Roger Ebert has been gone for six years now. One of my favorite critics, Drew McWeeney, shared a story of his with Ebert on Twitter on his birthday this year. Reading it, I was inspired to rewatch Steve James’s documentary, “Life Itself”, and it feels like an important time for me to watch it. Life and death has been on my mind recently; it always seems to be when it comes to Ebert.
While I had started reading Ebert’s reviews regularly in 1998, 2000 was when I began to pay attention to his older reviews, and specifically, his Great Movies reviews. In that bi-weekly series, he would chose an older movie to write about, and one of the most interesting parts of those reviews was how his life experience would come into focus with some of the movies. Up to that point, I think my writing was more influenced by Leonard Maltin, whose annual movie guide would form the initial inspiration behind a review book my mother and I discussed writing, “Why is the Rabbit Wearing Sunglasses?”. He had just reached the milestone of 100 reviews in the Great Movies series, so it was a good time to get into it. The personal experiences he shared in those reviews, even for movies I hadn’t seen, became foundational for me moving forward, and it’s something that continues to inspire me now.
Ebert was someone I read religiously that summer, when my mother and I spent much of the summer with my grandfather, who was dying of cancer. My grandfather was profoundly important in how he supported me as a critic, and as a composer. Movies were an important part of how we spent our time. I remember vividly that the last movie we watched together in theatres was one that Ebert loved, Curtis Hanson’s “Wonder Boys”, and how we both enjoyed it greatly. The discussions we would have, the way we shared movies together, is something I don’t forget. The time my grandfather, my parents and I went to “Saving Private Ryan” in theatres together when my grandfather came down that summer; that was actually the last time my father, who was not a movie fan like the rest of us, would see something in theatres. How my grandfather and I would watch episodes of “Mystery Science Theater 3000” together, and he would call the films “after school specials.” I’ll never forget watching “Dr Strangelove” with him and, looking at him afterwards, wondering how it was considered a comedy. And the feeling after we saw our last movie together with him at assisted living with my mother and her cousin, Diane, the amiable comedy, “Waking Ned Devine”. That movie isn’t one that holds special weight for me, personally, but that experience, on a TV/VCR combo set we had gotten him for his room (and which still works to this day), is one I will never forget. Ebert’s reviews were a way for me to maintain some structure in that stressful time. (And in the early weeks of my summer in Ohio, Edward Norton’s “Keeping the Faith” was a film that I returned to, and had personal meaning to me as I struggled with my emotions over what was going on with my grandfather.) As my own writing on film expanded, the model I found in his reviews was one that I wanted to emulate, but with my own personal voice.
In 2007, I found myself near death with pneumonia and a collapsed lung. It’s entirely coincidental that, during this time, Ebert himself was still recovering, and trying to get back into writing, from his own near-death experience, which would lead to him losing his actual voice, and refining his written one even more through his blog. As he began to write more personally than ever before, his openness was inspiring to me, whether he tied it into movies or not. In 2008, I began going to therapy, and my own ability to discuss my life, my struggles, and the profound impact certain movies had on me grew. Ebert was a significant reason for that.
In 2013, Ebert passed away, and, six months later, my own father died after about a year and a half of heart-related issues. My father and I did not really have many significant movie-related experiences, but when Ebert died, it felt like my movie father passed away, the one who helped shape so much of who I had become as a writer and critic. Still, Ebert lived on in his writing, and in the James documentary that would come out the next year. My father’s loss was harder to deal with, for much more practical reasons, but movies were an important part of the healing process for my mother and I. At the time, the theatrical movie that had my attention was Alfonso Cauron’s “Gravity”, which had Sandra Bullock’s astronaut trying to survive a tragedy in space on her own; it felt a lot like what my mother and I were doing, at the time. Shortly thereafter, my favorite film of the summer, Guillermo Del Toro’s “Pacific Rim”, came out on Blu-Ray, and it was a cathartic purchase because of how much fun it was, and how much it just kept me from getting completely depressed. Six months later, the animated sequel, “How to Train Your Dragon 2”, came out, and it was a film that really helped me find some focus emotionally, and get some closure about his death in the same way “Up” did five years before with my grandfather.
I often wonder how Ebert would feel about movies and filmmakers that have come out since his passing- he was a critic who had great reverence towards films of vision and imagination. What would he have thought of “Gravity” and “Pacific Rim”, or the final two chapters of the “How to Train Your Dragon” movies, including the one that was so cathartic for me? How would he respond to “The Last Jedi” or “Rogue One”? What about “A Wrinkle in Time”, “Get Out”, the “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies, or “Ready Player One”? Or “Black Panther” and “Creed”? “Mad Max: Fury Road” or “The Shape of Water” and “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Endgame” might have thrilled him. Or maybe none of them would; even if that was the case, he would have had some compelling things to say.
Recently, my mother’s health has been a primary concern for me. She is ground zero for my movie love, and my desire to write about films. Her memory has been the biggest concern for me, and that’s a shame, because being able to discuss films with her has been one of the great pleasures of our relationship. Our experiences at DragonCon, watching RiffTrax Live! events, an the myriad of films we shared together are so vivid for me, but not quite as much for her, although we occasionally still talk about some movies and TV shows. Our moviewatching experiences have lessened, though, as my life has changed with marriage and adult responsibilities. While I’m grateful that I’ve gotten one podcast record in with her, I hate that it took as long to do so, because it might be one of the last, real film-related discussions we have. I’m grateful it turned out as well as it did. In this mindset, I think of Ebert, and how he was able to cherish the experience of cinema over the years, even in failing health. I hope I am so lucky to do so. At least I have Sonic Cinema as a way of reminding me.
In 2009, I began “A Movie a Week,” a weekly attempt to add a new review for an older movie I hadn’t reviewed before. In the beginning, the vast majority of the films I was reviewing were movies I had seen, and wanted to add to the website. Over the years, I have done more and more “new to me” reviews, and it’s been a considerable addition to my movie memory banks. Ebert’s “Great Movies” series was the inspiration for “A Movie a Week,” and going through the films on my list the way Ebert went through his has been inspiring and enlightening.
Of those newer films to me in the series, the ones that have had the most vivid impact are the following:
“The African Queen” (1951)
“After Hours” (1985)
“Bamboozled” (2000)
“Boyz N the Hood” (1991)
“A Brief History of Time” (1991)
“Crimes and Misdemeanors” (1989)
“Dark Passage” (1947)
“The Dead” (1987)
“Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” (1988)
“Fanny and Alexander” (1983)
“Fire and Ice” (1983)
“Godzilla Raids Again” (1955)
“Greed” (1925)
“The Green Room” (1978)
“Inherit the Wind” (1960)
“The Inn of the Sixth Happiness” (1958)
“The Last Laugh” (1924)
“Limelight” (1952)
“Orson Welles’s Don Quixote” (1992)
“The Purple Rose of Cairo” (1985)
“The Quiet Man” (1952)
“Reds” (1981)
“Salo or the 120 Days of Sodom” (1975)
“She’s Gotta Have It” (1986)
“Spirits in the Air, Gremlins in the Clouds” (1989)
“The Sting” (1973)
“Stolen Kisses” (1968)
“Therese and Isabelle” (1968)
“Throne of Blood” (1957)
“Tucker & Dale vs. Evil” (2011)
“Vernon, Florida” (1981)
“What the Bleep Do We Know?” (2004)
“Wizards” (1977)
“The World According to Garp” (1982)
“The Year of Living Dangerously” (1983)
Two of these films- “The Inn of the Sixth Happiness” and “What the Bleep Do We Know?”– were watched because of my mother’s affection for them.
Thanks for listening,
Brian Skutle
www.sonic-cinema.com
