Usually, I don’t write much for this paper except for movie reviews, but a recent event has led me to write a different sort of article. On April 4, 2013, Roger Ebert, a legendary film critic and great writer, died of cancer complications, as he had been battling thyroid cancer since 2002. If you don’t already know about this great man, I’ll fill you in. In 1969, Roger Ebert’s review of the film Night of the Living Dead was posted in Reader’s Digest for the first time, and his legacy of film reviewing began. Since then, he has written thousands of reviews, namely for the Chicago Sun Times, that have appeared in many newspapers and books. Most famously, however, he stared on a television program with another film critic icon, Gene Siskel. Starting in 1975, these two legends of film reviewing, who both worked for the Chicago Tribune, began to co-host a local public-access television show called Sneak Previews, in which they shared their opinions on the movies that had been released that week. In 1982, the show was picked up by PBS, now airing around the world, and was renamed At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, until 1986 when the show was again renamed Siskel and Ebert At the Movies. This show coined the use of thumbs up or thumbs down to describe whether or not they enjoyed a film; a thumbs up was a recommendation and a thumbs down meant to stay away. If you haven’t seen the show, go to siskelandebert.com, where you can watch every episode of the show. Unfortunately, Siskel died of a cancerous tumor in 1999, but Ebert continued the show with other guests until 2008, when he then focused on written reviews until his death.
Roger Ebert always stood out to me, personally, as a critic whose reviews I could trust. His opinions were some of the only that I took into account when I wanted to watch a movie. If he gave it a strong recommendation, I became more eager to watch the film; if he gave it an extremely low mark, I became more wary. His opinion was truly one that I, and many other film lovers valued. More than this, however, Ebert was my true inspiration to write and critique movies in the first place. When I was first getting in to movies, and I decided that I wanted to start writing about them, I didn’t know where to begin. I didn’t have a style that I was going for, nor did I even really know how to set up a review. Then, I discovered the writing of Roger Ebert, and his ideals and true passion for films captivated me from the start. Then, when I discovered his show, I became even more enthralled, watching Siskel and Ebert passionately discuss every movie that they could possibly see. Their draw, which not only came from their great writing and understanding of film in general, but their passion for movies. They loved films, and respected them for what they were, a work of art and product of whatever time they occurred in. And, even after Siskel was gone, Ebert stood out, not swallowed by the death of his long time partner.
Not only did he stand out in the eyes of the people. Ebert stood out to me personally, and helped to structure my review style. As I said, I had no idea how to begin, all I knew was that I loved movies and loved to talk about them. Ebert, who also obviously loved movies and loved to talk about them, was extremely relatable in what he said in his reviews, and had a knack for getting you to see his way, even if you disagreed with it. I attempted to introduce that style into my own reviews (read them to see if you think I did it right) and it basically shaped who I am as a reviewer and a person. His reviews were the ones that I always read when I was wary about seeing a movie, and sometimes they swayed me into seeing a movie that ended up being great. Now that he’s gone, I don’t really know who to trust about reviews. I guess I’ll just have to make these decisions by myself.
Roger Ebert loved movies, and he always respected them for what they were, art. If anyone can have half of the passion for anything that Ebert had for movies, they can succeed. Read his and other reviews here: http://www.rogerebert.com/.
