In a year when we see the reaction to the killing of a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, on top of other events in recent times, how both far and near does the era of Civil Rights seem. It's fantastic to be able to hear Sidney Poitier's reading of his autobiography, telling his story as an Outsider, in more ways than just his race. I think this reflection of himself as an Outsider was one that enabled him to always analyze and interpret the bigger picture of the world around him. He then made very conscious decisions about how he would interact with the world at every decision point. At times, go with the flow, at times react against it. It seems clear that his strong family and early life in the Bahamas laid a very strong foundation to deal with the barriers he confronted.
"In the heat of the Night" came out in 1967, the year before the assassination of Martin Luther King. In the scene with the cotton plantation owner, he says that the original script called for him to turn away and leave. Poitier chose to slap back. What an amazing moment in cinema, by a man who very deliberately acted on opportunities to assert his identity, and move forward human equality.
Goodreads | The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography by Sidney Poitier — Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists
'In the Heat of the Night': 25 Things You Didn't Know About the Sidney Poitier Classic - The Moviefone Blog:
"It happened partway through "In the Heat of the Night" -- a movie released at the height of racial tensions during the Civil Rights Era exactly 45 years ago (on August 2, 1967) -- in a scene where a bigoted Southern cotton plantation owner slaps Sidney Poitier (and Poitier slaps back just as hard). Years of deferential behavior, both from Poitier in saintly role-model performances, and from every black actor ever to perform in a Hollywood movie, halted with a mighty thwack.
Poitier claimed in his memoir that he agreed to the film only on the condition that Tibbs be allowed to slap back in the soon-to-be-famous scene. He claimed that, in the initial screenplay, Tibbs was supposed to react to being slapped by seething silently, without retaliating. However, according to Mark Harris' book "Pictures at a Revolution" (an account of the making of all five of 1967's Best Picture Oscar nominees), as well as other sources, Tibbs got to slap back in Silliphant's initial draft...
Once the shoot was underway, Poitier reluctantly agreed to shoot a key sequence, including the slap scene, in the South, since that sequence needed to be filmed at an actual cotton plantation. The filmmakers prepared to shoot for three days in Dyersburg, Tennessee. Poitier slept with a gun under his pillow at the Dyersburg Holiday Inn."
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