Roger Ebert: Difference between revisions

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[http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/ Roger Ebert] (born 1942-2013) iswas [[Film]] reviewer-in-chief at the ''Chicago Sun-Times'', and has been since [[The Sixties|1967]]. In itself, that would make him important as the elder statesman of film criticism.

In 1975, Ebert teamed up with [[Gene Siskel]], reviewer-in-chief at the ''Chicago Tribune'', to present a film review program called ''Sneak Previews'' on the local PBS station. The program went to national syndication in 1978; in 1982 [[Siskel and Ebert]] moved to a new network and a new but very similar program called ''At The Movies with Siskel and Ebert'' (or vice versa). Unexpectedly, this made him one of the two most important movie critics in America. Because the show was televised, [[Rule of Perception|many more Americans saw it]] than read the reviews in the newspapers; because Ebert and Siskel had credentials in real newspapers in a major city first, and didn't review every movie favorably, they could be taken more seriously than most other movie reviewers on television. Siskel and Ebert's passive-aggressive chemistry was the stuff of legend. It was often thought that due their occasionally hostile on-screen presence when they disagreed, that the two hated each other. However, both considered the other a close friend, even if their relationship was competitive by nature. In fact, on the tenth anniversary of Siskel's death in 2009, Ebert posted a [https://web.archive.org/web/20130207203819/http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2009/02/i_remember_gene.html touching remembrance] of his friend on his blog.

When Siskel [[Author Existence Failure|died in 1999]], Ebert kept on the show with guest hosts until it was settled that it would be ''At The Movies with Ebert and Roeper'', with Richard Roeper, another ''Chicago Sun-Times'' critic. This made him the most important living movie critic in America. The show ended in 2008 partially because his throat cancer was preventing him from doing most of the episodes for over a year and a half. (To do film reviews on television, you have to be able to speak). Sadly, due to a few surgeries that successfully eradicated his cancer, Ebert hashad lost the ability to speak entirely and part of his lower jaw hashad been removed. CurrentlyBy the end he "speaksspoke" via handwritten notes and a computer text-to-speech program. In 2010, a Scottish company had created a voice similar to Ebert's own for him to use as his new "voice", using his DVD commentaries (and not his tv show, since there was always background movie noise and Gene Siskel/Richard Roeper interrupting him) and other similar recordings. Furthermore, his last treatments were so tough going with so much physical cost, he hashad vowed that if the cancer reemerges, he willwould let it take its course unto death.

In 2011, to replace the new ''At the Movies'' which had been canceled by its distributor, Ebert and his wife Chaz started their own movie review show on [[PBS]] called ''Ebert Presents At The Movies'' hosted by Christy Lemire of the Associated Press and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of Mubi, which followsfollowed largely the same format as Ebert's other shows. Ebert himself appearsappeared in a segment on the show called "Roger's Office" which featuresfeatured voice over narration (either with the help of either his new "voice", or a famous friend such as Werner Herzog or Bill Curtis) of one of his recent reviews or musings.

Ebert still writeswrote weekly review columns as well as a daily blog and maintainsmaintained a very active Twitter account, and every single one of his reviews are available on the Internet, where he iswas still an influential force in movie criticism's new dominant medium. In recent years, he hashad also picked up a reputation for being soft on movies; however, his wrath, when deployed, iswas [[North|legendary]]. ''I Hated, Hated, HATED This Movie!'' and ''Your Movie Sucks'' are two compilations of his two star and under reviews; a third, titled ''A Horrible Experience of Unbearable Length'', haswas beenreleased announced for springin 2012.

Roger Ebert hashad been printing compilations of his movie reviews every year on the year since [[The Eighties]]. The series is still going. Also Ebert hashad written three books of essays about his favorite movies entitled ''The Great Movies'', with these essays also available on his website in a condensed form.

He has also writtenwrote ''Ebert's Little Movie Glossary'' and ''Ebert's Bigger Little Movie Glossary'', which are books of [[Film Tropes]] in [[Devils Dictionary]] form. (An even bigger movie glossary is on his web page.) They could be considered a proto-[[TV Tropes]] in a sense (and the [[Trope Namer]] for many).

Another column he keepskeeped up with iswas "The Movie Answer-Man", where he addresses various topics given to him by reader comments. Sometimes addressing fandom aspects like...

* One reader comment said that a positive review of a certain film gave him [[Hype Backlash]] while a negative review of another film [[Bile Fascination|made him want to see it]]. Ebert's reply was that a critic's job is not to pass judgement on a particular movie, but to give the reader an impression as to whether or not they would want to see it themselves.

* Another review [[In -Universe|he addressed the]] [[Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny]] where one comment said that [[X-Men|Wolverine would beat Storm]] in a fight because he could heal, whereas Storm would die once stabbed by Wolverine. His reply was simply a question of how could someone whose power is [[Good Thing You Can Heal|healing]] be more powerful than someone who can ''[[Elemental Powers|control the elements]].''

He has also writtenwrote many books on great films. He hashad been one of the great proponents of film preservation, letterboxing (back when most televisions were square and most movies in theaters weren't), and giving credit to directors and screenwriters; he probably helped make these issues important. He hashad also been a proponent of seeing films ''in'' theaters, but he's had accepted modern viewing habits enough to write [[DVD]] reviews. He hashad done a few [[DVD Commentary|audio commentaries]] notably ones for two of his all time favorite films, ''[[Citizen Kane (Film)|Citizen Kane]]'' and ''[[Dark City]]'', which have appeared on most releases of those films on DVD.

He was one of the major opponents to Colorization. He often likes [[Deliberately Monochrome]] films, and ones that were monochrome because of when they were made, because of the light and shadow effects. He has also protested censorship in the name of [[Avoid the Dreaded G Rating]] or avoiding the dreaded X/NC-17 rating. While he advocated for years for a properly copyrighted '''A''' rating to replace X since that sound more respectable, he had hoped NC-17 would become a respectable alternative, and was disappointed when it didn't. He's was critical of what he sees as an overuse of 3D technology in recent movies.

He was screenwriter for a notoriously bad film, ''[[Beyond the Valley of Thethe Dolls]]''. Since that film was released in 1970, this hasn't affected his stature as a critic much. [https://web.archive.org/web/20121019035505/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19700101/REVIEWS/708110301/1023%2F19700101%2FREVIEWS%2F708110301%2F1023 He makes fun of it himself, but says he's proud of it regardless.]

Gained a bit of flak from the gamer community when [https://web.archive.org/web/20111010001841/http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/04/video_games_can_never_be_art.html he commented video games not being an art form], but [https://web.archive.org/web/20100811003526/http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/07/okay_kids_play_on_my_lawn.html he eventually came around] and at least decided he's was not in a position to judge them. Despite that episode, he iswas considered as the most [[One of Us]] of major critics, as he admiresadmired [[Anime|Japanese animated film]] and hashad an incredible knowledge of science fiction, which iswas among his favorite genres. While he claims ignorance to a lot of TV shows due to his heavy schedule of writing and watching films, he's found time to become a fan of the WWE, ''[[South Park]]'', and ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''.

Also a master at uncovering the [[Freeze -Frame Bonus]] -- for years, he would spend a week at the University of Colorado's World Affairs Conference dissecting a film frame-by-frame with an audience's help to reveal small details.

Incidentally, [https://web.archive.org/web/20071011143706/http://academic.sun.ac.za/forlang/bergman/tech/glossary/ebert_glos.htm described several tropes decades before TV Tropes even came into existance].

The website of his newlast show can be found [https://web.archive.org/web/20131022043219/http://www.ebertpresents.com/ here] and there's an archive of the old ''Siskel & Ebert'' episodes [http://siskelandebert.org/ here].

* [[Animation Age Ghetto]]

* [[Belle Dede Jour]]

* [[The Big Sleep (Filmfilm)|The Big Sleep]]

* [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]]

* [[Hou Hsiao -Hsien]]

* [[Idiot Plot]]

* [[It's Not Supposed to Win Oscars]]

* [[Lost in Translation (Filmfilm)|Lost in Translation]]

* [[Perma -Stubble]]

* [[TradesnarkTradesnark™]]

[[Category:NotableAuthors Quotablesof Quote]]