In Memory of Roger Ebert (1942-2013)

Roger Ebert (1942-2013)

Moviegoers and fellow critics, it is a sad day that has come to this. Eight weeks ago, the legendary Roger Ebert was one of the two men responsible for making the Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down phrase. The inaugural winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, an honorary award only given to newspaper writers and critics for the Chicago Sun-Times for print and online, whose life had now ended at age 70 on April 4th, 2013.

His career as a film critic began in 1967 when he started writing for Chicago Sun-Times. In 1975, Ebert was the first film critic to receive a Pulitzer Prize Award. That same year, he began hosting a TV show called "Sneak Previews" with Gene Siskel as co-reviewer/co-host of the program. For many years, the pair of them became partners. As the years went on, the two began to have two "At the Movies" shows on two different networks and made appearances, including doing guest star voices on an episode of an animated prime-time show, "The Critic".

In 1999, when Siskel unexpectedly passed away, the producers renamed the show "Roger Ebert & The Movies". Substitute co-hosts took Siskel's place until the following year when a columnist of the same newspaper organisation Ebert worked for, Richard Roeper, was assigned as his permanent co-host. The show was upgraded with a new title, "At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper", and they continued to criticise or review features until 2008. Unfortunately, Roger Ebert's health issues have taken a toll on his physical health and in 2006, he underwent surgery that removed his jaw, which cost him his ability to speak. It didn't affect his reviewing and returns to Chicago Sun-Times in 2007, where he continued to do the rest of his life and then on Twitter, where he became a presence.

The revelation of his success in reviewing comes from his love or extensive knowledge of them. He is not just an ultimate movie lover but an intelligent critic. And for his work, fans would genuinely express their love for him. I confess that Roger Ebert was not my inspiration, but the fictional character of "The Critic", Jay Sherman, was the one that got me into that. Here are a few clips of Ebert and the movies he reviewed with Siskel and Roeper at his side. I concur that two that might be positive are "Return of the Jedi" and "The Lion King", and the other is negative.

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