Roger Ebert Gave A Perfect Score To This Cult ’60s Sci-Fi Comedy That Needs More Fans – SlashFilm

There are many motion pictures that Roger Ebert liked that everybody ought to see not less than 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 4-star overview of “The President’s Analyst,” he and his fellow critics had been aligned. The general public, nevertheless, did not appear to care all that a lot.

In his overview, Roger Ebert praised Ted Flicker’s 1967 satire as “one of many funniest motion pictures of the yr,” rating it alongside “The Graduate” and “Bedazzled,” however this since-ignored sci-fi satire is probably essentially the most absurd of that bunch. It stars James Coburn as psychiatrist Dr. Sidney Schaefer, who’s assigned to the US president. After listening to the Commander-in-Chief’s private struggles, Shaefer finds himself burdened and overburdened. He quickly escapes and embarks on an odyssey that sees him pursued by everybody from worldwide spy companies to the phone firm.

For Ebert and his fellow critics, it made for a full of life satire that despatched up the growing paranoia on the coronary heart of a submit-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. The truth is, “The President’s Analyst” isn’t simply categorized, comprising about 10 completely different genres in a single. It is a farce, a political thriller, a buddy comedy, a darkish satire, and every part in between. Fairly than coming off as muddled, nevertheless, in keeping with Ebert, it made for the most effective movies of the yr.

In “The President’s Analyst,” Dr. Sidney Schaefer’s weird journey by way 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 companies looking for to find what he discovered 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 didn’t make a lot of an impression on the field workplace. The critics, alternatively, preferred it very a lot, particularly Roger Ebert, who referred to as the satire “trendy and biting” and recommended author/director Ted Flicker on the “many high-quality, refined touches” within the movie. Flicker had been working in TV earlier than penning “The President’s Analyst,” contributing to exhibits akin to “The Dick Van Dyke Present” and “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” However he impressed together with his first function, which, apart from demonstrating his skills as a filmmaker, gave James Coburn an opportunity to shine following some questionable tasks.

Ebert was definitely glad to see the actor again on prime. Because the critic noticed it, Coburn had “been in awful motion pictures recently,” akin 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 yr.