In Memoriam: Roger Ebert (June 18, 1942 — April 4, 2013)
By now I’m sure most of you know that Roger Ebert, one of the most important figures in the realm of movies, has died today. He was 70 years old. Here are some of the obituaries and columns that I’ve found so far:
Here is a column Ebert wrote last September: “I do not fear death”
For myself, I believed I had a cinematic soulmate in Roger Ebert. He thought and felt about movies the way I do: He loved them. In many ways, Ebert helped to grow my passion for movies, primarily through the greater understanding he provided through his constant insights.
I started watching “Sneak Previews,” the weekly TV series he hosted with Gene Siskel when it went nationwide on PBS in 1978. I was just finishing up graduate school at the time, a perfect time to plunge full-time into my lifelong affection for film. In my subsequent travels to Colorado, northern California, then southern California, I made it a point to watch that show, then Siskel & Ebert’s next series “At The Movies,” every week.
In particular, I remember house-sitting for some friends in Ventura, California in 1981, and getting into a habit: Watch Siskel and Ebert, then attend the movies they reviewed. More often than not, I found I agreed with Ebert’s take, rather than Siskel. He became my good cop to Gene’s bad cop. I found their weekly dialogues entertaining and informative.
I was a musician at the time and had my days free, so it was not uncommon for me to see two, even three movies in one day. For those several years while living in that sleepy coastal community, that became in effect my film school education. I never would have been able to transition into screenwriting without that cumulative experience. Roger Ebert’s observations fed my learning.
When my first movie K-9 came out, it was, as you can guess, a head-spinning experience. But perhaps nothing meant more to me than seeing it reviewed by Siskel and Ebert. I still have a videocassette recording of that show. Roger gave it a thumbs-up. Gene gave it a thumbs-down. Later Roger also gave Alaska a thumbs-up. Again Gene went thumbs-down.
Yet another reason to like Roger!
And there’s this: Did you know Ebert was a screenwriter? True. He wrote the script for the 1970 Russ Meyer movie Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.
But here is the main reason I resonated with Roger Ebert: I always had the feeling that — unlike some film critics — when he went to see a movie, he wanted to like it. He was smart, knowledgeable, and critical, yet at his core, it seemed to me that he believed in the power of movies to have a transformative effect on a person in the moment and perhaps even longer term.
That’s a belief I share.
On Twitter today, there has been an explosion of reactions to Ebert’s death, a testament to the breadth of his popularity. There have been all sorts of variations on theme: Two thumbs up [to Roger], Two thumbs down [to his death], The balcony is open, The balcony is closed.
Here’s mine: I hope when I die, I get to go to a place where I can hang with Roger Ebert and like-minded souls, where movies run all day and all night. Where we can sit in the darkness, communing with characters, immersing ourselves in story worlds, then gather to share our thoughts and feelings, laughter and tears. To me, that is heaven.
And so I say… Roger, I hope to see you someday… at the movies.
Godspeed, Roger Ebert.
Feel free to share your thoughts and reflections about Roger Ebert in comments. If you find any columns about him you think are especially noteworthy, post them for others to read.
UPDATE: This came up a bit in the OP, but more so in comments and gets at one of the reasons I think Ebert was such a great film critic: He balanced out critical thinking with the knowledge that movies are about emotion, equally if not more. A Roger Ebert quote:
“Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you.”
That is a great writing mantra as well.
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