RIP, Roger Ebert

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US News • Views: 22,120

A great writer and a strong voice for freedom and equality, archetypal film critic Roger Ebert has died at the age of 70. He’ll be greatly missed.

His final post at his Sun-Times blog ends with these words:

So on this day of reflection I say again, thank you for going on this journey with me. I’ll see you at the movies.

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65 comments
1 HappyWarrior  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:00:57pm

A fine critic and an icon. Grew up with him and the late Siskel’s “thumbs up.” So, thanks Roger. You were one of the good guys.

2 Glenn Beck's Grand Unifying Theory of Obdicut  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:02:33pm

He faced a really terrible cancer with dignity, and he didn’t let it drive him out of the public eye. I don’t think I’d have that courage.

3 A Mom Anon  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:05:41pm

I loved reading his reviews and commentary. Very sad news.

4 Sol Berdinowitz  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:06:14pm

He should have patented that “like” and sold it to Facebook, he coulda died a rich man…

5 thecommodore  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:06:48pm

A very sad day indeed.

6 First As Tragedy, Then As Farce  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:08:14pm

+1

7 lawhawk  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:10:36pm

Agree or disagree with his take on a given movie all you want, but he had a way with words, and it’s absolutely undeniable that he loved movies - the art form, the technology, the craft, and the ingenuity behind making films.

siskelandebert.org

A review of SW 20th anniversary edition, Shadow Conspiracy, and a couple others.

8 ramex  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:12:32pm

He could review the heck out of a movie and he could write ‘em too. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is one of my favorites.

9 ProBosniaLiberal  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:16:03pm

Heh, I just saw this on him:

Ebert has also expressed disbelief in pseudoscientific or supernatural claims in general, calling them “woo-woo”.

Sad to see him gone.

10 Charles Johnson  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:18:25pm
11 Walking Spanish Down the Hall  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:19:41pm

Ebert was a humanist, an atheist and a skeptic. His tweets were pointed and succinct.

12 Political Atheist  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:21:25pm

re: #11 Walking Spanish Down the Hall

Ebert was a humanist, an atheist and a skeptic. His tweets were pointed and succinct.

Best critic ever.

13 Charles Johnson  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:21:37pm

The Sun-Times website is totally shut down by the traffic surge. Can’t get to any pages there now.

14 blueraven  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:21:40pm

When I was much younger I remember being mad as hell at either him or Siskel when they gave a bad review of a movie that I really liked, but I never missed their show! I loved those guys and was so sad when Gene Siskel died. Now they are gone but not forgotten.

RIP Roger, your courage and dignity was inspiring. He was never afraid to speak his mind.

Also, Sun-Times cant handle the traffic…503 error on his last post.

15 lawhawk  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:22:13pm

Ebert’s 50 harshest movie review quips. Because while there is art and someone saw the value of putting something on film doesn’t mean that it was worth the price of admission or that it couldn’t have been done better. There’s one or two surprises in the bunch.

He actually dinged Monsters, Inc.!

The intro to his list of 100 great movies reminds folks about filmmaking, but more importantly, the people it hopes to touch, and what he hopes people can take away from the movies.

16 Stanley Sea  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:25:12pm

I am crying at my desk.

17 Stanley Sea  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:26:01pm

He really touched us.

18 lawhawk  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:26:18pm

Ebert championed film - not just the blockbuster. He hoped people would pay attention to the art-house film, or at least look at a blockbuster and think about the film’s origin (like say viewing the Magnificent Seven and then looking for a copy of Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai). But he wasn’t snobbish about it either - he just wanted to see something entertaining on the screen. Learn something was a bonus. Be blown away by the sfx? Cool with him. Get totally wrapped up in a story so compelling? Absolutely.

But if you had a potentially compelling story and the filmmakers or actors screwed things up? Oh, he’d let you know that too.

19 Charles Johnson  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:26:29pm

Outtakes of Siskel and Ebert bickering:

20 Gus  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:27:29pm

re: #11 Walking Spanish Down the Hall

Ebert was a humanist, an atheist and a skeptic. His tweets were pointed and succinct.

He didn’t call himself an atheist but many would say he was an atheist. See How I believe in God.

21 Gus  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:29:57pm

And of course… Jim Hoft readers respond.

rosetta_stoned
I don’t normally speak ill of the dead, but I’d be willing to make an exception in this case.

Mercutio Lives
He left the world as a raging leftist douchebag. You’d think going through something like cancer would soften him up a bit. But nope. If anything, after he got cancer he turned into an even more venomous liberal ideologue who openly despised conservative Americans. Even when he didn’t have a jaw anymore he still turned to bashing conservative Americans through his keyboard while his wife wiped away his drool. That’s the type of behavior you’d expect from someone who lacked a human soul…

bg
RIP RE..
what timing, i mean, they sure don’t make movies like they used to.. ;-)

rbosque
Good riddance he fought against life, our freedoms, and our Constitution.

CapitalG
What a sour, bitter man.

Mahdi Al-Dajjal
The guy as a radical leftwing nutcase who hated anything to the right of the far Left. Good riddance!

22 Lidane  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:31:32pm

re: #21 Gus

I love how they call him an angry, bitter ideologue without a hint of irony.

RIP Roger Ebert. The universe is getting a scathing review from me today.

23 Randall Gross  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:33:29pm

I give two thumbs up to Roger’s contributions to our culture.

24 Bulworth  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:33:37pm
He left the world as a raging leftist douchebag. You’d think going through something like cancer would soften him up a bit. But nope. If anything, after he got cancer he turned into an even more venomous liberal ideologue who openly despised conservative Americans.

Commenter calls someone who’s views they disagreed with. a “douchebag”, goes on to complain that said “douchebag” wasn’t “softened up” by cancer, but instead became “an even more venomous liberal idealogue.”

Self awareness has been dead a long time.

25 dragonath  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:38:10pm

re: #24 Bulworth

There’s government in my medicare and why hasn’t Obama given me a SS raise?

26 LWNJ  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:40:02pm

re: #22 Lidane

I love how they call him an angry, bitter ideologue without a hint of irony.

Some people see themselves in everything they look at.

27 LWNJ  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:40:56pm

re: #13 Charles Johnson

The Sun-Times website is totally shut down by the traffic surge. Can’t get to any pages there now.

It’s not quite shut down… I didn’t get in on my first try, but I did on the second.

28 darthstar  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:43:50pm

See you at the movies, Robert.

29 sattv4u2  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:48:53pm

re: #28 darthstar

See you at the movies, Robert.

I’ll buy the popcorn if he’ll keep the reviews coming!!

30 darthstar  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:49:27pm
31 Hercules Grytpype-Thynneghazi  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:51:22pm

re: #15 lawhawk

Ebert’s 50 harshest movie review quips. Because while there is art and someone saw the value of putting something on film doesn’t mean that it was worth the price of admission or that it couldn’t have been done better. There’s one or two surprises in the bunch.

*Spoiler*

The intro to his list of 100 great movies reminds folks about filmmaking, but more importantly, the people it hopes to touch, and what he hopes people can take away from the movies.

He gave Monsters, Inc. 3 out of 4 stars. They just quoted a snarky thing he said about one of the characters.

32 Destro  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:53:54pm

I wanted to post a link to his entire review catalogue but his page is down.

33 darthstar  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:55:58pm

re: #31 Hercules Grytpype-Thynneghazi


“I had a colonoscopy once, and they let me watch it on TV. It was more entertaining than The Brown Bunny.”

34 Lidane  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:57:45pm

As if today couldn’t get grumpy enough, someone has a birthday:

35 Gus  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:57:49pm

re: #11 Walking Spanish Down the Hall

Ebert was a humanist, an atheist and a skeptic. His tweets were pointed and succinct.

36 Bulworth  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:58:02pm

re: #31 Hercules Grytpype-Thynneghazi

“Birth of a Nation”?

37 Lidane  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 1:59:17pm

re: #24 Bulworth

Commenter calls someone who’s views they disagreed with. a “douchebag”, goes on to complain that said “douchebag” wasn’t “softened up” by cancer, but instead became “an even more venomous liberal idealogue.”

That’s what I don’t get. How is cancer supposed to “soften you up” exactly? WTF.

38 wrenchwench  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 2:00:24pm

re: #34 Lidane

As if today couldn’t get grumpy enough, someone has a birthday:

Grumpy Birthday to me
Grumpy Birthday to me
I got a present, it was awful,
Grumpy Birthday to me

39 darthstar  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 2:08:18pm
40 Batman  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 2:08:34pm

re: #37 Lidane

That’s what I don’t get. How is cancer supposed to “soften you up” exactly? WTF.

I thought liberals were supposed to be the softies anyway.

41 darthstar  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 2:09:25pm
42 Gus  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 2:11:07pm

re: #41 darthstar

Ebert also said…

Someday I will no longer call out, and there will be no heartbeat. I will be dead. What happens then? From my point of view, nothing. Absolutely nothing.

43 darthstar  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 2:11:42pm

thinkprogress.org

1. “I am proudly a liberal. I am also patriotic, reasonable, pro-American, and stand for family values.” [March 2010]

2. “I have watched with a kind of petrified fascination in recent years as the world creeps closer to what looks to me like disastrous climate change. The poles are melting. Ocean levels are rising. The face of the planet is torn by unprecedented natural disasters. States of emergency have become so routine that governors always seem to be proclaiming one. Do they have drafts of proclamations on file?” [March 2013]

3. “That James Holmes is insane, few may doubt. Our gun laws are also insane, but many refuse to make the connection…This would be an excellent time for our political parties to join together in calling for restrictions on the sale and possession of deadly weapons. That is unlikely, because the issue has become so closely linked to paranoid fantasies about a federal takeover of personal liberties that many politicians feel they cannot afford to advocate gun control.” [July 2012]

4. “I believe emphathy is the most essential quality of a civilization.” [May 2012]

5. “In the years since then I’ve known a fair share of gay couples who seemed as established and content as other couples, some more some less. In a society that was slowly outgrowing the traditions of patriarchy and matriarchy, they’d made a lateral move into humanarchy. The idea of them being joined in a civil union was a no-brainer. They’d cast their lot together, shared their duties, had an implicit agreement to stand by each other, and certainly deserved to have their relationship recognized by the state if only for reasons of ownership and inheritance.” [August 2010]

44 Randall Gross  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 2:14:12pm

A wise man once said that 90% of x was pure shit, while 10 % was pure gold.

Roger was one of the good guys simply because he was willing to wade through the shit to find the real gold for the rest of us.

45 darthstar  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 2:24:30pm
46 sattv4u2  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 2:26:33pm

re: #43 darthstar

“Yabba Dabba Doo”

Fred Flintstone,,, 18,000 BC
/

47 darthstar  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 2:30:37pm

Here’s a little something to look forward to…a flu bug that is still infectious even after it kills its host.

SHANGHAI, April 5 (Xinhua) — A person who had close contact with a dead H7N9 bird flu patient in Shanghai has been under treatment in quarantine after developing symptoms of fever, running nose and throat itching, local authorities said late Thursday.

So far, China has confirmed 14 H7N9 cases — six in Shanghai, four in Jiangsu, three in Zhejiang and one in Anhui, in the first known human infections of the lesser-known strain. Of all, four died in Shanghai and one died in Zhejiang.

48 sattv4u2  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 2:38:35pm

re: #47 darthstar

Here’s a little something to look forward to…a flu bug that is still infectious even after it kills its host.


Superbugs Are a ‘Costly War We Can’t Win’: Doctors

cnbc.com

49 Charles Johnson  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 2:38:46pm

re: #47 darthstar

IT BEGINS.

50 erik_t  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 2:40:40pm

re: #47 darthstar

Here’s a little something to look forward to…a flu bug that is still infectious even after it kills its host.

Pretty sure I’ve had that shit since last Friday.

/onlyhalf

51 Skip Intro  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 2:42:09pm

re: #21 Gus

And of course… Jim Hoft readers respond.

Sure didn’t see that coming /sarc.

What a group of pathetic hatefilled shithead losers the right has become.

52 ProBosniaLiberal  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 2:42:11pm

re: #31 Hercules Grytpype-Thynneghazi

He raises a vaid point.

How DOES that work.

53 darthstar  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 2:43:04pm

re: #49 Charles Johnson

IT BEGINS.

Well, we’ve been fantasizing about these kinds of bugs for years in books and film, so it was only a matter of time before we engineered (albeit passively through poisoning the environment and overusing antibiotics) one. I do think this is a first.

54 Hercules Grytpype-Thynneghazi  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 2:43:17pm

re: #52 ProBosniaLiberal

He raises a vaid point.

How DOES that work.

Some things … man was not meant to know.

55 ProBosniaLiberal  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 2:43:57pm

re: #54 Hercules Grytpype-Thynneghazi

Fair point.

56 darthstar  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 2:45:15pm
57 HappyWarrior  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 2:46:40pm

re: #56 darthstar

Seems like a lot of senators are coming around on this from both parties. This is becoming more and more a non issue.

58 erik_t  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 2:47:51pm

re: #56 darthstar

@BenjySarlin Bill Nelson comes out for gay marriage: bit.ly He definitely read my guide: bit.ly

And that’s 51 by my count, an actual majority in favor of gay marriage in the most hidebound conservative archaic nonsense body this side of the House of Lords.

59 darthstar  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 2:48:42pm

re: #57 HappyWarrior

Seems like a lot of senators are coming around on this from both parties. This is becoming more and more a non issue.

Only one Republican so far though, right?

60 erik_t  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 2:49:26pm

re: #59 darthstar

Only one Republican so far though, right?

Two. Mark Kirk came out (so to speak) earlier this week.

61 Decatur Deb  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 2:49:27pm

re: #51 Skip Intro

Sure didn’t see that coming /sarc.

What a group of pathetic hatefilled shithead losers the right has become.

revealed itself to be.

Same as it ever was—the unimpassioned cover have just gone quiet.

62 Glenn Beck's Grand Unifying Theory of Obdicut  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 3:00:10pm

re: #53 darthstar

Well, we’ve been fantasizing about these kinds of bugs for years in books and film, so it was only a matter of time before we engineered (albeit passively through poisoning the environment and overusing antibiotics) one. I do think this is a first.

Huh? You can catch all sorts of diseases from dead bodies. Most of the fecally-transmitted ones and a lot of the blood-borne ones and a lot of the mucosal ones. In this case, it’s probable that the guy handling the corpse got some dead-guy mucus on him. Awesome!

63 HappyWarrior  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 3:03:38pm

re: #59 darthstar

Only one Republican so far though, right?

Two- Portman and Kirk.

64 Vicious Babushka  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 3:11:34pm

Wingnut is pissed that I corrected a Fake Quote

65 JeffFX  Thu, Apr 4, 2013 4:36:46pm

re: #64 Vicious Babushka


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