcoholism and not being able to finish another book after the tremendous success of his non-fictional book ‘’In Cold Blood’’, Capote seems to know what he was talking about when writing about the consequences of realizing our dreams. Of course he was not the only one. American authors dealt a lot with the unbearable and often destructive insistence of people to conquer the American Dream. The ‘’from-rugs-to-riches’’ philosophy, so inherent in the American conscience, created ‘’The Great Gatsby’’, the ‘’Death of a Salesman’’ and ‘’Moby Dick’’ (the pillars of the American Literature for most, and definitely three of the most canonized books ever) While I was watching recently ‘Capote’, I couldn’t help thinking of another film that I watched a few days earlier and in my mind its echo joined the images of ‘Capote’.
-And what’s with the black, Johnny? It’s like going to a funeral.
-Maybe I am…
Johnny Cash’s life would sooner or later become a film. It included fame, success, love, drugs, rebirth..do you see Ron Howard coming? Fortunately, Ron Howard did not direct ‘Walk the Line’. Now, not that he is a bad director. It is just that he has this obsession with success stories and with greater-than-life heroes that always find their happy ending. Cinderella men. Like a recipe, he mixes all the correct elements and he has the guaranteed success. Luckily for some of us who cannot be easily carried away, there is a Russell Crowe who refuses to enter the limited space of Howard’s predetermined route and creates three-dimensional characters. Like Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix is one of these few precious actors who have the ability to explode the screen only with their eyes. (And that makes us see the ‘Gladiator’ with a fresh look) There is one scene where the director James Mangold bridges effectively the gap between Cash’s childhood and his early twenties. In the final scene of Cash as a boy, we see him lying in the bed, rejected once again by his father and bearing an imposed guilt for his elder brother tragic end, gazing into the void with a heart-breaking look that only kids can have. And the next thing you know is Joaquin Phoenix, in the exact same position and with the same look in his eyes before he sets off for the army. It is in this moment when we are allowed an insight into Johnny Cash, when we suspect that this man will always carry a sad and insecure child in him. I have to be honest. Before the film, I didn’t know a lot about Johnny Cash; I haven’t even seen a picture of him. And I know that the Johnny Cash in ‘Walk the Line’ is not the real one but rather a glimpse of him. It is the Johnny Cash that James Mangold and Joaquin Phoenix have perceived and decided to portray. But isn’t this the case with every biopic? Fair enough. James Mangold doesn’t always avoid the traps of a Ron Howard attitude towards his material but there are instances where his passion can be seen. I particularly cherish his choice of beginning the film with the concert at Folsom Prison, building a tension with the music and the clapping and rhythmical tapping of the prisoners, a tension that rises as everybody is waiting for Johnny Cash’s appearance on the stage but not reaching a crescendo; it is canalized to the rest of the film until the moment that the concert actually takes place. ‘Hello, I am Johnny Cash’ he will say and the audience will cheer his name. But in our minds, a previous image will stay: The image of Cash’s first appearance to the public, almost hiding behind his guitar and with the half-smile that only Phoenix’s scarred upper lip can produce in his face, shyly saying the same words. Cash was an alcoholic and a drug addict in the first stage of his success, maybe because it was too big, too soon and he was unprepared for it. He managed to overcome it though and to realize that he should stop being a captive of an image if he wanted to have a chance to happiness. The film shows how he handled these issues and celebrates his love with June Carter Cash. Even this love story would run the risk of becoming another epic, conventional romance if it wasn’t for the almost tangible alliance between Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix. If there is one line that reveals the essence of Johnny Cash and would be enough to gain my respect for him, it would be the following: When his record company manager tries to dissuade him from singing at Folsom Prison with the argument that his fans were gospel people who wouldn’t like him to sing for murderers and rapists, Cash’s answer was ‘Then they are not Christians’
Ever since I was a child, folks have thought they had me pegged, because of the way I am, the way I talk. And they’re always wrong.
Truman Capote had a difficult childhood, abandoned first by his father and later by his mother and growing up with his aunt in a suffocating South. Feelings of rejection accompanied him all his life. Sounds a bit like Johnny Cash? Maybe. Capote also had a strange way of talking and he was homosexual. So how come to find him at the center of attention of the upper New York artistic society, confident, shining, admired by everyone? It is because Capote learned quickly that in order to survive and to become someone you have to create a self for yourself, a persona to project and underneath it to bury all your insecurities. That is why, when Truman Capote stood in front of a jam-packed New York Hall to read extracts from his, then unfinished, book ‘In Cold Blood’ and said ‘Hello, I am Truman Capote’, what the audience could see was a confident, mesmerizing person who put everyone under his spell with the power of his writing. When I saw that scene, the echo of Johnny Cash’s first performance was in my head, not because of their contrast but instead, because of their similarity. Because, we, viewers, were allowed to see what the audience of this hall could not see in Capote. The well buried but not extinguished insecurity of him, the old demons that Capote controlled. How do we see that? Through Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s eyes, via his one quick move of stabilizing his glasses before starting to read. Oh, the power of the amazing actors to cast us under their spell! The film, to the director’s praise, does not turn Capote into a saint. It indeed reveal a cynic, egocentric and self-absorbed creature who did not hesitate even to accelerate the death of the two murderers in order to be able to finish his book. But it is due to Phillip Seymour Hoffman that you are left to wonder until the very end about the motives and the real feelings of Capote towards Perry Smith. No easy answers. People are neither monsters nor angels in this film. Capote knew with the certainty of his literary genius that ‘In Cold Blood’ would be the book that would establish him as the pioneer among his cotemporaries. He also suspected that this book would initiate a new period for literature and he proved right; non-fictional literature became a rising new genre adopted by more and more writers. Too difficult to resist this destiny, especially for a person like him, who craved for perfection and recognition. Taking advantage of a human being’s feelings and history didn’t seem a big sacrifice to him but this was his mistake. When he realized that Perry Smith had broken his well built wall and entered his soul, it was late. He had to watch him die and when the hanged body swung in front of his eyes, it was also the persona of Capote that swung with it. But without this persona, Truman could not be what he was. No more finished books, as if he was trying to make up for the finished one. It was when Capote was forced to face the fact that apart from not being honest with the others, he was never honest with himself. Nell Harper Lee-with the quiet force of Catherine Kinear’s performance- was the one to carry this bitter message to him.
-I couldn’t have done anything to save them.
-Maybe not, Truman. But the truth is, you didn’t want to.