Thank You Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert died this week, after several long and most likely painful years of aggressive thyroid cancer--he lost his jaw, his ability to eat, and his ability to talk.  But what he didn't lose was his ability to review movies better than anyone whose reviews I have read over the years.  For a period of time, I had a bulletin board by my office door where I recommended and reviewed a movie a day.  Women's history month I recommended films made by women, Asian history month I would recommend Asian films and Asian filmmakers.  I had always liked Ebert but that was when I began to really appreciate his wit and insight.

First of all I want to thank him for his ability to find a good thing to say about most films--he was able to do what a lot of reviewers struggle with.  He appeared to have the ability to enjoy a film vis-a-vis it's genre.   A good independent film is script driven with convincing performances by actors.  It is not a celebration of costuming or opulent sets or technically brilliant action scenes.  That is not what is in the range of possible, and so you rate it based on what it is trying to do.  Likewise, and action film is largely not plot driven, so what is enjoyable is the pace of the movie, the quality of the action, and a plot that as a viewer you can swallow. He also reviewed quite a few foreign films, and back in the per-internet days, he was a source of information about movies that were not going to show up at the multiplex.   

Second of all, it is inspirational that someone has a job that they love so much that they continue to do it when the going gets very tough indeed.  It is something to strive for--of course, his job was one where you could take loved ones to work with you.  He had private showings at a 60+ seat theater, so he could have whoever he might like there with him, and often had his wife at his side when he worked--so he didn't have to chose between work and family as he lived out the end of his life, but still, lots of people would have stopped work altogether, and he did not.

The last thing I want to say is that I LOVED the New Yorker printing some of his submitted cartoon captions for their weekly contest--while he didn't win (until now) he had some really great captions.  So he was smart, witty, and a force to be reckoned with.  Bon Voyage into that great dark night.