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"In Cold Blood" is a true story, based on the novel written by Truman Capote. The basic story line follows Perry Smith, a pretty crazy guy played by Robert Blake, and Dick Hickock, played by Scott Wilson. They are two ex-cons looking for an easy score. They hear of a farm house out in Kansas where a farmer kept loads of cash in a safe. The rest of the movie goes through the robbery and the manhunt as they race to Mexico and eventually back into Kansas. Like any good story, things go wrong for the bad guys and all sorts of story lines converge to create an ending that I will let you see for yourself.

I first need to point out that the music is great in this movie, really carries the movie along because there isn't quite as much action or dialogue as more recent movies. You can also tell this is set in the plains region by the farms and surrounding towns because they could be anywhere in the plains region from Texas up to Canada.

A great quote that I caught is when Hickock is picking up Smith from the bus stop. They get into the car and Hickock says "Welcome to the Midwest, heart of America, land of wheat, corn and the bible..." This is a good example of a stereotype of the plains region, farming and religion, which I suppose for the most part is correct. What really caught my ear was the comment about it being the heart of America. You can take it as it just being the middle of America, or you can take it the way I did, which is that the Midwest is seen as an important part of American culture.