Seven

This movie had obvious similarites and differences when compared with In the Heat of the Night. The movies are not only in very different time periods, but the settings differ drasticaly as well. In the Heat of the Night takes place in a remote town in Mississippi, whereas Seven takes place in a major, modern city. in Seven the two officers are always working together and have a strong relationship together. In In the Heat of the Night the two officers are working towards the same goal, but it is very questionable whether they are working together or not.
One similarity that I saw was the role of the black officer. In both movies he seemed to be the more intelligent of the two. With In the Heat of the Night it was very obvious that Virgil was much smarter than the other officers at the station. In Seven, Morgan Freeman appears to be better equiped and more experienced with the job. He is calmer than officer Mills and seems more level headed. Officer Mills was relatively new to the job and the city and didn't seem to take the job as seriously as his partner.
In the Heat of the Night was more of a mystery than Seven was. With In the Heat of the Night there were a number of characters who could have been guilty of the murder, and you were given clues as to who it could be. With Seven, you didn't know who the killer was, but the suspense wasn't in finding that out, it was more with what the next sin would be.
The relationship between interracial cops has never been brought to my attention before. Now that I look for it I think its interesting that our first two movies show the black cop as the more intelligent or more experienced one. I would have thought it would have been the other way around.