Film Summary DCXXIX (In the Heat of the Night)

You have a murder in a small southern town revolving around a highly influential man whose business can bring about massive factory work that will bring much-needed industry to your town. Along with said industry may come the increase the labour force of tens to hundreds of African American people.

Now if you're a massive Plantation owner with a despisal for black people and a power base that you want to maintain, you might find it in your interest to kill this man.

Sidney Poitier is a homicide detective from Philadelphia with intellect on par with that of Columbo but with an attitude more akin to Joe Friday.
His biggest obstacle isn't circumstantial evidence or problematic investigation but unfortunately racism.
Imagine someone like Jack Weber \ Colombo* having to deal with massive racial problems why'll trying to investigate a case. And then just as a cherry on top, add on the fact that the investigator isn't even supposed to be here.
He's just a guy passing through town who accidentally gets confused as a possible culprit because he's a random black man who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time during the time of a murder and if it wasn't for his police connections he might very well end up at a jail. Or knowing this particular Community; hanging from a tree. It's dour disgusting stuff.

And the film doesn't let you forget it. Sydney  Poitier (playing the character of Virgil) is constantly at odds with most of the town who hate them because of old racial insecurities.
And he can't even get a straight answer from the police chief half the time who either.

The police chief is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Being a man who wants nothing to do with this guy but simultaneously having to keep him around because of his expertise.  The only real benefit we get to his story is that as the film progresses he becomes less and less prejudiced and starts trusting in Virgil's detective skills. Eventually getting to a point where it might be argued that he's not even a racist anymore. It's a little Hollywood washy dasha.
But it's a nice sweet moment that a film like this really needed.

In a lot of ways it's a really simple movie. If you took out the racial aspect it's an incredibly by the books basic detective story involving a old school Power dynamic in a town that systematically controls everything around it and the police force that's kind of corrupt but has people that still want to uphold the law to the best of their abilities.

But of course you don't remove the racial tension and by adding and you have a far more Dynamic and fascinating movie.
Involving peoples whose motives are constantly flipping from one side to the next either wanting to give up on the case or buckle down on it depending on what kind of evidence is presented and having scenarios that seem like convincing evidence turn into false allegations as new evidence starts to pile up. The whole thing almost completely falls apart but if not for a few perfectly well placed circumstances.
For the most part it works fairly well it's only in the last 20 minutes that the film feels a little too convenient and you start to wonder if things just mixed together too well. But if you did push it out you'd end up with a movie that was three and a half hours long and I think that would end up a detriment to the film.

Overall I think it's phenomenal film. Great acting, a really good and compelling story, quick pacing and some surprisingly good camera angles and shot choreography.
There are a few scenes where the camera seems the zip around a little too fast and it feels like I seen that belongs more Western or a 'kung fu' movie but there're so few and far between that they don't really take away from the overall experience.

And given that it's late October and it's supposed to be a time for horror movies I can tell you that I had a more uncomfortable frightened feeling in my gut from the first 20 minutes of this movie than the last 20 slasher films I've seen all put together. Hollywood brutality can never be as scary as real-world bigotry.

* In all fairness I don't think Columbo would fare very well in this town. His accent and overall mannerism would most likely land him in hot water and Joe Friday though technically a hard-boiled by-the-books American detective is himself not a ''pure white man''. With part of his ancestry being mixed in with a certain indigenous people to the lands of California. Sadly I'm not entirely sure which group at that point. It might have been a hodgepodge Heinz 57 scenario anyways.