An Ode to Roger Ebert

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The New Yorker pays tribute to Roger Ebert in “Postscript: Roger Ebert, 1942-2013.”  The article states:

Ebert writes, in the introduction to his 2006 anthology of his work, “Awake in the Dark,” of seeing “three movies during a routine workday,” and, according to Douglas Martin’s obituary in the Times, Ebert “said he saw 500 films a year and reviewed half of them.” Some movies elicit passionate exultation; others, passionate revulsion. Those movies that repel you are the hardest to write about, and, for many critics, that’s the majority of movies. That’s where Ebert’s unique temperament, his humanistic world view, comes into play.

For many of us, Ebert’s essays and film reviews influenced how we watched movies as well as what movies were worth watching. Ebert’s “Two Thumbs Up” could send us rushing to the theater while a film marked thumbs down could probably wait to be seen on DVD.

Thank you Roger Ebert for your countless contributions to cinema. You will be missed.

Pat Johnson is currently working on his master’s in Fiction Writing at San Francisco State University, and is the owner and editor of the satirical news website The New Porker. When Pat’s not reading or writing he’s likely squeezing a lime into a Tecate and headed to the dance floor. He also creates short films, documentaries, and sketch comedies. Pat is completing his first novel, The Virgin and Marilyn Monroe, and writing a book of Creative Non-Fiction short stories. More from this author →