Last Thursday, beloved film critic Roger Ebert passed away due to cancer at age 70. This man was more than just a critic to a lot of people, including yours truly.
Every once in a while there is a person that changes the face of an organization, institution, sport or art form. Michael Jordan redefined what it meant to play the game of basketball. Babe Ruth challenged baseball players to aspire to new heights. Cecil B. DeMille and DW Griffith changed what it meant to be a filmmaker. Roger Ebert redefined what it meant to be a film critic.
Film criticism is still in a sort of infancy stage compared to other forms of journalism– much like film compared to other art forms. When the annals of criticism are examined and taught to future generations of journalists, as it surely will be, one name will stand out among the rest as being a game changer. And that is the name of Ebert.
As a boy, Ebert grew up in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. This is the place where Ebertfest – a film festival started by the man himself – takes place every year. Ebert was a famed columnist and critic for the Chicago Sun-Times for 46 years, where he quickly became a staple to local readers and readers all over the country.
Ebert became the first film critic to ever receive a Pulitzer Prize in 1975 and one of the few critics to actually make their own film (Ebert wrote the screenplay for the cult-classic “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls”).
But perhaps Ebert is most famous – along with the indispensable mind and talent of Chicago Tribune Gene Siskel (deceased in 1999) – for bringing film criticism from newspapers and magazines to the biggest stage available, television.
With the hit show, “Siskel and Ebert and the Movies” (formerly called “Sneak Previews”), the Chicago duo popularized the famous “thumbs up/thumbs down” way of rating films. For almost two decades, Siskel and Ebert defined what it meant to be film critics.
When Siskel tragically passed away, Ebert continued the show at first on his own with a plethora of guest critics until (amongst the guests) he found a new permanent foil in fellow Sun-Times writer, Richard Roeper.
The two continued the show (then titled “At the Movies with Ebert and Roeper”) until Ebert was forced to step away after cancer claimed his voice and jawline. Ebert continued to write for the Sun-Times, managed his own website, wrote several books, constantly Tweeted to his approximately 84,000 followers and reproduced a version of “At the Movies” now called “Roger Ebert Presents: At the Movies” on its original network, PBS.
Currently, director Martin Scorsese, a longtime friend of the critic, is working with Oscar-winning screenwriter Steve Zaillian (“Schindler’s List”) on a documentary about Ebert based on his autobiography “Life Itself.”
For me, Roger Ebert proved that there could be an art in talking about art. But mostly, he proved that film is a medium that deserves to be spoken about seriously, critiqued and validated all while having a blast at it.
Without Ebert, I don’t know if we would have as many people blogging or vlogging about movies. Without Ebert there is no Nostalgia Critic, Redlettermedia, Leonard Maltin’s “Maltin on Movies,” What the Flick show and certainly no Cinematic Sultan (my own film blog).
Ebert’s final column was printed on Sunday in the Sun-Times. He reviewed auteur filmmaker Terrence Malick’s “To the Wonder,” starring Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams. Ebert gave the film three and a half stars out of a possible four. It was a heart-breaking read for me, but I’m glad that Ebert got to see one last film that he seemed to truly enjoy before departing. Roger Ebert was laid to rest on Monday, April 8.
Today I formally say goodbye to a personal hero and a cultural icon.
Goodbye Mr. Ebert, I will forever miss your biting wit, keen observations and enduring intelligence. In a field that is now becoming muddled with so many voices, yours was the original.
May you rest in peace.
Brian Laughran
Viewpoints Editor