Miss him

I miss him very much.

I watched Siskel and Ebert ever since the 70s. I watched them every week, it was appointment viewing, and I never (or very rarely) missed an episode. I watched them until the late 90s, when Gene Siskel passed away, and continued to follow Ebert on TV, the papers, and eventually almost exclusively on his webpage and blog, for years after that.

It is truly the end of an era for film critics. With older giants like Vincent Canby and Pauline Kael long gone, and now the baby boomer era's biggest critics, Siskel and Ebert, both gone, there is really no one in the field that I really follow regularly anymore.

Now, every time a new film is coming out, I wonder what Ebert would have thought of it.


It's very fitting that Martin Scorsese and Steve James are behind this film, which will surely be a very moving, yet also quite depressing, film.

Interview subjects include filmmaking masters such as Werner Herzog and Martin Scorsese, and that is very fitting, as Ebert was a great champion of their work. He recognized the genius of both before anyone else did.


I saw a brief clip of Scorsese, in a very uncharacteristically emotional mode, fondly remembering Ebert and encouraging people to see this film. THAT brief clip nearly made me choke up.

I know the film will devastate me.

It could affect younger people who have only followed Ebert for a short time, but for someone who followed the man's writing and criticism since the early 70s, it is like we lost an old friend...

I totally agree with you. Even when I completely disagreed with him, I could understand his points and his way of thinking. And you could tell that he was passionate about film and that passion was contagious. Furthermore, he brought passion into everything he wrote about, and as an avid follower of his online writings, he wrote about so many different things.

Even when he was wrong, he had a point.

BTW, I've also missed his old partner, Gene Siskel. I never met the guy but I did receive a personal e-mail from him once in response to a post I made on the Prodigy computer system (back before the world wide web was big). Just the fact that he'd take the time to respond to a young stranger interested in movies really stuck with me.

Triple seconded.

Same. One thing I loved about Ebert was that he wasn't a sheep. If he liked a film most critics hated he wasn't afraid to show that he liked it. And when he disliked a movie for whatever reason he explained his reasons thoroughly, whereas most other critics would be overly sarcastic and mean.

I miss him as well. I was lucky enough to meet him 5 times and he always gave me a thumbs up when he saw me. He was my hero and I'll never forget his kindness.

Am I the only one who misses Roger Ebert everytime I'm reading the critic reviews for a movie. His word was gold. I loved both agreeing, and disagreeing with him. Fantastic writer. Miss him so much.

In so many ways...he was truly a hero to me.