Cheap In the Heat of the Night [Region 2] (DVD) (Norman Jewison) Price

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Customer Reviews of In the Heat of the Night [Region 2]

Great Film
From the opening performance of "In The Heat of the Night", sung by the great Ray Charles, this film will grab your attention immediately and will grip you for the next hour and 3/4. <
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>Poitier plays a black northern dectective Virgil Tibbs, who is arrested in the deep south for a murder he had nothing to with. Steiger is a bigoted local Sheriff eventually forced to work with Tibbs to solve the case. Both the lead performances are truly mesmerising. There are a number of classic scenes in this film of which perhaps my favourite is when the Sheriff interviews Tibbs for the first time and finds he's a policeman. <
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>The film is very well directed by Norman Jewison and won 5 Oscars in 1967, including best actor for Rod Steiger. Quincy Jones also deservedly won a Grammy for his music score. The only extra is the original trailer, which is a shame. However the film itself is so good that the DVD has to have 5 stars regardless. <
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The Original "In The Heat Of The Night"
1967's "In the Heat of the Night" is almost a time capsule of an earlier age. The long-running TV series of the same name has probably blurred memories of this classic, while the raw racial tensions depicted in the movie may have lost some of their edge in the intervening 40 years. However, the artistry of this Academy Award-winning movie remains vivid and intact. <
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>In the middle of a hot summer night in the small Southern town of Sparta, Mississippi, a prominent white industrialist is found robbed and murdered in the streets. One of the town constables arrests a black man at the train depot, who seems to have more money than he should. Only at the jail, under questioning by the town sheriff (in an Academy Award-winning performanc by Rod Stieger), is it revealed that the black man is a homicide detective from Philadelphia named Virgil Tibbs (played by Sidney Poitier). <
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>Thus begins an uneasy alliance between the white sheriff and the black detective, in a race to find the real killer before tensions in the town explode into something uglier. Along the way, the two will be forced to face their own and each other's racial prejudices. Poitier's street-savy and professional cop is quick to anger at any affront to his dignity, an attitude not much seen in Sparta. Stieger's redneck sheriff must walk a delicate line between his slowly increasing admiration for Tibb's skills and the discontent his presence in the case is causing among the townspeople. The case itself twists, turns, and doubles back on itself to a tense and surprising conclusion. In the process, the white sheriff and the black detective arrive at a subtle but touching mutual respect that is the real payoff of the movie. <
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>The movie is blessed with a superb supporting cast, especially Warren Oates as a troubled town constable and Lee Grant as the wife of the murdered industrialist. The cinematography is unforgettable; the viewer can almost feel the stifling heat and humidity of Sparta. The detail, from the small diner with pies under glass to the sweat-stained shirt and tie and polite drawl of the town mayor, is spot-on. <
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>This movie is very highly recommended as a classic movie experience that has lost none of its bite and its suspense over the years.