This is both a crime drama and a study of racism in the deep South. Poitier
is a big-city detective changing trains in a small town when he is arrested by
the local police for a murder. After proving his credentials to the racist and
skeptical sheriff, while he waits for the next train and in order to prove his
innocence, he helps out with the investigation to find the real murderer. This
movie drips with tension and anger and frustration as Poitier, an educated and
successful police detective, comes up against ugly forms of racism from people
who are less capable and less knowledgeable than him and who are trying to
protect their own. It recreates the racial tensions in the South, showing the
nasty underbelly of the sort of small-town life that we feel sentimental about
these days. Plus, it's acted brilliantly by two of Hollywood's finest talents.
In the Heat of the Night appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1
on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9
televisions. Very few concerns cropped up during this positive presentation.
Across the board, sharpness looked good. Only a minimal amount of softness
ever interfered, as almost all the shots seemed crisp and concise. I noticed
no issues with jagged edges or moiré effects, and edge enhancement was
essentially absent. In addition, source flaws proved modest. The occasional
speck manifested itself, but those instances remained infrequent. For the most
part, this was a clean transfer.
While Heat didn’t go with a dynamic palette, it rendered its colors well.
Much of the movie exhibited a subdued, somewhat yellow tint, but the hues
looked clear and reasonably full within those restrictions. Blacks seemed dark
and tight, and shadows showed good clarity and delineation. Overall I thought
this was a very satisfying transfer.
In addition to the film’s original monaural soundtrack, Heat brought us a
new Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. Its designers managed to stay fairly true to
the source, as they opened up matters in a modest but pleasing way. Music
showed decent stereo imaging, and various effects broadened to the sides.
Those demonstrated good movement and meshed together well.
Occasional use of the surrounds occurred as well, such as when vehicles
would pan from front to rear. Nothing here dazzled, as even the showier scenes
– like one in a factory – remained subdued. And that was fine with me,
since a chatty movie like this didn’t need anything more than general
atmosphere most of the time.
Audio quality seemed positive. Speech occasionally suffered from a little
edginess, but the lines always stayed intelligible, and they usually were
acceptably natural. Music lacked great range – especially in terms of highs
– but the songs and score demonstrated decent bass and seemed concise
enough. Effects played a small role and came across as fairly accurate. I
thought the 5.1 mix worked just fine.
How did the picture and sound of this “40th Anniversary Collector’s
Edition” compare to those of the previous version? Both demonstrated
improvements. The new transfer looked cleaner and tighter than the old one,
and the audio showed similar improvements as well. Both areas demonstrated
real growth, so the 2008 DVD was a definite upgrade.
The CE includes most of the old package’s extras along with some new
ones. A repeat from the old disc, we get an audio commentary with
director Norman Jewison, cinematographer Haskell Wexler, and actors Rod
Steiger and Lee Grant. All of the participants were recorded separately and
the results were edited together to create one coherent piece.
And nicely edited, I might add; the folks who compiled this
commentary really did a marvelous job of pacing the track and linking the
remarks together in a clean and logical manner. While some commentaries tend
to focus only on specific topics - such as many which talk almost entirely
about technical issues - this one covers the gamut. The participants offer
details about the production plus anecdotes from the shoot, their reactions to
the film then and now, and a wide variety of other issues such as
cinematography, music, locations, and performances. It’s a simply wonderful
commentary that far surpassed my expectations.
The film’s theatrical trailer also repeats from the old DVD, but
everything else is new. We find three featurettes. Turning Up the Heat:
Movie Making in the 60s runs 21 minutes, eight seconds and features
remarks from Jewison, Wexler, producer Walter Mirisch, Princeton University
Center for Africa-American Studies’ Dr. Imani Perry, USC Professor of
Critical Studies Dr. Todd Boyd, AFI film historian Patricia King Hanson,
filmmaker/BET President of Entertainment Reginald Hudlin, composer Quincy
Jones, film music historian Jon Burlingame.
“Heat” looks at the creation of the Heat and the circumstances of the
era in which it was made. It proves to be reasonably introspective glimpse of
different cultural issues, but it straddles the two sides too inconsistently
to be a genuine success. I think this would’ve worked better either as a
straight “making-of” show or something better focused on the cultural
issues/implications. A fair amount of the movie-specific info repeats from the
commentary. As it stands. “Heat” is pretty good but not great.
