It’s safe to say that I would not be where I am today without Roger Ebert. The venerated film critic and Pulitzer Prize winner died last Thursday at the age of 70 after a long and very public battle with cancer. He had been writing film reviews for the Chicago Sun-Times since the 60s, and throughout his 40-year career had been elevated to the status of film icon. His passing brought with it many well-wishers and personal expressions of loss, as he meant a great deal to many people in the entertainment industry.
I first encountered Roger Ebert during my most formative years in middle school. I had just started becoming something more than a casual fan of cinema and scoured the internet for intelligent and challenging film criticism. I happened upon his website (rogerebert.com) and began devouring all of the content that I could get my hands on. I was particularly drawn to his Great Moviessection, where Ebert had catalogued 300+ of his must-see movie reviews and essays. This became essential reading for a budding movie buff and helped me in my discovery of little-known gems within his archives.
Photo by On Being via Flickr
The way that Ebert approached the discipline of film reviews was a breath of fresh air. He purposely tried to subvert the outdated view of film reviewers as exalted scholars of films who handed down judgments from on high. Ebert’s writings were relatable and personal, effortlessly combining an encyclopedic knowledge of film with the author’s unique point of view. By reading his best work, you got to know the man behind the page as well as the film itself.
Ebert’s candor extended to the end of his life as he fought a losing battle with throat cancer that robbed him of his ability to speak in 2006. The removal of his lower jaw and vocal chords transformed Ebert into the poster boy for cancer’s devastating effect as he graced the front cover of Time, barely resembling the jolly figure audiences had become accustomed to. Unable to speak or eat without the assist of a feeding tube, the general consensus was that Ebert would quietly retire from his usually grueling work schedule that required him to write dozens of film reviews per month. He defied expectations yet again, churning out more work than ever the last year he was alive, as well as compiling his yearly Great Movies guide and writing a memoir.
Roger Ebert democratized the film criticism process and wrote so effortlessly and poetically about film that it seemed like an attainable goal for aspiring critics. He was the first journalist I had read where his words spawned a dialogue in my head instead of being the last word on the film. Ebert invited you to disagree with his criticisms as well as offer up your own rebuttals to his words. He maintained a lively and jocular discussion with his fans through a mail bag section on his website, where he would defend his opinions with like-minded readers.
What makes this man so interesting to his readers and fans is that there is no mythologizing on Ebert’s life and legacy: he remained, even at the time of his death, a complicated and divisive figure. A man of diverse talents, he was the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for his body of work in 1974, and also co-wrote a soft core pornography film called Beyond the Valley of the Dolls with busty women enthusiast, Russ Meyer. His eclectic resume reminded us all that he was just a man, but the way he carried himself elevated him to something much more than that.