In The Heat of the Night (Movie Reflection)

This is a movie poster for In the Heat of the Night after it received its Academy Awards in 1967.

In the Heat of the Night is a very famous film that reflects on discrimination in the Jim Crow South around 1960. It presents some very important topics and themes that were truly present then, like the privilege of white men, society's views on women, and even the issue of abortion.

This is a screen capture from the movie of Tibbs face during the encounter.

I believe one of the most pivotal and important scenes in this movie is the one in the plant nursery, where Endicott slaps Mr. Tibbs and, in return, Tibbs slaps Mr. Endicott. This scene is especially important because, after Tibbs leaves, Endicott begins to cry. 

I feel this could be up to interpretation; however, at the time, Endicott lived on a slave plantation and was very discriminatory towards those practically enslaved, working there. His character was framed as extremely racist and sort of careless about the effects of his actions and words. 

In my personal opinion I believe that the reason he cried was due to the fact that at that point, he most likely had never had someone, up to that point, stand up to him for what he was doing. He received a "reality check" in the sense that no one else had yet had the bravery to do so.

Looking at this even deeper, I think that this can represent a wave across the entire South in this time period of people finally standing up for themselves, as well as the South beginning to realize what they allow is racist and wrong. If everyone were to stand up and revolt at this time, nothing could really have been done.

This is Mr. Tibbs (left) and Chief Bill Gillespie (right).

Another large point that this movie gives insight into is the facts of white privilege at the time. I believe that people who were said to have had this privilege, at least in this time frame, had no right to talk to Tibbs like they did. 

They, specifically the police staff, initially acted like they had such a tall pedestal to stand on, yet he made more money than all of them. After some of them later came around to liking Tibbs, like Chief Bill Gillespie, who eventually slightly respected him, while others held that full disdain throughout the entire film, even though he was a huge help in solving the murder case, and they knew he would be.

There are probably dozens of more topics explored in this movie that I could discuss; however, this film, with the many deserved awards it won, was extremely influential in society. 

Even though it was released just after the documented end of the Jim Crow era in 1967, as the film portrayed, we know that the South still most likely held this prejudice against black individuals. It is very evident that Movies like this one, throughout history, can make significant change, whether that be good or bad, just by influencing people's mindsets or opinions on their actions or even the actions of others around them. 

This film definitely made some important change, even though most of the change around the end of the 60s was a coincidence and unrelated to this movie; films like this one could have definitely been a driving factor in the changing mindsets of individuals in the South, guiding the U.S. to an even more equal society.