Roger Ebert's Death (1942-2013): Forefather Of Movie Blogging Passes Away

I've never been much of an obituary-writing guy, but Roger Ebert deserves to be celebrated.  So, rather than add to the hundreds of thousands of words that are about to be spent reexamining his remarkable life and career following his death today, I'm going to make one observation about his contribution to movie culture and then leave you with a clip that, I hope, will make you smile when you think of him.

My introduction to Ebert, and his equally mouthy partner in movie criticism, Gene Siskel, came via their thoroughly enjoyable syndicated television show At The Movies, which began as a PBS series in 1975, Sneak Previews, and eventually became Siskel and Ebert and The Movies from 1986 until 1999. (The year Siskel died.)  And though I'm quite aware that a) these guys were operating on television and b) blog culture was a long way off,  there's a real argument to be made that Siskel and Ebert are the real forefathers of the movie blog culture that exists today.

Siskel and Ebert: Proto-Movie Bloggers

Each week, they candidly curated a subjective list of movies that were opening that week.  They told the television audience which films were worth seeing and why,  which ones should be ignored, and which movies were worth actively seeking out at the video store if they weren't shown at the local cinema. And, by the way, their thumbs up or down system of rating movies was the proto-Rotten Tomatoes. As Roadside Attractions tweeted on Thursday afternoon: "Siskel & Ebert almost single-thumbedly made Hoop Dreams a thing. If they'd never done anything else, they'd still be indie film legends."

Siskel and Ebert lavished attention on obscure movies;  they taught their audience how to look at crowd pleasers with a critical eye, and they fought and bickered with each other in a way that made great television. Their TV show had all of the elements of a great blog:  curation, information, perspective and entertainment.  And they did it better than a lot of bloggers are doing it now.

Rest in peace, Roger Ebert. You, too, Gene Siskel. This is how I'll remember you: bickering brilliantly like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 

Siskel and Ebert At Each Other's Throats

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Here's Maybe The Single Best Anecdote (of Many Greats) from the 25,000-Word Oral History of Siskel & Ebert

"Gene did think he had Roger on smarts. Whenever Roger claimed to have the superior intellect, Gene would say, 'Aren’t you the guy who wrote Beyond the Valley of the Dolls?'" Oh, that Siskel. This and many more great At the Movies nuggets can be found over in Slate's exclusive excerpt from The Chicagoan's Roger Ebert-Gene Siskel piece Enemies, A Love Story. Give it a go and settle in for a good, long read on the best frenemyship in film criticism history. [Slate]

Roger Ebert's At the Movies, In Need of Funding, To Go on Hiatus

In a blog entry yesterday, Roger Ebert announced that Ebert Presents At the Movies, the public television film review show hosted by the AP's Christy Lemire and Mubi's Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, will indeed be forced to go on hiatus at the end of December while he and Chaz Ebert search for funding. "We hope our hiatus will be brief. You have told us you like the show. And we now have options. A touching number of viewers offered to send us money directly. One of the avenues we may take is a Kickstarter campaign, as you suggested. We will let you know as soon as that is worked out." [Roger Ebert's Journal]