Legendary film critic Roger Ebert died yesterday after a lengthy cancer battle. He was 70.
His career was an incredibly interesting one that evolved almost nonstop for more than 40 years. Posting about a deceased celebrity isn’t common practice for What’s Up Movement, but Ebert’s life and career is worth noting because without him, it’s possible that the process of critiquing films would look very different. If you’re interested, I encourage you to read his obituary in his own paper, the Chicago Sun-Times, to learn just how successful he was in bringing film reviews to mainstream America through journalism, television and the internet.
While the idea of turning my film hobby into a website and an exercise in writing can be credited to my mother, my oldest memories of rating movies was in association with Ebert and his rival/friend Gene Siskel on their PBS show “At the Movies.” Maybe it came on after Sesame Street or maybe my parents actively sought it out, I don’t know. But I remember watching the show at a very young age. The two were the odd couple. Siskel was tall and thin, Ebert shorter and stockier. Then when it became Ebert and Roeper after Siskel’s death, I watched even more often. The second pair argued much less if I recall correctly.
“At the Movies” had such influence that the definitive review that films sought was the pair’s signature two thumbs up. I actually borrowed a movie from the library recently (How old am I?) and above the title in bold type face was “Two Thumbs Up- Siskel & Ebert.” Since the show last went off the air there has been no successor to this prominent position. The rating was universal. Three options: good (two thumbs up), bad (two thumbs down) or so-so (one up, one down). Everyone understood. Now studios go with out of context snippets from reviews. (“Best Movie Ever!” says the cashier in the supermarket.) It just doesn’t hold the same weight. The two were so iconic that one of my favorite movies growing up, Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla even featured two characters with similar names and builds to Siskel and Ebert. They were the mayor and his assistant. Siskel and Ebert still panned the film.
In 2012 when I decided to change the grading system for What’s Up Movement film reviews, I researched what methods the prominent critics used. I went back and forth until I came across an essay by Ebert where he talked about his process trying to solve the same problem of rating movies. He mentioned that he preferred a 5 star system to four because some movies fall in that middle area. Four stars splits the options to either good or bad. As a self-proclaimed optimistic film critic, that made a lot of sense to me. You’ll notice we now have a 5 Arrow system here at W^M.
In the last act of Ebert’s career he became a prominent blogger building a huge web presence. To be honest, I very rarely read his blog or his reviews because it was near impossible to read his thoughts on a movie and not recycle his words into my own work. It may sound strange, but I was a fan, so I didn’t read his reviews. On the rare occasion I did, his points would immediately poke holes in what I believed to be a sound case for a film.
The headlines and coverage of Ebert’s death probably seem a bit odd for the casual moviegoer or non-fan, but Roger Ebert really was the most prominent film critic in history. He changed reviews from just a rehashing of the plot and characters into a commentary filled with jokes and opinions. I’d say he deserves one more day in the spotlight.
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