Jul. 09, 2002 - 11:25 pm
a very eerie thing happened just now. of the numerous films i brought home for my mother and i to possibly watch together this evening, she chose the Best Picture for 1967 which i had never seen before. In the Heat of the Night. we just finished watching it. i took my usual trip online to the IMDb. and i see that one of the stars of the film, Rod Steiger, who won an Oscar for Best Actor for this very film, died today. very sad.
Rod Steiger was a wonderful actor and was very much deserving of this, his only Oscar. i'm sure he should have received more. his favorite role was one where he was nominated but did not win. that was in The Pawnbroker (1964). i need to see this film. it was recommended to me a couple of months ago by my friend David's dad. apparently it's one of his favorites. other films you should see with Rod Steiger: Tim Burton's Mars Attacks! (1996), On The Waterfront (Best Picture-1954), Doctor Zhivago (1965). other than that i haven't seen any of his other films. a great loss though, i'd say.
so anyway, about this film. i hadn't seen it before obviously. and it leaves me with only 2 Best Pictures left to see. hopefully i can get those done within the next week. i'm still looking for recommendations for my next film list by the way.
this came out while America was still in the throws of racial tension and it really shows in the text of the film. lots of racial slurs are thrown at Sidney Poitier's character and he handles them excellently. i think you always get this feeling of empathy when you watch him in a film. his strength and intelligence are just wonderful to see and you wish you could be like him. another great man to look up to. and what's crazy is that Rod Steiger's character is often one of the ones throwing the harshes racial slurs. by the end of the film though they sort of come to an understanding which is nice to see.
the film starts out with the discovery of a body in the streets of Mississippi by a cop. after the chief (Steiger) tells his officers to sweep the town looking for suspects, they pick up the first unknown person they find, and you definitely get the feeling it's because he's black. when the cop addresses Tibbs (Poitier) as "boy," i don't know, i guess you just have to assume that. maybe i'm crazy. in any case, they quickly find out that he himself is actually a police officer visiting from Philadelphia and he begins helping with the case after being ordered by his chief over the phone. he has to deal with tons of prejudice as he helps them to solve the case.
i've enjoyed seeing all these things lately about prejudice. i wasn't actually trying to do it, but i learned about anti-semitism with Gentleman's Agreement (1947) on Saturday, homosexuality with The Celluloid Closet (1995) on Sunday, and then racial prejudice today. i'm enjoying it though. it makes you feel just a little bit more enlightened every time you are exposed to it.
so the soundtrack in this film is laughable. "laughable man, ha ha." sorry, i couldn't get The Big Lebowski (1998) out of my head. Ray Charles is crooning about "in the heat of the night" throughout the film and it's really unnecessary and over the top. the rest of the music reminded me of a crappy 60s television show. the rest of the film was pretty average. the only excellent things really are the writing, and the acting from Poitier and Steiger.
such weird timing today. Rod Steiger will be missed.