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The picture, like the book, had a difficult time coming to birth. Greenlee's manuscript

had been turned down by every publisher to whom he submitted it. --

largely because of its frightening depiction of the "rioters" as winning.

Sam Greenlee

 

 

How the Riots Might Have Turned Out

 

By Cornish Rogers

The most persistent and painful images of the urban riots of the 60s that I retain are of young black men grotesquely lying in pools of blood in the gutters, while policemen or national guardsmen, looking self-satisfied, hover above them with drawn guns. Although I deplored the senseless burning and looting, I nonetheless recall within me a visceral longing that the outcome of the confrontation might be different.

And now the materialization of that longing leaps from the screen in The Spook Who Sat by the Door. A motion picture recently released by United Artists, it is a faithful adaptation of Sam Greenlee's bestselling late-60s novel of the same name. produced by Ivan Dixon and Greenlee (the latter also coauthored the screenplay), the film tells the story of Dan Freeman, a young black social worker trained uncover guerilla tactics as a CIA agent; he decides to organize a black revolution in the United States -- a revolution to be carried out under cover of the urban riots. He returns to his native Chicago and, using all the guile and deftness taught him by the CIA, in turn trains street gang members in the art of guerilla warfare.

Linking into his plan the "brothers" in other major black urban centers, he is then ready for the incident that triggers the riots and provides the signal for his revolutionary cadre to go into action. A series of lightning forays by the young gang members during the riots comes off convincingly, and the picture ends while the fighting is still going on but with the clear implication that the guerillas will not be defeated. (Freeman, played by Lawrence Cook, reminds his youthful followers that guerillas win when they are not defeated.)

The picture, like the book, had a difficult time coming to birth. Greenlee's manuscript had been turned down by every publisher to whom he submitted it. -- largely because of its frightening depiction of the "rioters" as winning. the book was eventually published in England, where it became a bestseller before it finally came out in the United States. Since then it has been translated into Swedish, Finnish, Dutch, Italian, German, Japanese and French.

For the motion picture, Greenlee and Dixon first had to overcome severe difficulties in funding, and then had to film it in Gary, Indiana, because the Chicago authorities refused to cooperate in securing manpower, as well as the firearms and other equipment called for in the script. Richard Hatcher, the black mayor of Gary, cooperated fully and enthusiastically.

Spook will horrify many white viewers for a number of reasons. Some will see it as a possible incitement to blacks to stage an organized revolution. Others will recoil from the visual depiction of what were their deepest fears at the time of the riots -- fears that the blacks were in fact engaged in a revolt and were out to kill them. On this point the film makes it clear that the revolution arose not out of hate toward whites, but out of love for the black people and their liberation.

In dialogue with the gang members, Freeman maintains that the revolution may be joined by whites at a later stage. Further, he warns his young charges that some of their enemies are black -- a fact that is highly significant in the plot's denouement.

The most unfortunate reaction that the film may trigger for some whites, however, is a confirmation of their conviction about black intentions and thus a reinforcement of their support for the future use by the state of excessive force to put down every minor racial disorder.

Viewing what might have been may lead some to the judgment that the Nixon administration's exaggerated efforts to quash dissent in recent years were appropriate and necessary after all.

But the risks of negative reactions to the film are worth taking because, in a paradoxical way, it deals more realistically with the terrifying but logical extension of black response to oppression than did the actual events of the 60s. For instance, during the height of the Watts riots in 1965, a young white female revolutionary rushed into my church office shaking her head in disappointment. The rioters had ignored her suggestion that they go out to Hollywood and knock out the huge electric power station that provided electricity for the entire area.

They're not really interested in revolt, as they should be," she said. "They're only interested in burning down the symbols of their brutalization."

The real riots did demonstrate black obsession with degrading myths and symbols, rather than with reality. Spook deals with what might have occurred had black rage been channeled in a consistent and disciplined effort to strike for real freedom.

Source: The Christian Century (3 October 1973)

 

 

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Related files: Sam Greenlee's Book (Wickham)  How the Riots Might Have Turned Out