9th July, 2008 Login • Register
Search This Site
In The Heat Of The Night DVD Review
In The Heat Of The Night DVD Credits:
In The Heat Of The Night Directed by:
Norman Jewison
In The Heat Of The Night Written by:
Stirling Silliphant
In The Heat Of The Night Cast:
Rod Steiger, Sidney Poitier, Lee Grant, Larry Gates, Warren Oates
In The Heat Of The Night Released by:
Not available at this time
Region:
1
In The Heat Of The Night DVD Release Date:
15th January 2008
Our Rating: Extras Rating:

User Rating:  Log in to rate this DVD
In The Heat Of The Night Synopsis:

Both riveting murder mystery and classic fish-out-of-water yarn, Norman Jewison's Oscar-winning In the Heat of the Night represents Hollywood at its wiliest, cloaking exposé in the most entertaining trappings. Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger prove the decade's most formidable antagonists. Poitier plays Virgil Tibbs, an arrogant homicide detective waylaid in Sparta, Mississippi; Steiger, in his bravura Oscar-winning turn, is Bill Gillespie, the town's hardheaded, bigoted sheriff who first arrests Tibbs for murder and then begs for his expertise. As the clues and suspects mount, Gillespie and his deputies develop begrudging respect for the black officer. The first-rate supporting cast includes Lee Grant as the victim's angry widow, Warren Oates as a voyeuristic deputy, William Schallert as the pragmatic mayor, and, in his screen debut, Scott Wilson (In Cold Blood) as an unlucky fugitive. The brilliant widescreen cinematography is by Haskell Wexler, and the scat-music score is by Quincy Jones. Ray Charles wails the blues theme song.

In The Heat Of The Night DVD Review:

Filled with stark and profound images of racism over the backdrop of a murder mystery and the winner of five Oscars, including Best Picture, In the Heat of the Night is more than deserving of an anniversary edition release, and the fact that the film was made forty years ago makes it all the more significant. The special features include a new featurette about filmmaking in the 1960s, which goes a long way to explain the tension within this particular film’s script, as does “The Slap Heard Around the World”. This featurette takes a look at one of the most significant scenes in the film, in which a Philadelphia homicide expert is slapped by a white man in the Deep South and he slaps him back.

Much of the reason that In the Heat of the Night is still considered such a significant and important film stems from the persona of Academy Award winner Sidney Poitier, who plays Detective Virgil Tibbs with restrained bitterness and anger. When he is brought in for a murder because he is a black man with money waiting for the train, he is first accused and then asked for help. The murder is of a prominent business leader in town and Virgil Tibbs is the best detective from Philadelphia, so he begins helping the small town’s bigoted sheriff (Rod Steiger, who won Best Actor for this role) in solving the murder. Unfortunately the southern town is not accustomed to a black man in charge, and everywhere they go it is an issue that Tibbs is an authority. Before long many are trying to run him out of town as he is on the brink of solving the murder.

When both Tibbs and the town sheriff are able to put their prejudices aside and solve the murder together, the homicide knowledge and the information about the people in the town come together, creating harmony to solve the murder. It is in every way a spectacular film, and gets better with repeat viewings as well. The DVD has a great commentary track with an assortment of important figures to the film, including Steiger and cinematographer Haskell Wexler. Along with the commentary track, the movie-making in the ‘60s featurette and “The Slap Heard Around the World”, there is a Quincy Jones featurette about his fabulous music for the film. There is also a title song sung by Ray Charles in the film.

Our Rating: Extras Rating: User Rating:  Log in to rate this DVD

In The Heat Of The Night DVD review written by: Ryan Izay

Content Management System provided by P J Thomson - Freelance Web Design - PHP/MySQL Development