Roger Ebert, Film Critic, Dies at 70

[EMB]

Truth was, as much as I have always loved music and collecting vinyl, my one other love beyond family and friends has been cinema. But for all the great books I've read over the years, my most fun with writers and critics was Siskel & Ebert, by whatever title their show went by. Whether it was Sneak previews or At the Movies, or whatever, the joy was in hearing their opinions, bantering, contention, joy and anger at what they saw--what you could also get from friends or family joining you at a film, but never quite the same: these guys, unlike anyone else I knew (other than me, heh), referenced the past while also appreciating the immediacy of the present they would find on the screen.

And so, with Roger Ebert gone (Gene died in 1999), i'm left with memories arguably as fond as the films they reviewed--pro or con, thumbs up or down. They were a real pair, with brotherly love/hate but a complete passion for their calling, and rode it out to the max. After Siskel's passing, no one could really compete with Roger--I could sense how dominant he was beyond being the 'main guy.' Richard Roeper did his best, and others here and there tried--but the Siskel & Ebert marriage will remain as concrete in our minds and Holmes & Watson and Lennon & McCartney.

Roger Ebert's passing pains me beyond the obvious maybe most of all because--by sheer chance--I came across his very nakedly honest book Life Itself: A Memoir just after I was diagnosed with colon cancer. Not only that, but his outlook at his choices after the diagnosis, how you must adjust to reality day to day, to realize you will never be the same again and that it is not necessarily bad--helped me on my way to a recovery that is as ongoing as the dark truth that cancer cells waiting to reawaken can still be there, somewhere, to help kill me--as it did, eventually, to Roger, whose jaw/mouth cancer changed his face--but apparently, not his spirit. But despite all the nonsense about 'battling' or 'fighting' cancer, what you hope your body does is resist it, and that the treatments help you. What I've seen and read from the days after Ebert's leaving the hospital gave us a man unafraid to look different, just to be who he was, to still be Roger Ebert, just not as you used to see him.

Thanks, Rog, from a man who only knew you through your various newspaper and book writings and TV shows. Wish I'd taken the time to tell you all this. I hope others did, for we are not alone, are we?


ED

 

[kap'n krunch]

All my best vibes to you Ed, hope your ailment NEVER comes back!
Cheers...
k'n k

 

[Fishhead]

You have a strong determinatioin Ed on the fight against the dreaded Cancer. Yes I am sad on roger passing at a young 70. My lisa turned 50 and she works for a insurance co. here in Bradenton. They requre that she get a colanoptimy on April 8th . She has to drink like a gallon of metamucil the day before. All the best on your fight

 

[Quad Linda]

Both Gene and Roger have been revered here in Chicago, their home turf. Half to one-third of our local newscasts have been devoted to Roger's passing. The friction between them wasn't feigned for the camera, it was real. When one person who was involved in the production asked about that, he commented it was worse in person.

There is a film center dedicated to Gene, which opened several years ago. It is directly across from the Chicago Theater and kitty-corner from the flagship Marshall Field's, now Macy's. Hopefully, something great will be done as a tribute to Roger.





As they said many times, the balcony is closed...permanently.

Marshall Macy's. The Fields plaques remain. The local joke was "I'll meet you under the clock at Field's." There is one at each end of the State St. side. The store is a block square and 12 floors. Until a few years ago, they also had 6 floors in the building across the street, with the basement(s) extending under Washington St.




And I will pray for permanent remission for you, Ed.

 

[EMB]

Thanks, guys (and gal)

And of course thinking about Roger made me think a lot about Gene. I remember his struggles--a few times via phone!--to continue doing the show after it was found he had a malignant tumor in his head. Remember the halting, slurred speech? How he looked in the months afterward? Sadly, there was not a lot the doctors could do. That is the wicked curse of cancer: you can have it a long time before it's found, and sometimes, when it's found it's too late to do much of anything. That was a shock, because losing Mr. Siskel was like losing a friend you were used to seeing every week--which is always how I viewed those guys, who had their contentiousness but always shook hands before and after every gig (a lesson: never take anything so trivial as moviegoing personally. There are more important things to be really concerned about).

I also remember Gene having a soft spot in his heart for a movie called Lambada, presumably about the dance. Recently, a satellite TV channel had some kind of sick marathon that included not only that one but the Breakin' films, which constituted some kind of summit for badness. Can't say I followed any of them closely, but did think a bit of Gene and how he liked the occasional crappy film. We must all have our guilty pleasures on this strange journey, so why not some bad cinema to go with bad music? Now, where are my Partridge Family albums? (wife shouts out: 'Lost forever, I hope' or something like that).

ED

 

[EMB]

And before I forget: Roger was, in his early days, the perpetrator of Russ Meyer's 'commercial breakthrough', Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. The movie is memorable for two things only: the ladies (clothed or otherwise) and in one party scene the Strawberry Alarm Clock lip-sync to their first and biggest hit, "Incense and Peppermints." I was all of (not sweet) sixteen when I saw the film in a theater (didn't have to lie about my age, either, the owner coulda cared less) and remember thinking that it might not have been the best idea to lip-sync your most famous hit three years after the fact, but offer something, you know, new and up to date for 1970. Well, they were gone not long after that. Meanwhile, Mr. Ebert got one of his few film credits as a screenwriter, and his hilarious retellings of that experience are must reading for every bad film connoisseur. When we were kids guys like Russ Meyer and Hugh Hefner were important in a way they wouldn't be today. Not so much for the fact that they were surrounded by very lovely young ladies--though they were--but that they could get away with flaunting that fact, pissing off our parents in the bargain, which for me put both guys on a par with the Rolling Stones and other bad guys of rock'n'roll--at least back then, before I got to understand how much of all this is just show biz candy coating, and not reality (not that ol' Hef didn't try with that mansion).

Roger must have dug the milieu too, at least for awhile. But then he went on to better things, sitting in residence and eventually telling the world about all manner of good and bad cinema from everywhere. If he said go see a Bergman or Kurosawa film, I did just that when the chance came. Thanks for the tips, Rog. RIP.

ED

 

[Q8]

Wow, thats sad. He really was one of the better critics and one that I halfway respected the oppinion of more than most. After his surgeries, he was starting to look a little scary before he passed on.

 

[Odys]

When I was a poor grad student studying film in Chicago, I got lucky one year and won the annual Outguess Ebert at the Oscars contest that the Chicago Sun-Times used to have. I'll never forget when Ebert personally called me to tell me I'd won. He laughed heartily as I questioned, "No, really, who is this?", thinking one of my friends was messing with me. The trip included a trip to the Cannes Film Festival, a once in a lifetime opportunity. My wife and I attended a screening with Roger and he treated us to lunch on the beach at Cannes. He was one of the nicest guys I've ever met, as well as a great film critic. I'm very saddened by his passing.

 

[RSilverman]

I'm from Chicago, too. I watched Siskel & Ebert for years with my dad and brother. I never got to meet Roger Ebert, but Siskel was a client of ours at a frame shop where I worked when I was going to college. I won't speak (too) ill of the dead, but Siskel... boy, what a jerk!