The Great Movies by Roger Ebert
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I miss Roger Ebert. Even when I disagreed with his online personal journal entries, which happened fairly frequently, I still loved reading him.
Most importantly, of course, I miss reading his movie reviews every Friday. They were the anchor against which I measured all other critical opinions of a film. Again, I might disagree with him because his range and experience and desires when watching a film were often different from mine. Again, it didn’t matter. I loved his way with words, the way he made you understand that his point of view was very valid even if you did disagree, and the way he was unafraid to champion movies others despised. He began this with early support of 2001: A Space Odyssey and later won my heart with his embrace of Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. This is something few movie critics achieve.
The Great Movies collects a series of Ebert’s of critical appreciations of movies which deserved a deeper look than a simple review. It ranges across time and genres to choose the best of the best, movies which make you want to grab your friends and force them to watch.
This is one of those books not to read from beginning to end but to flip open and see what catches your eye. Or to pick and choose from the table of contents, either the films you love or the films you never heard of. No matter your method, you will come away both missing Roger Ebert and grateful that his “voice” is still with us in print.
This book makes me appreciate the movies I love even more, makes me realize some movies that I never want to watch, and … yet … also makes me appreciate that both sorts can be connected in a way that makes my own viewing richer. This just happened in reading Ebert’s comparison between the noir masterpiece Sunset Boulevard (much loved by me) and the Japanese existentialist film The Woman in the Dune (in which simply reading the description was enough, thank you very much).
There are some reviews which I won’t read now because those movies, such as Jean Renoir’s The Grand Illusion, are on my list to watch. Ebert can’t fully discuss these as “great movies” without giving spoilers, so I will deny myself the pleasure of knowing his reasons for recommendation. It is enough to know that I can come back to his discussion when I am ready.
Above all it makes me want to watch some of these great movies again … or for the first time. Surely that was Ebert’s goal and he hits the target with sureness and grace. If you love movies, if you love intelligent and insightful writing, and, above all, if you miss Roger Ebert, then you owe it to yourself to read this collection.
Hi Julie,
How often do you watch a movie in a theater?
Maybe my wife and I go once or twice a year. We watch some “pay to view” films on cable and more free movies, often oldies but goodies. One of my son takes in the latest blockbusters every week. Guess I’m not as impressed with the market as he is.
In Roger and Gene’s hay day, I think the movies were just better, so their opinions mattered. Today, the movie hype, especially the 30+ minutes before the “feature presentation,” does more to turn me off the coming attractions than entice me. Then again, if I like a film, it will probably bomb at the box office. I really do need a reliable guide to the river of dreams flowing out of Hollywood.
Take care,
Don
Hi Don!
I don’t think movies were better in Gene and Roger’s day at all. I think that, just as with books, there is so much coming at us that we have a hard time distinguishing the good from the bad sometimes.
I look at Jane Eyre or Casablanca. There were plenty of other books and movies popular at the same time those came out. The difference is that they have stood the test of time. The movies and books today haven’t had that test yet, so we have to decide for ourselves.
That said, I rarely go to the actual movie theater. Though we do like the dollar movies …