Roger Ebert, the long-serving and widely popular film critic who spent 46 years writing reviews and publications for the Chicago Sun-Times has died at the age of 70.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer died in Chicago last night from cancer combined of the thyroid and salivary gland having announced the previous day on his blog that the illness (which he has fought for 11 years) had come back.
“What in the world is a leave of presence? It means I am not going away. My intent is to continue to write selected reviews but to leave the rest to a talented team of writers handpicked and greatly admired by me. What’s more, I’ll be able at last to do what I’ve always fantasised about doing – reviewing only the movies I want to review. It really stinks that the cancer has returned and that I have spent too many days in the hospital. So on bad days I may write about the vulnerability that accompanies illness. On good days, I may wax ecstatic about a movie so good it transports me beyond illness. 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.”
His wife of 20 years, Chaz, released a statement about her late husband’s passing.
“We were getting ready to go home today for hospice care, when he looked at us, smiled, and passed away. No struggle, no pain, just a quiet, dignified transition. I am devastated by the loss of my love, Roger – my husband, my friend, my confidante and oh-so-brilliant partner of over 20 years. He fought a courageous fight. I’ve lost the love of my life, and the world has lost a visionary and a creative and generous spirit who touched so many people all over the world. We had a lovely, lovely life together, more beautiful and epic than a movie. It had its highs and the lows, but was always experienced with good humour, grace and a deep abiding love for each other.”
Ebert was part of the successful film-review show At the Movies which he co-presented with fellow cinephile Gene Siskel, a collaboration which lasted for almost 25 years until Siskel’s death from surgery complications in 1999.
As well as receiving the Pulitzer Prize for his film criticism, he was also honoured with the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2005.
He set the standard for all wannabe film fanatics (especially myself) with his witty and edgy reviews. A list of some of his very best criticisms are below:
On North (1994):
“I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie. Hated it. Hated every stupid simpering vacant audience-insulting moment of it. Hated the sensibility that thought anyone would like it. Hated the implied insult to the audience by its belief that anyone would be entertained by it.”
“‘Pearl Harbor’ is a two-hour movie squeezed into three hours, about how on December 7, 1941, the Japanese staged a surprise attack on an American love triangle.”
“Of the thousands of movies that I’ve seen, none has touched me more deeply, spiritually, emotionally with just an outpouring of emotion.”
“This movie doesn’t have a brain in its three pretty little heads.”
On Caligura (1979):
“This movie,’ said the lady in front of me at the drinking fountain, ‘is the worst piece of shit I’ve ever seen.”
On Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (2005):
“Mr. Schneider, your movie sucks.”
“I am required to award stars to movies I review. This time, I refuse to do it. The star rating system is unsuited to this film. Is the movie good? Is it bad? Does it matter? It is what it is and occupies a world where the stars don’t shine.”
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