In the Heat of the Night | | Cast : | Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates, Lee Grant | | Director : | Norman Jewison | | Studio : | Mgm/Ua Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | January 01, 1967 | | DVD Released Date : | June 04, 2002 | | Language : | Spanish (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 11, 2005 | | Summary | In the Heat of the Night | Content
 | Intense action drama boasts a tight script and a pair of explosive lead performances by Poitier and Steiger. "Heat" netted Oscars in most top categories that year- Picture, Actor (Steiger), Screenplay and Editing. And though Steiger won the award, its just as much Poitier's movie. Director Jewison makes palpable racial ignorance and poverty long ingrained in the Deep South. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 02, 2005 | | Summary | In the Heat of the Night | Content
| A wonderfully acted movie.A joy to see a representation of the
way things should not be. Great job Sydney and Rod. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 17, 2005 | | Summary | A trip back to a bad time for all | Content
| If you want to get a taste of how bad things use to be back in the bad old days of the South this would be a good place to start. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 21, 2005 | | Summary | IN HINDSIGHT, NOT WITHOUT WARTS, BUT EXCELLENT FOR ITS TIME | Content
| There's a handful of reasons Joe Modern viewer may dislike this film.
The pace is very late 60s, relaxed. There isn't much flab in terms of a background score or other ornamentation, in fact at times silence goes belly to belly with grating hissing noises (thanks guys, you cretins in the DVD transfer department.)
Technical shortcomings aside, the film is guilty of the biggest blunder that a film hinging its hopes on mystery can commit -- it fails to come clean to its audience, on several fronts. We never quite figure out why our detective knew many of the things he claimed to know. Simply being a hotshot homicide detective from "up north" doesn't quite cut it as an explanation.
But those gripes out of the way, I should say it is engaging to watch how the lack of cinematic accoutrements in those times wrung filmmakers to actually *think* about character development and screenplay. Most modern suspense thrillers could probably take this 1967 Oscar winner to the cleaners in terms of visual and technical snazz, but it does exceptionally well in cobbling together its setup: the feel of its small southern American town, the palpable racism of the town folk (which runs throughout as an undercurrent but never brims over), the misadventures of inept cops, the sentiments of victims and suspects, and so forth.
Given that, I'd more readily label this a police procedural slash drama, not a suspense thriller.
If you have so much as a passing interest in sleuthing and don't mind a somewhat grainy print (par for the course for most 60s films) this should certainly be a worthy rental. I'd also recommend "Mississippi Burning" and "A Time To Kill" to people who enjoy this film. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 16, 2005 | | Summary | This Heat Is Aflame | Content
| Not only is this late '60's film a great detective story but it is also about racism and bigotry. Mr Tibbs, a homicide investigator from Philadelphia, finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation from being in the wrong place at the wrong time and for being black in a small Mississipi town filled with white supremicist crazies. After being cleared of the murder, the sherrif ropes Mr Tibbs into the hunt for the real murderer as he is clearly the only competent policeman in town. But his being black is a constant hinderance. The common townfolk want to run him out of town or worse; suspects slap him for being an "uppity nigger" (not a direct quote), and many residents are nostalgic for the old days when they could have just shot him and be done with it.
But racism isn't all this film is about. Every character, even Mr Tibbs, have their own prejudices which affect their ability to solve the case. But at the end some characters do change in their point of view.
The acting is sublime. Sidney Portior's Mr Tibbs grits his teeth at all the hopeless racism about him, but gets on with the job despite or because of it. Rod Steiger's character is a run straight through type of guy, but Steiger finds something else in him that peeks through; a kind of humanity underneath the lunacy.
In The Heat Of The Night must have had a powerful affect on cinema goers of the time and I don't think it has yet lost its punch. We still inhabit a World filled with prejudice, racism and bigotry. White supremicists, religious extremists, they're still here.
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