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IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT
40th Anniversary Collector's Edition
MGM
I guess any moderate to liberal Baby
Boomer worth his or her birth date has
most likely already seen the brilliant In The
Heat of the Night, first released in 1967.
Maybe even some of the older Boomers
were lucky enough to see it in the theatre,
but I'd imagine most have viewed the Best
Picture Academy Award winner on
television, or previous video editions.
If so, you owe it to yourself to seek out this
new 40th anniversary issue and retrospect
of Canadian director Norman Jewison's
ground breaking civil right coming of age
film, on expansive widescreen format.
Simply put, the new film transfer looks
gorgeous, with saturated and bold colour,
and although the soundtrack is not in 5.1, it
is remastered Dolby stereo, which does at
least some justice to Quincy Jones' first of
its kind score.
Not only was it the first time that an African
American had composed a complete score
for a mainstream film, Jones also managed
to get the late, great Ray Charles to provide
perhaps the most soulful film songs, ever.
And actually, there are a lot of firsts here.
One of the best film shooters Hollywood
ever produced, Haskell Wexler, does some
incredible things with hand held and zoom
camera, turning potential ordinary looking
scenes into works of art.
Another first was having a black police
man, in an also Oscar-worth performance
by Sidney Poitier laying down the law in
the still then very segregated south, and
even slapping a rich white man, which also
was not done much 40 years ago.
But as superb as Poitier is in this film, Rod
Steiger, plays the initially stereotypical
Mississippi redneck sheriff who goes from
calling Poitier's Mr. Tibbs "boy," to
affording him respect, and even affection
by the end of the film.
Steiger won a most deserved Best Actor
Award for his blustery yet nuanced
performance of a man forced to change.
This single DVD comes with an essential
45 minutes worth of extras:
-Jewison explains how that Poitier agreed
to do the movie on the condition that
nothing would be filmed south of the
Mason Dixon Line. But that's not exactly
how it all went down.
-Steiger, although with hindsight a natural
for the part of the small town sheriff, was
not the producers first choice.
-Poitier kept a gun for personal protection
during some of the film's production.
-And the commentary track with Jewison,
Steiger, Wexler, and Lee Grant, who also
delivers a small but powerful performance
in the film, is a must hear.
And if this is not all round one of the best
films of the 60s, I'd like to see it's better.
As our parents like to say, they just don't
make 'em like this, anymore.
40th Anniversary Collector's Edition
MGM
I guess any moderate to liberal Baby
Boomer worth his or her birth date has
most likely already seen the brilliant In The
Heat of the Night, first released in 1967.
Maybe even some of the older Boomers
were lucky enough to see it in the theatre,
but I'd imagine most have viewed the Best
Picture Academy Award winner on
television, or previous video editions.
If so, you owe it to yourself to seek out this
new 40th anniversary issue and retrospect
of Canadian director Norman Jewison's
ground breaking civil right coming of age
film, on expansive widescreen format.
Simply put, the new film transfer looks
gorgeous, with saturated and bold colour,
and although the soundtrack is not in 5.1, it
is remastered Dolby stereo, which does at
least some justice to Quincy Jones' first of
its kind score.
Not only was it the first time that an African
American had composed a complete score
for a mainstream film, Jones also managed
to get the late, great Ray Charles to provide
perhaps the most soulful film songs, ever.
And actually, there are a lot of firsts here.
One of the best film shooters Hollywood
ever produced, Haskell Wexler, does some
incredible things with hand held and zoom
camera, turning potential ordinary looking
scenes into works of art.
Another first was having a black police
man, in an also Oscar-worth performance
by Sidney Poitier laying down the law in
the still then very segregated south, and
even slapping a rich white man, which also
was not done much 40 years ago.
But as superb as Poitier is in this film, Rod
Steiger, plays the initially stereotypical
Mississippi redneck sheriff who goes from
calling Poitier's Mr. Tibbs "boy," to
affording him respect, and even affection
by the end of the film.
Steiger won a most deserved Best Actor
Award for his blustery yet nuanced
performance of a man forced to change.
This single DVD comes with an essential
45 minutes worth of extras:
-Jewison explains how that Poitier agreed
to do the movie on the condition that
nothing would be filmed south of the
Mason Dixon Line. But that's not exactly
how it all went down.
-Steiger, although with hindsight a natural
for the part of the small town sheriff, was
not the producers first choice.
-Poitier kept a gun for personal protection
during some of the film's production.
-And the commentary track with Jewison,
Steiger, Wexler, and Lee Grant, who also
delivers a small but powerful performance
in the film, is a must hear.
And if this is not all round one of the best
films of the 60s, I'd like to see it's better.
As our parents like to say, they just don't
make 'em like this, anymore.