Ivan Dixon, 1931-2008

I wish I had heard sooner about the death of actor and director Ivan Dixon Sunday—if you recognize him, it’s probably as Kinch, the black guy on Hogan’s Heroes, but he also had a solid career in the 1970s and ’80s directing TV dramas… and to me, he’ll always be the director of two of the most interesting films of the ’70s: Trouble Man and, more pertinent to our blog’s bookish themes, The Spook Who Sat By the Door, a 1973 film based on a novel by Sam Greenlee. I’ve described it in interviews as “Shaft meets The Amateur meets The Battle of Algiers,” and I’ll just reiterate for you that it’s one of the most amazing explicitly political films of its time, and I hope this post starts a run on Netflix. You want a rundown? Fine: The CIA, forced into affirmative action, trains an African-American recruit but doesn’t let him actually do anything—and the minute he leaves the agency, he heads to Chicago to teach the inner-city gangs what he’s learned about guerrilla warfare, and you had better believe it works. I am not engaging in hyperbole here; you must see this film.

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