Part of 2024 In Tribute
Passing through the backwoods town of Sparta, Mississippi, Philadelphia detective Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) becomes embroiled in a murder case. He forms an uneasy alliance with the bigoted police chief (Rod Steiger), who faces mounting pressure from Sparta’s hostile citizens to catch the killer and run the African American interloper out of town.
Director Norman Jewison splices incisive social commentary into this thrilling police procedural with the help of Haskell Wexler’s vivid cinematography, Quincy Jones’s eclectic score, and two indelible lead performances — a career-defining display of seething indignation and moral authority from Poitier and an Oscar-winning master class in Method acting from Steiger. Winner of five Academy Awards, including for Best Picture, IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT is one of the most enduring Hollywood films of the civil rights era. (Synopsis from the Criterion Collection)
“Norman Jewison has taken a hard, outspoken script, prepared by Stirling Silliphant from an undistinguished novel by John Ball, and, with stinging performances contributed by Rod Steiger as the chief of police and Sidney Poitier as the detective, he has turned it into a film that has the look and sound of actuality and the pounding pulse of truth.” — Bosley Crowther, New York Times (Aug 3, 1967) “It’s heartening to revisit IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT and discover the elegance and shot-for-shot storytelling skill of its camerawork…. At 110 minutes, IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT is a model of concision, and one of the shortest best picture winners of the last 50 years.” —Mark Harris, Slate
