The Spook Who Sat By The Door (film)
The Spook Who Sat by the Door is a 1973 film based on the novel of the same name by Sam Greenlee. It is both a satire of the civil rights struggle in the United States of the late 1960s and a serious attempt to focus on the issue of black militancy. Dan Freeman, the titular protagonist, is enlisted in the Central Intelligence Agency's elitist espionage program as its token black. Upon mastering agency tactics, however, he drops out to train young Chicago blacks as "Freedom Fighters." As a story of one man's reaction to ruling-class hypocrisy, the film is loosely autobiographical and personal.
The novel and the film also dramatize the CIA's history of giving training to persons and/or groups who later utilize their specialized intelligence training against the agency.
In 2012, the film was added to the National Film Registry.
Read more about The Spook Who Sat By The Door (film): Plot, Historical Context, Critical Reception, Title
Famous quotes containing the words sat and/or door:
“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept: when we remembered Zion.”
—Bible: Hebrew Psalms, 137:1.
“To fight oppression, and to work as best we can for a sane organization of society, we do not have to abandon the state of mind of freedom. If we do that we are letting the same thuggery in by the back door that we are fighting off in front of the house.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)