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The Spook Who Sat by the Door
Ivan Dixon (EE.UU. de América, 1973) [102 min]



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Underground classic. Amazing, experimental soundtrack by Herbie Hancock and super-weird conspiracy theory-style plot with a superb lead performance. Gripping and essential.

Dan Freeman, a Korea vet, is looking for work. The CIA have just announced that they are taking applications from black candidates - thinking that none will pass their tests - so Freeman plays the system and gets through. Freeman, the perfect employee, expects to get ahead but instead finds that he's reduced to performing menial tasks. After five years of frustration, he quits and moves to Chicago where his views begin to change: he moves from pacifism to militarism, convinced that direct action is the only answer. Using techniques and tools learnt in the CIA, he trains a private army of brothers and begins his campaign...

Sam Greenlee escribió:I wrote it as a training manual so that people would do it right.

Sam Greenlee escribió:I've been bootlegging it myself out of my shoulder bag.

Cynthia Fuchs, en "The Spook Who Sat By the Door (1973), en Popmatters, escribió:
Freedom Dues


If we’re gonna be outsiders, man, take advantage of being outside. If you wanna be a rich ho, then go to Hollywood. If you wanna say something true about black people, then do what we did. Raise the money from the black community and shoot what you want.
—Sam Greenlee, “One on One”

Yes, they do make good athletes.
—General (Byron Morrow), The Spook Who Sat By the Door


“The bling blings are looking for a white audience,” says Sam Greenlee in an interview included on Monarch’s DVD of The Spook Who Sat By the Door. “My audience is not white.” Comparing his own experience with today’s hiphoppish excesses, Greenlee is understandably skeptical of commercial processes. Writer of the 1966 novel on which Ivan Dixon’s 1973 film is based, Greenlee’s frustrations with history between then and now are palpable.

The Spook Who Sat By the Door remains one of the few uncompromised representations of black armed resistance in the United States. Dewayne Wickham, USA Today columnist, provides context in the DVD’s introduction to the film: “It was a story of aggressive reaction to white oppression.” On its initial release, the film garnered mixed responses. Whereas, according Wickham, “There was violent reaction in some parts of white America,” for many black viewers, it was a wakeup call. Theaters in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Oakland sold out for the three weeks the film was in release. Greenlee and Dixon contend that the FBI pressured the distributor to pull the film (in keeping with other tactics deployed the Bureau’s COINTELPRO [Counter Intelligence Program]). (...)

Guión: Sam Greenlee, Melvin Clay; basado en la novela The Spook Who Sat by the Door, de Sam Greenlee.
Música: Herbie Hancock.
Fotografía: Michel Hugo.
Direción artística: A. Leslie Thomas.
Producción: Ivan Dixon, Sam Greenlee, Thomas G. Neusom.
Productora: Bokan.

• Lawrence Cook (Dan Freeman).
• Janet League (Joy).
• Paula Kelly (Dahomey Queen).
• J.A. Preston (Dawson).
• Paul Butler (Do-Daddy Dean).
• Don Blakely (Stud Davis).
• David Lemieux (Pretty Willie).
• Byron Morrow (General).
• Jack Aaron (Carstairs).

detalles técnicos u otros: mostrar contenido

detalles técnicos u otros: mostrar contenido

 The Spook Who Sat by the Door (Ivan Dixon, 1973) DVDRip.avi  [700.18 Mb]

The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973) [700.18 Mb] (fuente)

Subtítulos: francés (opensubtitles)

- [monografía] Partido Pantera Negra (1966-1982)