The Spook Who Sat By The Door

Magnifying the elements that made SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAADASSSSS SONG (1971) a cause celebre, THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR is as racially divisive as any film ever made. Unabashedly bigoted, stridently hateful, it wants to be incendiary and controversial, but only manages thuggish and dull.

Forced by public pressure to solicit black agents, the CIA strives to disqualify and discourage all applicants, but Dan Freeman (Larry Cook) makes it through training and promptly gets assigned to the copy room in the sub-basement. After five years of menial work as the token minority employee, he quits and heads to Chicago, ostensibly to become a social worker, but actually t...