For some reason, the death of Roger Ebert is really hitting hard. I was a member of the Ebert club the last couple of years (I was an early adopter for this, and never missed a newsletter), and they were some of my favorite emails.
Growing up with an aerial antenna (some of you remember that right? You wanted to change channels, you got down underneath the tv and rotated the dial, and heard the vrrr vrrr vrrr as the antenna on the top of your house rotated!) and only NBC, CBS, ABC, and PBS, and Ebert was one of the first real exposures to culture. I remember sitting there and watching Siskel and Ebert with my dad and realizing how many great movies were out there. It reminds me of all the great Sunday afternoons when we would sit and watch a movie on one of the networks, I want to say it was ABC, and there was a gray haired guy (what was his name he had that perfect 60’s-70’s voice) who would introduce the movie and it would only be interrupted by the 70’s and 80’s version of infomercials with 5 minute ads for aluminum siding or new windows.
I’m rambling, but Roger Ebert was as much a part of my childhood as Walter Cronkite and Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom and the Disney movie of the week. I can still see my sister Devon sitting there on the floor in her nightgown, with it it pulled down over her legs as she sat indian style with her thick glasses as our dog Ajax relaxed on the couch, the greatest cat in the world Mr. Purr Puff slept on the floor heating vent sucking up all the warmth, and dad sat in his chair. Devon and I were up because we were the older of the four kids and were allowed to stay up and watch the Shaggy DA and Escape to Witch Mountain and all the other memories from my youth, including the unforgettable Disney intro with the fireworks over the castle.
RIP, Roger Ebert. I love movies, and you made me love them more. You will be missed but never forgotten. I know what parasocial relationships are all about, but still I kind of want to have a good cry when I think about the man and his passing.
Instead, I think I will honor the man and watch a movie. Were he still around, that is what he would be doing.
Litlebritdifrnt
Thank you John
SiubhanDuinne
Roger’s death hit me hard, too, John, although you are much younger than I am and have very different memories. But wow, was the man ever a writer! And a good human being. I usually agreed with his movie reviews, and when I didn’t — thanks to his good training — I could usually articulate why I didn’t agree.
But I find through my sadness at his passing that I am thinking much more of him as a good person and a tough fighter who refused for so long to let cancer have its vile way with him, than I am of him as a movie reviewer. The totality of the man was enormous, and those of us who admire him are, I think, better people for it.
So again I say, RIP Roger, and deepest condolences to Chaz.
SiubhanDuinne
John, BTW, that’s a WONDERFUL title!
jl
Rober Ebert, one my favorite people to read, on movies or anything else. A great loss.
Mr Stagger Lee
That is the best statement about the man.
jrg
Indeed. Roger Ebert, RIP.
Don’t watch “Olympus has Fallen”, BTW, because that’s got to be the stupidest fucking movie I’ve ever seen.
Lyrebird
Thanks for the beautiful witness. We weren’t allowed to stay up late enough to watch Escape to Witch Mountain, but total respect to Roger Ebert and condolences to his family.
–from someone who used to say her favorite show was “Mutual of Omaha”!
max
I remember sitting there and watching Siskel and Ebert with my dad and realizing how many great movies were out there.
I started watching Sneak Previews almost as soon as it started. By the time they moved to commercial TV, it was all like, ‘Man, this isn’t as good! They’re only on for 22 minutes!’
I’m more of Siskel myself, so I suppose I could agree with you… they taught me how to *watch* movies. And I did so much of it, I got sick of them.
max
[‘But I never got sick of Ebert.’]
Cacti
Perhaps you could find a better pic of him than one where half his face is missing.
Just a thought.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
He wrote some political columns around the time of the Great Hijacking and the run up to war, IIRC Great stuff. He had a strong sense of right and wrong and clear vision and means of expressing it.
John Cole
@Cacti: Not sure how to respond to this. I look at that picture and I see pure joy and beauty and courage.
Just Some Fuckhead
@John Cole:
Same.
And another thing...
I admire that inspite of tragic & disfiguring health issues,he didn’t withdraw from life. Siskel & Ebert were terrific.
Gravenstone
@Cacti: Ebert embraced his challenges without shame. Why not remember him as he wished to present himself?
Darkrose
@Cacti: He never tried to hide the cancer or what it meant. It was part of who he was. Using another picture would be like pretending FDR never had polio.
the Conster
Siskel and Ebert was destination TV every week in the early 80s when I was home with little bitty kids, before the internet, before shows could be recorded, before cynicism and snark ruled everything in the popular culture. I listened intently to those two very erudite grown ups talk about movies! Movies weren’t taken seriously by my family growing up – if we went at all, it was once a year at the drive in on a summer night. I loved movies though, and got my parents to drop me off at the theater alone starting at 12 or 13, because I wanted to see movies no one else did, and didn’t want to talk about them before or after until I had seen them and thought about it – I thought I discovered Kubrick. I kept a list of all the movies I saw until I was 19 or so – it ran into the hundreds. Everything I could see I saw, mostly by myself, so yeah, finding like minded movie lovers – and smart ones! was huge.
TaMara (BHF)
I’m with you John. Siskel and Ebert were a huge part of my youth. RIP Ebert. May you and Siskel meet up in the big theatre in the heavens and find only your favorite movies playing with all the fresh popcorn you can eat.
marindenver
Roger Ebert was a great guy, intelligent, funny, incisive and empathetic. Cancer is a terrible disease – enough said. I’m just so sad that they had to connect. But he rose above it in a way that many people can’t. I’ll miss him a lot. If nothing else because he was a positive connection to my (long gone) youth. My late husband loved movies and loved Siskel and Ebert. He would be sad today too.
Cacti
@Gravenstone:
Wished to present himself, or was compelled to present himself after the ravages of disease?
SiubhanDuinne
@John Cole: Yes.
Darkrose
Lovely post, John. This is hitting me hard. I totally remember the Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom followed by the Sunday Disney movie, along with Sneak Previews on PBS on Saturdays. Another piece of my childhood is gone.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cacti: Why don’t we make this thread a fight over the fucking picture? I think that would be great.
Cacti
@Darkrose:
Poor choice of comparison, FDR rarely permitted himself to be photographed in his wheelchair.
Gravenstone
I’m rather the contrarian here tonight, I guess. I tended to view Siskel and Ebert as the antithesis of my own movie tastes during the time frame their program aired. That said, it was an indelible part of my youth, along with many of the other things you mentioned in your post.
And my, what a privileged childhood you had. A motor for your TV antenna? We just alternated between the Toledo and Fort Wayne stations (we were on the edge of both markets), whichever had the stronger signal. Of course, we also walked 10 miles to school, uphill, both ways.
SiubhanDuinne
@Cacti:
Look at his eyes.
Mr Stagger Lee
I remember when he and Siskel recommended My Dinner With Andre or some art movie, and thinking who want to watch some stupid stuff like that(I was young then and I was into action flicks, or cheap comedies, hell I thought The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training was high art) but he and Gene Siskel planted the seeds that would grow into my love of watching movies, including the great classics you see on TCM or the Criterion movies from France like Army Of Shadows or Battle of Algiers.
Cacti
@Omnes Omnibus:
I lay awake at night wondering what BJ commenter Omnes Omnibus thinks would be great.
I think the photo is ghoulish and represents Ebert as a shadow of himself in his prime.
Darkrose
@Cacti: You’re kind of missing the point, which is that if Ebert didn’t shy away from acknowledging the effects of his illness, for us to do so just doesn’t seem appropriate. It’s pretending that he didn’t go through something awful and refuse to let it stop him.
Some of his best work came in recent years. His last post was yesterday. I don’t see anything wrong with remembering that he fought to the end.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cacti: Your opinion is noted. Others seem to disagree. And bite me. And, with that, I’ll drop it.
MikeJ
@Omnes Omnibus: You would say that. As an insider Cole is skimming off the April fools fund to pay you off while the rest of us have to go begging for Soros bucks.
smintheus
You could watch Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, which Ebert wrote.
lamh35
as a young black kid in the hood when Siskel and Ebert were on, I can honestly say that it introduced me to a whole host of movies that I was never gonna be able to see unless it was for rent at the main library in NOLA (I was raised fairly poor and going to see the latest movies wasn’t happening).
As I got older and had more access to money, I became a big film buff and Roger Ebert reviews were the only one I really read because unlike some other critics, Ebert never seemed like he was being paid to say he loved a movie. His reviews seemed genuine.
Also, I’ll just admit right here as a BBW, I loved the relationship that Ebert had with his wife Chaz. It was awesome. I also love that the relationship happened later in his life, gives one hope that even past your “dreaded 30s” you can still find the love of your life.
Roger loves Chaz
Peter
I briefly tutored Gene Siskel’s kids in art (I was a private chef for his downstairs neighbors in 1996, with a shiny new MFA). This was right before his diagnosis with brain cancer. Both he and Ebert handled their illnesses and impending deaths with an astonishing amount of class. An era has surely ended.
taylormattd
Apparently I had exactly the same childhood as you.
Just Some Fuckhead
I grew up in a Fundamentalist cult and we weren’t allowed to go to the movies. Every Sunday, first thing in the afternoon, our local network affiliate – ABC, I think – would run At The Movies with Siskel and Ebert. I’d watch it, mesmerized by their plot descriptions, clips and arguing. I never got to see the movies they reviewed so I never knew who was right and who was wrong when they disagreed. But I loved them.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Cacti: Well, Ebert would have done just fine hiding behind a keyboard. He chose to go out even with the effects of his cancer. He did more than “deal” with it.
Omnes Omnibus
@MikeJ: Dude, I am double dipping into both the AF and Soros cash; you totes gotta try it.
kindness
Our antenna was bolted inside the attic. No rotating. Luckily, you just pointed it to NYC so no big.
satby
@John Cole: Exactly. Well said, John.
YellowJournalism
Almost everything you wrote applies to my experiences with Ebert and “At the Movies.” i watched it on Sundays with my dad. We were late to a family get-together one day because, as my dad said, “We need to watch them rip into ‘Major Payne’ first.” (One of them liked it! Need to look up who did.)
Chris Hayes was doing a wonderful tribute to him right now. Loved the clip of a passionate And angry Ebert telling off a patronizing patron at a Sundance screening.
lamh35
@lamh35: speaking of Chaz Ebert, she issued a statment on her husbands passing:
Chaz Ebert: ‘No struggle, no pain, just a quiet, dignified transition’
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/19279951-418/chaz-ebert-no-struggle-no-pain-just-a-quiet-dignified-transition.html
hells littlest angel
What made Ebert so enjoyable for me to read was that he clearly loved movies and loved writing about them. I seldom went to a movie without checking his review first.
Oh, and Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens! How can so many obituaries fail to mention that wonderfully awful film?
Culture of Truth
Aside my parents and teachers, Ebert and Siskel were the first adults I saw having an intelligent argument / discussion. Maybe including them. I was also then and now a movie buff and loved how serious they were about movies. Later I got a book of his essays as a present. I didn’t always agree but I wanted to read more and more.
More recently I was enthrallled by his online presence.
lamh35
@YellowJournalism: as an “urban” movie watcher, I loved that Ebert was not pompous or condescending when he reviewed those movies. He was one of the most supportive of Spike Lee’s early work when alot of white critics just viewed his earlier stuff as “race” stuff.
Speaking of which, Ebert also had me at his thumbs up for “Booty Call”. That’s what I liked about him. If he liked a movie, he liked it.
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19970227/REVIEWS/702270301/1023
Gordon, the Big Express Engine
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050811/REVIEWS/50725001
Awesome review. Just hilarious.
James Gary
Ebert was a great writer and a great critic and for every one of the films he praised (“E.T.” comes first to mind) that I personally disliked, there’s another film where reading his review completely changed my assessment (“Five Easy Pieces,” for example.)
That said, Cole, I have to get my dig in: if you’re gonna see a movie tonight, don’t watch “God Bless America” a fifth time. Try “Super,” or “Natural Born Killers,” or “Heathers,” all great movies and all of which Bobcat Goldthwait plundered in an annoyingly half-assed and amateurish way for “God Bless America.” Based on Mr. Ebert’s published reviews, I’d venture to suggest Roger would concur.
Culture of Truth
Someone said my tweet about Ebert was on Chris Hayes. If it was I missed it!
Culture of Truth
Mr. Cole, clearly the Universe is telling you to kick back and watch Booty Call.
trollhattan
Unpossible to ferret out a “best” piece of Ebert writing, but courtesy of JohnO in the earlier thread, I’m newly aware of his Ben Stein defenestration. This, friends, is not only a thing of beauty, it encapsulates our daily battles against all things wingnut by illuminating their war against modernity. Bless you Roger Ebert.
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/12/win_ben_steins_mind.html
lamh35
@Culture of Truth: hey! don’t knock Booty Call. That movie was funny, and I say if it was made in today’s “Hangover” obsessed movie culture is would be more than just an urban cult hit.
Ruckus
@John Cole:
I agree. That’s what the man looked like. He wanted to be alive, in all that statement means. Just because the man had prodigious talent doesn’t mean he will always(or ever) have prodigious looks. We get old, we get sick, the outside can look like shit but it is on the inside that really counts. And Ebert had the insides better than most. A person who found, worked and excelled at his talent and at life.
dance around in your bones
@YellowJournalism:
That was a good one.
Culture of Truth
I’m not knocking Booty Call. If it’s good enough for Ebert, it’s practically perfect for Tunch’s human.
Darkrose
@lamh35: Okay now I’m not just sniffling.
Mike in NC
This thread reminds me of the “rabbit ears” on top of our 1960s-70s living room TV, which somebody added aluminum foil to in order to try to get a better signal.
raven
He spent his early years around the corner from my house in Urbana. I posted a picture of the plaque in front of the Ebert house a few threads back.
White Trash Liberal
Roger Ebert taught me to pay attention to cars crashing into fruit carts. I miss him so much already.
BarbCat
Love this; his final review:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/roger-ebert-hails-human-existence-as-a-triumph,31945/
raven
Here’s a link to the Ebertfest film festival in Champaign.
Suffern ACE
@White Trash Liberal: I think there was a section of an episode called “how can they afford such beautiful apartments” that stuck with me. Whenever I see tv shows or movies of folks who are supposedly struggling in the city, yet live alone in these 1,000 foot spreads with balconies, views and quaint fireplaces, I utter that phrase to myself.
gbear
Now if you were REALLY old, you could add your memories of when you got your first color TV. They didn’t call the Disney show ‘The Wonderful World of Color’ for nuthin’…
I used to watch Ebert and Siskel’s show but I didn’t really appreciate how good a person Ebert was until the last few years. He was a wonderful, witty writer and stood for some great causes. His writings and his memory will live on.
White Trash Liberal
@Suffern ACE:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091814/
Kevin Bacon as a bike messenger who lives in a flat so spacious he can ride around in it.
Also features the trope Serious Business.
Sammi
Roger Ebert led to Oprah becoming a billionaire. I love her story of how she went on a date with Ebert during her local Chicago show days and Ebert told her the secret to maximizing money from her shows was in syndication rights. She followed his advice and the rest is history.
Suffern ACE
@gbear: I982. We were late adopters.
raven
@gbear: The very 1st Wonderful World Of Color episode
Genine
Rest in Peace, Mr. Ebert.
Donut
@John Cole:
Word.
TooManyJens
This is a great clip too: The Time Roger Ebert Told Off Congress
dance around in your bones
@gbear:
I remember my dad saying we’d wait a couple years to see how the color tv thing worked out before we got one. That was back when a tv was literally the size of a large chest of drawers. We used to go to a neighbor’s house to watch the ‘color tv’ until we finally got our own.
Cassidy
There’s always one.
Yutsano
I find the picture to be respectable and respectful. Roger did not hide in the shadows after the cancer took his voice and jaw away. To place him back there does not honour his memory. The balcony is indeed closed.
trollhattan
@dance around in your bones:
RCA held tight to the color teebee patents for, what was it, seventeen years? before there was any competition. They also owned NBC at the time. The sets cost the equivalent of several months’ salary and needed constant fiddling by techs. If you, for example, ever moved one, the tube had to be realigned.
We had a B/W set for, like, ever.
As yew kids vacate my lawn, realize how dang-dong lucky yew is.
gbear
@dance around in your bones: I don’t remember how old I was when we got our first color TV, but I remember they’d been around for a while before we got ours. I also remember that dad wouldn’t let us in the living room until it was in place, turned on and adjusted. It was a total surprise to us kids.
It didn’t take long before we discovered all the fun you could have messing with the settings – turning people green or purple. We’d screw with the color and laugh and laugh until dad would get mad.
dance around in your bones
@trollhattan: I guess my dad was smart to hold out, then.
I still love watching B&W movies. Something about the lighting and shading is so calming.
Plus these new-fangled TV’s are so bloody complicated! Switching from cable/satellite to Netflix or the Xbox is….complicated. The kids think I’m daft.
eta: Remember those plastic things they sold on late night TV that you were supposed to hold/glue over your B&W TV to make it turn to color? Hahahaha!
MikeBoyScout
I fondly remember sitting on the back porch in the summer with my grandfather drinking LemonBlend (made slushy) listening to Bob Prince and Nellie King broadcast Pirates baseball. Grandpa could not stand Bob Prince and when the two broadcasters switched between the radio and the TV broadcast he would turn on the “portable” B&W TV to listen to Nellie and turn off Bob.
Omnes Omnibus
Jeff Greenfield on Ebert.
rda909
Even though it’s not a “free night,” the missus and I will be having a big bowl of popcorn tonight and watching a flick in his honor. I became a devotee after he and Siskel publicly called out the Oscars for ignoring Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” and they both named it the best picture of the year. Amazing clip here, and Ebert is remarkably prescient in describing white “liberals” today and how President Obama can do not one single thing to their satisfaction (yet Bill or Hillary or John Edwards…they’re okay!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjYS8EUakgs
And he had this incredible review of the movie too. A very insightful man…RIP:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19890630/REVIEWS/906300301
patroclus
As a kid, I would routinely watch Siskel and Ebert’s Sneak Previews and I loved how competitive they were with each other while still maintaining a degree of respect for each others’ opinions. Ebert was with the Sun-Times and Siskel with the Trib and they started out as direct competitors, with a genuine dislike for each other, but over time, they sort of merged into a single entity. You could always count on Ebert to like the kids’ movies with a joy that clearly exposed his inner child and his written reviews created great word pictures that made you want to see them even if you agreed with Siskel that it was probably a stupid movie, poorly directed and ham-handedly edited. You could always count on Siskel to sneak in some personal dig that Roger never seemed to get. Ebert was clearly the nicer guy; Siskel the analytical one. Ebert the Democrat; Siskel the Republican (albeit a liberal). It was PBS’s very best show – once they went commercial, it wasn’t nearly as good. There’ve been a lot of copycats; no one has ever done it better than those two.
Gwangung
@YellowJournalism:
Oh, hat wasn’t the Justin Lin thing, was it? That tirade made him an honorary Azn brother in the Asian American creative community….
If it wasn’t, I’d still love to see it…..
Anya
Roger Ebert was a huge part of my childhood. My dad was a huge fan. We mostly watched movies recommended by Ebert. We didn’t have a teevee so every saturday (sometimes Sunday) my dad, brother and me went to the movies (mom didn’t like movies that much). Sometimes we went to the Bloor Cinema (Toronto) to see classical movies. Like everyone else mentioned, the quality I liked the most about Ebert was his humanity, and the way he expressed it with his beautiful words. RIP, Mr. Ebert. I wish the world was full of people like you.
Oh I forgot to mention…Oh John, I heart you so much! <3
Mnemosyne
That photo of Ebert always reminds me of the lead character from the silent The Man Who Laughs, which also inspired the look for the Joker.
I have a feeling that Ebert was not unaware of the resemblance.
ETA: Also, as I said in the other thread, I blame Siskel & Ebert for my having not one, but two film degrees.
Petorado
Robert Ebert was a very decent human being. I suppose it didn’t hurt watching all those stories about people trying to live their lives flickering by on the screen to develop a good understanding of the human condition and what’s important. But he also risked his fame and position to advocate for change for the better, and that’s really the measure of a good person.
It wasn’t until Siskel and Ebert turned into Ebert and Roper that I realized what a great dynamic they had as a duo. That was some good debate — a term that’s lost much of it’s meaning the way the Washington press corps uses it.
trollhattan
@dance around in your bones:
Ooh, yes, turn you teebee into color! Advertised alongside the Habband never-wear-out slacks.
Remember Winky-Dink? Before my time but we had the plastic screen around forever.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045456/
WaynersT
One of those people whom I never met, but felt I knew so well. His blog was my absolute favorite. What a punch in the gut. Such a sad, sad, day.
Roger Ebert dies. Dick Cheney lives. The world sucks balls.
trollhattan
@WaynersT:
No shit. And somebody else, literally, had to die for Cheney to live on. I feel like singing show tunes just thinking about it.
Mnemosyne
@trollhattan:
Sondheim ones, I presume.
Omnes Omnibus
@trollhattan:
It does make it easier to call him a ghoul.
Slaughter
I loved that Siskel and Ebert brought movie reviews to the masses from out or the realm of the elite and that they argued about movies like baseball fans would argue about Mickey vs. Willie. No one can match what they did.
YellowJournalism
@Gwangung: Yes, I think it was. I imagine it was the same tone of voice that John uses when he tells us all to fuck off. And I mean that as a compliment to them both.
I went into Journalism because I wanted to be a film critic like Ebert. I finished my degree, but I realized I did not have a big enough love of being a journalist to do it he old fashioned way and I wasn’t a big enough geek to do it through web sites, although I did get to write a review once for AICN. I took a few film-related courses through my drama minor and English major. I used the nickname AllThumbs to post there in honor of Sikel and Ebert. I realized that I could still love film and be perfectly happy being a couch critic with my friends and family. Since BJ wasn’t yet my number one time waster, I would spend hours surfing through Roger’s old reviews and savouring the days when he’d share a new Great Movies column with the world.
I read Chaz’s column and feel guilty about feeling so heartbroken about someone I’ve never met. But I don’t think either one of them would mind.
BarbCat
Okay, okay, so don’t click on my link but here’s the Onion’s obit. I’ll frefund your money if you don’t enjoy it.
Roger Ebert Hails Human Existence As ‘A Triumph’
News • News • ISSUE 49•14 • Apr 4, 2013
CHICAGO—Calling the overall human experience “poignant,” “thought-provoking,” and a “complete tour de force,” film critic Roger Ebert praised existence Thursday as “an audacious and thrilling triumph.” “While not without its flaws, life, from birth to death, is a masterwork, and an uplifting journey that both touches the heart and challenges the mind,” said Ebert, adding that while the totality of all humankind is sometimes “a mess in places,” it strives to be a magnum opus and, according to Ebert, largely succeeds at this goal. “At times brutally sad, yet surprisingly funny, and always completely honest, I wholeheartedly recommend existence. If you haven’t experienced it yet, then what are you waiting for? It is not to be missed.” Ebert later said that while human existence’s running time was “a little on the long side,” it could have gone on much, much longer and he would have been perfectly happy.
patrick II
trollhattan
@Mnemosyne:
Twenty quatloos are awarded. Spend them wisely.
Ruckus
@YellowJournalism:
I think they would both feel honored.
rhubarb
As a child, I was terribly jealous of my cousin, who had a Winky-Dink screen. And after a hard Saturday morning of jumping gullies that would have at least broken our legs if we’d fallen in (amusement was pretty thin on the ground in the Texas Panhandle), we’d repair to the house of a relatively rich friend and watch the color TV. Lots of purple and orange faces, plus errant chartreuse.
trollhattan
@Omnes Omnibus:
Cheney and li’l Cheney remain two of a small group who continue to surprise me with their ability to show they’re worse than I thought.
There’d best be a hell, or I’m going to have to invent one.
Jane2
@Cacti: The goodness and curiosity and thoughtfulness of Roger Ebert shone through pictures like this, and that is what I see.
Omnes Omnibus
@trollhattan: I got a little pissy earlier in this thread because, as a general rule, I don’t like people being assholish in an RIP thread. For Cheney, this and this are fitting.
dance around in your bones
@trollhattan:
I don’t remember the Winky Dink but a thing more like this guy remembers. It was bullshit, of course.
Suckers born every minute and all.
Mnemosyne
This may be too emotional to listen to just yet: Werner Herzog reacts to news of Roger Ebert’s death.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: All I am getting is static.
ETA: Never mind. Got it to play.
DH
I have been using Mr. Ebert’s book The Great Movies to go though, one by one, the movies he lists there. It has been a real education and a joy. He was a real mensch, and a very brave man. I hate cancer.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
That may have been Herzog’s sniffling. Who knew he could actually be sincere?
Xenos
Very sad at the passing of Ebert. And a bit sad remembering the family sitting around watching the Disney Saturday night movies. With DVDs and the internet there is so much more for kids to watch, but so little heart in it all.
Bruce s
Chris Hayes had great segment on Ebert tonite. Check it out.
Bruce S
Chris Hayes had great segment on Ebert tonight. Check it out.
rda909
@Mnemosyne: Thank you so much for that. Great interview. I will be sharing greatly.
rda909
@Bruce S: I couldn’t care less what Chris Hayes thinks about anything. He hasn’t earned it.
Fort Geek
@Cacti: Good thing Ebert never showed up in public looking like that.
Oh, wait!
rda909
“North by Northwest” was our Ebert-tribute movie tonight. Almost was “Do the Right Thing,” which we’ve each seen at least 10 times (partly thanks to Siskel and Ebert), and wanted to see another classic instead. Thanks for everything, Roger.
Johannes
@taylormattd: Me too. I totally identify with this comment and the OP.
tinare
Last night Diane Sawyer said something about Roger Ebert once saying that he imagined heaven as a movie theater with Citizen Kane playing. Or something like that. I hope that he’s right.
Anyway, John, did you grow up in the Pittsburgh television market? If so, was it Rege Cordic that you were thinking of —
http://www.bing.com/search?q=rege+cordic&src=IE-SearchBox
He hosted a Sunday afternoon movie show on WTAE. It was a favorite of mine.
rikyrah
amen, Cole.
Amen.
Ebert is a large part of why I love movies.