Review of In the Heat of the Night (1967) by Vivienne D — 30 Jul 2010

Recently I've been renting a bunch of movies that I've been meaning to watch but have never gotten around to. Being a fan of Sidney Poitier, I had to check this one out, and I'm glad I did.

In The Heat Of The Night is a sixties film about Virgil Tibbs (Poitier), a black police detective passing through a racist southern town in order to catch a train to see his mother. On the way there he gets detained by the officers of the town under suspicions of being a thief. After all, why would a black man be wearing nice clothes and carrying a wallet full of cash if he didn't steal it? Before being released after proving his identity, the crew discover that he is the best Homicide Expert in Philadelphia. Recently a man has been murdered in their town, and the police have been extremely incopetent at finding the murderer. The man's rich widow sees Virgil's talent and insists that he be assigned to the case, or she'll shut down the local factory putting many men out of work. So now the local chief must overcome his prejudices and let the man do his job.

This is a pretty great film. It's got a good solid story, interesting characters, good performances and a great soundtrack by Ray Charles and Quincy Jones. The real standout performances were Sidney Poitier as Virgil Tibbs and Rod Steiger as Gillespe, the head of police. In a way it's almost an anti-buddy flick. You can tell that Gillespe sort of respects Tibbs but really doesn't want to. Every instinct he has tells him that Tibbs is beneath him and will betray him somehow. Tibbs is also great because he isn't the usual "nice black guy trying to convince people not to be racist" stereotype. He's PISSED OFF at the way he's being treated. He is polite and speaks eloquently, but he wouldn't be the kind of guy who would shake hands with someone he didn't respect. I particularly love the scene where the white guy slaps him and Tibbs slaps him right back. I read that that was actually Poitier's idea. He said he wouldn't do the movie unless he was allowed to slap the guy back, equally as hard - showing that Tibbs isn't a pushover and won't just take racist crap from people.

Overall, it's definitely worth watching.