The Great Movies

The Great Movies – by Roger Ebert

I confess that I’m not a big fan of movies or other forms of visual art.  It’s not that I really have anything against the medium, it just seems that my time is so limited, that I rarely want to devote several hours of my frugal day to sit still and stare at a moving picture.  I only mention this in my review because if someone such as myself can really enjoy this type of book, I would think that those who actually love going to the movies would find such a companion essential.

Roger Ebert first became a household name when he teamed up with fellow Chicago film critic Gene Siskel, and the two hosted the weekly syndicated show “Siskel and Ebert”.  On the show, they would review three or four movies per week and gave each movie a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down”.  The show was so successful that there were many copycat shows that surfaced during the 80s and 90s, but Siskel and Ebert were the originals, and the best.  Nothing was better advertising for a new movie that could bolster the moniker “Two Thumbs Up!” as part of its advertising.

As time went on, the astute learned that being a film critic wasn’t necessary a job that “anyone could do”.  In the late 80s, Roger Ebert started releasing annual books of his reviews, and one learned that the man was very insightful when it came to distinguishing great works of art from cookie-cutter exploitation.  Then, the internet came along, and one could basically read every Roger Ebert review ever printed by going to his website.  His insights and commentary were indispensable to all and he quickly became the most well-known film critic.  I was one who, every time I would watch a movie, jump on to his website and read about what he had to say about the film that I had just watched.  Most of the time I agreed with him, and he always had the ability to look much deeper and find things and see things that I could not.

That seems to be what prompted him to do his “Great Movies” series.  Unlike what many people might think, this book (and the two others that followed) aren’t actually <I>reviews</I> of these movies, but rather essays where Ebert goes a bit further and explains in more depth why these movies are, in fact, great.  It should be pointed out that when Ebert actually reviewed a movie, he tried very hard not to include spoilers.  When he writes these essays, however, he assumes that his audience has already viewed the films, or if they haven’t, would rather <I>study</I> such works and not really care that he often, gives away much of the plot.

This book of movies covers a lot of ground, and I’m sure Ebert had to be a bit selective when choosing what films to feature.  Most of the obvious ones are here (Star Wars, Citizen Cane, Gone with the Wind), but he also includes some very bizarre choices that 99% of movie goers not only haven’t seen, not only haven’t heard of, but probably couldn’t view such a film because of its limited availability.  A lot of old, silent, foreign, and/or documentaries are featured here as well the more familiar. Again, though, this really isn’t a drawback.  I imagine someone who seriously loves films would take a significant amount of time to attempt to track down all of the works that are featured here and purchase them to study for themselves.  Fortunately, things such as the internet makes such an arduous task a bit more manageable.

I really can’t think of anyone better than Roger Ebert to produce such a work as this, yet I must confess that the man’s devotion to the cinema could be rather frightening at times.  As I read this book, I often thought “Did this man ever do anything in his life <I>other</I> than watch movies?”  He would state things such as “I manage to go back and watch this film a couple of times per year”, or “I often study this movie with a film class, and we do a shot by shot analysis.”  Sheesh.  I really can’t imagine anyone devoting that much time to <I>anything</I>, let alone watching movies, but this was what made the man so respected in the industry.

As I mentioned, if one is a bit lazy, one doesn’t really need to purchase this book, as he includes his “great movies” series on his internet site.  Since many people can now access the internet via a tablet or a Kindle, one could definitely take such an advantage.  It was sort of nice, however, to have all of these narratives in one place, which was why I chose to purchase it (and the fact that Amazon was having a sale).

I’m sure I’ll not be the first person that will say this as I conclude this review, and it does sound a bit hokey, but here it goes: This book is a definite Thumbs Up.  Thumbs way Up.