In the Heat of the Night

On a hot, sticky night inSpartaMississippi, a businessman from the North who planned to open a factory that will employ the black community is found dead in an alley.  The first thing the local police do is look for any suspicious characters at the pool hall and train station.  Officer Sam Wood (Warren Oates) finds a lone black man sitting at the station, searches him and immediately takes him into custody.  As it turns out, this man, Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier), is just passing through and is the lead homicide investigator inPhiladelphia’s police department.  It takes a while for Virgil’s credentials to be taken seriously by the officers, but soon Chief Gillispie (Rod Steiger) recruits him to help out on the case.  With the locals less than happy about a black man acting as part of the law, racial tensions start to flare in this tale of drama, mystery and crime.

Virgil represents an ideal person, regardless of race.  He is educated, wears a nice suit, has a well paying, important job and speaks proper English.  He has come further in his life than all the white men surrounding him in this little redneck town and that does not sit well with them.  Through it all though, Virgil doesn’t gloat or lord himself over anyone else.  He simply gives respect and expects it in return.  In fact, the more involved he becomes in helping the police department solve this crime, the more respect he gains from Gillespie.

I believe this film won the Best Picture award because of the progressive way it portrayed racial tensions.  There are two big moments where we are both proud of Virgil and partially fear for his life.  This first is when Gillispie calls him ‘boy’ one too many times and then asks what his people up North call him.  Virgil replies, boldly and slowly, “They call me Mister Tibbs.”  Sounds simple enough today, but in a little racistMississippi town in the sixties a black man asking for respect from white men didn’t settle well.  Later, when Virgil goes to question Endicott (Larry Gates), a man with many black servants who would gain the most from the murder, Endicott slaps Virgil.  And Virgil slaps him right back.  It’s a moment of shock, for the people in the room and the 1967 audiences.  But it’s triumphant, making old Endicott remember that the days where he could just shoot a Endicott black man like Virgil are over.

For some of today’s audience this film may be a stark, unflattering reminder that racism was alive and a big part of some parts of the South.  Those redneck boys trying to run Virgil off the road, the diner guy who refused to serve him and the way he was so quickly arrested for just waiting for a train may be shocking and appalling to some people.  Unfortunately, those incidents were not far fetched for the time period.

In the Heat of the Night is a wonderful and engaging film.  If you’re afraid the racial tensions will be too much, the thrilling crime and mystery helps add great elements that help balance everything out.

“Gillespie…you saw it, what are you going to do about it?”

Doctor Zhivago

Based on Boris Pasternak’s novel, Doctor Zhivago is the story of a doctor/poet during the Russian Revolution.  In the present, we have Zhivago’s half brother, General Yefgraf (Alec Guinness), questioning a young girl, whom he thinks is Zhivago’s child.  With a collection of Zhivago’s poems in hand, he proceeds to tell her about Yuri’s life, beginning from his childhood when his mother died, through his efforts as a doctor in the war and his hardships in the revolution.

The film quickly becomes a love story set on top of the revolution.  While Yuri (Omar Sharif) is an idealistic student of medicine, he meets Lara (Julie Christie), a poor girl naively caught up with Victor Komarovsky (Rod Steiger).  Later, Lara is not so helpless, breaks into a party and shoots Victor in front of Yuri.  Later, in the war, Yuri and Lara find themselves working together in a makeshift hospital.  These are just unfortunate meetings of chance, but can mean so much to a poet.  But Lara is married to a revolutionary, Pasha (Tom Courtenay) and Yuri starts his own family.  As the revolution intensifies and his poems gain him an unwanted reputation, he and his family travel out to the country to live peacefully.  In the nearby town, there is Lara again and soon she and Yuri start a passionate affair that does not stand a chance against the revolution closing in around them.

David Lean is one of the film masters who makes all his movies look amazing.  Doctor Zhivago is full of beautiful shots using the Russian scenery and brutal snow to his advantage.  The costumes, sets and little details go a long way here.  There’s something poetic about shots of ice crystals on windows that melt away to usher in the daffodils of sprint.  The one image that completely floored me was the snowy palace in the middle of winter.  Between the beautiful Russian architecture and the amount of snow drifting all over the building, it’s an unforgettable image.  The things Lean can do with snow or sand just overwhelm me.

While the film passes for a good epic, I feel that it lacks heart or personality.  For example, in Lean’s masterpiece, Lawrence of Arabia, Lawrence is an amazing character.  He’s often strange but fantastic and the audience genuinely likes him.  We could gush on describing him for hours.  But here, Yuri Zhivago has a basic lack of characteristics.  I thought for a moment how I could describe him, my list read as 1. Poet and 2. Mustache.  He is such a passive protagonist, events happen around him, things happen to him.  His poetic personality is hard for viewers to identify with and connect to.  I acknowledge that he is a person that helps shape these events, but I don’t see those events shaping him.  In real life, it is not a bad thing to just go with the flow, but in a three hour film we need more from a protagonist.

One thing that really bugged me was the fact that Yuri was an influential poet, good enough for his work to be banned, yet we never hear a word of his work.  I realize that his poetry should not be at the center of the story, but it needs to be in there somewhere, perhaps it could shed some personality on Yuri.  At least we see him writing a couple times.

In the end, Doctor Zhivago is a good looking epic that becomes a so-so love story.  With Lean’s wonderful reputation, it’s best not to get too excited when you pick up Doctor Zhivago.  I had high hopes that just became disappointments.  Those snow scenes are beautiful, but can only heal so much.

“The personal life is dead in Russia.  History has killed it.”