In the Heat of the Night appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. This turned into a strong presentation.
Sharpness worked fine. Some softness crept in at times – mainly in the flick’s second half - but the film usually remained concise and accurate.
I noticed no issues with jagged edges or moiré effects, and grain appeared natural. No signs of edge haloes manifested, and I saw no print flaws.
While Heat didn’t go with a dynamic palette, it rendered its colors well. Much of the movie exhibited a subdued, somewhat yellow/red tint and the hues looked clear and full within those restrictions.
Blacks seemed dark and tight, and shadows showed good clarity and delineation. This turned into a solid presentation.
In terms of audio, Heat brought us a remixed DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack. Its designers managed to stay fairly true to the source, as they opened up matters in a modest but pleasing way.
Music showed decent stereo imaging, and various effects broadened to the sides. Those demonstrated good movement and meshed together well.
Occasional use of the surrounds occurred as well, such as when vehicles would pan from front to rear. Nothing here dazzled, as even the showier scenes – like one in a factory – remained subdued.
And that was fine with me. A chatty movie like this didn’t need anything more than general atmosphere most of the time.
Audio quality seemed positive. Speech occasionally suffered from a little edginess, but the lines always stayed intelligible, and they usually were acceptably natural.
The songs and score demonstrated decent bass and seemed concise enough. Effects played a small role and came across as fairly accurate. I thought the 5.1 mix worked acceptably well.
How did the 4K UHD compare to the 2014 Blu-ray? Both came with audio that seemed identical.
As for the UHD’s visuals, it boasted superior definition, colors and blacks. It also lost print flaws and edge haloes so even without HDR, this became a nice upgrade over the 2014 BD.
The 4K UHD mixes old and new extras, and we find two separate audio commentaries. The first features director Norman Jewison, cinematographer Haskell Wexler, and actors Rod Steiger and Lee Grant.
All of the participants were recorded separately and the results were edited together to create one coherent piece. And deftly edited, I might add; the folks who compiled this commentary really did a marvelous job of pacing the track and linking the remarks together in a clean and logical manner.
While some commentaries tend to focus only on specific topics - such as ones that talk almost entirely about technical issues - this one covers the gamut. The participants offer details about the production plus anecdotes from the shoot, their reactions to the film then and now, and a wide variety of other issues such as cinematography, music, locations, and performances. It’s a simply wonderful commentary that far surpassed my expectations.
A new track, the second commentary features film historians Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson and Mirisch Company founder’s son Robert Mirisch. All three sit together for a running, screen-specific view of the Mirisch Company, the movie’s cast and crew, production notes and general thoughts.
Because the prior commentary works so well, this one can feel a bit redundant at times. Nonetheless, it brings some new notes and becomes a fairly enjoyable listen.
All the remaining extras appear on a bonus Blu-ray, where three featurettes repeat from the prior release. Turning Up the Heat: Movie Making in the 60s runs 21 minutes, 10 seconds and features remarks from Jewison, Wexler, producer Walter Mirisch, Princeton University Center for Africa-American Studies’ Dr. Imani Perry, USC Professor of Critical Studies Dr. Todd Boyd, AFI film historian Patricia King Hanson, filmmaker/BET President of Entertainment Reginald Hudlin, composer Quincy Jones, film music historian Jon Burlingame, and filmmaker John Singleton.
“Heat” looks at the creation of the Heat and the circumstances of the era in which it was made. It proves to be reasonably introspective glimpse of different cultural issues, but it straddles the two sides too inconsistently to be a genuine success.
I think this would’ve worked better either as a straight “making-of” show or something better focused on the cultural issues/implications. A fair amount of the movie-specific info repeats from the commentary. As it stands. “Heat” is pretty good but not great.
The Slap Heard Around the World goes for seven minutes, 25 seconds. It includes info from Singleton, Hudlin, Jewison, Boyd, Perry, Wexler, Mirisch, and Hanson.
“World” looks at the shooting of the famous “slap scene” as well as its social implications. It follows in the same footsteps as the prior featurette and comes with the same strengths and weaknesses. It offers some decent insights but doesn’t seem particularly absorbing.
Up next, Quincy Jones: Breaking New Sound runs 13 minutes, two seconds. It provides statements from Jones, Burlingame, Boyd, Jewison, lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Tonight Show head audio engineer Patrick Smith, and musician Herbie Hancock.
We learn how Jones got into film scoring as well as aspects of the score and songs created for Heat. We get a nice examination of the flick’s music in this enjoyable program.
New additions to the 4K, we get the other two films in the “Tibbs Trilogy”: 1970’s They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1:48:45) and 1971’s The Organization (1:48:10).
In Call, we find Lieutenant Virgil Tibbs (Poitier) relocated from Philly to San Francisco. There he lives with his wife Valerie (Barbara McNair) and kids Andy (George Spell) and Ginger (Wanda Spell).
While Tibbs deals with some family concerns related to all the time he spends at work, he finds himself assigned to the murder of prostitute Joy Sturges (Linda Towne). When his pal Logan Sharpe (Martin Landau) ends up as a prime suspect, Tibbs encounters conflicts as he attempts to figure out the truth.
The 1971 sequel keeps Tibbs in San Francisco. A group of young revolutionaries steals a valuable stash of heroin from a drug ring called “The Organization” to keep it off the street.
They request help from Lt. Tibbs, who expresses sympathy for the cause but can’t support illegal actions, even when performed with good intentions. However, he eventually assists them when the activists become implicated in a murder they didn’t commit.
If viewers expect the kind of social commentary found in Heat from either or both of the sequels, they will encounter disappointment. The two films treat Tibbs like a standard issue police detective without any elements related to his race.
In theory, that seems refreshing, especially given the era. Movies that treated Black characters as “just like everybody else” and totally capable without any nod toward race didn’t pop up much in this period, so I like the fact that both Call and Organization essentially are color blind.
I might appreciate this trend more if Call and Organization managed to find something intriguing about the Tibbs character. However, both flicks make him a generic detective.
Albeit a very capable cop, of course, as the “super sleuth” of Heat continues to manifest here. Well, to a degree, as the Tibbs of the sequels doesn’t seem quite as observant and insightful as the character of Heat.
Nonetheless, the sequels paint Tibbs as a solid role model, one excellent at his job and a devoted husband/father with a lovely nuclear family. Again, these existed as positive cultural moves in an era during which Black characters rarely got such treatment.
As much as I appreciate these elements, the sequels just seem generic. Really, their only unusual factors come from Tibbs’ race, as everything else about the flicks comes across as pretty standard issue cop fare.
That becomes the biggest issue here, as neither movie ever becomes especially compelling. Tibbs goes about his investigations in a mildly engaging manner and not much more, as the stories fail to give us much to keep us invested.
The sequels take an iconic character and make him Just Another Cop. While both films offer moderate entertainment value, they just don’t seem memorable or special in any way.
In terms of picture quality, we get similar presentations for the two sequels. This means they look good, albeit with some minor anomalies.
Print flaws became the main distraction, as I saw sporadic instances of specks through the films. Though these didn’t turn into a major concern, the source defects popped up more often than I’d like.
Sharpness usually worked fine, as only mild examples of softness manifested. The films usually boasted pretty positive delineation.
No issues with jaggies or moiré effects occurred. Edge haloes remained absent and grain felt natural.
Colors went with a pleasing natural vibe, and both blacks and shadows worked fine. Outside of the print flaws, I felt largely happy with these scans,
Both Call and Organization boasted similar DTS-HD MA monaural soundtracks that seemed typical for their era. Speech could feel a bit reedy, but the lines remained easily intelligible and showed only a little edginess.
Music and effects delivered limited dynamics but they also lacked distortion and showed reasonable scope. Nothing about the audio of either film impressed but both tracks worked fine for movies from the early 1970s.
We finish with trailers for Heat as well as sequels They Call Me Mister Tibbs! and The Organization.
Due to its social commentary, In the Heat of the Night hasn’t aged especially well, but it remains a fairly compelling piece of drama. Part of my interest in it stemmed from the “time capsule” element, since the film neatly documents the attitudes of its era, but it works as a mystery nonetheless, largely due to some solid acting. The 4K UHD comes with excellent picture and solid audio as well as a nice mix of bonus materials. The movie and the 4K UHD are both positive.
