Classic Movie Scenes: In the Heat of the Night, "Leave you to yourselves ..."

Please check out my new and improved version 2 of this scene @ https://youtu.be/X5Ol6R0aYoQ.
"In the Heat of the Night" has been widely acclaimed as a great film depicting southern racism. In this two part scene, Mrs. Colbert, played by Lee Grant, discovers just how ingrained this racism is when she asks the Mayor, played by William Schallert, to keep Virgil Tibbs on the case of her murdered husband. This is a classic movie scene because it captures the social and political complexities of racism in the American south. Sidney Poitier's and Rod Steiger's brilliant performances showing the conflict between the two men; one coming to grips with his own unexpected racism, and the other struggling to understand and overcome his own racist social conditioning; can be found throughout the entire film, as well as in this scene. But what makes this scene classic, for me, is the performance by Lee Grant with a brilliant but rare depiction of the disgust and abhorrence that decent white people, not raised in or conditioned by Southern "culture," have for the vicious nastiness of southern racism.

Видео Classic Movie Scenes: In the Heat of the Night, "Leave you to yourselves ..." канала The Peace Project