Roger Ebert: 1942-2013

[QXZ]

Directly from the Chicago Sun Times:

Roger Ebert loved movies.

Except for those he hated.

For a film with a daring director, a talented cast, a captivating plot or, ideally, all three, there could be no better advocate than Roger Ebert, who passionately celebrated and promoted excellence in film while deflating the awful, the derivative, or the merely mediocre with an observant eye, a sharp wit and a depth of knowledge that delighted his millions of readers and viewers.

“No good film is too long,” he once wrote, a sentiment he felt strongly enough about to have engraved on pens. “No bad movie is short enough.”

Ebert, 70, who reviewed movies for the Chicago Sun-Times for 46 years and on TV for 31 years, and who was without question the nation’s most prominent and influential film critic, died Thursday in Chicago. He had been in poor health over the past decade, battling cancers of the thyroid and salivary gland.

I felt this information was noteworthy because I'm sure that Ebert was certainly an influence on GameCritics.com -- even if nobody agreed with his opinions on video games not being art.

[gamevet]

Originally Posted by QXZ

Directly from the Chicago Sun Times:


I felt this information was noteworthy because I'm sure that Ebert was certainly an influence on GameCritics.com -- even if nobody agreed with his opinions on video games not being art.

I still laugh at Brad's comments about getting a response from Roger on the subject.

It's sad to hear the Roger has passed. I really loved watching his reviews back in the Siskel & Ebert days.

[QXZ]

Originally Posted by gamevet

It's sad to hear the Roger has passed. I really loved watching his reviews back in the Siskel & Ebert days.

I certainly did too, and I still find myself watching Siskel & Ebert episodes online -- even if it's been posted by their fans. In my younger days,Siskel & Ebert (and Roeper and Jay and Alice...) was one of the very few programs I looked forward to watching every Sunday evening on the Los Angeles ABC affiliate. I'm not a big movie aficionado by any stretch, I still think that a critic for any medium should consider Ebert's material well worthy of reading.

From Roger Ebert's final blog post:

For years I devoutly took every one of my tear sheets, folded them and added them to a pile on my desk. [...] Today, because of technology, the opportunities to become bigger, better and reach more people are piling up too. The fact that we're re-launching the site now, in the midst of other challenges, should give you an idea how important Rogerebert.com and Ebert Digital are to Chaz and me. I hope you'll stop by, and look for me. I'll be there.

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.

To your final words, Roger, a very big thumbs up...

[Dale Weir]

Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel were the inspirations for GameCritics.com all those years ago.

Anyone who was here at the beginning will probably remember that Chi and I plastered our handsome mugs on the homepage of the website. It was an homage of sorts to these two pioneers.

We even considered just adopting their thumbs up/thumbs down system before finally deciding on the number ratings.

Anyway, I'm saddened to hear of his death.

I am glad however that even as he enraged many in the video game community pertaining to the "Games as Art" debate, many have forgiven him and chosen to remember him for his great writing and positive impact he had on the movie critics and movie goers as well as the game critics and game players.

RIP Roger Ebert.

Dale

[JLB1987]

Didn't he retract the "games aren't art" comments few years ago?

Sad news, to be sure. I didn't agree with a lot of what he said outside of the movie industry, but his reviews tended to be fair and fun to read. Clearly am intelligent man.

[RandomRob]

I gave him big props for standing up for Cloud Atlas last year. Grew up on him, didn't agree with him all the time, but he supported alot of things that needed support in the industry. That show where he just talked about how important Grave of the fireflies was comes to mind.

Cool guy. RIP