'Heat of the Night'

 'Separate But Equal' Comes to the Big Screen

~ In Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court assured us that a society in which the races lived separate from one another would lead to a separate and equal utopia. In what ways did the film put a lie to that prediction? How did the concept of "separate but equal" work out for the people of Sparta, Miss.?

~ Look at the photo above. Think about the situation Virgil Tibbs found himself in: An intelligent police detective from Philadelphia facing an entire social system geared to stifle, humiliate and defeat him, including the power structure of the local government itself. Where to begin? How to change it?

~ Think of the evolving relationship between Det. Tibbs and Police Chief Gillespie. In what ways did it change over time? In what ways did their relationship reflect the changes in the broader society that were under way at that time?

~ When looking back on your viewing of the movie, did it leave you with a down-negative feeling or an up-positive feeling? And why?

~ I've seen this movie many times, but I was thinking more in this viewing about the position of women in society in the Jim Crow South. How were they treated? That goes for the well-to-do Mrs. Colbert, the po' white trash Delores Purdy and the struggling-to-get-by Mamma Caleba? Did they strike you as being separate but equal?

~ The hated and feared Mr. Endicott makes only one appearance in the movie, during the nursery scene, but it is a pivotal moment. How was it pivotal for the movie but, symbolically, pivotal for the entire Southern society in that moment? Why did he start crying?

~ In this presidential election, the issue of abortion has taken center stage because of the Supreme Court's decision in the Dobbs case overturning Roe v. Wade. How is that issue depicted in this film? How are women forced to deal with the issue that we have come to call "reproductive rights" in this era? Did that seem separate but equal?

~ What about male characters like the wrongly accused Officer Sam Wood, the wrongly accused Harvey and the fly-swatting murderer Ralph? In a system that was supposedly about protecting the privileged position of white men in society, did they strike you as very privileged?