Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Overview… a guy who needs to catch a break. A merchant marine who served in the Korean War, Perry got in a disastrous motorcycle accident that left him with a pair of half-useless legs and a painkiller dependency. A few years later, after a brief stint in prison, he gets a letter from his jailyard friend Dick, whom he admired, asking if he wants to assist him on a $10,000 robbery out in west Kansas. Eager to fund his treasure-diving trip in Mexico, Perry accepts Dick’s offer.
Personality… earnest, idealistic, and soft-spoken. Perry hardly cuts the figure of an alpha male. Indeed, an abusive childhood left him meek and withdrawn, and the motorcycle accident left his short frame that much less imposing. A voracious reader, he endeavors to lead a life of the mind, to venture past the limits of his third-grade education, to dare to dream. But he has fallen into a life of crime from which he might never escape – especially if he escalates it himself.
Get to Know him in...
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A 1967 film based on Truman Capote's book of the same name. After a botched robbery results in the brutal murder of a rural family, two drifters elude police, in the end coming to terms with their own mortality and the repercussions of their vile atrocity.
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On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues. As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, he generates both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy. In Cold Blood is a work that transcends its moment, yielding poignant insights into the nature of American violence.
