The Beginning of Powerful Black Men in Cinema

One of the movie posters for In the Heat of the Night

 In the Heat of the Night was very moving to me and definitely my favorite movie we've watched so far. Not just because this was the most recent film produced or the best acting so far, but because of the plot and the various twists and turns that had me on the edge of my seat. 

The movie takes place in the small southern town of Sparta, Mississippi in the 1960s. This town very clearly hasn't changed much since the slavery/segregation era and it takes a toll on the main character. Detective Virgil Tibbs from Philadelphia is an African-American homicide specialist played by Sidney Poitier. 

Detective Tibbs is waiting at the train station for his ride out of Sparta as officer Sam Wood racially profiles him and detains him as a suspect in the murder of Phillip Colbert, a beloved wealthy businessman. After he's proven innocent from a phone call to his boss from Philadelphia he is assigned to help out the police in Sparta to solve this murder.

Detective Tibbs and Police Cheif Gillespie

Tibbs was very on edge about helping them because of their racist tendencies but it ends up working out. Seeing how Tibbs brushes off all of the prejudiced judgments about him was fascinating to watch. 

The scene that really stuck out to me was when Tibbs and Police Chief Bill Gillespie investigate a plantation owner because of his known objection to the murder suspect. Tibbs gets into an argument with him and returns a slap to his cheek after the plantation owner slaps him first. 

This was really jaw-dropping because his African-American butler behind him is in awe and following Tibbs and Gillespie's departure, the plantation owner began to cry. What I ended up learning with follow-up research was that that was the first time a black man ever slapped a white man in movie history.

This just goes to show how drastic the change was for so many people during the time of integration. That plantation owner probably thought the last person to ever physically hurt him would be a black man.

In the end, this movie played a great role in the movement for civil rights in the country after all of the controversial scenes like the one I just explained above. Finally, it was also a very well-directed movie with great acting and an interesting spin at the end.

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