Review of In the Heat of the Night (1967) by Bob V — 04 Apr 2011

Powerful film, credited with being the first to deal with racial discrimination openly (and as a negative thing, since technically of course, a lot of films before had one way or other endorsed it), and with giving a tough, edgy look at the American Deep South and its more unpleasant characteristics.

Combining elements of the "unwilling partners" genre, the neo-noir & a murder mystery, the films could be best described, I guess, as an early Social Crime drama. Whatever you call it, it grabs you from the very beginning and doesn't let you get away until the very end, and that's not because of the murder mystery aspect. I personally didn't care much who did it and why, not did it really matter I feel. But it is the confrontation of a black detective with the inhabitants of a fervently racist town that makes things interesting. Sporting one of American Cinema's most famous lines, viewers today would sooner be shocked by the treatment meted out to Poitier's character, but I suppose a large part of the 1967's audience would have thought that business as usual, and would instead have been shocked by the black man's reaction to it.

Poitier is - as we sort of expect from him really - excellent: dignified, yet clearly filled with suppressed rage & indignation, getting the better of the people around him not by fighting back, but by fighting alongside them and doing a better job at it too. Despite all these superlatives, thà (C) performance of the film goes to Rod Steiger as the racist white sheriff. Chewing gum, spouting offensiveness all around him and generally getting things wrong, he is mesmerizing and in almost complete contrast to Poitier, yet never overshadowed by him.