My Tribute to Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert’s style of film review was entertaining and intelligent and his words have lasted for years after his 2013 death.

Last Sunday not only marked Easter, but it also marked the 8th anniversary of film critic Roger Ebert’s passing. As a film lover and someone who hails from the Champaign-Urbana area, where Ebert grew up, I’ve always felt a kinship with Ebert. I often look to his writings not only to read his opinion on a film that I’m about to watch from 2013 or before, but also to understand how film criticism ought to be done.

Much like myself, Roger Ebert grew up with a love for film. While I was watching VHS tapes of Disney films and going to the video store to rent whatever I wanted to watch, Ebert would go to local theaters and watch all kinds of films: serials, animation, westerns, dramas, foreign films. In his college years at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, he wrote for the Daily Illini as both a reporter and editor, as I have done for my school paper at NIU.

But throughout our formative years, film never left us. Much like myself, Evert understood just how powerful a film could be. Whenever you see a really, really good film for the first time, you actually get a high following the screening and that feeling, which Jason Lee in “Almost Famous” called “the fucking buzz,” can stay with you for a good while. Among Ebert’s “buzz films” were “La Dolce Vita,” “Do The Right Thing,” “Citizen Kane” and “Hoop Dreams” while mine consist of “Across the Universe,” “La La Land,” “The Big Lebowski” and “Do The Right Thing” (our taste in films frequently overlaps).

What makes Ebert so amazing, and why I have nearly every book he ever wrote, is that he had this incredible passion for film that was present in everything that he did. From his reviews for the Chicago Sun-Times to his television show “At The Movies” which he co-hosted with Chicago Tribune critic Gene Siskel (another legend), Ebert had this powerful voice. So much that, to this day, he remains the only film critic to have won a Pulitzer Prize having won in 1975.

Ebert also had a lot of power as a critic. Siskel and Ebert’s “Thumbs Up” rating was incredibly sought after by filmmakers and could frequently be seen on many a VHS tape in video stores. If Siskel and Ebert, the most recognizable critics in America, thought a film was good, chances are it probably was. 

Gene Siskel (Left) of the Chicago Tribune and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times worked together from the 1970s to 1999 on multiple television programs like “Sneak Previews” and “At The Movies.” Their “thumbs-up” slogan was the most recognizable review a film could have.

Ebert also understood that his thumb had a lot of power and frequently used it to prop up independent and foreign films that an average American audience might not be aware of. In fact, when I was in my Film Festival class this semester, I was reading an article about how to get films into festivals like Sundance, published before 2013, and one of the pieces of advice was to get a good quote from Roger Ebert. Because his words had power and he would review so many films. 

I typically review one or two films a week now but Ebert and Siskel would review about five per week in their papers and then would talk about them on their television show. Most film critics either are too witty or too dry, but Siskel and Ebert were the perfect balance of intelligent and emotional. 

While the pair could talk about films like “Goodfellas” or “Do The Right Thing” in a very refined and passionate manner, it was when they disagreed with each other and argued on air that made their show very entertaining. They could sometimes act like children but it all came from a place of passion and love for cinema.

Even when Siskel died in 1999, Ebert continued the show with Richard Roeper and, after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2002 and losing his voice in 2006, Ebert still continued to write until the day he died. 

I first heard about Roger Ebert when I was in junior high in 2013 and I read that he passed away. After years of reading his books, watching YouTube clips of him and Siskel and going to the annual film festival that’s held in his name, I owe so much of my thoughts on film to Ebert and I owe so many of my favorite films to Ebert’s writings. Ebert introduced me to filmmakers like Akira Kurosawa, Werner Herzog, Billy Wilder and Spike Lee and taught me how to communicate my love of film.

Whenever I have a chance, I try to visit the statue of Roger Ebert giving the thumbs up outside the Virginia Theatre, where Ebertfest is held every year, to pay my respects. Because without Roger Ebert, so many filmmakers would never have achieved great success in America, so many film journalists wouldn’t exist and so many of us would never have learned to fall in love with cinema.

So, here’s to you Roger. Your life and your work gets a massive thumbs up from me.