Review of In the Heat of the Night (1967) by Bengel W — 25 Sep 2013

What put "In the Heat of the Night" in my mind is -- second time in a week I'm gonna reference this movie -- seeing "Lee Daniels' The Butler" in August and hearing David Oyelowo's character call Sidney Poitier the white man's version of a black man. He's not exactly right, but he's not exactly wrong, especially in "Heat of the Night", where Poitier's Philadelphia-originating homicide detective Virgil Tibbs is the elephant in the room of a small Mississippi town full of horrible racists unafraid to address him, and commit even worse "and then some".

What's most admirable about Norman Jewison's multiple Oscar-winning film is how ugly it paints its characters and setting; I'd say the movie lacks style, but really it's just because nothing is dressed up, everything in the open and for the violent taking of the violent. Virgil is the closest "Night" comes to someone to root for, even if he's so jaded he's become more than a bit stiff. Poitier wears the guard well. The murder mystery at its center only adds sweat to the rest of the film's already vicious human tension. "In the Heat of the Night" is ample evidence of social commentary still being biting even after all these years.