Film review: In the Heat of the Night

In the Heat of the Night (dir. Norman Jewison, 1967). Now a work of primarily historical importance, In the Heat of the Night offers a provocative critique of racism that still resonates with progressive sensibilities. However, I found Jewison's carefully constructed depiction of race relations in the South unsettling, but not for what I think were the intended reasons: I think the film is irresponsible in the way it essentializes the South (and, in doing so, essentializes the entire problem of racism). While racism is of course prevalent in the South, this does not make all Southerners racist, nor does it make all Northerners, with their all too often skin-deep affectation of liberalism, tolerant; racism does not exist by virtue of artificial geographical borders. Ultimately, racism is a much more complex process of othering and socio-economic exclusion than this film makes it out to be, and by criticizing the (perhaps) more overt racism of the South, it invites us to ignore the problematic instances of institutionalized racist policies in supposedly progressive parts of the country. C.