Skip to content

  • Home
  • Bio
  • Writing
  • Contact

John Dos Passos Coggin

Author

Home > Politics > In the Heat of the Night

In the Heat of the Night

admin June 4, 2020

In the Heat of the Night (1967) is one of my favorite films in general, my favorite film about race, and my favorite film about the South. As far as I’m concerned, it’s perfectly made. The title song by Ray Charles, the score by Quincy Jones (Q calls film scores “emotion lotion”). It’s so powerful because it gets deep into the interior of the two protagonists–Tibbs and Gillespie. To me, the most important scene is not the famous slap heard round the world but the scene when Tibbs visits Gillespie at his home. Gillespie starts to like Tibbs in spite of himself. Gillespie confides in Tibbs that he’s unmarried and lonely in a small town that hates him. Tibbs responds that he’s equally lonely. That sudden sense of parity gets Gillespie’s anger up and he calls Tibbs “boy,” that all too common moniker in the South used to reaffirm white supremacy. In my interpretation, it shows that pride is at the root of Gillespie’s racism. The moment Gillespie gets vulnerable he gets scared and, to feel better, he lashes out at Tibbs in a racial way. The rest of the film is about, among other things, returning to that sense of parity. One of the last lines of the script is Gillespie looking directly at Tibbs, “You take care, ya hear?” They’re on the level again, briefly.

Posted in Film, Music, Politics
Tagged Quincy Jones, Ray Charles, Rod Steiger, Sidney Poitier
Previous Post: The Pride of Spancil Hill
Next Post: Indigenous Peoples Day

Archives

  • January 2023
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • July 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • February 2021
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • January 2018
  • November 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015

Copyright © 2023 John Dos Passos Coggin. Powered by WordPress and Stargazer.