A Note about Roger

To say it’s the end of an era is incredibly cliché but in this case quite true.  Now that Roger Ebert is gone, I ask the question that’s been in the back of my mind for quite some time: who exactly do I go to for movie advice from now on?  I feel like a lost dog desperately looking for his pathway home.

The strangest part is that I was just on his blog site only 3 days ago, looking up a couple potential movie choices that I had my eye on.  As I was browsing the list of films, I literally thought in my mind, “Heck…what am I going to do when he’s no longer with us?”  And slam!  3 days later, the announcement is made.

Like many people, I grew up with Roger Ebert, sort of like some children grow up with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (of which I didn’t, btw, and so I’ve never quite understood that mystique but that’s a completely different blog, of course).  Being born and raised early on in the suburbs of Chicago, my sister and I would watch Siskel and Ebert long before they were big time, back when the show was simply called “Sneak Previews”, if my memory at all serves me correctly.  In fact, being a big movie buff to this day, I can’t deny that I owe a lot of the origins of my interest in film to these two gentlemen.  I recall watching their show and seeing snippets of movies that I would never have cared to see whatsoever because, well, I was probably 7 years old, and yet something about these two guys talking, discussing, and occasionally arguing over the films completely caught my interest, eventually getting me to see it.  Two films that stand out in my memory that I watched purely based on their discussion of them were “The Omen” and “Halloween”, the latter being a movie that was probably just released at that time and had yet to be national news.  After listening to Siskel and Ebert debate over it, I knew I had to see it, even if it would scare the living heck out of me and keep me awake at night for months on end.

Later on, of course, Siskel and Ebert became a national sensation and no longer just a Chicago-land secret.  At first it felt like an invasion of privacy but eventually it became to feel normal.  Heck, I don’t mind sharing, really.  I can’t even imagine how many times over the period of my life that I referenced Siskel and Ebert prior to seeing a film.  Again, it’s like they were woven into my psyche.

And then we lost Siskel.  That was devastating and shook me up quite a bit.  Up until that time, I will admit that I always seemed slightly more in line with Gene Siskel’s tastes.  It took me a little while to warm just to Roger on his own but it did happen, almost quite easily and naturally, even though I’ll admit to not really approving of Richard Roeper being named as the replacement.  As I got older, though, I started to appreciate Roger’s opinions and viewpoints more and more.  Over the past ten years or so, his was the only opinion that I truly trusted.

With all the trials of Ebert’s life over the past decade, this day was certainly inevitable.  Still, it somehow leaves me a bit speechless.  I dare say movies will never be quite the same for me without Siskel and Ebert.  All I can say is thank you for sharing your love and knowledge of film with all of us.  I only wish I could return the favor.