Roger Ebert’s Letter to a Young Film Critic

mattcornell.org

55 points·jmorf··5 comments

Ebert having a rubber stamp of a thumbs up is cool.

More so to note he could use it as a thumbs down too.

Maybe I will play the bastard in this role, but I respected Ebert far more for triumphing over what he went through than his actual reviews.

I watched (and loved) Siskel & Ebert when I was a kid living in NY. When I saw it, it came on late at nite on a Sunday after The Twilight Zone or Tales from the Darkside which always scared me.

I'll still never forgive Ebert for giving a lukewarm (possibly thumbs down) for Heat after all these years. Don't get me wrong. I love the guy because he loves arts but I just won't ever forget.

Every time I loved a movie Ebert would piss all over it while Siskel loved it. Needless to say, you can tell which fan I am of the two. With that said, the greatest thing about him is that he overcame any obstacle presented before him. Maybe it's the love of a good woman that allows this.

I'm always the student but I can't figure out how to be as great as he was.

I too found my tastes in agreement more with Siskel than Ebert, but I must parrot a line from one of his reviews that I just love. From his review of "The Usual Suspects":

... Once again, my comprehension began to slip, and finally I wrote down: "To the degree that I do understand, I don't care."

He missed "accessment" in his proofread.

What a class-act.

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