"The President's Analyst" is the sort of movie they wouldn't make today; it's a scatter-shot spoof without a mean-spirited bone in its body. It wouldn't even have been made a couple of years later. Richard M. Nixon, elected president in 1968 and at the top of Hollywood's "Enemy's List" would never have been treated as reverently and indulgently as this unnamed President (obviously LBJ, who was president when this movie was made).
James Coburn (flashing his trademark grin on many occasions) plays Dr. Sidney Schaefer, who is offered, an accepts, the post as analyst to the President of the United States. When he discovers the president now has someone to talk to about his problems and he himself (Schaefer) is denied the privilege because of the high degree of national security he's privy to, he grows increasingly paranoid and he finally escapes -- and is pursued by the secret service of every country in the world, including his own. He tries to deal with problems first by running away, then by facing them and defeating them by intelligence -- and, eventually, by delighting in raw violence.
The movie has culture and counter-culture in its cross-hairs. For instance, while the FBI and CIA are common fodder for satire, when Schaefer finds himself in a group of hippies, they utter vacuous phrases and sing songs with banal lyrics -- and even the hippies, mods and rockers are not what they seem. Though the FBR (based on the FBI, with every agent looking and talking like every other agent) is colored in less than friendly tones, when a young boy uses a derogatory ethnic term, it's an FBR agent who upbraids him and tells him not to use that word because "It's bigoted." A liberal New Jersey householder, trying to show how far he agrees with a liberal president, begins to grouse about the "right wingers" next door who put out a flag every day. "They ought to be gassed," he growls. Moments like these make the movie shine. Whoever you are, whatever your politics or nationality, you can't take offense, since everybody is in the movie's cross-hairs at some time. Even the Canadians.
**Spoiler Alert** The chief enemy in the movie, however, is not the Russians or the FBR or the right-wingers or the liberals or the hippies or even the Canadians, but a common enemy of all. Like the Soviet Union, this enemy is largely non-existent as such these days, but even in its present form it's something everybody loves to hate, whoever their provider.
Coburn is surrounded by a solid cast, chief of whom are Godfrey Cambridge and Severn Darden as friendly rival agents from different sides of the Cold War. They provide lots of laughs, as does Pat Harrington, who comes in late but makes the whole thing worthwhile. The happy ending is SO happy it's a scream, even considering the sting in its tail.
James Coburn (flashing his trademark grin on many occasions) plays Dr. Sidney Schaefer, who is offered, an accepts, the post as analyst to the President of the United States. When he discovers the president now has someone to talk to about his problems and he himself (Schaefer) is denied the privilege because of the high degree of national security he's privy to, he grows increasingly paranoid and he finally escapes -- and is pursued by the secret service of every country in the world, including his own. He tries to deal with problems first by running away, then by facing them and defeating them by intelligence -- and, eventually, by delighting in raw violence.
The movie has culture and counter-culture in its cross-hairs. For instance, while the FBI and CIA are common fodder for satire, when Schaefer finds himself in a group of hippies, they utter vacuous phrases and sing songs with banal lyrics -- and even the hippies, mods and rockers are not what they seem. Though the FBR (based on the FBI, with every agent looking and talking like every other agent) is colored in less than friendly tones, when a young boy uses a derogatory ethnic term, it's an FBR agent who upbraids him and tells him not to use that word because "It's bigoted." A liberal New Jersey householder, trying to show how far he agrees with a liberal president, begins to grouse about the "right wingers" next door who put out a flag every day. "They ought to be gassed," he growls. Moments like these make the movie shine. Whoever you are, whatever your politics or nationality, you can't take offense, since everybody is in the movie's cross-hairs at some time. Even the Canadians.
**Spoiler Alert** The chief enemy in the movie, however, is not the Russians or the FBR or the right-wingers or the liberals or the hippies or even the Canadians, but a common enemy of all. Like the Soviet Union, this enemy is largely non-existent as such these days, but even in its present form it's something everybody loves to hate, whoever their provider.
Coburn is surrounded by a solid cast, chief of whom are Godfrey Cambridge and Severn Darden as friendly rival agents from different sides of the Cold War. They provide lots of laughs, as does Pat Harrington, who comes in late but makes the whole thing worthwhile. The happy ending is SO happy it's a scream, even considering the sting in its tail.