Buy Physical Copy At:
Licensor Information
MGM Home Entertainment
Directed by: Norman Jewison
Passing through the backwoods town of Sparta, Mississippi, Philadelphia detective Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) becomes embroiled in a murder case. He forms an uneasy alliance with the bigoted police chief (Rod Steiger), who faces mounting pressure from Sparta’s hostile citizens to catch the killer and run the African American interloper out of town. Director Norman Jewison splices incisive social commentary into this thrilling police procedural with the help of Haskell Wexler’s vivid cinematography, Quincy Jones’s eclectic score, and two indelible lead performances—a career-defining display of seething indignation and moral authority from Poitier and an Oscar-winning master class in Method acting from Steiger. Winner of five Academy Awards, including for best picture, In the Heat of the Night is one of the most courageous Hollywood films of the civil rights era.
Streaming Options
4410.
+1821
Stream
Rent
Buy
Release Information:
Technical Specifications
Format:
DVD
Discs:
DVD-9 (2 Discs)
Total: 2 Discs
Regions:
1 (DVD)
Aspect Ratio:
1.85:1
Audio Options:
English Dolby Digital Mono 1.0
Subtitles:
English
Supplements
Types of Supplements Included: Interview, Audio Commentary, Documentary, Theatrical Trailer, Insert
- New interview with director Norman Jewison
- New interview with actor Lee Grant
- Segment from a 2006 American Film Institute interview with actor Sidney Poitier
- New interview with Aram Goudsouzian, author of Sidney Poitier: Man, Actor, Icon
- Audio commentary from 2008 featuring Norman Jewison, Lee Grant, actor Rod Steiger, and cinematographer Haskell Wexler
- Turning Up the Heat: Movie-Making in the ’60s, a 2008 program about the production of the film and its legacy, featuring Norman Jewison, Haskell Wexler, producer Walter Mirisch, and filmmakers John Singleton and Reginald Hudlin
- Quincy Jones: Breaking New Sound, a 2008 program about Jones’s innovative soundtrack, including its title song sung by Ray Charles, featuring interviews with Quincy Jones, lyricists Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman, and musician Herbie Hancock
- Trailer
- An essay by critic K. Austin Collins
Forum Member Statistics
Sign-in with your forum account to rate this release
Film
Picture
Audio
Supplements
Artwork