In memory of the famed film critic Roger Ebert

And so we must now say farewell to yet another icon of the film industry, as only a week ago we lost the irrepressible film journalist Roger Ebert. I would have written this article closer to his passing, but I've been absent some of this week. However, a delayed tribute cannot deter us from remembering a brilliant man, who was so honest and relentless in his reviewing technique.

In the late 60s, Roger starting critiquing movies for the Chicago Sun-Times, quickly earning a reputation as an artist of the form. Around this time, even the legendary Pauline Kael stated that Roger's columns were "the best film criticism being done in American newspapers today".

Leading into the 70's he also dabbled in books, screenplays and even guest lectured on film, until his first major step as the critic we now know him as today began when he start co-hosting a weekly review show, Sneak Previews. A few years later he would meet his "partner-in-whine" Gene Siskel, and they worked together in the decades that followed on a number of self named shows until up Siskel's death in February 1999. It was in these years that the pair coined their famous "thumbs up/thumbs down" scoring system, which sometimes followed some hefty and comical debates between the two thanks to their natural chemistry and charm (they even trademarked their phrase "Two thumbs up"!).

His forward views have generated some incredibly humorous articles, with memorable phrases, so below I have included some quotes from his work over the years for your amusement. Yet, Ebert's reputation was also held together by so much more than his wit. He has established himself in film critic history with his truism approach to journalism: always being direct with his comments, displaying his own personality through his text, while still writing his articles from the perspective of the audience demographic that a film is targeted to. He has been an influence to many a critic, and as a fledgling reviewer myself I have always been inspired by his method and technique. Roger, I salute you...with two thumbs up!

Quotes from some of Roger Ebert's most memorably scathing reviews...

"Young men: If you attend this crap with friends who admire it, tactfully inform them they are idiots. Young women: If your date likes this movie, tell him you’ve been thinking it over, and you think you should consider spending some time apart"

Battle: Los Angeles (2011)

“Going to see Godzilla at the Palais of the Cannes Film Festival is like attending a satanic ritual in St. Peter’s Basilica…It was the festival’s closing film, coming at the end like the horses in a parade, perhaps for the same reason.”

 Godzilla (1998)

“Here it is at last, the first 150-minute trailer. Armageddon is cut together like its own highlights. Take almost any 30 seconds at random, and you’d have a TV ad. The movie is an assault on the eyes, the ears, the brain, common sense, and the human desire to be entertained. No matter what they’re charging to get in, it’s worth more to get out.”

Armageddon (1998)

“During a rehearsal scene, their director tells them, with such truth that we may be hearing a secret message from the screenwriter, ‘That was absolutely perfect — without being actually any good.’ Spice World is obviously intended as a ripoff of A Hard Day’s Night which gave The Beatles to the movies…the huge difference, of course, is that the Beatles were talented — while, let’s face it, the Spice Girls could be duplicated by any five women under the age of 30 standing in line at Dunkin’ Donuts.”

Spice World (1997)

“Some of the acting is better than the film deserves. Make that all of the acting. Actually, the film stock itself is better than the film deserves. You know when sometimes a film catches fire inside a projector? If it happened with this one, I suspect the audience might cheer.”

Revolver (2005)

“If you want to save yourself the ticket price, go into the kitchen, cue up a male choir singing the music of hell, and get a kid to start banging pots and pans together. Then close your eyes and use your imagination… The movie has been signed by Michael Bay. This is the same man who directed The Rock in 1996. Now he has made Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Faust made a better deal.”

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen (2010)

“’This sucks on so many levels.’ Dialogue from Jason X; rare for a movie to so frankly describe itself. Jason X sucks on the levels of storytelling, character development, suspense, special effects, originality, punctuation, neatness and aptness of thought.”

Jason X (2001)

 “This movie doesn’t scrape the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn’t the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn’t below the bottom of the barrel. This movie doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with barrels.”

Freddie Got Fingered (2001)

"To call it an anticlimax would be an insult not only to climaxes but to prefixes. It's a crummy secret, about one step up the ladder of narrative originality from It Was All a Dream. It's so witless, in fact, that when we do discover the secret, we want to rewind the film so we don't know the secret anymore.

 "And then keep on rewinding, and rewinding, until we're back at the beginning, and can get up from our seats and walk backward out of the theater and go down the up escalator and watch the money spring from the cash register into our pockets."

The Village (2004)

Simply brilliant! We'll really miss you Roger!

"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."

Roger Ebert, final blog post Tuesday 2nd April 2013

 

Roger Ebert (1942 - 2013) R.I.P.

 

 

Please feel free to share your views on Roger Ebert and his vibrant career by posting in the comments section below.