He could do all this with just the flick of his thumb.
As an aspiring film critic, I have known of Roger Ebert my whole life. I can't remember a time when I have not heard his trademarked "Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down" review system, whether in movie trailers or on the cover of VHS and DVD boxes. The older I get, the more I realize how important his single review is to a film. When people see his name attached to a positive review, they know that the movie will be good. He remains to this day the only be-all-end-all to film criticism.
Ebert was the first film critic to ever win a Pulitzer Prize, after only a few years in the review business. His family included Chaz Ebert, his loving wife and partner. He wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times until the day of his passing, after over forty years of working in his home city. But Roger Ebert will be most remembered for his famous At the Movies television series, which he co-hosted along with his longtime friend and collaborator Gene Siskel. It was here that people latched on to the famous "Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down" technique, simplifying yet elegantly expressing exactly how the critics felt about the film.
Watching Ebert and Siskel banter and discuss various films was an exciting program, and encouraged discussion about the movie industry. After Siskel's sad departure in 1999, At the Movies experienced a brief hiatus until Roger Ebert selected his new co-host, Richard Roeper. The show continued it's success until Ebert was diagnosed with cancer in 2007.
Most people would have given up after such turmoil, but Ebert saw it as an opportunity: his talents in writing allowed him to share his thoughts through the written word, and as such he continued reviewing movies and sharing his opinions. His writing style was so beautiful, so graceful, that every thought seemed to flow perfectly onto the page. People always knew from the choice of words how a review would turn out, and he had such a magnificent way of making his opinion known without being harsh or overly generous. Most writers only dream of writing like this, but Roger Ebert managed to do it with each and every review, blog post, or commentary.
And Ebert was no stranger to the film business, either. He wrote several screenplays, most notably Beyond the Valley of Dolls, and is a well respected voice among filmmakers. Several actors, including Samuel L. Jackson, Patton Oswalt, and Albert Brooks, always took his criticisms fairly. They, like so many others, knew that Ebert was always fair, truthful, and knowledgeable.
Ebert's passions for film went beyond that of any other writer. He wrote several reviews and books about various figures in the business, including a biography on Martin Scorsese. His best essays have been compiled into three volumes of what he considers "Great Movies". Each essay has something original and provocative to say about the greatest movies of all time.
A noted critic of both the corruption within Hollywood and the Academy Awards, Ebert's passion for cinema transcended his own personal thoughts. He routinely commentated the Oscars and big film premieres. He also ranked each year's best films, ranging from 1967's Bonnie and Clyde to 2012's Argo.
As for his list of the greatest films of all time, Ebert hated ranking movies. He thought the practice was silly and unnecessary. In fact, he was known to sometimes place his year-end bests in alphabetical order, so that he did not have to personally rank them. He always voted in Sight and Sound's Greatest Films of All Time, which was a ranked list every ten years of the best films ever made. His latest Top Ten Movies list, which was released in 2012, is his picks for his favorite movies (in alphabetical order). I remember falling in love with this list, and was highly fascinated by his choices.
To honor his memory and cinematic preferences, here they are, with a link to his commentary on the list:
Aguirre, Wrath of God (Herzog)
Apocalypse Now (Coppola)
Citizen Kane (Welles)
La Dolce Vita (Fellini)
The General (Keaton)
Raging Bull (Scorsese)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick)
Tokyo Story (Ozu)
The Tree of Life (Malick)
Vertigo (Hitchcock)
Cancer sadly took the best of Ebert, and he died on Thursday, April 4. The day before, he wrote his final blog post (link), about how he will still be heavily involved with both readers and movies. He spoke of finally getting to achieve every film critic's dream: only reviewing the films he wanted to review. He said he was only taking a "leave of presence". How haunting those words seem now.
But he is in a better place now, a heaven filled with only the greatest movies and his loving friends. Nearly every critic holds some kind of memory of Ebert, but he will remain in all of our hearts for what he has done for this profession. I loved reading his weekly reviews and blog posts, and will miss having him in my daily readings. His words will always have an impact on my writing. So for Roger Ebert, we give four out of four stars, two big thumbs up, and our eternal gratitude.
Goodbye, Mr. Ebert. Rest in peace. We'll see you at the movies.
"I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn't always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out."
No comments:
Post a Comment