Inspired By An Icon - Remembering Roger Ebert

    It's been a long time since I posted on here. Judging by the lack of questions regarding this, I'm assuming most people were perfectly fine with me going away!! LOL   That's okay, I still love each and every one of you who at least gave me a chance and checked my blog out. I seriously doubted that I would come back to it as it does take up a lot of time and I am very critical of myself so if I see what I think is poor quality, I find it easier to just stop working at it instead of improving myself. Isn't that the American way these days?? Unfortunately, it does seem that way, even though I try to prevent myself from doing that. So I really thought my blogging days were over. But something happened a few days ago that has caused me to do a bit of soul searching. Late Thursday, April 4th, Roger Ebert, arguably the most influential and well-known movie critic, lost his long battle with cancer and passed away. I, like many movie fans my age, grew up watching "At The Movies" with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. Even though I had absolutely no clue what 90% of the movies they reviewed were, I was captivated by the back and forth banter between the two and I would wait anxiously to see if the movie they were discussing would get Two Thumbs Up, Two Thumbs Down, or best of all, the split vote which would sometimes lead to some spirited exchanges between the two hosts. I loved it and would try and watch every week. I can remember in the early days being a pro-Siskel fan, I always liked him better than Ebert for some reason. Granted, I wasn't even a teenager at this time so my preference was likely based on discriminatory factors. Hey, we learn as we grow up.

     I had always been a movie fan growing up, but I didn't understand the term "movie appreciation". I was like a lot of kids growing up, give me non-stop action or a good fantasy movie over the Oscar-caliber drama that was popular at the time. I enjoyed raunchy romps that my parents wouldn't have approved of, such as Porkys, over films like Raging Bull, Gahndi, or Chariots of Fire. Who didn't?? That started changing though as I entered my teenage years in the late-80's and early-90's and Roger Ebert played a big role in that. I was browsing through the Bookland store at Regency Square Mall in Jacksonville (a store that would become a place of employment for me in the mid-90's) around 1990 or 1991 and I ran acrosss this title, "Roger Ebert's Movie Home Companion". Inside was a review of 100's of films over the years and I had to grab me a copy. I loved Ebert's star rating system in the book, it was so different than the more general Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down. I remember browsing through and making note of all the Four-Star reviews. For the first time I heard of such films as Citizen Kane, The Third Man, and 2001:A Space Odyssey. I had not even heard of a good 2/3 of the films reviewed in the book, but for the first time I was interested in learning about them. I became even more interested in the tv show because of Roger's book and it was during this time in the early-90's when my love for movies really took off. Prior to my high school days, we maybe saw a movie in the theater once every few months. But from 1990 until I graduated in June of 1993, I hardly remember a weekend I wasn't in the theaters.

     More importantly, I started watching movies for the first time with a critical eye. Films like Silence of the Lambs, JFK and The Man in the Moon are among my top 10 favorite films and all came out during this timeframe. All are also critically-acclaimed films. It was also during this time that I couldn't stop talking about films with other people. Whether it was friends or family, I also had to know what you had seen recently, and I was ecstatic if you returned the favor and asked me what I had seen. I couldn't wait to tell you about what was out there in the theaters. These times inspired me to want to be a film critic. I've always said, if money were no object and I could do any job I wanted to, I would be a film critic. The internet was just a fledgling thing at this point and I wonder if maybe I was just a few years too early. I think it's something I may have actually tried to pursue had the internet been more prevalent in that time. Instead, the only audience I had was friends and family. Either way, I went on with my life and while things haven't always been great, I've been thankful for the 37 years I've received and I hope I can live at least another 37 more. But the love of movies has never left me since those early days, and I hope it never will.

     That love for film though I'm not sure would be there had it not been for Roger Ebert. Finding that book by accident changed my life in a way. Not a major, spiritual way or anything like that, don't get me wrong, but I love movies more than just about anything else out there and Mr. Ebert taught me how to appreciate them. I've often said I'm not a fan of art, but that's not true. What I mean is I look at the Mona Lisa painting and I see a woman, that's all I see. But an art scholar can break it down and tell you why it's one of the great paintings ever made. I just shrug my shoulders. The same with music, photography, etc. All of those are forms of art. And many people love those forms. Movies are my art form. I can watch a great movie and be sucked in just as much as an Art major touring the Louvre. When those house lights come down and the screen starts to flicker, I love the wonder that awaits me each and every time. At the end, sometimes I'm happy, sometimes I'm mad, sometimes I'm indifferent...but I'm just happy I was there to experience it.

     I had stopped blogging for a long time, and I thought it was for good. But Roger Ebert's passing has made me re-think things. I'll never be on the same level as Mr. Ebert when it comes to his writing style. The man was a Pulitzer Prize winner for crying out loud. And I'll never be able to fully appreciate films the way he has. But I hope I can continue growing in that regard. But why should I stop writing and talking about movies when it's something that I enjoy doing? I shouldn't. If only one person stops by on a consistent basis to read what I'm thinking, hey, that's one more person than most. I will miss Roger Ebert. He's one of the few people that I didn't know that has caused me to shed tears at hearing of his death. The last time I can remember doing that was when Charles Schulz passed away in 2000. Thank you so much for teaching me about movies, and to not be afraid to have a different opinion than everyone else. I know somewhere up there in the balcony in the sky you are reunited with Mr. Siskel and you are no doubt breaking down a good one.  Rest in peace Mr. Ebert.