The heat in the night

 Reflection on the Heat in the night movie.

The heat of the night is a crime drama set in 1967 in a small town called Sparta Mississippi. This movie is
meant to tell the story about a murder in Sparta and how Bill Gillespie, a police chief, was quick to arrest the first person he sees that could be the perpetrator, Virgil Tibbs. Tibbs was actually visiting his mother in Sparta and is actually a homicide detective and was wrongfully arrested. People soon found out that he was a detective and wanted to add him to the case to help figure out who the perpetrator was. However, since Tibbs was African American, Bill Gillespie wasn't too happy to be working alongside him on the case 

I really liked how this film showed a point in history that not many people talk about as much as slavery. This movie focuses on the time after slavery and shows how white individuals  aren't directly discriminating against African Americans but they still aren't accepted and trusted within their lives. This point in time wasn't forgotten but sometimes gets pushed to the side when being talked about 

This film may show how Tibbs the African American in the film but also celebrities how african america got more freedoms and were even allowed to work alongside a white man. This was big back then because not too long before the movie was made African Americans were not allowed to sit in the same vicinity as white people so have an African American play a major role in a movie alongside white people is a big deal.

One part of this movie that took me back was the infamous slap. Not only was i shocked but i did some research after about and so was everyone else in history. After Tibbs was slapped by wealthy plantation owner  Eric Endicott, he wasn't pleased about working alongside an African American. The part that really made everyone gasp was when Tibbs returned the slap right back to Eric. This part was very shocking back then because this was one of the first times especially in a movie that an African American fought back. African Americans technically had freedom but still were not treated equally as white people. This also shocked people when it first came out because yes african america were present in movies but mainly played maids servants and very low and small roles, so Tibbs being a main character really stood out.

They quoted the slap as “the slap heard around the world”, because it had such a big movement. 

This movie also shows the progress of the equality of african americans, because it starts off as an african american being wrongfully accused of a murder for simply just bein their, to ending it with him being respected and trusted more then the white detectives because he didn't jump to conclusion. Another reason I liked this movie was because it talked about the message more of history itself. It resembles how slaves had to slowly earn their freedom over time, Tis had to earn his respect in a town and work with people that didn't want to work alongside him.