Heat Of the Night

 I usually don't do book or movie reviews because they require more skill than I have and also more effort than I am prepared to muster for a blog post. So, this is not a movie review, its just a post about a movie I watched last night. The movie is called Heat of the Night, and stars Sidney Poitier as a black Philadelphia cop who finds himself called to assist in solving a murder in a town in  a 1960s Mississippi small town. There is a lot to like about the movie, but what I enjoyed most is the picture it drew of the summer nights in the 1960s Deep South. I admit to having a morbid curiosity about the Deep South. I have a friend who lives in South Carolina who says it is a common sight to see Confederate flags flying outside houses to this day. It seems like such a ugly but quaint world to me, and one so far removed from my reality that I can look at it with curiosity instead of horror. This movie lives up to its title, even if at first glance the title contains innuendo. The movie is set a night, and the heat is a constant presence in it. Sweat glistening on the character's faces, the sleeplessness, the loneliness (loneliness is often associated with cold night, but there is no lonelier experience than insomnia). There are also some interesting sub-themes, such as the isolation and self-hatred of a white man in the 1960s Deep South. In one scene, the white protagonist confides to Poitier his loneliness and misery, but on receiving an ounce of sympathy he lashes out saying he doesn't need his sympathy, implying that however low he falls he will always be above a black man in status.