In The Heat Of The Night

I left for boot camp on December 6th, 2004. It sucked. After about 2 weeks of inprocessing, we were assigned to our permanant quarters. I was assigned to be bunkmates with a guy named Jonathan Henry. On the surface, we didin't have much in common. We had diffrent tastes in clothes, music, and movies (With the exception of Napolean Dynamite, which we must have watched 10 times in A school). During boot camp, however, none of that matters. We are broken down to our most basic selvs. We all wear the same uniforms , eat the same food, and make our beds the same way. This lack of individuality coupled with an almost complete cut-off from friends, family, and the outside world is hard physically and damn near impossible emotionally. I don't think I would have made it through had it not been for Jonathan. We quickly learned to rely on each other for emotional support, sharing our letters from home and making each other laugh during the harder days. Jonathan would help me iron my uniform and shine my boots and I would return the favor by making sure he was up early for his watches and muster during A School. He was a notorious over-sleeper. We pushed each other to pass our PT tests and leaned on each other during those days when we wouldn't get letters from home.He was an avid supporter of me quitting smoking and I will never forget the look of disappointment on his face when he caught me in the smoking area at A School. Even though we don't speak that much anymore, I still consider him one of my best friends. He saw me at my weakest and shared my joy when I was at my strongest. After watching In The Heat Of The Night last night, I couldn't help but feel angry that had it been as early as 40 years earlier, I would have been indoctrinated to see Jonathan as someone less than me just because he is black. I am lucky to have been raised in this day and age where racism is becoming a thing of the past. The film itself is a wonderful time capsule of a film that captures an era where people began to stand up against the ignorance of judging people on the surface. Sidney Poitier literally slaps his way to equality and I found myself cheering him on through every victory he achieves in the film. He is caught in a small Mississippi town where he is needed, but surely not wanted and his closest ally is the chief of police who is just as racist as everyone else in town. The chief is played by Rod Steiger in his Academy Award winning role. I loved this film and continue to kick myself for not seeing these films until now. Some quick notes:

- Poitier's line, "They call me Mr. Tibbs!" gave me goosebumps. Poitier is an icon of American cinema.

-The look of the film is great. It's easy to see why Cinematographer Haskell Wexler (Who's Afraid of Virginia Wollfe?, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest) is considered one of the greatest.

-I was surprised to read in the credits that the film was edited by Hal Ashby, who would go on to direct classic 70's films such as Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Shampoo and Being There.

-I thought I recognized Beah Richards, who played the backwoods abortionist in this film. Turns out she played Sidney Poitier's mother in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.

-The fact that the Mayor's office was located in a mechanic's shop craked me up and reminded me of Brownwood.