In the Heat of the Night

In the Heat of the Night
1967

I currently have something wonderful. It is truly amazing. It is probably the most fantastic thing on the planet. You want to know what it is?

Fudge. I have fudge. I love fudge so much. I have Butterfinger fudge and bubblegum fudge. That’s right. Bubblegum. It’s bright pink, full of marshmallows, and every times you take a bite of it you can just feel the sugar rushing into your system. It’s truly the most delightful thing in the world, my fudge, which I have.

Now, you may be wondering, “What the heck does fudge have to do with In the Heat of the Night?” Well, my good friends let me tell you!

Absolutely nothing! Isn’t that fabulous?

You know what else is fabulous? In the Heat of the Night. I cannot recall a time that a movie has so fascinated me. Truly, it was amazing.

The movie starts out in little Sparta, Mississippi. Mississippi is SO much fun to type. Heehee. Oh my, the sugar is starting to hit now. Stupid delicious fudge.

Anyway, there’s been a murder. So because it was the sixties and the South they immediately arrest the random black guy who just happened to be hanging out at the train station. Aren’t these folks just dandy?

But they messed with the wrong guy. He just happens to be a police officer from Philadelphia, and also just happens to be an expert homicide dude. His name is Virgil Tibbs. But you can call him Mr. Tibbs.

Mr. Tibbs is told by his chief, after they have straightened everything out, to stay and help them out, because honestly they are just idiots and don’t know what they are doing. Very, very, very against his will Mr. Tibbs agrees. I don’t honestly blame him I wouldn’t want to stay if I were him.

After he continuously shows how faulty their thinking and evidence is, Mr. Tibbs begins to earn their respect as they look past his skin color and see the excellent officer beneath. But goodness it took a long time. After they finally smartened (Huh, that’s an actual word) up, they catch the killer, who I will refuse to tell. Because then that would just ruin the movie and I actually like this one too much to do that. THE END.

This movie, just as a crime drama, was great. My cousin, my fabulous movie watching partner for this time around, and I were literally sitting on the edge of our seats just waiting to see what would happen next. You never expect the ending and that makes it brilliant.

But this movie is more than just a simple murder mystery. We must remember that this came out in the 1960’s, a time where racism was at an extreme. It just angered me to watch a group of men beat up another fellow human just because his skin was a different color than theirs and that somehow in their brains made them better.

Putting the theme aside, on a critical level this film exceeded as well. The acting was phenomenal. Rob Steiger, who played the police chief of the town, won a Best Actor award for his performance, and he deserved it. Sidney Poitier was equally good as Mr. Tibbs. Or Virgil, as he was usually called. I just prefer to call him MISTER TIBBS! Their respect for each other seemed to grow naturally throughout the film and I thought they worked very well together.

Now that I have finished blogging this movie, I am not sure what to do. Really I’m quite bored now. I think I’ll go eat more fudge.