IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT

In the heat of the night, we see the observation of how freedom of Black Americans is perceived and treated.

There's a moment approximately a third of the way into The Heat of the Night that tells you everything you should know about the movie, and everything to know about this time period. A black man is arrested for murder. Not because his DNA matched the content found at the crime scene, if they were to examine that at all. But simply due to the fact he was sitting at a train station, at night, in Mississippi, with money located in his pocket. Has legally or visibly done anything wrong? No. He simply was in the written location at the wrong time leading to his unprovoked arrest. 

The man turns out to be Virgil Tibbs, who is a homicide detective originally from Philadelphia, played by Sidney Poitier with a stillness that still reads as both dignity and armor.

The local police chief, Bill Gillespe- who was played by Rod Steiger, won himself the best actor oscar award- is mortified upon discovery that his own department had just arrested a sworn police officer. He reluctantly permits Tibbs to stay to help solve the already confusing case.

What is to follow is far from being a murder mystery. It becomes ninety minutes of two men who cannot merely stand the sight of one another slowly becoming colleagues.

Freedom is not just a legal stat on paper, but the permission of society and peers

On the legal papers to the state, Tibbs is documented as a freeman, he is a sworn in police officer legally recognized, and upholds his job with dignity and pride. Howbeit, the moment he steps off the train, he is immediately treated as a danger, whether his authority given by law has been validated. This movies most valuable pieces is ever so simple; Black Americans have upheld 60 years of freedom on paper, but Tibbs spent the entirety of the film almost proving his right to be somewhere and proving himself to his white colleagues who still chose to see him as an inferior simply due to his appearance not being completely matched with eurocentric standards. 

This is proven through countless small moments hidden throughout the entire film, but none hit harder than what's now considered one of cinema’s most electric scenes. When plantation owner Endicott strikes unassuming tibbs across the face for the audacity of questioning him and his authority. Tibbs reluctantly strikes him back and it is one of television's most shocking moments in history. It is a moment in film when a man refuses to shrink back into the role everyone else expects him to play. Endicott’s face immediately after is not angry though, it is pure confusion and wonder. As in his world, nothing of this nature ever should happen. Gillespie watches the entire mild altercation but says nothing. He doesn't choose to intervene or apologize. He in fact does not even really react beyond just a glance since he also just witnessed something he does not yet have the language for.