Roger Ebert

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Roger Ebert

Russ Meyer (left) and Roger Ebert (right) (1970)
Born: June 18, 1942 (age 64)
Flag of United States Urbana, Illinois, USA
Occupation: film critic
Nationality: American
Subjects: film
Website: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com

Roger Joseph Ebert (born June 18, 1942) is a Pulitzer Prize winning American film critic. He is best known for his weekly review column (appearing in the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967, and later online,[1] and for the television program Siskel & Ebert, which he co-hosted for 23 years with Gene Siskel. Since Siskel's death, he has co-hosted Ebert & Roeper with Richard Roeper.

Ebert's movie reviews are syndicated to more than 200 newspapers in the United States and abroad. He has written more than 15 books, including his annual movie yearbook. In 1975, Ebert became the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. His television programs have also been widely syndicated, and have been nominated for Emmy awards. In February 1995, a section of Chicago's Erie Street was given the honorary name Siskel & Ebert Way, near the CBS Studios. Ebert was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in June 2005, the first professional film critic to receive one. He has honorary degrees from the University of Colorado, the American Film Institute, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Since 1994 he has written a Great Movies series of individual reviews of what he deems to be the most important films of all time. Since 1999 he has hosted the annual Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival in Champaign, Illinois.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Ebert was born in Urbana, Illinois. His interest in journalism began as a student at Urbana High School, where he was a sports writer for The News-Gazette in Champaign, Illinois. However, he began his writing career with letters of comment to the science fiction fanzines of the era [2]. In his senior year he was co-editor of his high school newspaper, The Echo.

In 1958, Ebert won the Illinois High School Association state speech championship in Radio Speaking, an event that simulates radio newscasts.[1]

Ebert received his undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was editor of The Daily Illini and member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. One of the first movie reviews he ever wrote was a review of La Dolce Vita, published in The Daily Illini in October 1961.[2]

Ebert did his graduate study in English at the University of Cape Town under a Rotary International Fellowship. He was a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Chicago when the film critic's position was offered to him by the Sun-Times.

[edit] Career as a critic

Ebert began his professional critic career in 1967, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times. In 1969, his review of Night of the Living Dead was published in Reader's Digest.

In 1976 he and Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune began co-hosting a weekly movie review television show, Sneak Previews, which was locally produced by the Chicago public broadcasting station WTTW. The show was picked up by PBS in 1978 for national distribution. In 1982, the critics moved to a syndicated commercial television show named At the Movies, and later, Siskel & Ebert & The Movies, where they were known for their "thumbs up/thumbs down" review summaries. When Siskel died in 1999, the producers retitled the show Roger Ebert & the Movies with rotating co-hosts. In September of 2000, fellow Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper became the permanent co-host and the show was renamed Ebert & Roeper.

Ebert has also done DVD audio-commentaries for several films including Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Dark City, Floating Weeds, Crumb, and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (for which Ebert also wrote the screenplay, based on a story that he co-wrote with Russ Meyer).

On the day of the Academy Awards, Ebert and Roeper typically appear on the live pre-awards show, An Evening at the Academy Awards: The Arrivals. This airs prior to the awards ceremony show, which also features red carpet interviews and fashion commentary. Ebert and Roeper also appear on the post-awards show entitled An Evening at the Academy Awards: the Winners. Both shows are produced by ABC's Los Angeles station KABC-TV, and are simulcast on ABC's Chicago station WLS-TV and several other ABC affiliates.

[edit] Other career highlights

As a teenager, Ebert was involved in science fiction fandom,[3] writing articles for fanzines, including Richard A. Lupoff's Xero.

Ebert co-wrote the screenplay for the 1970 cult film, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, directed by Russ Meyer, and likes to joke about being responsible for the poorly received film. Ebert and Meyer also made Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens and were involved in the ill-fated Sex Pistols movie Who Killed Bambi?

[edit] Style of criticism

Ebert has described his critical approach to films as "relative, not absolute"; he reviews a film for what he feels will be its prospective audience, but always with at least some consideration as to its value towards film as a whole.

“ When you ask a friend if Hellboy is any good, you're not asking if it's any good compared to Mystic River, you're asking if it's any good compared to The Punisher. And my answer would be, on a scale of one to four, if Superman is four, then Hellboy is three and The Punisher is two. In the same way, if American Beauty gets four stars, then (The United States of) Leland clocks in at about two.[4] ”

Ebert has emphasized that his star ratings have little meaning if not considered in the context of the review itself. Occasionally (as in his review of Basic Instinct 2), Ebert's star rating may seem at odds with his written opinion. Ebert has acknowledged such cases, stating "I cannot recommend the movie, but ... why the hell can't I? Just because it's God-awful? What kind of reason is that for staying away from a movie? God-awful and boring, that would be a reason."[5] In his review of The Manson Family, he gave the film three stars for achieving what it set out to do, but admitted that didn't count as a recommendation per se.

Ebert has reprinted his starred reviews in movie guides. During his appearances on Howard Stern's radio show, he was frequently challenged to defend his ratings. Ebert stood by his opinions with one notable exception: when Stern pointed out that he'd given The Godfather Part II a three-star rating, but had given The Godfather Part III three and a half stars.

Like Pauline Kael, Ebert has occasionally accused some films of having an unwholesome political agenda, and the word 'fascist' accompanied more than one of Ebert's reviews of the law-and-order films of the 1970s (such as Dirty Harry). He is also suspicious of films which appear to have hypocritical agendas — i.e., a confrontational film that is passed off as art, but is merely lurid and sensational; Ebert has levelled this charge against such films as The Night Porter and Blue Velvet.

Ebert's reviews can clash with the overall reception of movies, as evidenced by his negative review of the 1988 Bruce Willis action film Die Hard. Ebert often makes heavy use of mocking sarcasm, especially when reviewing movies he considers bad. Nonetheless he is often direct, famously in his review of the 1994 Rob Reiner comedy North, which he concluded by writing that:

“ I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie. Hated it. Hated every simpering stupid vacant audience-insulting moment of it. Hated the sensibility that thought anyone would like it. Hated the implied insult to the audience by its belief that anyone would be entertained by it.[6] ”

Ebert's reviews are also often characterized by dry wit, and a marked distaste for films that feature violence in support of authority. He has occasionally written reviews in the forms of stories, poems, songs, scripts, or imagined conversations. He has written many essays and articles exploring the field of film criticism in depth.

[edit] Public policy

Ebert is an outspoken opponent of the Motion Picture Association of America rating system (he often uses the negative epithet "flywheels" to describe their arbitrary nature). He has repeatedly criticized their decisions regarding which movies are "suitable for children." For example, Whale Rider[7] and School of Rock[8] were both rated PG-13 (unsuitable for children under the age of thirteen), while he thought both were inoffensive enough for schoolchildren and contained positive messages for that age group. In his review of The Exorcist, Ebert said it was "stupefying" that the film received a rating of "R" from the MPAA instead of an "X" (suitable only for adults). He has frequently argued that the MPAA is more likely to give an "R" rating for (what he considers) mild sexual content than for (what he considers) highly violent content. He also frequently laments that cinemas outside major cities are "booked by computer from Hollywood with no regard for local tastes", making high-quality independent and foreign films virtually unavailable to most moviegoers.[9]

Ebert is a strong advocate for Maxivision 48, in which the movie projector runs at 48 frames per second, as compared to the usual 24 frames per second. He is opposed to the practice whereby theatres lower the intensity of their projector bulbs in order to extend the life of the bulb, arguing that this has no effect other than to make the film harder to see. [3]

[edit] Personal life

Roger Ebert, Peter O'Toole, and Jason Patric at the 2004 Savannah Film Festival
Roger Ebert, Peter O'Toole, and Jason Patric at the 2004 Savannah Film Festival

Since the 1970s he has worked for the University of Chicago as a guest lecturer, teaching a night class on film. His fall 2005 class was on the works of the German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

He married trial attorney Chaz Hammelsmith on July 18, 1993 and has a step-daughter and two step-grandchildren. He has been friends with, and at one time dated, Oprah Winfrey, who credits him with encouraging her to go into syndication.[10] He is also good friends with film historian and critic Leonard Maltin, and considers the book Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide to be the standard of film guide books.

A supporter of the Democratic Party,[11] Ebert publicly urged left-wing activist and film-maker Michael Moore to give a politically-charged acceptance speech at the Academy Awards: "I'd like to see Michael Moore get up there and let 'em have it with both barrels and really let loose and give them a real rabble-rousing speech."[12]

A lifelong Catholic, Ebert has also been critical of films he believes are grossly ignorant or insulting of Catholicism (such as Stigmata[13] or Priest), though he gave favorable reviews of The Passion of the Christ,[14] Martin Scorsese's controversial The Last Temptation of Christ (which many Catholics denounced), and to Kevin Smith's religious satire Dogma.[15]

[edit] Battle with cancer

In 2002, Ebert suffered a bout of papillary thyroid cancer. He underwent surgery in February 2002, which successfully removed the cancer. He later underwent surgery in 2003 for cancer in his salivary gland. In December 2003, he underwent a four-week course of radiation treatment as a followup to the surgery on his salivary gland, which altered his voice slightly. He continued to review movies, not missing a single opening while undergoing treatment.

He underwent further surgery Friday, June 16, 2006, just two days before his 64th birthday, to remove cancer near his right jaw, including a section of jaw bone.[16]

On July 1, that same year, Ebert was hospitalized in serious condition after an artery burst near the surgery site; he later discovered that the burst was likely a side-effect of his treatment, which involved neutron beam radiation. He was subsequently kept bed-ridden while a means was sought to prevent future arterial problems.[16]

Ebert filmed enough TV programs with his co-host, Richard Roeper, to keep him on the air for several weeks. However, his extended convalescence has necessitated a series of "guest critics" to co-host with Roeper, including Jay Leno (a good friend to both Ebert and Roeper), Kevin Smith, John Ridley, Toni Senecal, Michael Phillips, Aisha Tyler, Fred Willard, Anne Thompson, A.O. Scott, and George Pennacchio.

An update from Ebert on October 11, 2006 confirmed his bleeding problems have been resolved. He is receiving rehabilitation care at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago to regain his lost muscle strength.

The first movie he reviewed after a three-month absence was The Queen. Since then he has reviewed Marie Antoinette, Man Push Cart, 49 Up, Stranger Than Fiction, Volver, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, and Black Snake Moan. He has also written an analysis of the 79th Academy Awards nominations and a predictions piece. In each he briefly comments on movies he's seen but hasn't yet reviewed including Babel, The Departed and Happy Feet. As of April 2007, there is no estimate as to when he will return to Ebert & Roeper; however, Ebert announced on April 4 that he will be present at his Overlooked Film Festival at the end of the month, and that he hopes "to gradually increase [his] duties in the months to come."[17]

[edit] Books written by Ebert

Each year, Ebert publishes Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook, a book containing all his movie reviews from the last three years, as well as essays and other writings. He has also authored the following books:

  • Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert (ISBN-10 0-226-18200-2) — a collection of essays from his forty years as a film critic, featuring interviews, profiles, essays, his initial reviews upon a film's release, as well as critical exchanges between the film critics Richard Corliss and Andrew Sarris
  • Ebert's "Bigger" Little Movie Glossary (ISBN 0-8362-8289-2) — a book of movie clichés
  • The Great Movies (ISBN 0-7679-1038-9) and The Great Movies II (ISBN 0-7679-1950-5) — two books of essays about great films
  • I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie (ISBN 0-7407-0672-1) — a collection of reviews of films that received two stars or fewer.
  • Roger Ebert's Book of Film (ISBN 0-393-04000-3) — a Norton Anthology of a century of writing about the movies
  • Questions For The Movie Answer Man (ISBN 0-8362-2894-4) — his responses to questions sent from his readers
  • Behind the Phantom's Mask (ISBN 0-8362-8021-0) — his first attempt at fiction.
  • An Illini Century (ASIN B0006OW26K) — the history of the first 100 years of the University of Illinois
  • The Perfect London Walk (ISBN 0-8362-7929-8) — a tour of Ebert's favorite foreign city

[edit] References

  1. ^ Roger Ebert in the IHSA list of state speech champions
  2. ^ Ebert's review of La Dolce Vita
  3. ^ See his autobiographical essay in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, "Thought Experiments: How Propeller-Heads, BNFs, Sercon Geeks, Newbies, Recovering GAFIAtors, and Kids in the Basements Invented the World Wide Web, All Except for the Delivery System."
  4. ^ Ebert's movie review of Shaolin Soccer
  5. ^ Ebert's movie review of Basic Instinct 2 (21 March 2006)
  6. ^ Ebert's movie review of North
  7. ^ Ebert's "Movie Answer Man column", November 16, 2003
  8. ^ Ebert, Roger (October 3, 2003) School of Rock, rogerebert.com
  9. ^ Ebert, Roger, "They got it right," Chicago Sun Times (29 Jan. 2004)
  10. ^ How I gave Oprah her start, Ebert, Roger; Chicago Sun-Times
  11. ^ http://www.newsmeat.com/media_political_donations/Roger_Ebert.php Ebert's political donations]
  12. ^ Interview with Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive, August 2003
  13. ^ Ebert's review of Stigmata
  14. ^ Ebert's review of The Passion of the Christ
  15. ^ Ebert's review of Dogma
  16. ^ a b August 17th E-mail from Roger, posted on his website
  17. ^ Ebert: Despite setbacks, I am feeling better every day

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:


Persondata
NAME Ebert, Roger Joseph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION American film critic
DATE OF BIRTH 18 June 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Urbana, Illinois
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
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