Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

Let me file that under fuck it.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

“woke” is the new caravan.

In my day, never was longer.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

So many bastards, so little time.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

…and a burning sense of injustice to juice the soul.

Bogus polls are all they’ve got left. Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls a year from now.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

You are here: Home / Absent Friends / RIP / Terrible News

Reader Interactions

143Comments

  2. 2.

    David Koch

    Gosh, I remember when they started on PBS in the mid 70s, it was such a refreshing show.

  3. 3.

    Turgidson

    Siskel and Ebert are both gone. Very sad. They were a staple in Chicago while I was growing up, and both were really good dudes. Gone too soon, both of them.

  4. 4.

    Sister Inspired Revolver of Freedom

    What a terrible loss. He was an eloquent, passionate writer, totally fearless. RIP.

  5. 5.

    Pee Cee

    I enjoyed his reviews more than I enjoyed most of the actual movies. The man could write …

  6. 6.

    TheOtherWA

    I grew up in Chicago watching Siskel & Ebert arguing about movies. They opened my eyes to so many films I would never have seen if not for them.

    May they both rest in peace.

    (now I’m getting off the computer because I have to stop crying and get something done.)

  8. 8.

    Politically Lost

    We lost a great writer today.

    My all-time favorite was his opening line about that abomination “Pearl Harbor.”

    It went something like this (Don’t know if this is perfectly accurate but I’m not using the google because it’s always better how you remember it):

    “Pearl Harbor is about the Japanese attack on an American love triangle.”

  9. 9.

    D.N. Nation

    “Speaking in my official capacity as a Pulitzer Prize winner, Mr. Schneider, your movie sucks.”

  10. 10.

    Elizabelle

    He and Gene Siskel both left us, far too young, and both still relevant, of cancer and its complications.

    RIP.

  11. 11.

    LanceThruster

    He displayed a lot of courage in dealing with his post-cancer difficulties. Was always a good interview on Howard Stern, too.

  12. 12.

    khead

    Heard this in the car while out running errands…. on sports radio. Local guys spent more time than I expected on It.

  13. 13.

    R-Jud

    I was making some sketches of Central American masks at the Art Institute once when a voice over my shoulder said, “That’s very promising! Keep it up!”

    It was Ebert.

  14. 14.

    Paula

    Yeah, I can feel this one.

    Ebert performed a real public service, and unlike most film critics of his generation, actually understood and utilized the internet. He was a real bridge between more mainstream tastes and some of the more esoteric offerings.

  16. 16.

    The Dangerman

    Only 70, far too young, but what a life he had in his alotted time.

    This week the deaths are finishing off “pairs”. Mrs Henson and Jim. Roger and Gene.

    RIP to all.

  20. 20.

    MikeJ

    Schneider was nominated for a 2000 Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor, but lost to Jar-Jar Binks. But Schneider is correct, and Patrick Goldstein has not yet won a Pulitzer Prize. Therefore, Goldstein is not qualified to complain that Columbia financed Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo while passing on the opportunity to participate in Million Dollar Baby, Ray, The Aviator, Sideways, and Finding Neverland. As chance would have it, I have won the Pulitzer Prize, and so I am qualified. Speaking in my official capacity as a Pulitzer Prize winner, Mr. Schneider, your movie sucks.

    RIP.

  21. 21.

    SatanicPanic

    What a shame. I appreciate that, the occasional cutting remark aside, he was always trying to see the best in movies. And it seemed like he was that way with people too.

  23. 23.

    Amir Khalid

    I remember saying in these threads that the value of movie critics like Ebert was that they taught you, not so much what to think of any particular movie, but rather how to think about it. So that, even if you didn’t come out of a movie agreeing with Ebert, you at least knew what you thought and why. Reading Ebert certainly did that for me.

  27. 27.

    Mnemosyne

    The first Siskel & Ebert review I remember was of The Road Warrior, and it kinda blew my little 12-year-old mind: you mean they make movies in places other than America?

    I blame both of them — but mostly Ebert — for the fact that I have not one, but two film degrees. RIP, indeed.

  28. 28.

    Shinobi

    The sun times server is dying, but the last 4 lines of Eberts final post yesterday were brutal under the circumstances.

    “The fact that we’re re-launching the site now, in the midst of other challenges, should give you an idea how important Rogerebert.com and Ebert Digital are to Chaz and me. I hope you’ll stop by, and look for me. I’ll be there.

    So on this day of reflection I say again, thank you for going on this journey with me. I’ll see you at the movies.”

    Best time to not work in a cubicle ever. *Sniffle*

  29. 29.

    GailVortex

    My husband sent me the news, and says that we will be going tonight to Steak-n-Shake in commemoration.

  30. 30.

    Spaghetti Lee

    This one hit me hard. I started watching Ebert and Roeper (too young for Siskel) when I was 12 or 13, and you know how lots of people at that age find one or two writers who show them that the world is bigger than all the bullshit that happens at school? Ebert was one of those people for me. I’ll miss him.

  31. 31.

    WereBear

    Sad, because, honestly; too young.

    I’ll always remember he & Siskel arguing over Get Out Your Handkerchiefs; Gene felt that it was a tender love story, while Roger declared it should be “cut up into ukelele picks!”

    Very good times.

  32. 32.

    Mnemosyne

    @Amir Khalid:

    I remember saying in these threads that the value of movie critics like Ebert was that they taught you, not so much what to think of any particular movie, but rather how to think about it. So that, even if you didn’t come out of a movie agreeing with Ebert, you at least knew what you thought and why.

    Exactly. He was very consistent about what he liked and why, so that even if you disagreed with him about a film, you knew what the points of disagreement were and could judge whether or not you would like it.

  36. 36.

    Mr. Longform

    Ebert’s recent memoir, Life Itself, is a good read. I grew up in central Illinois half a generation after him, and a lot of the local stuff really resonated. He was a down-to-earth guy and never really lost that. His sophistication was worn pretty lightly. Any guy who knew as much of the world as he did and was still willing to say that Steak and Shake has the best food is ok by me.

  37. 37.

    Another Halocene Human

    Of contemporary movie critics, my favorite is Mike Stoklasa (a/k/a the voice of “Mr. Plinkett”). He’s also midwestern, so maybe there’s a theme, there. Not as big of a liberal as Ebert, but give him time.

    His review show is called “Half In The Bag” and there was a damn good take-down of Adam Sandler’s movie-like-grift-job “Jack and Jill” last summer I particularly paid attention to.

    (The SF Debris guy is more of a liberal (for a young, privileged white guy he’s doing okay) but I honestly thinks he sucks as a critic. Nobody skewers Janeway and whatsisname-from-Enterprise better, though.)

  38. 38.

    donnah

    I read his biography a couple of years ago, and it was quite obvious that Ebert was a genius. I have followed his writings whenever possible and admired him for his wit, intelligence, and his courage.

    RIP, Mr Ebert. You are an icon.

  41. 41.

    Darkrose

    This really hurts.

    I worked as an intern at the Sun-Times for two summers, and I had the privilege of meeting him. He was a smart, funny guy who was invariably polite to people at the bottom of the editorial totem pole. He’d occasionally leave tickets on the table for stuff he wasn’t going to review; I went to at least one (so bad I can’t even remember what it was) movie that way. The world is definitely poorer for his loss.

  42. 42.

    Legalize

    He was really the only reviewer who’s opinion I would consider, if I was on the fence about a movie.

  43. 43.

    Donut

    This by subjecting himself to thousands of horrible movies over the years, he never seemed to lose the thread. Interlox’s love for film. That’s pretty cool, you can do something for so long and still love it.

    He was also pretty badass dude when it came to taking on the Sun Times, and their desire to control his web presence. It was pretty thorny fight and he won it

  44. 44.

    Amir Khalid

    @Politically Lost:
    The opening paragraph:

    Pearl Harbor is a two-hour movie squeezed into three hours, about how on December 7, 1941, the Japanese staged a surprise attack on an American love triangle. Its centerpiece is forty minutes of redundant special effects, surrounded by a love story of stunning banality. The film has been directed without grace, vision or originality, and although you may walk out quoting lines of dialogue, it will not be because you admire them.

    (My copy of Your Movie Sucks was at hand.)

  45. 45.

    dance around in your bones

    Aw shit, he was one of the good ones. I always enjoyed reading his reviews even if I never got to see the movies – I felt like I had.

    A real human being.

  50. 50.

    The Moar You Know

    He got less time than I’d like to have seen, although by all rights he should have been dead when his carotid artery burst after his second go-round with radiation therapy. This is the kind of thing that by all rights should kill you in a minute or two.

    Somehow, incredibly, he was fortunate enough to have this happen in a room full of doctors located right next to an operating theater that was ready to go. I always think of that story when I think of him, and consider that he wasn’t yet done with what he’d been put here to do.

  53. 53.

    Mary G

    Oh, no, I feel like I have lost a dear friend even though we never met. For a long time he was the only person I followed on Twitter. What a great writer. One of the best of our generation.

    He had a post on his blog a couple of years ago about Catholic priests, or child molestation, and I impulsively wrote a long comment about a childhood experience I have hardly ever talked about except to a therapist. He left a long reply in my comment. I felt so understood and comforted.

    He was an inspiration to me in how he handled his medical troubles over the past years. Most people would have taken to bed and waited to die, but he was on indefatigable, going to movie festivals and reviewing movies and tweeting almost up to the end.

  54. 54.

    Elie

    A wonderful movie critic and just a wonderful, nice person. He and Siskel were a great team. May he also rest in peace. They live on in our good memories. THAT is heaven for sure…

  55. 55.

    satby

    Another lifelong Chicagoan here, it’s like losing a family member. He was a great human.

  57. 57.

    KXB

    Can’t remember when I started watching “Siskel & Ebert”, but it was definitely before I hit my teens. Even if I did not get to most of the films they reviewed (and I didn’t), it was great to watch a show that approached film without the hype/publicity of an Entertainment Tonight, The Insider, etc.

    Even when I disagreed with Ebert strongly – like walking out of Blair Witch Project saying, “What the hell was that crap?!” – it was great to read reviews by someone who did not always resort to the notion that all current movies pale next to the classics.

    The only other film reviewers I read consistently are A.O. Scott of the NY Times, and until they put him behind a paywall, Michael Philips of the Chicago Tribune.

  59. 59.

    Hungry Joe

    I had to cover the Oscars from backstage a few times (sounds glamorous; most decidedly was not), and Ebert was usually there. Everybody jammed in, twelve reporters at eight-person tables, all of us feeling foolish in tuxedos and evening gowns (Academy rules, even though nobody saw us). What I remember of Roger Ebert: 1) He was by far the biggest deal in the room, and if he was taking pains not to act like it, it didn’t show — he was just one of the guys, at ease and not in the least impressed with himself; and 2) he hit the buffet table hard. Even seasoned journalists were impressed.

  60. 60.

    Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn

    Surprised. Saddened.

    We need all the savvy, eloquent, irreverent voices we can get.

  61. 61.

    Nicole

    I hope, wherever he is, Gene is chewing him out for the rave he gave “Secretariat.”

  62. 62.

    Mnemosyne

    @dance around in your bones:

    A real human being.

    Dr. Dreyfuss: Why don’t you grow up, Baxter? Be a mensch! You know what that means?
    C.C. Baxter: I’m not sure.
    Dr. Dreyfuss: A mensch – a human being!

    From one of Ebert’s (and every right-thinking person’s) favorite movies.

    (Link may not load today — their server is slammed right now.)

  64. 64.

    Trollhattan

    Roger Ebert and Pauline Kael made me care about movies much more than had I never read them, and were of course the most fun when they broke out the hammer and tongs.

    I got the sense that he and Siskel only tolerated one another, which made watching them all the more fun.

    But I placed a vastly higher value on Mr. Ebert when he challenged the Bushies during their powermad xenith. Truth to power, that’s our Roger. We’ve lost a lot.

    “That the president of the United States cannot get himself from his bulletproof Cadillac limousine to lunch with the queen without being caught in the rain is perhaps an insight into his need for a missile shield…. George W. Bush was so indifferent to the world that in the years before he became president he made only two overseas trips, both for business, neither for curiosity. No wonder he wants to beak the missile treaty, alienate NATO, ignore global warming and reinstall Russia and China as enemies: Those foreign countries scarcely exist in his imagination. Why go to Australia when you have the Outback Steakhouse right here at home?… The Times [of London] … said Bush gave a ‘pep talk’ to children about the advantages of reading over television. The children did not ask him to name the last book he had read. Just good manners, I guess.”

  65. 65.

    Susan S

    “Cancer is a mean disease.” “He had bad luck.” Those two statements sum up the reality that Roger Ebert faced and actually, conquered..he left this life with grace and dignity. When I saw that he had passed this morning, I was happy for him..”Cancer is a mean disease. Those words were spoken by a friend of mine, a gruff attorney who had lost his 17 year old son to cancer after years of battling an aggressive, evil cancer. He said when you see someone you love in so much pain, it is almost a relief when they can finally let go.

    The last, that he had “bad luck” is how my friend, a brilliant surgeon and a world famous expert on a rare and often fatal cancer..describes the battle with this foe..good luck and bad. Roger Ebert gave the world charm and insight..we should all do so well before we go.

  66. 66.

    Ted & Hellen

    It’s a cliche, but very true in this case I think: RE had suffered quite enough and I am glad for him that all that pain and misery is done.

  68. 68.

    MikeJ

    @KXB:

    it was great to read reviews by someone who did not always resort to the notion that all current movies pale next to the classics.

    I appreciated the fact that he could enjoy a popcorn movie for what it was. I seem to remember the first Tomb Raider movie as one he enjoyed and his opposite number hated.

  69. 69.

    dance around in your bones

    @Mnemosyne: Yep, not loading. Will try later. eta: Ah! The Apartment!

    Your clip up above was hysterical. Siskel looks drunk, or punch-drunk. Ebert is handling it with his usual aplomb.

  70. 70.

    the Conster

    Yet, that ghoul Cheney still lives. If I wasn’t sure before, I sure am now that there is no god. Fuck you, cancer. RIP Roger, you did real good.

  77. 77.

    Linnaeus

    I know he wrote about how he lived a full life and didn’t fear death (and good on him), but I still say he was taken from us too soon.

  79. 79.

    Suffern ACE

    @Hungry Joe: “I may someday lose weight. But you will always be bald.” or something like that. I liked better when they were a bit cranky.

  81. 81.

    El Tiburon

    Got word that a high school
    Classmate (class of 85) just died after his battle with cancer. We were never good friends and only were in contact due to Facebook. His death and Ebert’s death kind of affected me the same way. I remember watching Siskel & Ebert as a kid so he was always a presence in my life.

    Fuck does cancer suck.

  82. 82.

    ranchandsyrup

    @Trollhattan: you’re on it. Hoft only calls him a “liberal”, but his moronic commentariat gets nasty about it. “Raging leftist douchebag” lots o’ “Karma!” mentions, “Ebert is a sour, bitter man”, etc.

  83. 83.

    ruemara

    This has made me tear up since I found out. Such a tremendous talent. He will be missed. And, frankly, that’s how I’d like to go out. Decades of great work behind me and plans for the future.

  84. 84.

    SatanicPanic

    @ranchandsyrup: I’m gonna take a pass on that one. It’s pretty pathetic that those people are going to go after someone just for having a difference of opinion. It’s not like Ebert bombed anyone.

  85. 85.

    SiubhanDuinne

    This news saddens me terribly. I agree with all the comments that say, basically, he told us not only what he liked/disliked, but why.

    He was only a few weeks my senior, and we both grew up in Illinois, so — however tenuous or superficial — I felt a connection. And he was a wonderful writer. I loved his autobiography, and his blog, and his great human spirit.

    Condolences to his beloved Chaz and to his many fans.

  86. 86.

    Bubblegum Tate

    @ranchandsyrup:

    Yeah, Breitbart’s Merry Band of Oxygen-Wastes are doing the same thing. Must suck to live a life so stupid and hateful…

  88. 88.

    The Moar You Know

    Even when you disagreed with him, he was always worth reading because he sure could write.

    @Certified Mutant Enemy: Boy, no shit. The man earned his fucking Pulitzer.

    I’m not a big movie guy but he was worth reading just because he tore it up.

  89. 89.

    Mnemosyne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    One of my favorite relatively recent stories from him (I can’t remember if it was an essay, a blog post, or a movie review) said that he had gone on vacation with Chaz and the grandkids to Hawaii and Chaz constantly reminded him to make sure he drank enough water so he wouldn’t dry up and blow away. And, of course, the grandkids spent most of the vacation gleefully monitoring him every morning to see if he’d dried up and blown away yet.

    So while I’m sure his family has many regrets at losing him so soon and we have many regrets, he seems to have been in a very comfortable place the last few years, which is what most of us hope for.

    (For the technical-minded, the grandkids were Chaz’s from her first marriage — she and Roger met and married long after either of them was of an age to have kids. But it sounds like he was absolutely Grandpa Roger to them.)

    (Slightly edited, also, too.)

  90. 90.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Donut:

    I swear I have no idea what you meant to type before your autocorrect went after it, but Interlox’s love for film is pretty awesome.

  91. 91.

    Comrade Jake

    Loved the guy, his reviews, and his politics. He will be missed.

    I’m not sure he ever really missed fantastically on a review, except for maybe Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

    BTW, if you’re ever looking for a movie to watch on Netflix streaming, check out Ebert’s recommendations. Lots of good ones there.

  92. 92.

    Suffern ACE

    @Bubblegum Tate: One is tempted to go there and state that they may have cut Breitburt Ebert down, but his supporters will fight back. We are Legion. Legion I tell you. Or maybe we’re Marshall. Who knows?

  93. 93.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Fuck. I always tended to agree with Ebert more than Siskel, but damned if they both didn’t make you think about what you were going to see. Cancer sucks.

  94. 94.

    Emma

    @WereBear: I spent my young adult years in Chicago. The “two guys arguing about movies” was a highlight of my tv watching. I probably didn’t watch two thirds of those movies, but I always enjoyed the arguments.

  95. 95.

    PurpleGirl

    Only this morning NY1 had a story about him and the return of cancer. Too soon, too soon. RIP.

  96. 96.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    @David Koch: I remember that then after they left they were replaced by 2 B-listers one I have forgotten and the other the odious Michael Medved( now a conservative talker who should know better despite his intelligence).
    I do think of the scene in Robert Townsend’s Hollywood Shuffle when Townsend and another actor did a cool take-off of Siskel and Ebert.

  97. 97.

    Politically Lost

    @Amir Khalid:

    Now I remember why that stuck in my head all these years. Man, that was one of the funniest things I had ever read.

  98. 98.

    The Moar You Know

    The Mighty Tbogg pointed out on the twitters that the Dumbest Commenters on Earth at Jim Hoft’s joint, have plenty of crappy things to say about Mr. Ebert.

    @ranchandsyrup:

    1. Not getting off the boat. Anyone who would take a crap on Roger Ebert isn’t worthy of the term “human being”.
    2. Shit, I just find out reading this thread that he was a liberal. Had no idea, thought he was one of those really talented people who, as so many of the truly talented do, don’t have time for politics because they’re doing something awesome.

  99. 99.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne: What a great story! I do think he was fully at peace with his situation. He obviously relished life and living, and he wrote on several occasions that he didn’t fear death. I hope it was the easiest possible passing, and although I’m not a Believer, I’d like to think that Siskel has the popcorn and swivel theatre chairs all ready and waiting for a glorious night at the movies.

  100. 100.

    Lokahi

    @Darkrose: I was a lowly newswriter at WBBM-TV in the 1970s (where Siskel was our resident film critic), and had the pleasure of occasionally crossing cocktail glasses with Roger in making after-work rounds of legendary Chicago journalism watering holes. As the Sun-Times wrote today, it was an amazing time:

    Ebert plunged into what turned out to be a mini-golden age of Chicago journalism. He found himself befriended by Mike Royko — with whom he wrote a unproduced screenplay. He drank with Royko, and with Nelson Algren and Studs Terkel.

    And it always was a joy when I was in Hawai‘i to listen to Roger opine about his craft and the industry at the Hawai‘i International Film Festival, which he attended year after year in the 90s and 2000s. His presentations were always packed and truly delightful.

    He and Siskel were quite a pair…

  101. 101.

    Bruce S

    Was intrigued by the reference to his Pearl Harbor review so I looked it up. It’s even better than suggested:

    “Pearl Harbor” is a two-hour movie squeezed into three hours, about how on Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese staged a surprise attack on an American love triangle. Its centerpiece is 40 minutes of redundant special effects, surrounded by a love story of stunning banality. The film has been directed without grace, vision, or originality, and although you may walk out quoting lines of dialog, it will not be because you admire them. The filmmakers seem to have aimed the film at an audience that may not have heard of Pearl Harbor, or perhaps even of World War Two

  103. 103.

    Trollhattan

    @ranchandsyrup:

    The mindset is soooo predictable and simple–it’s easy to be a wingnut. You have to master roughly two moods and five talking points. Done!

    Local paper has a web story today about the FD rescuing a dog who tumbled down a riverside bluff after the trail gave way, and the firstest comment was “Ah beddur not haffa PAY fur dat!”

  104. 104.

    MikeJ

    @Comrade Jake:

    I’m not sure he ever really missed fantastically on a review, except for maybe Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

    You’re not saying he liked that dreck, are you?

  105. 105.

    Darkrose

    @Lokahi: I never thought of it that way, but that really was a golden age for journalism in Chicago. Certainly, Royko and Siskel were a big part of why I wanted to be a journalist for so many years.

  109. 109.

    Violet

    Such a huge loss. I remember the old Siskel and Ebert show. What a treasure that was. RIP, Roger. You made it count.

  110. 110.

    EconWatcher

    This completely sucks. He’s one of people I thought of as a friend even though I never met him.

    In the last couple of years, we’ve lost my dad way too young and my wife’s best friend at a ludicrously young age to this vile disease.

    I can’t resist thinking where we might be if we’d taken a pass on Iraq and spent the money on cancer instead. But then I have to think of something else, because I get too PO’ed.

  112. 112.

    KXB

    @Lokahi:

    Every now and then, I like to use the way-back machine (YouTube) to look up some old evening news clips from when I was a kid in the 70’s & 80’s. I’m not sure it was a golden age, but it was a time when each station seemed to have their own flavor. WBBM felt and looked different than WLS. Each station had their own cameramen and editors, while now in many cases they all use the same video footage. As media became more national, local flavor seemed to lose out. Now, it is hard to tell the difference among local news casts not just within a city like Chicago, but even between cities like Chicago, NY, and DC.

  113. 113.

    Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn

    @ranchandsyrup: I somehow find myself not caring what the underbelly poxed and festering anus of humanity thinks about the passing of someone who I can only wish I could be like when I grow up.

  114. 114.

    Trollhattan

    @Darkrose:

    Yes [sigh]. I KNOW better, but when the article is shorter than the screen height there they are, like a backed-up toilet.

  115. 115.

    Felonius Monk

    Will Chicago ever be the same without Siskel & Ebert, Royko, and Terkel?

    Don’t see anyone capable of picking up their pencils and walking in their shoes!

    RIP, Roger. We will miss your reviews, your wit and your sharp tongue.

  117. 117.

    Trollhattan

    @ranchandsyrup:

    You’d think. I suppose next stop is they can only respond to fires at taxpayer homes and businesses. And where have I heard of that one, before?

  121. 121.

    Xantar

    The Onion nails it once again.

    Roger Ebert Hails Human Existence As “A Triumph”

    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,”

  122. 122.

    Bobby Thomson

    An excellent writer, even when his reviews were off. We’re lucky that he wrote so prolifically while he was with us. And he was one tough sumbitch.

    God fucking damn it.

  124. 124.

    Del

    I’ll admit, I never really did pay attention to Ebert’s film reviews and, hell, his entries on the “are video games art?” question ticked me on occasion. But that aside once I found out about Ebert’s online presence and started reading his posts I quickly realized I was in love with the guy. His entry “Go Gently Into That Good Night” may be a few years old but it still brings me to tears, even more so today. I’m only 28 and I’ll probably never have children of my own, but I can only hope to have his outlook when my time comes.

  126. 126.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    @Mr Stagger Lee:

    I do think of the scene in Robert Townsend’s Hollywood Shuffle when Townsend and another actor did a cool take-off of Siskel and Ebert.

    We give Dirty Larry The Finger!

  128. 128.

    YellowJournalism

    @Bruce S: I don’t know why reading that made me laugh and cry at the same time.

    Wait, I do. I’m truly going to miss that man. He was one of my childhood heroes. I was touched that he would take the time to email his readers even about the silliest little questions like he did for me once.

    The last great film critic.

  131. 131.

    gnomedad

    This is great:

    I had a colonoscopy once, and they let me watch it on TV. It was more entertaining than The Brown Bunny.
    —
    When the movie’s director responded by mocking Ebert’s weight, Ebert said, “It is true that I am fat, but one day I will be thin, and he will still be the director of The Brown Bunny.”

  134. 134.

    Lokahi

    @Darkrose: I agree. Unfortunately, it went downhill rapidly thereafter, which I guess is why I’m a former journalist…

    But Ebert, among others, kept the flame burning brightly all through his life, and for that I’m grateful.

    (edited to correct premature transmission)

  135. 135.

    YellowJournalism

    @Xantar: The only way that could have been more perfect if they had found a way to add “meet-cute” in there.

  136. 136.

    mai naem

    I heard this this AM on the radio. I loved Roger Ebert.I went to the website a couple times a week and enjoyed his twitter feed. What a talented writer. What a loss. I am going to miss this guy. 70 is way too young.

  137. 137.

    Ken J.

    I loved Roger Ebert the most for his primary profession. He was my most reliable source of movie recommendations, especially for small art movies and foreign films. A 3- or 4-star rating from Roger and I would make a point to see the movie when it would hit the local art theater. Case in point: the recent Judge Dee martial-arts mystery, which I never would have heard about otherwise.

    As an honest-to-god science fiction fan who published fanzines in his teenage years, Roger Ebert was a reliable guide in the science fiction and fantasy field. I also cherished his ability to point out the distinction between a fun trashy movie which succeeds at its low entertainment level, and a stupid trashy movie. His review of the disaster movie “2012” is a perfect example, one I cherish.

    I remember this quote well, and I had to look it up at chizeck.com. Ebert quoted Pauline Kael: “Movies are so rarely great art, that if we cannot appreciate great TRASH, we have very little reason to be interested in them.”

    Thank you for all the good times, Roger Ebert.

  138. 138.

    JasonF

    We also lost Carmine Infantino today. For those who don’t know, Infantino was one of the last remaining pillars of the Silver Age of comic books. He co-created the Flash, Batgirl, and various other characters over the course of a career that spanned six decades.

    Two men who were legends in their field. RIP, Roger and Carmine.

  139. 139.

    CaseyL

    I gasped when I saw the news this morning. Terrible shock, though it shouldn’t have been. His widow says they were getting ready to go home for hospice care when he died, so clearly his time was drawing short in any case.

    I loved Siskel and Ebert, and was overjoyed I found out Ebert had a blog. His writing was – no; is – remarkable for its precision and honesty.

    He struck me as someone who was totally engaged in being alive. Always busy, very busy, on work he loved. Always very present to his (enormous) circle of friends and colleagues. Kind of funny, that he was so present and energetic and engaged when watching movies is a silent, sitting, solitary thing.

    I’ll miss him. Anyone who loves movies, wit, and fearless writing will miss him.

  141. 141.

    normal liberal

    @Lokahi:
    I would have given a lot to be at the next table from Ebert, Royko and Studs, but I couldn’t have kept up with the drinks. (Royko once wrote a column about designer checks that I still quote. And Studs, well, was there a more American voice? It’s a Chicago thing that a movie critic was also a regular guy.)

    I’d forgotten about the Steak n Shake thing. (I once worked at the original location, so I have no excuse.). It’s too late tonight, but tomorrow a steakburger and an orange freeze in honor of Mr. Ebert.

    This may double-post, since my wifi just crapped out. Sorry.

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