banned?
i heard this movie is banned, or was banned. is it still banned? i know copies are hard to come by.
sharei heard this movie is banned, or was banned. is it still banned? i know copies are hard to come by.
shareDistribution was pulled by United Artists, reportedly under pressure by the FBI. The film is presently available on DVD thrugh retailers such as Amazon.com.
share[deleted]
by with cash if possible lol
share...I've never heard of the CIA forcing movie from distribution, but if they did, and told somebody, they would probably have to kill him...Seriously "The Spook Who Sat By The Door" is currently available on Google Video. I just watched it.
People are just getting dumber, but more opinionated-Ernestine (Silks) in "The Human Stain"
Pulled from distribution in the 1970's.....not today. The people running the FBI and the movie studios back then are not only not in power anymore, the vast majority of them are long dead. Time moves on.
shareIt was not banned, but United Artists voluntarily withdrew the film from distribution shortly after its release. The potent political message in the film led to speculation that it could cause race riots, so UA cut their losses and suppressed the film. For years, it could only be seen in college film courses, or occasionally at an arthouse lucky enough to secure a copy.
shareIt's so ironic that a film about black militants uprising against racist white establishment, was pulled because white establishment was afraid that black people would become black militants and it would cause an uprising.
I understand the 'you can't yell fire in a crowded room' argument. But this country was born on revolutionary ideas too.
Did you tell LUKE..? Is THAT who you could tell??
It's so ironic that a film about black militants uprising against racist white establishment, was pulled because white establishment was afraid that black people would become black militants and it would cause an uprising.
UA doesn't need an "excuse" to make a marketing decision about property it owns-- if the "suits" were freaked out about anything, I'd assume it was the press this movie WASN'T getting. After all, the idea that there's no such thing as bad publicity goes back a lot further than this movie.
I was a young adult back in the early 70s, and I can guarantee you movies weren't "banned" because of pressure from the CIA or anyone else. The Church Commission was in full swing, and the Agency was being systematically emasculated, till it became an ineffectual force. Ironically, it was the same people (the political left) who pissed and moaned about their own handiwork decades later, when we evolved a need for good, reliable intelligence to cope with a more and more hostile geopolitical situation.
There were plenty of rabblerousing movies back then-- nobody in the movie business, much less the government, was seriously concerned about revolutions springing up because of what was being shown in theaters. People were fat and complacent and clueless back then, much as they are now-- and the climate of permissiveness was going strong, so it's silly to speculate about suppressing movies like this one.
I do agree that UA probably thought they were pumping out just another blaxpo potboiler-- but I have no doubt they pulled this one because of its lame performance at the box office. If it pulled in big crowds, what UA executive would care if they left the movie in a mob-like state of mind? Hollywood was no more socially responsible then than it is now.
It was all about the bottom line.
@foxfirebrand
I read somewhere that the film only played a week before before it was pulled from the screen---even back then, the average film played at least one or two months to make back its budget at the box office. So it seems strange that the film was pulled before it could even start to make any money. That's not even what a studio normally does with a movie,anyway. Also, it was an indie film with no big stars, but that never stopped any studio form pushing a film, even back then,particularly if they thought it would make some money. I do find it interesting that a film made by black people that encouraged black folks to think and be activists, to some extent, was so hard to find for years. My guess it that the studio just dumped it into theatres thinking it was just another low-budget blaxploitation flick, and when they found out what it was really about, it probably freaked them the hell out, and that's why they pulled it off the screens. Given the time it came out in, I wouldn't be surprised if it had been covertly banned in some way.
People were fat and complacent and clueless back then, much as they are now-
The Revolution will not be televised!
"Harder than ya'll cause I'm smarter than ya'll" - Mos Def
Watched this movie last week. I thought it was good, albeit a little cheesy.
Blake(Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross): "Coffee is for closers."
this film is most definitely available on dvd now.
for the 30 year anniversary it was digitally re-mastered with additional features including an interview with sam greeniee and commentary by robert townsend.
in fact i know it was available on netflix, but i managed to see it by taking it out of my local public library.
When a movie is pulled from theater's after a couple of weeks and put out of circulation for 30 years, that's basically banning it.
shareThis movie is available through Netflix.
Taken in the context of its time and the suppressive nature of the government, this is a truly excellent movie.
As others have said, it was pulled from distribution. The back of the DVD says it was re-mastered from the negatives because all of the prints were lost or destroyed, and that only rare bootleg copies were available in the intervening years.
I saw it in 1973, in Durham, NC, but didn't realize it had been suppressed until I look it up on IMDB a few years ago. I just got my amazon copy in the mail today and will watch it tonight.
I didn't know it at the time, but Ivan Dixon:http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0228853/, the producer & director, best known as Sgt. Kinchloe on "Hogan's Heros":http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058812/, attended college at North Carolina Central University in Durham, NC, where I saw the movie.
It was memorable enough after one viewing in 1973 for me to look it up in recent years. I expect it to be somewhat dated, but I still expect to laugh in the same places.
I watched the movie at moviesfoundonline.com. They've got plenty of other interesting (but much older) films on there. In fact, I had never heard of this movie until I discovered it on that site. I'm not sure how long it will be on there, as it is not in public domain. The site has been known to have titles come and go.
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@ridgerunner
Excuse me? You do know black people work and pay taxes too? And what the hell do you mean by that silly "Negroid" comment?
Oh, that's right, you liberals call them africoon americans now. What they're called changes every few years with you. As for their paying taxes, they don't care. They just keep on voting tax and spend left wing crooks into office....as long as they get a welfare check and a free 'sail foam' out of the deal.
shareits on youtube!
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