In the Heat of the Night Movie Reflection

During class on Wednesday, we watched In the Heat of the Night. I found this movie super interesting. In the movie, Virgil Tibbs is arrested for a murder with limited questioning and he was in the wrong place and the wrong time. Tibbs was an African American and the police all seem to have something against him for his skin color. They had assumed that Tibbs had stole money from the man that was murdered just because he had money in his pocket. Looking at Tibbs, he was a put together and successful person but the police had saw the opposite. They were shocked to find out that Tibbs was a police officer in Philadelphia and was one of the best at solving murder cases. 

This was something that was a huge issue during reconstruction. Those that weren’t open minded were ready to accuse someone of something that they hadn’t done just because of their skin color. Like the police chief, others didn’t consider an African American of being successful, he just assumed right away he had done something bad to get the money. Tibbs was a better person by not showing how these actions all affected him and he continued to help the police.

Throughout the movie, Tibbs gets attacked by a group of young white guys. Something that I found wrong was when the police chief saw this happening, he did not do anything to punish those that were attacking. These boys were sent to go after Tibbs just because of Endicott being accused of the crime. When Endicott was questioned about it, he slapped Tibbs in the face causing Tibbs to slap Endicott back. This should not have caused more violence.

The only person who seemed truly offended about all of the racism that was surrounding this town and police station was the wife of the man that was murdered. She had noticed how careless they were about how they found the suspect. Like with Tibbs, they assumed and brought him to the station. She was offended about how there was a lack of questioning and how they were bringing innocent people to the chief.

There are so many things that are wrong in this movie. Tibbs should’ve been served in the restaurant. No one should have gone after Tibbs for anything, especially because Tibbs had good intentions and was there to help. Tibbs was treated wrongly by racist people and it shows how the south held onto past beliefs after the war.