newcritics - Latest Comments in On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

jcloophole — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:43:18 -0000

Sorry for coming late to the party, but I just wanted to add one observation on the film in general. The Introduction to Film Studies class that I teach is usually filled with quite a few new comers to "classic cinema". Most, I would venture to say, have never seen a film older than they are when they first come to class.
In the Heat of the Night is either the first or second film that they see with me in class- always. It is a wonderful film to bring them into something outside of their comfort zone, but is easy for them to get into and relate to in some way. Whether it's Quincy Jones' score, the mystery, the racial tension and most definitely the acting- they all (without exception) get hooked on the film. If I had a commission for every DVD of the film bought after the class- I'd have a nice chunk of change.
I have begun to require a reaction paper on this film, and so far the results have been interesting. I always hear how they knew it was a tv show but had no idea it was an "awesome movie". I could easily break the film down into all of the individual components and identify what really pulls different people in, but the truth is the fact that all of it's parts are firing on all pistons so the whole film just draws you in. Then you go back to watch again for the individual components. In the Heat of the Night is the majority top pick for favorite film watched in class at the end of the semester as well. And I try to introduce them to many classics- and they have many favorites. I just think "Heat" hits them early on and hits them hard.

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

jcloophole — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:33:34 -0000

During the day the weather seems to be somewhat bluster (Gillespie zips up his coat, etc.) but in the evening it's warm- you can see Sam Wood sweating at the diner- the Chief seems to be more concerned about the air conditioner at night. In the south for a long tiem there were many sundown towns- If you were black, you couldn't be on the street or even in town after sundown, or the heat (police) would be out actively running you in or running you out- so In the Heat of the Night could have several meanings.

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

danleo — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 16:31:04 -0000

Ah, thanks, Lance. I'm honored. Maybe after this current series.
Maybe some of these cool downbeat, black-and-white 60s movies, like
Hud, the Hustler, or King Rat. Or it might be fun to take as a theme
a great actor or actress: like, say, the first four or five films of
a Montgomery Clift, or Brando, or the three James Dean movies. I
recently watched Red River for the first time in a long time, and
Clift was so good in that, his first movie. Or you could do a series
on Howard Hawks, or Godard, or Fellini, or Jean-Pierre Melville...As
long as it's not, like, the films of Michael Bay.

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

LanceMannion — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 10:12:12 -0000

Dan, that wasn't a comment, that was a cry to be allowed to host a Wednesday Night at the Movies series or two...or three...or four. What do you say?

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

danleo — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:49:34 -0000

Tom, in reply to your most recent comment: I wish I had the time right now to really let loose with a good long post on The Wild Bunch. As I said before somewhere up above, to me it's not a perfect movie, but it has, to my mind, at least six or seven scenes that are great, which is three or four scenes more than what Howard Hawks said you had to have to make a good movie.

To me the 60s were a real golden age of movie-making, but a lot of my favorites didn't make much of an impact at the Oscars. You had the tail-end of studio-system big-budget over-lit Hollywood studio fim-making, but you had the French New wave, the real heyday of Italian film-making (Fellini, Antonioni, Visconti, Germi, et al), the one-man genre known as Bergman, an onslaught of great British films (Richardson, Reisz, Anderson, Schlesinger, Richard Lester (from Philadelphia originally), Bryan Forbes; and in America the last years when film makers could make movies in black-and-white just because they knew the material (usually adult drama) would be better in black-and-white (Hud, the Hustler, In Cold Blood, etc.). And the 60s were also so rich in the sort of demotic "outsider' film-making that I love: the biker and horror and LSD movies from the Roger Corman factory, all those dozens of fabulous spaghetti westerns, all the great trashy James Bond rip-offs (not to mention the trashy great Bond films themselves), the bizarre yakuza movies of Suzuki, all the classic Zatoichi The Blind Swordsman movies. What a decade of riches. The year we've been discussing in this series was definitely a sort of watershed year, at least for mainstream American film-making, but there was already this great movement in cinema going on worldwide. A movement now sadly dead and gone.

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

tomwatson — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:02:59 -0000

Hey Dan - we can! This is newcritics, baby - discuss away. The Wild Bunch - so violent and watchable. What a cast of dissipated, over the hill actors strapping it on one more time. When I was a kid, it was everything I wasn't allowed to go and see in the movies.

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

danleo — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 17:22:06 -0000

I love going off topic like this, and so did Holden Caulfield. I love
how the lines in The Wild Bunch are so sparse, but they feel etched
in stone.

"You're not gettin' rid of anybody. We're gonna stick together, just
like it used to be. When you side with a man you stay with him, and
if you can't do that you're like some animal. You're finished. We're
all finished. All of us. Mount up."

Beautiful.

I wish we could discuss The Wild Bunch or In Cold Blood or even The
Professionals, or the Hustler or The Cincinnati Kid, or King Rat, or
the Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner instead of Guess Who's
Coming to Dinner or, uh, Dr Dolittle.

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

Campaspe — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 11:20:09 -0000

The interiors and buildings look pretty good and have the proper feel. The landscapes don't look very Southern to me except the cotton fields, which were shot in Tennessee and gave the company no end of fright in filming, as Harris talks about. But while watching the movie I have no problem accepting it as a Southern milieu and I think that also comes down to Wexler.

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

HenryFTP — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 10:19:05 -0000

Dan:

Sorry to be dangerously O/T here, but Marvin would have been great as Dutch Angstrom
or as Deke Thornton, as memorable as both Ernest Borgnine and Robert Ryan were in
those parts -- particularly as Thornton, since no one would have any trouble imagining Marvin
as someone who used to ride with Pike Bishop and getting captured as depicted in the
flashback.

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

tomwatson — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 07:32:01 -0000

It was so palpable in the south, that they had to film it in Illinois for fear of violence - hence, the cold backgrounds - indeed, you can see frosty breath in several scenes.

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

HenryFTP — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:46:52 -0000

The foliage and the daylight aren't right, but the rest of the production design, together with Wexler's cinematography, captures the rural South about as well as any film -- I was in Corinth, Mississippi not long ago, and my first thought was of In the Heat of the Night, particularly because Corinth hasn't yet been blighted by chains, franchises and casinos.

The film doesn't have the significance in film history that Bonnie & Clyde has or the cultural iconic status of The Graduate, but it is far superior to both films as a social artefact -- it would be difficult to name another film that captures the tension of the South in the immediate post-Civil Rights Act era -- a tension that was actually pervasive in the country, but so much more palpable in the South, where an Endicott's hatred could be so visible beneath the thinnest of veneers of civility.

As great as the ensemble performances are in the film, and as good as Rod Steiger is, it really all hinges on Poitier. The John Ball character is no Philip Marlowe -- Poitier brings to life what Ball only hints at, and that's the Jackie Robinson dimension to Virgil Tibbs. All that competitive drive, intelligence and ambition is straitjacketed by societal strictures, and Poitier has to battle the bigots and himself all the way through the film. It works both as a terrific piece of acting and as a real movie star turn -- he grabs you from the opening frames.

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

danleo — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:11:03 -0000

Henry, I'm so with you. Another crappy thing about contemporary epic
scenes is they always go for the goddam CGI. Enough with that crap. I
get it already, you can make anything happen, you can make ten
thousand Mexican horsemen ride over that hill, but y'know what? For a
lot less money and time you could hire a hundred extras and horses
and make it real instead.

Oh, right, and the expression on Holden's face as he gets dressed in
the brothel, as he's making his decision to go back after Angel. The
prostitutes. And, yeah, Oates's face after Holden's "Let's go."

"Why not?"

His last line in the movie. The Wild Bunch isn't a perfect movie, but
that scene is perfect. They just don't make 'em like that any more.

Another guy who was in line for Pike Bishop was Lee Marvin. He
would've been great too, but Holden was perfection in that role.

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

HenryFTP — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 05:43:31 -0000

Dan:

I always cite the final cavalry clash in the Rio Grande as an example of how modern "epic scale" films
don't have the same artistry and craftsmanship for battles as did Peckinpah, Lean, Ford, Kubrick. Not only
the sweep of that scene, but the grim humor and the pathos.

As good as Heston is in Dundee (heck, was he ever better?), I just don't think he had the range
Bill Holden brought to Pike Bishop. When he utters "let's go" before the climactic battle, you're ready
to follow him straight to hell -- of course, the expression on Warren Oates's face before he replies,
"why not?" makes the scene -- heck, could Samuel Beckett have asked for more?

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

KevinWolf — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:58 -0000

Sorry, much later to the party than expected, but I've not much to add. I will say the "slap" scene, which was mentioned up front but seemed to take time to gain traction in the comments, is the most memorable scene for me. I think as a a kid it was the sheer force of it that hit me, on top of the historical movie trope of slapping, typically guy-on-gal (meant to be funny, oftentimes, when perhaps it was not) yet used here as one man's reaction to another -- and additionally of course the black man slapping the white man. Holy cow, you expected the world to come apart after that. Movie-wise, anyway.

Another very vague thought here re cinematography: I never personally experienced this movie as black and white in fact (as on TV) or in memory, but I can see it as a color update of noir. I think there were a lot of movies trying for that, especially in the years immediately following this film. I'd have to think about this, but the "look" to me reminds me some of, say, Harper. (On the other hand, soon the noir movie ideal was bleached out in movies like Altman's The Long Goodbye. Yet he had made Thieves Like Us.) Just thinking out loud here. Plus I haven't seen most of these damn movies in a long time.

Good night.

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

Mannion — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:42:06 -0000

Goodnight, C. Goodnight, Dan. Good times, good times. Good night, lurkers. Thanks for stopping by.

And to anyone happening by tonight, tomorrow, next week, or whenever, the thread's still open, feel free to add your thoughts.

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

danleo — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:39:40 -0000

They should've brought in Tennessee Williams to do that final rewrite.

Nighty night, guys! ( I'll check in tomorrow.)

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

danleo — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:37:13 -0000

Hey, ya know what, maybe the film-makers really did know about the cop/race thing in Philly, and one reason they made that choice was just because Tibbs would have had to be one extremely tough guy to make detective in this town at that time. On Rizzo's force he would have had to be four times as good as anyone else on his squad just to hold his own. The man should have been a nervous wreck.

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

Mannion — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:36:47 -0000

And last but not least. Why is Sparta is the only town in the South with no assertive adult female citizens?

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

Mannion — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:35:35 -0000

And I'd like to get my hands on whoever cast Gilligan's psychotic brother as the counterman in the diner

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

Mannion — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:33:15 -0000

The movie's called In The Heat of the Night but it's quite obviously not at all warm there in Sparta. The calenders all say it's September, so that part of Mississippi's meant to be experiencing a late summer heat wave, but the trees all say it's November or March. The sky's a wintery sky too. Makes me wish they'd just filmed the movie in California.

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

Campaspe — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:31:29 -0000

I was just about to turn in as well. But do tell, and I'll respond either now or tomorrow.

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

Mannion — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:29:13 -0000

C,

It looks like it's down to you and me. Might be time to call it a night. But before we do I've got to mention a few things that bug me about the movie.

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

danleo — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:26:54 -0000

There was just something about the way Dundee wrapped up that didn't quite work. It was another one of those movies that went into production without a finished script. And that sort of thing never fails to amaze me. I remember the late great Sidney Pollack saying that he had never once gone into production with a finished script. There's something very weird about Hollywood.

But then again, the final river-fight sequence in Dundee -- these wide shots with all these goddam riders coming off the far hilltop -- briilliant movie-making. And Charlton Heston rocked in that movie too. Heston was one of Peckinpah's short-listed actors for Pike Bishop in the Wild Bunch, and as great as William Holden was in that, I wonder how Heston would have fared? Just being Heston he might have added this whole scary dimension to the part.

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

Mannion — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:25:44 -0000

I can't think of another movie that has two such prickly and hard to like leads.

Re: On the symbolic nature of a broken air conditioner: In The Heat Of The Night and the rise of the New South

Mannion — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:23:43 -0000

Poitier took a big risk with the part. Tibbs is as resistant to liking anyone in Sparta as they are to liking him. He pushes away sympathy and ignores or rejects attempts by the other characters to befriend him. It's because he suspects they will only be his friend on THEIR terms, which is to say on racist terms. But it makes Tibbs seem rude at times and overly proud and that makes him difficult for the audience to like the way audiences are used to liking movie heroes, and the way they were used to liking Poitier.