Director: Norman Jewison
Writer: Stirling Silliphant (Screenplay) John Ball (Novel)
Starring: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates, Lee Grant, Larry Gates, James Patterson William Schallert
Plot: An African-American police detective is asked to investigate a murder in a racially hostile southern town.
Tagline – They’re going to pin something on that smart cop from Philidelphia . . . maybe a medal . . . maybe a murder!
Runtime: 1 Hour 50 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: One of the Greatest Crime Films of All Time
Story: In the Heat of the Night starts in a small Southern town of Sparta in America, deputy Sam Wood (Oates) discovers a dead body and the department goes in search of suspects, chief Gillespie (Steiger) is running the investigation. Sam arrests the first black man he sees with that being Virgil Tibbs (Poitier).
Virgil just so happens to be Philadelphia’s best homicide detective and once the problem between the two sides get eased, Virgil is forced to help with the murder investigation with Gillespie needing to put aside his racist ways for advice. This case will become one of Virgil’s most difficult not just because of the case, but because of the backwards racist nature of the certain locals.
Thoughts on In the Heat of the Night
Characters – Virgil Tibbs is one of the best homicide detectives in his home city, he has earnt this position with hard work and higher education. He finds himself stuck in a racial divided town that does require his help, but doesn’t want to accept it. Virgil is strong and creates some of the most iconic scenes in film history. Gillespie is the chief that must reluctantly accept Virgil’s help, he is racist, but knows he needs Virgil’s help when it comes to solving this case, he must learn to be accepting of Virgil while being put under pressure by the supremacist that live in he area to rid the town of Virgil. Sam is the deputy that takes an instant dislike to Virgil, but he is mostly just a lowlife cop that gets past doing the basics of the job. The cast is filled the generic racist characters that don’t want to accept a black man helping with the investigation.
Performances – Sidney Poitier gives us one of the most memorable and powerful performances in any crime film, one that has iconic scenes that will forever stand the test of time. Rod Steiger is brilliant to, he shows us just how conflicted his character is to do the right thing and to keep his backwards mind on racial differences. When we look at the rest of the performances, we see good work from the whole cast.
Story – The story here follows a black detective forced into helping solve a murder in Mississippi while the racial hate between the two whites and blacks still comes off strong. There is two ways to look at this story, first we see how crime takes place and must get solved, which is interesting to keep us guessing throughout because of the large number of potential suspects. That however, isn’t the main story here, the racial divide between the people of town makes this more interesting because seeing how different characters interact with Virgil, some with open smiles, some with gritted smiles and some with pure hate. This shows us how we must witness how America was still filled racial hate in certain states that can point fingers before solving the crimes.
Crime/Mystery – The crime in this movie is murder, though trying to solve this opens up plenty of smaller crimes and deals with the racial hate still going on at the time in Mississippi, the mystery keeps us guessing to just who was the one the committed the crime in the first place.
Settings – The film takes place in Mississippi which for the time was still facing the divide between black and whites, this ups the tension for Virgil trying to solve the crime while also showing us the smaller crimes going on through the town.
Scene of the Movie – They call me Mister.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The locals can feel too generic.
Final Thoughts – This is one of the greatest crime movies you will ever see, it keeps you guessing from start to finish and deals with the racial hatred that was still going strong in the 1960s America.
Overall: Must watch crime mystery.
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