The Spook Who Sat by the Door

1973 sociopolitical action flick

Rating: 12/20

Plot: Dan Freeman becomes the CIA's first black agent by mixing an Uncle Tom 'tude, his natural athletic ability, his intelligence, and more than a little hard work. Little do they-who-sort-of-wanted-integration know, Freeman was simply absorbing the training so that he could train young angry black men and put a little scare into whitey. Oh, snap! It's war!

Well, it's a conversation starter, I guess. Not a very slick production and far too much talking for an action movie, but it's still a fascinating thing to watch. There's such a hostility. I bet this was absolutely terrifying to white American upon its release. I liked the parallels between Freeman's training and his subsequent training of his own "agents," and I did think some of the action scenes were well filmed, especially given what must have been a B-movie budget. Editing was needed though as some of the scenes were superfluous and a lot of the character development completely pointless. If this movie had Dolemite in it, by the way, it would have been one of the best movies of the 70's!