As a product of the south, I am generally kind of touchy when it comes to movies featuring racist southerners. Not because they don’t exist and not because I don’t enjoy seeing ignorant racist idiots get what is coming to them, but most of the time it is just so cliche, and I guess I just hate everyone assuming that all southerners are racist rednecks because that is all they see portrayed in movies.

This film was made in the day when it was still common practice to call an adult black male “boy” and civil rights were still a dream for most African Americans in the south. It was a very brave film for its day because it featured the magnificent Sidney Poitier facing the indignities of the racist south with complete dignity. What made this film wonderful was the fact that the characters are not caricatures but are developed and given a range of emotions. Chief Gillespie begins the film as your general racist police chief, but he is allowed to have his beliefs challenged, to be vulnerable, to stand up in his own way. Even Virgil Tibbs has his faults – he lets his passion against the rich cotton planter get the best of him and blind him to the truth.

Overall a great contemporary movie that can be seen both as a great film and a product of its time.