There are many motion pictures that Roger Ebert liked that everybody ought to see at the very least as soon as. However he additionally handed out some perplexing excellent scores in his time. The critic appeared to like Samuel L. Jackson’s mediocre thriller “Lakeview Terrace,” for instance, even whereas all of his friends dismissed it. Ebert additionally gave an ideal rating to an especially bizarre fantasy-horror flick and even liked the controversial ’70s Acid Western “El Topo.” However when it got here to his four-star evaluation of “The President’s Analyst,” he and his fellow critics have been aligned. The general public, nevertheless, did not appear to care all that a lot.
In his evaluation, Roger Ebert praised Ted Flicker’s 1967 satire as “one of many funniest motion pictures of the 12 months,” rating it alongside “The Graduate” and “Bedazzled,” however this since-overlooked sci-fi satire is maybe essentially the most absurd of that bunch. It stars James Coburn as psychiatrist Dr. Sidney Schaefer, who’s assigned to america president. After listening to the Commander-in-Chief’s private struggles, Shaefer finds himself harassed and overburdened. He quickly escapes and embarks on an odyssey that sees him pursued by everybody from worldwide spy businesses to the phone firm.
For Ebert and his fellow critics, it made for a vigorous satire that despatched up the rising paranoia on the coronary heart of a post-John F. Kennedy assassination U.S. society and the conspiracy thriller itself, which might change into a way more in style style the next decade. Actually, “The President’s Analyst” shouldn’t be simply categorized, comprising about 10 totally different genres in a single. It is a farce, a political thriller, a buddy comedy, a darkish satire, and all the pieces in between. Reasonably than coming off as muddled, nevertheless, based on Ebert, it made for probably the greatest movies of the 12 months.
Roger Ebert gave The President’s Analyst one in all his earliest excellent scores
In “The President’s Analyst,” Dr. Sidney Schaefer’s weird journey by means of mid-’60s America alongside spy Don Masters (Godfrey Cambridge) sees him immersed within the counterculture of the time. All of the whereas, he is being pursued by the movie’s equal of the FBI (The FBR) in addition to a number of worldwide businesses searching for to find what he realized throughout his time with the U.S. President. It makes for a disorienting however all the time amusing odyssey that additionally makes “The President’s Analyst” a film very very like “One Battle After One other.”
When the film debuted in December 1967, nevertheless, it did not make a lot of an impression on the field workplace. The critics, then again, favored it very a lot, particularly Roger Ebert, who known as the satire “fashionable and biting” and recommended author/director Ted Flicker on the “many nice, delicate touches” within the movie. Flicker had been working in TV earlier than penning “The President’s Analyst,” contributing to exhibits equivalent to “The Dick Van Dyke Present” and “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” However he impressed together with his first function, which, except for demonstrating his skills as a filmmaker, gave James Coburn an opportunity to shine following some questionable initiatives.
Ebert was definitely glad to see the actor again on prime. Because the critic noticed it, Coburn had “been in awful motion pictures these days,” equivalent to “In Like Flint” and “Waterhole No. 3.” However with “The President’s Analyst,” the actor had, in Ebert’s estimation, “regain[ed] his type as a comic.” All of which resulted in an early excellent rating from the critic, who had solely began writing for the Chicago Solar-Occasions that very same 12 months.
