If the Sultan of Brunei ever saw this film it would be banned in Brunei and who's to say he hasn't seen it. Clearly the Moslem potentate on whom Robert Romanus's character is based is him, a person with large appetites for pleasure. If eating was his number one thing he'd be the late King Farouk of Egypt.But this is a man who likes to keep his harem filled and while on a visit to the USA he's nearly assassinated but for the intervention of plucky cocktail waitress Goldie Hawn. The girl becomes an instant celebrity with her infectious and sunny personality. In fact that's Goldie's character name, Sunny Ann Davis.She lives in Washington, DC a place of power and intrigue and with Romanus intrigued with her, some would be power brokers in our State Department decide she is just the person with the right leverage with Romanus to negotiate a treaty for an American base in his country. And what do we give him in return? All I can say there is Goldie is hardly the type to assume a woman's place in a Moslem country.Protocol is a one woman show for Goldie Hawn and she delivers in style. Also delivering nice performances are a pair of State Department connivers who dream up this scheme, Ed Begley,Jr., and Gail Strickland. They contrast with Chris Sarandon who resigns the Department rather than be a marriage broker. Hawn and Sarandon are like Judy Holliday and William Holden from Born Yesterday. At least you like to think Billie Dawn might have used her celebrity there the way Hawn uses it in Protocol.Nicely done Goldie Hawn. You really do speak to the average American here.

Protocol is a poor attempt at comedy with Capraesque aspirations. Goldie Hawn plays Sunny, a ditsy cocktail waitress in a sleazy bar who becomes a national heroine after inadvertently saving the life of a visiting Arab Emir and getting shot in the butt for her troubles.The Emir takes a fancy to Sunny and the US administration wants to establish a military base in his region. The State Department plan to allow the Emir to claim Sunny as his wife. They conspire to offer Sunny a job within the Protocol Department of the Government.The film is slap dash and Goldie's charm is wearing thin here. She is supposed to be a blonde bimbo but pretty soon she comes across as sharp as a cookie with an inkling that the State Department are up to something. The Arab men are all sleazy stereotypes lusting after blonde white women. Even when they speak Arabic it sounds gibberish.There is a party scene set in the bar Hawn used to work in and every cliché walks in to the bar, S&M couples, bikers, gay guys, Japanese businessmen, everyone is having a great time and soon descends into farce because the film has just run out of ideas and cojones to take a satirical bite on US foreign policyWhen the penny drops and Sunny realises that she is being used it then becomes more akin to Mr Smith goes to Washington but by then it just becomes mawkish as the comedy has run out of gas.

A pretty average movie but a brave one from Ms Hawn to promote this vehicle as Exec Producer & as a starring vehicle. Although she ends up vindicated, she is willing to portray herself as the dizzy bimbo. How many other A listed actresses have subjected themselves to butt injury pratfalls since this movie? Not many. Does this mean the female butt cannot be funny? Goldie surpasses other actresses as she has maintained a screen persona & ventures in projects other won't. Sandra Bullock occasionally goes there,for example, Miss Congeniality but Nicole Kidman would never cop the pratfall. A wonderful performer. Great to see some of my favorite actors, Chris Sarandon & Cliff DeYoung notably.

Actually, Goldie Hawn is from Washington (Takoma Park, Maryland), but I digress. This is sort of a Mr. Smith goes to Washington type of movie, with some variations but the same premise. I taped this movie off of cable years ago because I had a huge crush on Goldie Hawn. The story is interesting, but it's highly unlikely that some cocktail waitress will get an important job in the government just because she saved some big shot's life. It made me laugh and made me mad at the same time. It made me laugh because some of the situations she found herself in were so ridiculous, I had to laugh. (POSSIBLE SPOILER AHEAD). It made me mad to think that our government would set up an average citizen in the manner she was set up. And the speech she made at the end...beautiful. Too bad not many people have guts like that in real life.