Rating: Summary: Superb comment on the state of telecommunications Review: The movie concentrates on the troubles encountered by being the president's analyst, but moves to spy type thriller / comedy with a wonderful sateric ending. Anyone involved in the telecommunication industry or anyone that has ever uttered anger with 'ma bell' should see this film.
Rating: Summary: Must see Review: The President's analyst quits his job and runs away. But the president's analyst can't quit his job. Other reviewers claim the analyst is paranoid, but "they" ARE all after him.--Espionage agencies from around the world begin the "hunt him down". The Clinton era, 1967 looks like 2000! Back to the future.-for real!- Check this movie out!
Rating: Summary: not optimistic Review: the vhs version runs 103 minutes according to imdb. amazon's listing for the dvd says 102 minutes. that doesn't sound like restored footage. they probably didn't bother to correct the music problem either. it's really too bad. this is one of my all-time favorite films. it would be 5 stars if they got it right.
Rating: Summary: Are you gonna kill him?.........Cool Review: The way I see it, we still have some catching up to do with Theodore J. Flicker's The President's Analyst. At the time it came out it seem to be a hysterical political satire but as the years have gone on it becomes more and more evident of being way, way ahead of it's and our time.
The basic premise is Sidney(James Coburn)has been recuited as the President's analyst. At first he finds the sessions enthralling but as more and more security restrictions are imposed on him, the pressure builds until finally he takes it on the lam. This creates a tempest within the intelligence community and puts a bull's-eye square on Sidney's back. Everyone wants Sidney for what he can tell them or what he might tell the other guy. I don't know what anyone could possibly find dated in this story. Basically, it would play exactly the same today as it did in 1968. The intelligence community hasn't gone anywhere, it's only gotten dumb and dumber. Actually, today it might play exactly like this for real.
Let me digress and talk about how good everyone is in this great movie. Coburn, Godfrey Cambridge, Severn Dardern, William Daniels, Pat Harrington and everyone down to the smallest role are fabulous. Flicker's screenplay and direction seem effortless and freewheeling. The music is ultra cool, especially Barry McGuire's Changes. The only possible knock I could give is there's not a lot of style to the cinematography and editing after the first twenty minutes or so but it's really not a problem and my only gripe.
So far I've been describing a teriffic movie but this is much more. This is a movie forty or fifty or more years ahead of its time. On the order of Metropolis or 2001:A Space Odyssey this movie's vision is more true today than it was when it was first released. Proof of its greatness. It's multi-layered message deals with borders of all sorts ; psychological, national, judicial, family, corporate, spiritual, ethnic, man and woman to mention just a few. But what turns out to be it's final conspiracy, which is so ahead of its time it and what we still have to look foward to and eventually deal with, that's what really blows my mind. One of the hundred greatest films ever and yet another delicious pie with Robert Evans' finger in it.
Rating: Summary: Coburn's heyday .. Review: The world may have gone to hell in a handbasket since the phone companies got deregulated and the cold war ended, but Coburn still lights up the movie with his mischevous grin.
Rating: Summary: Beautiful! Review: This film first smacked me upside the head 30 years ago, and it only continues to impress me. Along with 'Bedazzled' from the same year, this is the rare '1960s Movie' that rewards the discriminating viewer with intelligence, wit, and style. There's so much brilliant stuff happening, but I'm impressed by a series of scenes where icon of cool James Coburn, in the title role, leaves his Oval Office sessions - initially puffed up in top-of-the-world awe, then to thousand-yard-stare horror, to tightly-strung weary stress, to migrained impatience, finally to full-blown paranoia - he unravels like a peeled golf ball, underscored by Lalo Schifrin's suitably over-the-top score. I'd heard during production, the Bureau expressed disapproval of their portrayal (probably straight from Henry Lux Himself), threatening serious tax audits, which prompted the use of the acronyms 'FBR' and 'CEA', clearly dubbed into already filmed scenes. Lots of familiar TV faces in this film - Will 'Grampa Walton' Geer plays a crusty old-school mentor, William 'St. Elsewhere' Daniels plays a gun-totin' liberal Typical American, funnyman Arte Johnson is truly chilling as a 'rules are rules' FBR agent, Pat 'Schneider' Harrington plays the head of...you'll see. Contrary to revisionist thinking, everyone in the 60s was NOT a hippie, who were, in fact, a big joke to the media. This is one of a few films of the time to depict them sympathetically and to suggest they may have been on to something. As volatile as the times were, the crew could still film a shot where, inside the White House fence, a maintenance wheelbarrow wears the ubiquitous TPC logo - just try doing that now. This film MUST be put onto DVD. And they have to: - Make it widescreen format - the cinematography suffers under pan & scan. -Retain Barry McGuire's music. He's in the film, let him sing. That quasi-60s music from a VHS release don't cut it. -Reinstate the 'art cinema' scene where Coburn's character meets Joan Delaney's. Glad to see other reviewers saw it - I was right, I'm *not* crazy! -Reinstate the weird disembodied-eyeballs sequence in the nightmare scene. Not essential, but I'd like to see it again, just to know I'm *not* crazy!
Rating: Summary: great music, over-the-top film Review: This is a real 60's period piece, in both the good and bad senses of that term. On the debit side, the spy spoof plot is totally goofy and absurdist, perhaps overly so, and the movie jumps all over the place as if it were emulating (poorly) a psychedelic trip. On the plus side, it's got James Coburn, the dialogue is wacky and satirical, it's got a cleverly anti-Establishment thrust (the depiction of G-men as uptight midgets is a hoot), and the music is really great. Other reviewers focused on Barry McGuire, who plays the lead singer in a hippie band, but the real treat is the presence of his "back-up band," played by members of LA group Clear Light, one of the punkier and most hard rocking psychedelic bands of the era. The acid-in-the-punch scene with Clear Light is the high point of the film.
Rating: Summary: Everyone Hates The Phone Company Review: This is a truly great movie. Of course the joke is now on us. Every phone IS now really bugged (as the NSA more or less admits). And, with ATT now owningTCI cable television, who doesn't again hate the phone company? Check out Art Buchwald's circa 1962 column on Theodore J. Flicker's fight with the phone company over an answering machine.
Rating: Summary: A Winner Then, A Winner Now Review: This is one of the funniest movies of all time. A period piece, it satirises many aspects of the 1960s Cold War era. Every scene seems to demolish another icon. Some might complain that Ted Flicker does not know if he is making a love story, a suspense thriller, a hippie love-festival, or a high-tech shoot-em-up. But he chooses his targets carefully and his aim is true. Even the music is a parody. Although Flicker, over the objections of the studio, removed the hilarious "meet cute" scene, in which Sidney (James Coburn) meets Nan (Joan Delaney), before release, the film is a masterpiece. (I do not know if the studio has replaced this scene for this release). Godfrey Cambridge, who was a magnificent comedic actor and stand-up comedian, teams up with Severn Darden, who began his career with the original Second City theatre in Chicago. Their interplay is magic, and this film should serve as a special tribute to their memory. This is the one film I recommend more than any other to friends and colleagues. Definitely one of the 20 films on my Top 10 list, it's a must see.
Rating: Summary: May be dated but the threat still exists Review: This movie is the essence of the Coburn movies of the time. And if you lived through the era then you would be amused at how accurate the movie is. For the Junge crowd this is a part of history that should not be missed. The clothing speech and attitudes match the time. Much more important is the message and the President's analyst exposes the threat that we all should be a ware of. Who are the good guys? Who are the baddies? When you are the Presidents analyst where can you turn to? Basic story is Doctor Sidney Schaefer (James Coburn), is picked to be the Presidents Analyst, You get to see that Coburn maniacal grimace as he slowly goes crazed under pressure. The FBR is out to get him even before he decides to escape the situation. But under the surface of the cat and mouse chase is the real threat.
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