The Organization

PG-13

1971

1h 47m

Action

List

25%

8 Reviews

Tomatometer

29%

250+ Ratings

Audience Score

When an executive and a night watchman are killed in a San Francisco office building, Lt. Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) is called in to investigate and discovers the watchman was actually killed elsewhere. Soon Tibbs is contacted by urban revolutionaries who confess to kidnapping -- but not killing -- the watchman in a botched attempt to expose a heroin ring operating out of the building. Tibbs believes them, but when his superiors learn of his ties to the group, he's suspended from the force.

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Audience Member

A mildly entertaining, cops versus mob movie, slightly better than a Law and Order episode. The acting is sufficient to get through the movie, but there is nothing of note. There are some long foot chases that eat up a lot of time during an otherwise minimal and uneventful plot.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/24/23

Full Review

steve d

This is the worst in the series but still entertaining.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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Audience Member

Sidney Poitier's third outing as Virgil Tibbs is better than "They Call Me, Mr. Tibbs!", but still nowhere near "In the Heat of the Night". Truth be told, the idea that Poitier is playing Tibbs here feels totally arbitrary. It's probably better to think of this as a fairly generic cop film starring Poitier. Where this film really shines is the casting. Allen Garfield, Raul Julia, Ron O'Neal, Daniel J. Travanti (credited as "Dan Travanty"), Billy Green Bush, Max Gail and Ross Hagen all show up. Where it suffers is in TV veteran Don Medford's direction. The style and pacing of the film is really sluggish and it feels quite a bit like a glorified TV film.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Disjointed story, kept hoping it would get better.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/15/23

Full Review

Audience Member

For my money, cop movies of the 1970s look cooler than any other era (i.e.. "Dirty Harry," "Across 110th Street," "The Driver," "The Seven-Ups," etc.) and this film fits nicely into my love of cops in tweed suits, big American cars, criminals with big sideburns, big collars, awesome sunglasses and lingering 60s hippie subculture elements. I also love the gritty washed out look most of these films had, rejecting the splashy color of Hollywood past and going for more of a documentary look. Iv'e also always liked that many of these film often had threads of anti-establishment (pro or con) and often didn't shy away form addressing issue of race, two things that rarely seem to be most action films now. So that being said, I am biased towards liking any cop/crime film of this era. In this film, Sidney Poitier is back for a third time as Virgil Tibbs, and this time is investigating a heist of millions of dollars worth of heroine. The first film to feature Tibbs, "In the Heat of the Night," was a meditation on racism, historically and in the present day, in the guise of a murder mystery. The subsequent sequels, including this film, lacked the social commentary of the first, but Poitier is so compelling onscreen that it doesn't really matter. The sequels could have easily have changed Tibbs name to something else and it really wouldn't have mattered. So taken on it's own, it's a solid 70s cop drama with an excellent chase scene near the end. Raul Julia appears in an early part and Ron O'Neal appears in a pre-Super Fly role.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Right from the opening heist this movie had me hooked! I enjoyed The Organization & all the twists & turns & action/drama that were a part of it.My only complaint would have to be the ending.It just seemed to end way too soon & I felt like I was left hanging or something.I guess it was suppose to show you that no matter what, You can't beat The Organization

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/23/23

Full Review

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Don Medford

Director

Sidney Poitier

Virgil Tibbs

Barbara McNair

Valerie Tibbs

Gerald S. O'Loughlin

Jack Pecora

Sheree North

Mrs. Morgan

Fred Beir

Bob Alford

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A.H. Weiler

New York Times

The Organization can be rough on super-city sleuths as well as movie-goers who've been through much the same melodramatics before.

May 9, 2005

Full Review

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

There's a bit of shooting, a few identities are untangled, and the movie comes to an unmourned end.

Rated: 2/4

Oct 23, 2004

Full Review

Dennis Harvey

48 Hills

Without Heat’svivid racial conflict, these movies try to drag in different forms of “social relevance” (including Tibb’s dull domestic problems), but in such a wishy-washy fashion that they don’t really say anything about those issues.

Aug 12, 2022

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

A dreary endeavor.

Rated: 2/4

Apr 30, 2022

Full Review

Sharon Scott

New Pittsburgh Courier

I, for one, cannot say exactly what is going on in the film.

Dec 13, 2021

Full Review

Chuck O'Leary

Fantastica Daily

Rated: 3/5

Oct 21, 2005

Full Review

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Synopsis

When an executive and a night watchman are killed in a San Francisco office building, Lt. Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) is called in to investigate and discovers the watchman was actually killed elsewhere. Soon Tibbs is contacted by urban revolutionaries who confess to kidnapping -- but not killing -- the watchman in a botched attempt to expose a heroin ring operating out of the building. Tibbs believes them, but when his superiors learn of his ties to the group, he's suspended from the force.

Director: Don Medford
Screenwriter: James R. Webb
Production Co: United Artists
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 16, 2008
Runtime: 1h 47m

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