Dans la chaleur de la nuit

A good film that I liked more as a drama about a "nigga" cop in the racist south than as a detective story. The film sometimes almost forgets about the detective stuff, and important are the really well-filmed scenes, in which drama and racial animosities hide beneath the surface of words (that is why it is necessary to see the film in its original language). Both Poitier and Steiger are absolutely brilliant, and their slowly forming friendship has all the positive features of well-written and well-coordinated characters. Even the optics of the film are not correct in terms of the black and white, and often convict the positive black character of the same hardened hatred. The excellent music captures the sleepy atmosphere under which old dogmas bubble. Norman Jewison's directing is unexpectedly modern, whilst the editing and the camera do not match the dynamics of contemporary detective stories. (22/02/2008)

I have heard some people say that this could have been a perfect crime story if Jewison hadn't wasted so much energy on the racial issue. The trouble is that the core of the director's interest lay precisely in the problem of racism; after all, it was written in the 60s, and the film can be considered as a current political contribution to the passionate debate about this issue. The film was clearly intended to function as a social drama, where the crime plot serves only as a background or starting point for engaged social criticism. With the passage of time, the film works excellently, exactly as Jewison intended - and it serves as a testimony to a time when racism had an incomparably greater influence on American society than it does today. Add to that two top-notch character actors who seized the opportunity, and you have a film to which I do not hesitate to give the maximum number of stars. Overall impression: 90%. (04/10/2015)

Sidney Poitier is in his proven position as an unwelcome, annoyingly smart black man, while the traditionally very convincing and scene-chewing Rod Steiger (Pacino must have watched the film a few times) is probably the most likeable and fair racist ever to appear in a Democratic American film. And their confrontation is all the more interesting because it takes place against the backdrop of a good period crime drama, where the killer successfully hides his face until the final minutes. That said, it needed a little more decisiveness whether to focus on the strained relationship between two stubborn police officers or on the detective plot. In this way, the second component in particular looks a bit unfinished and cheap – but only a little, really. 4* and a bit. :) (20/03/2014)

I enjoyed this film, and under different circumstances, I would have rated it with four stars because, among other things, I really enjoyed Roy Scheider's performance, but I did go one lower because, paradoxically, it was the stereotypical puppet-like portrayal of Chief Bill Gillespie's character that spoiled the overall impression for me. / Lesson learned: Always ask for the detained person's ID. (16/04/2023)

A great movie where there is such incredible chemistry of hatred between the two main characters, which can, based on circumstances, turn into something that could be called a very fragile hint of friendship in the end, that you simply have to appreciate the screenplay, but especially the acting performances. Not nominating Sidney Poitier for an Oscar is a crime. (04/06/2015)

I expected a redneck show, I got a redneck show. There's no disputing that the "race issue" is accentuated here to the point where it overshadows the investigation itself and it’s really only half a police procedural. That's not a criticism at all, on the contrary the whole narrative ultimately feels quite authentic and combines genre crime fiction with period social drama/thriller in an interesting way. [80%] (15/02/2022)