What I did next is to watch the scene through several times without sound, to try and pick up the purely visual points in the scene. The first shot struck me as an ominous one; it is of the camera pointing directly into the cutting blades of a large cutting machine, which is moving towards the camera. If nothing else, it really catches the attention of the viewer as a powerful image. Personally, I think it is an omen of bad things to come. After the cotton-picker has “eaten” the camera from the first shot, the screen pans out and you see an overview of the fields. They are full of black slaves, assumedly, picking the cotton. A few of the picking machines can be seen, but the black slaves are picking the majority of the cotton by hand. Apart from the machines, there is not much there to say that this is the twentieth century; the age of enlightenment. Nothing much would seem to have changes since the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries. As Golesby’s car enters Endicott’s garden, the camera is in a corner of the garden, and does a long panning shot to watch the car move up Endicott’s driveway. This allows for an excellent view of Endicott’s garden and house, and it is in stark contrast with both the fields outside of its sanctuary and of the black mechanic’s house at which Tibbs is staying. It is a beautiful house with and equally beautiful garden; a haven of peace and tranquillity, spoilt by the thought of the slaves in the fields that paid for it in their own sweat, blood and toil.
As Tibbs and Golesby walk up the path to the generous front porch in front of the house, they pass a small figurine of a Negro butler, heavily caricatured to be as insulting as possible. Tibbs walks past it, ignoring it completely, but Golesby rubs its head, almost affectionately, as he walks past. I interpret that to mean that that he is a good person. He, as most of the people in the south had at this time, has been brought up with the idea that black people are less than human. But, because, as the film shows, he is deep down a good person, he has taken this to mean that black people are like children, to be protected, rather than sub-human slaves to be exploited, which is obviously how Endicott feels.
When they knock on the door, it is answered by Henry, Endicott’s butler, who then leads them around to the greenhouse, where Endicott is. As they walk along the porch, the camera shows the three of them walking together. This highlights one of the most important comparisons in the scene; that between Tibbs and Henry.
