Justin ChoeENG 380Dr. HolmesMay 27, 2014Sidney Poitier & In the Heat of the NightIn the Heat of the Night is a film starring Sidney Poitier as an African-American homicide expert, who assists the white Southern lawman, Chief Gillespie, in Sparta, Mississippi, in his investigation into the murder of a white man. businessman. Along the way, Poitier's character comes up against racism and sectarianism from left to right that he endures thanks to his economic and social intelligence. His role in this film, as well as several others, can be classified as a biracial "buddy film" that was immensely successful in Hollywood and put Poitier on the map, but how effective is this form of film in breaking color barriers and challenge societal stereotypes. conferences? How did the general public of the time react to the portrait of a black man who was much more intelligent and economically superior to a white man, Gillespie? These stereotypes are worth exploring. Poitier has received many accolades for his work, but has also received a lot of criticism for various reasons and a closer look at the roots of this criticism answers these questions. Cinema has always been "selfish" with the use of the black actor and, as Guerrero states in Within the Frame of Blackness, black people were rarely presented as complex characters and used as the problem that the white man “would solve”. This characterized the general public's expectations of cinema at the time and during Poitier's emergence in Hollywood. With Poitier however, he worked alongside Hollywood directors who despised racism and shared the same views as him, working together to convey the political message of racial integration both in films and off the screen . The general public being characterized by... middle of article......and end. Although the concept of historical and non-historical has dominated studies of black representation, if stereotypes are used in a certain way, they can serve different purposes, in which they can be historical. Stereotypes do indeed have harmful effects on subjects, but the analysis of the way in which these stereotypes are used, particularly in Poitier's films, allows for a better understanding by researchers and other filmmakers. In In the Heat of the Night, he provides numerous examples of stereotypes which can thus be questioned. Poitier may be criticized as an individual, but there is no doubt that the films he is a part of and the stereotypical portrayals that surround him behind the camera can serve as a reflection of changing historical values, evolving of the civil rights movement and personal morality. which serve as progressive anecdotes of the civil rights movement as a whole.