Roger Ebert: a Subject Retrospective

Roger Ebert had his funeral yesterday and I thought that a follow up on my personal thoughts about his
legacy would be in order.

For one thing, Ebert's website has now been completely redesigned with a search function that is finally working again.  On this site, you can enjoy all of Ebert's reviews, essays and blog updates that made him such a force in modern film culture. My only disappointment is that apparently of Ebert's Answer Man posts have been deleted which means I may likely never find the answers to my questions again that Ebert was kind enough to answer. Still, it is a fitting archive for such a great writer and I hope it stays up for years to come.

However, many of us first learned of Roger through his TV shows and I thought a few clips of some of his most interesting stuff would be order.

For instance, we know about his pans like for North, which he "Hated, hated, hated..." and Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo which he bluntly said as a Pulitizer Prize winning journalist that it "sucks," but how about we see a modern film which he loved in its initial release?  

Well, you can just take a look at his TV review of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, a masterpiece of animation with a nearly seamless integration of story and visual technique that was an unforgettable cinematic experience.  Just watching Ebert gush about this film is a treat as he praises a blockbuster film that deserved to be one.

However, I already said that I loved the special episodes that shed so much light on film and I thought posting a few on youtube would be called for.

For instance, "What's Wrong with Home Video" is a fascinating look at the early days of video film releases that is painful and hilarious watch for the utter incompetence we had to put up with on home video in the 1980s and how we have it better to a degree with DVD, Blu-ray with letterboxed films on widescreen TVs being the norm. 

However, you can see their more serious topic episodes, such as violence against women in film, which is included in the video clip here No other movie reviews on TV would have done this where a serious artistic discussion takes place that respects her. I haven't have cable TV for years, but so I don't know if anyone bothers now. 

Finally, you can see Ebert and Siskel on their anniversary show at the height of their success, enjoying a long reign that still had plenty of years to go. 

It is all a collection of memories and commentaries that we can treasure today and can inspire other to emulate a great talent like Ebert.