Heat

Heat

Both riveting murder mystery and classic fish-out-of-water yarn, Norman Jewison's Oscar-winning In the Heat of the Night represents Hollywood at its wiliest, cloaking exposé in the most entertaining trappings. Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger prove the decade's most formidable antagonists. Poitier plays Virgil Tibbs, an arrogant homicide detective waylaid in Sparta, Mississippi; Steiger, in his bravura Oscar-winning turn, is Bill Gillespie, the town's hardheaded, bigoted sheriff who first arrests Tibbs for murder and then begs for his expertise. As the clues and suspects mount, Gillespie and his deputies develop begrudging respect for the black officer. The first-rate supporting cast includes Lee Grant as the victim's angry widow, Warren Oates as a voyeuristic deputy, William Schallert as the pragmatic mayor, and, in his screen debut, Scott Wilson (In Cold Blood) as an unlucky fugitive. The brilliant widescreen cinematography is by Haskell Wexler, and the scat-music score is by Quincy Jones. Ray Charles wails the blues theme song. --Glenn Lovell

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Director(s): Michael Mann
Production: Warner Bros.
  12 nominations.
 
IMDB:
8.2
Metacritic:
76
Rotten Tomatoes:
86%
R (Restricted)
Year:
1995
170
23,118 Views
An epic tale of crime and obsession and two men on opposite sides of the law.
A Los Angeles crime saga.
From "The Godfather" to "Scent of a Woman". From "Raging Bull" to "Goodfellas". Two of America's celebrated superstars will finally collide.

Uniformed Officer:
You taking this one, Lieutenant? Or does it stay in Division?

Vincent:
Does this look like gangbangers working the local 7-11 to you? Robbery-Homicide's taking it.

Uniformed Officer:
It's all yours.

Det. Bosko:
We've got three motorists. All they saw were men with masks, they were distant. Console TV Man over there, however, he was closer. [gestures to the homeless man, who is being interviewed by another detective]

Vincent:
Did he ID anybody?

Det. Bosko:
Well he was hiding. He heard it mostly. [Hanna starts towards the bodies of the three guards]

Vincent:
OK, what about them?

Det. Bosko:
Right, now according to the TV Man, this guy started mouthing off.

Vincent:
Smart.

Det. Bosko:
Yeah, somebody called a guard "Slick".

Sgt. Drucker:
Slick?

Det. Bosko:
Yeah. Now this guy - I figure this guy went for that holdout piece, ankle holster, right from here. Bang. Bang. Bang-bang-bang, to this side. This guy here has got what appears to be a double-tap entry wound to the sternum. Tattooing around a head-wound, scorched bone, close range, probably executed. There was $1.6 million in bearer bonds, and they ignored the loose cash.

Vincent:
'Cause they had no time; 'cause they were on a clock, which means they knew our response time to a 211, had our air, immobilized it, entered, [and] escaped in under three minutes. It's a good spot here. We've got good escape routes - two freeways, within a quarter of a mile.

Det.-Sgt. Casals:
Traffic video camera?

Vincent:
Probably disabled. Check it anyway.

Sgt. Drucker:
You recognize the M.O.?

Vincent:
M.O. is that they're good. Once it escalated into a murder one beef for all of 'em, after they killed the first two guards, they didn't hesitate; pop guard number three because... what difference does it make? Why leave a living witness? Drop of a hat these guys will rock and roll. The shape charge--the shape charge indicates that they are technically proficient. Proficient enough to go in on the prowl, so let's start looking for recent highline burglaries that have mystified us. [to Casals] Run "Slick" as an alias to the FBI. We're gonna get the phone book. Do it anyway. [to Drucker] Who's movin' the bearer bonds? Check the usual fences. You and I will check with Cuzomano and Torena. [to Schwartz] I want you to take Goldstein and O'Farrell. [to Bosko] Hang in with forensics, from the bomb squad. I want the explosive. If we're lucky, it's exotic - we can trace the sale.

Vincent:
Seven years in Folsom. In the hole for three. McNeil before that. McNeil as tough as they say?

Neil:
You lookin' to become a penologist?

Vincent:
You lookin' to go back? You know, I chased down some crews; guys just lookin' to f*** up, get busted back. That you?

Neil:
You must've worked some dipshit crews.

Vincent:
I worked all kinds.

Neil:
You see me doin' thrill-seeker liquor store holdups with a "Born to Lose" tattoo on my chest?

Vincent:
No, I do not.

Neil:
Right. I am never goin' back.

Vincent:
Then don't take down scores.

Neil:
I do what I do best. I take scores. You do what you do best trying to stop guys like me. [shrugs]

Vincent:
You never wanted a normal-type life?

Neil:
What the f*** is that? Barbecues and ballgames?

Vincent:
Yeah.

Neil:
This regular type life, that your life?

Vincent:
No. My life is a disaster zone. I got a stepdaughter so f***ed up, because her real father's this large-type a**hole. I got a wife, we're passing each other on the down-slope of our marriage. My third. Because, I spend all of my time chasing guys like you around the block. That's my life.

Neil:
A guy told me one time: Don't ever let yourself get attached to anything that you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner [pause] Now, if you're on me and you gotta move when I move, how do you expect to keep a...a marriage?

Vincent:
That's an interesting point. What are you, a monk?

Neil:
No. [pause] I got a woman.

Vincent:
What do you tell her?

Neil:
I tell her that I'm a salesman.

Vincent:
So, if you spot me around the corner...you gonna walk out on this woman? Not even say goodbye?

Neil:
That's the discipline.

Vincent:
That's pretty vacant.

Neil:
It is what it is. Either that, or we better go do something else, pal.

Vincent:
I don't know how to do anything else.

Neil:
Neither do I.

Vincent:
And I don't much want to.

Neil:
Neither do I.

Vincent:
[laughs] You know, I have this recurring dream. I'm sitting at this big banquet table and all the victims of all the murders I ever worked are there...and they're staring at me with these black eyeballs because they got eight-ball hemorrhages from the head wounds. And there they are, these big balloon people because I found them two weeks after they'd been under the bed. The neighbors reported the smell and there they are all just sitting there.

Neil:
What do they say?

Vincent:
Nothing.

Neil:
No talk?

Vincent:
They have nothing to say. We just look at each other. They look at me and that's it. That's the dream.

Neil:
I have one where I'm drowning. I gotta wake myself up and start breathing or I'll die in my sleep.

Vincent:
You know what that's about?

Neil:
Yeah...having enough time.

Vincent:
Having enough time...to do what you want to do?

Neil:
Yeah.

Vincent:
You doing it now?

Neil:
No, not yet.

Vincent:
You know, we're sitting here, you and I, like a coupla regular fellas. You do what you do. I do what I gotta do. Now that we've been face to face...if I am there and I got to put you away? [pause] I won't like it. But, i'll tell ya...if it's between you and some poor bastard whose wife you're going to make into a widow, brother, you are gonna go down.

Neil:
There's a flip side to that coin. What if you do got me boxed in and I gotta put you down? [pause] 'Cause no matter what, you will not get in my way. We'e been face to face...yeah But I won't hesitate. Not for a second.

Vincent:
[smiles] Maybe, that's the way it'll be. Or...who knows.

Neil:
Or maybe, we'll never see each other again.


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