Roger Ebert was simply the best. A great writer and also a great TV personality. Many before and after have tried to combine those two, but no one has or ever will do it as well as Roger. He loved movies and loved sharing his opinions of them. He was the reason I became a film critic. The first time I saw Roger on TV I knew what I wanted to be.
My relationship with Roger began several years ago when he found one of my reviews on the internet and retweeted it. Suddenly I picked-up dozens of new Twitter followers, the most amazing being @ebertchicago. This led to an exchange of e-mails and the start of a friendship. A short time later came an invitation from Roger and his wife Chaz to come to Chicago and appear on their PBS show, “Ebert Presents at the Movies”. I was fortunate to get to be on three different shows, discussing some of the Best and Worst films of the first half of 2011, along with Hollywood’s 3D obsession.
But the biggest thrill from that trip came the day before, when the Eberts invited me to their home. It was an unforgettable day. Roger (of course) was not able to speak, but he communicated beautifully using his laptop and some speakers. After a few minutes, I didn’t even notice anything was different. He asked me about my career, I asked him about his, but mostly we talked about movies – for about two hours. It was incredible. I remember one of the films we talked about was the 2010 comedy “Morning Glory”, which both he and I both thought was a gem (though most other critics hated it).
Then something unexpected happened: Roger and Chaz led me down to their basement and into their spectacular, private movie theater. Roger screened selected scenes from some of his personal favorites, including 1996’s “Hamlet”, just for me. It was clearly one of those “is this really happening” kind of experiences.
On the way out we walked down halls lined with racks holding Roger’s personal DVD collection, categorized in alphabetical order and by genre. After giving me the copy of “Hamlet” he searched for a few minutes and selected three other DVDs from the racks, handed them to me and insisted that I keep them all. So there I am, standing in Roger Ebert’s home holding four of Roger Ebert’s all-time favorite DVDs from his personal collection, which are now mine. The words “thank you” just didn’t seem good enough. One of the films was Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”. After watching it this past Summer, it’s easy to see why Roger loved it so much.
The next evening was a Chicago screening of “Transformers: Dark of the Moon”. (There’s a story about how the film didn’t start for over an hour – but that’s for another time). Every major and minor Chicago film critic was in attendance. Many went over to Roger to say hello and wish him well. It was an honor to have been in the same theater to screen a film which he gave One Star.
Roger had a very humorous side. The thing that made both him and longtime partner Gene Siskel so popular is that they took their jobs very seriously but they didn’t take themselves too seriously. Look up the clips from when they appeared on the animated series “The Critic” (1995) if you need proof. And Roger was always quite good with Oscar predictions – right to the end. His favorite film of 2012 (mine too), was “Argo”, the Best Picture winner.
His friends and family will miss Roger. The world will miss Roger’s reviews. The Thumbs Up and the Thumbs Down. His writing style which earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 1975. The Four Star reviews and the riffs on the clunkers. His legacy will live on forever. He was fearless, courageous, generous and kind.
Thank you Roger, for inspiring me and countless other film critics, writers and movie fans. We will all continue to watch movies and share our opinions about them. But there will never be another you.