Rest in Peace, Roger Ebert

[Melita Magic]

Film critic and Pulitzer prize winner Roger Ebert has died.

Roger Ebert was a lifelong reporter, film critic and aficionado, screenwriter, author; and interviewer par excellence. Chicago, Illinois was his town. 

Roger Ebert grew to national fame with the television show Siskel and Ebert: At the Movies. His professional partner was Gene Siskel, who died in 1999. Their reviews were comprehensive yet entertaining, honest yet fair, and uncompromising. Their slogans "two thumbs up," "I'll see you at the movies," and "Save an aisle seat for me" were well known and appreciated by fans.

Roger Ebert, wordsmith, you will be missed.

[Pamela Galli]

Oh I liked them both so much.  That's a good choice of clip, too.

[Melita Magic]

Thank you Pamela. 

[sirhc DeSantis]

roger who? roger and out?

[Melita Magic]

Roger Ebert's Twitter page

 

Roger Ebert's blog

 

Roger Ebert's reviews

 

Roger Ebert.

 

[Solaria Goldshark]

I'll miss him for sure, but it was never the same after his counterpart died.

[Czari Zenovka]

I used to watch Siskel & Ebert regularly to hear their movie reviews.  It is so sad they are both gone.

[Melita Magic]

Thank you Solaria and Czari for your posts.

Their Tv show was so entertaining. They both had a dry wit (especially Siskel would could occasionally be very snarky!) but their comments about the film clips were always so interesting. In my opinion, no one before or since has compared to their level of insight coupled with watchability. Before them it was basically just Rex Reed. Rex had snarky reviews on a morning news show. There was also Leonard Maltin on Entertainment Tonight. Both of those men were okay but I never found their reviews incisive or relatable.

Ebert was so gung ho on reporting. He loved to be a journalist, I think. That is how he got his start. I also liked that they were "Illinois boys" - my home state. Can't help but root for the 'home team.' But they sure made good. I would read about their going to Cannes and interviewing celebrities - Ebert's interviews always gave you the feeling of being right there and made his subjects seem more, well, human, rather than a star fixed in the firmaments - and think, 'wow.' What is it like to have gone from the U of I campus to sitting tableside at Cannes, feeling the ocean breeze and pointing a microphone at some of those screen legends? It was a day's work to him.

Ebert inspires through his writing, too. The public began to think of film reviews and of flim critics differently - not some guy in a beret sneering at everything, but a guy who loves movies. Who will buy the biggest popcorn, ask for butter in the middle and on top (as Siskel chided Ebert about once, on Tv) and devour it without apology or shame. A populist with the smarts of an elite wordsmith, a poet at heart; a person who loved film so much, every year he would decipher the same obscure film frame by frame and give lectures on it. 

Siskel and Ebert were heroes to anyone who loved movies but until then was afraid to admit it. They were no snobs; if a popular movie was good as film, they weren't afraid to say so. If a popular movie was bad as film, they also were not afraid to say so. In a time when more and more 'critics' were literally hired to shill for studios, these guys' opinions could not be purchased. That in itself is laudable.

Ebert also in my opinion gives hope to those of us who tend to the introverted side of life; who think through their fingers; whose keyboard is their voice. His words reflect what he valued in life, and they will live on. As will Siskel and Ebert's partnership, friendship, and professional legacy, as long as people are interested in film.

[Melita Magic]

According to the AP, both friends and fans are invited to attend the funeral, which is today. (Actually it must be underway now.)

A certain publicity hungry group of hate mongers who do not deserve to be named are reportedly going to picket it!