The President's Analyst
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Movie Reviews of The President's Analyst
Movie Review: A '60s Cult Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the great cult classics of the 1960s. It rolls all of the political, racial, gender, corporate and establishment fears, misunderstandings, stereotypes and psychosis of the '60s cultural revolution into a big ball and then throws it at the nearest bureaucrat. No matter how often you watch this film, you always find something new that you didn't see the last time.Movie Review: Required reading for anyone in the Internet biz
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is a true classic - it captures a time, place, and mood with remarkable clarity, but moreover, it predicted the future with amazing prescience.
Everyone involved in the communications revolution should know about "TPC" and "Arlington Hewes".
Movie Review: The Original Music
Summary: 5 Stars
The original music (Barry McGuire's "Inner-Manipulations") has been restored in the DVD version of this fantastic '60s flick. Five stars and two thumbs up!Movie Review: "That's my car gun."
Summary: 4 Stars
After his stint starring as the eternally groovy American super spy Derek Flint, "Repeat after me: I am not a pleasure unit." in Our Man Flint (1966) and In Like Flint (1967), James Colburn starred in the wonderfully quirky, funny dark political comedy/thriller The President's Analyst (1967).Written and directed by Theodore J. Flicker, who also worked on a number of television shows including The Dick Van Dyke Show, I Dream of Jeanie, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E, The President's Analyst stars James Colburn as Dr. Sidney Schaefer, a New York psychiatrist who finds himself in the position of being chosen to listen to the problems of the most powerful man in the world, the President of the United States. At first, it seems like a dream position, but soon Sidney realizes it's a lot more than he can handle, as the President does not make appointments with Sidney, but expects him to be 'on call' 24/7, and signals Sidney whenever he needs him through the use of flashing red signal lights in Sidney's office, his home, and even his soup. As the pressures, odd hours and the extreme weight of the problems shared by the president wear on Sidney, his paranoia grows as he sees spies around every corner. Let's face it, how valuable would the President's analyst be to a foreign, or even friendly, power? Sidney's growing paranoia along with his inability to discuss his own problems with his peers due to possible threats to national security, causes Sidney to have a sort of nervous breakdown, to which he decides to run away, hoping to find a little peace and maybe a way out of the situation. Only problem is, now that Sidney is no longer under the protection of the CEA (Central Enquiries Agency), he is now fair game and a target for practically every intelligence agency in the world, even becoming a target for the FBR (Federal Bureau of Regulations), as they all either desire or fear what he's got in his head.
Colburn is wonderful as the cool and intelligent psychiatrist on the lam, pursued various domestic and foreign powers, some intent on capture, while some intent on killing him. It's funny but even when he's 'freaking out', due the extreme pressures of his position and that of being harassed by kidnappers and assassins, he still seems to maintain a somewhat suave and sophisticated demeanor, rolling with the situations as they come up. Colburn is supported by a really excellent cast here, including Godfrey Cambridge as Don Masters, CEA agent and Severn Darden as Russian agent V.I. Kydor Kropotkin, characters, who, while on different sides, share an affable friendship and respect for each other. Also appearing is Joan Delaney as Nan, Sidney's live-in girlfriend (until the FBR discover Sidney talks in his sleep and move her to a hotel for fears that Sidney may reveal state secrets), Barry McGuire (who penned the perennial 60's anthem Eve of Destruction) as the hippy leader of a band Sidney joins in an effort to lose himself, Walter Burke as the uber-moralistic diminutive, ever suspicious FBR director Henry Lux, and William Daniels (the voice of Kitt on the Knightrider television series) as Wynn Quantrill, the head of a many gun owning (protection against the rabid right wing fascist neighbors) liberal suburban family that, while touring the White House, Sidney deceives into allowing him to leave with them, under the guise of a special presidential project involving learning what the real average American family thinks of the government. He's got one of my favorite lines in the film is when Wynn's son is unloading the car and inquires about bringing in the gun to which Wynn replies something along the lines of, "That's my car gun. My house gun is already in the house, so please return my car gun to the glove compartment." My favorite scene in the film is when Sidney, hiding out with a traveling hippy band, takes an intimate break with a female member of the band in a field of tall grass and flowers and a number of secret agents, who've followed them, meet their demise quietly one after another through various means at the hands of their rivals, as they attempt to kidnap or kill Sidney, all with Sidney and his 'date' not realizing what is going on...
I haven't seen this film before now, and I did notice the IMDb has a run time listed as 103 minutes, while the run time listed here is 102 minutes, suggesting something missing, but I couldn't tell you what. The other reviews seem to indicate a flash of nudity during the make out scene in the field, and a movie theater sequence between Sidney and Nan the hippy chick, but I couldn't say for sure. The music in this release, which is really excellent, is original to the film, which wasn't the case for some previous releases, specifically television versions. I had read another review that stated the film had originally incorporated the anagrams FBI and CIA in the movie, but due to pressures brought by these organizations, they were changed to FBR and CEA, with redubbing after the picture was finished. Apparently, if you pay close attention, you can see the actor's lips mouth FBI and CIA even though the spoken word is different.
The print on this DVD looks clean and crisp in wide screen format, but don't bother looking for any special features, as there are none, not even a theatrical trailer. One odd thing with the case, which I've seen a few times before, is the clasps on the side. You have to unlock them to open the case, which is just a matter of flipping the tabs, but don't try to force it open without manipulating these, as you may damaged the case or even the DVD, and remember, 'Killing is an excellent way of dealing with a hostility problem.'
Cookieman108
Movie Review: Coming soon : Gulliver's Travels through the webosphere?
Summary: 4 Stars
This 1967 movie may seem dated to some, it's a product of the now mythologised "swinging sixties" but classy, unpretentious and funny satire, like "The President's Analyst" is really ageless.
Jonathan Swift's 1726 "Gulliver's Travels" was a satire on British politics of his day. Gulliver, marooned on Lilliput, met it's six inch high inhabitants. They were in mortal conflict with similarly vertically challenged neighbours, the Blefuscu. Their war was a holy war based on different ways to crack open boiled eggs. Do you open the big end or little end first? Swift was drawing attention to how small policy differences between the Whigs and Tories were inflated into cosmic conflicts by politicians who benefited from the controversy. The story hasn't got old.
"The President's Analyst", of course, isn't classic literature like Swift but it still packs a punch. It variously satirises modern American politics, the Beatles ("the puddlians"), the power of technology (TPC's plan for "a brain chip"), the cold war (the stock portfolio of Kydor Kropotkin ), psychiatry, gun ownership, inter-service rivalry within government (the "FBR" versus the "CEA" that is much more deadly than any East-West rivalry), the bizarre "Spy Vs Spy" world of espionage (who knows how many agencies are chasing the protagonists!) and the modern corporate state (The TPC's secret agenda to control the country by controlling the president by controlling his psychiatrist).
Gulliver is our tour guide through Swift's various satirical worlds. In "The President's Analyst", the ever cool James Coburn as Dr. Sidney Schaefer, plays the same role.
My guess is that before too long this movie will be remade for the X-box internet cell phone generation. Hollywood doesn't seem to write much new material these days. It's probably more relevant today. We're already seeing RFID tracking chips ("Spychips") being inserted into dogs and cats as well as human beings. The connected always on world is an everyday reality. So intead of being dated, maybe "The President's Analyst" was really ahead of it's time.