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1
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We all are born
with a certain package.
2
00:00:54,554 --> 00:00:56,890
We are who we are.
3
00:00:57,057 --> 00:00:58,850
Where we were born,
who we were born as,
4
00:00:59,017 --> 00:01:01,144
how we were raised.
5
00:01:01,311 --> 00:01:05,524
We're kind of
stuck inside that person...
6
00:01:05,691 --> 00:01:08,151
...and the purpose of
civilization and growth,
7
00:01:08,318 --> 00:01:09,736
is to be able to reach out
8
00:01:09,903 --> 00:01:12,406
and empathize a little bit
with other people.
9
00:01:13,031 --> 00:01:17,035
And for me, the movies are like
a machine that generates empathy.
10
00:01:17,494 --> 00:01:19,705
It lets you understand
a little bit more
11
00:01:19,871 --> 00:01:23,458
about different hopes,
aspirations, dreams and fears.
12
00:01:23,625 --> 00:01:25,627
It helps us
to identify with the people
13
00:01:25,794 --> 00:01:28,046
who are sharing
this journey with us.
14
00:02:26,605 --> 00:02:28,815
Exactly five months
before his death,
15
00:02:28,982 --> 00:02:30,901
Roger and Chaz and I
met to plan
16
00:02:31,068 --> 00:02:33,528
the beginning of an ambitious
schedule of filming,
17
00:02:33,695 --> 00:02:36,615
including interviews
and critic screenings.
18
00:02:36,782 --> 00:02:39,701
Roger mentioned in passing
that his hip was sore.
19
00:02:39,868 --> 00:02:42,704
The very next day
he entered the hospital.
20
00:03:04,351 --> 00:03:08,563
So now I got a
hairline fracture to the femur bone.
21
00:03:08,730 --> 00:03:13,360
I didn't fall and have no idea
how it happened.
22
00:03:15,112 --> 00:03:17,197
It's bloody painful.
23
00:03:20,659 --> 00:03:24,287
This is my seventh time at rehab.
24
00:03:24,454 --> 00:03:26,373
This table is weird.
25
00:03:26,540 --> 00:03:30,377
I type much, much better
at home in my usual chair.
26
00:03:30,544 --> 00:03:34,047
Show Steve the new chair.
27
00:03:39,594 --> 00:03:41,638
It reclines.
28
00:03:43,098 --> 00:03:45,308
He will see more of it.
29
00:03:49,396 --> 00:03:52,357
So Roger, did you not pay
your insurance premiums,
30
00:03:52,524 --> 00:03:55,152
and so you didn't get
the chair till now?
31
00:04:00,157 --> 00:04:03,410
Steve, I'll do the jokes here.
32
00:04:05,370 --> 00:04:07,414
This is Flora.
33
00:04:07,581 --> 00:04:12,335
Also, this is Sonya Evans,
my stepdaughter.
34
00:04:12,502 --> 00:04:15,547
I do what they tell me to do.
35
00:04:20,635 --> 00:04:23,221
You wanna rest a little bit,
or work a little bit?
36
00:04:25,307 --> 00:04:27,350
Steve is the director.
37
00:04:27,517 --> 00:04:29,561
I'm just gonna sit down.
38
00:04:31,897 --> 00:04:35,108
Although Roger had supported
my films over the years,
39
00:04:35,275 --> 00:04:38,904
this film was the first chance
to really get to know him.
40
00:04:39,070 --> 00:04:42,157
Steve, shoot yourself
in the mirror.
41
00:04:43,408 --> 00:04:46,077
There he is.
42
00:04:46,244 --> 00:04:47,245
Hi, Carol.
43
00:04:47,412 --> 00:04:50,248
I'm Carol.
I'm Roger's assistant
44
00:04:50,415 --> 00:04:53,084
for over 20 years,
Roger and Chaz.
45
00:04:53,251 --> 00:04:57,172
And Zero Dark something
is winning all the awards, Roger.
46
00:04:57,339 --> 00:04:58,715
It won another big award.
47
00:04:58,882 --> 00:05:00,800
And the Bears lost.
48
00:05:04,221 --> 00:05:06,473
"My daily--" What?
49
00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:09,226
"briefing."
50
00:05:09,434 --> 00:05:11,102
Okay, Roger.
51
00:05:11,269 --> 00:05:15,148
And then Mayor Daley's,
you know, nephew
52
00:05:15,315 --> 00:05:17,943
went to court today.
Remember, for the Koschman thing
53
00:05:18,109 --> 00:05:19,569
that the Sun-Times
really uncovered...
54
00:05:19,736 --> 00:05:22,113
I always worked
on newspapers.
55
00:05:23,698 --> 00:05:25,200
There was a persistent need,
56
00:05:25,367 --> 00:05:27,536
not only to write,
but to publish.
57
00:05:27,702 --> 00:05:31,915
In grade school, I wrote and
published the Washington Street News,
58
00:05:32,082 --> 00:05:35,168
which I solemnly delivered
to neighbors in Urbana, Illinois,
59
00:05:35,335 --> 00:05:38,630
as if it existed independently of me.
60
00:05:38,797 --> 00:05:41,424
At the News Gazette,
a line-o-type operator
61
00:05:41,591 --> 00:05:45,512
set my by-line in lead:
"By Roger Ebert."
62
00:05:45,679 --> 00:05:47,806
I was electrified.
63
00:05:47,973 --> 00:05:50,267
When I went home with it,
you could take a stamp pad,
64
00:05:50,433 --> 00:05:52,102
you could put your by-line
on everything.
65
00:05:52,269 --> 00:05:55,480
My parents finally
had to take it away from me.
66
00:05:55,647 --> 00:05:57,816
Everything was by Roger Ebert.
67
00:05:59,192 --> 00:06:01,403
And I went to work full-time
for the local newspaper
68
00:06:01,570 --> 00:06:04,030
when I was 15,
first as a sports writer,
69
00:06:04,197 --> 00:06:06,449
general assignment,
working late,
70
00:06:06,616 --> 00:06:09,494
being there with the newspapermen
back in the '505.
71
00:06:09,661 --> 00:06:12,622
It was unspeakably romantic.
72
00:06:12,789 --> 00:06:15,584
I can write,
I just always could.
73
00:06:15,750 --> 00:06:19,212
On the other hand,
I flunked French five times.
74
00:06:21,298 --> 00:06:24,676
In the spring of 1960, I announced
I wanted to go to Harvard,
75
00:06:24,843 --> 00:06:27,262
like Jack Kennedy
and Thomas Wolfe.
76
00:06:27,429 --> 00:06:30,557
"Boy, there's no money to send
you to Harvard," Daddy said.
77
00:06:30,724 --> 00:06:34,227
The Urbana Champaign campus
of the University of Illinois:
78
00:06:34,394 --> 00:06:36,688
to provide knowledge
for a better tomorrow.
79
00:06:36,855 --> 00:06:39,149
I would go
to my hometown university.
80
00:06:39,316 --> 00:06:42,402
I wouldn't be
an electrician like my father.
81
00:06:42,569 --> 00:06:44,946
He told me one day
his father said to him,
82
00:06:45,113 --> 00:06:46,990
"Roger, there's professors
over there,
83
00:06:47,157 --> 00:06:48,867
that's what you oughta do some day.
84
00:06:49,034 --> 00:06:50,535
You wanna sit there
with a pipe,
85
00:06:50,702 --> 00:06:53,330
and a cardigan sweater
with your feet up on the desk."
86
00:06:53,496 --> 00:06:56,666
I think his father recognized
early on that Roger had a gift.
87
00:06:56,833 --> 00:07:01,630
l joined The Daily Illini,
and I ran into him then.
88
00:07:03,048 --> 00:07:04,466
During my years at Illinois,
89
00:07:04,633 --> 00:07:08,011
I spent more time working on
The Daily Illini than studying.
90
00:07:08,178 --> 00:07:10,764
It was in every sense
a real newspaper,
91
00:07:10,930 --> 00:07:14,434
published five days a week,
on an ancient Goss rotary press
92
00:07:14,601 --> 00:07:17,020
that made the building tremble.
93
00:07:17,187 --> 00:07:19,731
As editor,
I was a case study:
94
00:07:19,898 --> 00:07:23,860
tactless, egotistical,
merciless, and a showboat.
95
00:07:24,027 --> 00:07:25,695
And he was.
96
00:07:25,862 --> 00:07:28,448
But it worked
because he could back it up.
97
00:07:28,615 --> 00:07:31,660
It was intimidating
to the members of the staff
98
00:07:31,826 --> 00:07:35,997
because he was like
a mature writer at that time.
99
00:07:37,832 --> 00:07:41,336
Now here, when those
four children were killed
100
00:07:41,503 --> 00:07:43,213
in the church bombing
in Birmingham,
101
00:07:43,380 --> 00:07:45,423
there was a huge protest
around the country.
102
00:07:45,590 --> 00:07:48,134
Four hundred students gathered
on the university quadrangle
103
00:07:48,301 --> 00:07:50,720
to protest the bombing
of an Alabama Sunday school.
104
00:07:50,887 --> 00:07:54,641
And Roger was the voice
of outrage on this campus.
105
00:07:54,808 --> 00:07:58,520
He started off his column by quoting
Dr. Martin Luther King,
106
00:07:58,687 --> 00:08:00,563
who said to George Wallace,
107
00:08:00,730 --> 00:08:04,275
"The blood of these innocent children
is on your hands."
108
00:08:04,442 --> 00:08:05,944
That ended the quote.
109
00:08:06,111 --> 00:08:08,738
Then Roger began his column
by saying,
110
00:08:08,905 --> 00:08:11,783
"That is not entirely the truth.
111
00:08:18,748 --> 00:08:20,750
And it is not new blood.
112
00:08:20,917 --> 00:08:24,003
It is old, very old.
113
00:08:24,170 --> 00:08:26,715
And as Lady Macbeth discovered,
114
00:08:26,881 --> 00:08:29,843
it will not ever wash away."
115
00:08:30,009 --> 00:08:33,680
That began a column written
by a 21-year-old guy,
116
00:08:33,847 --> 00:08:37,684
and he said it better
than anybody said it all week.
117
00:08:37,851 --> 00:08:43,106
Roger was editor
on November 22nd, 1963,
118
00:08:43,273 --> 00:08:45,650
when John F. Kennedy was shot.
119
00:08:45,817 --> 00:08:49,863
At around two o'clock
in the morning, the presses rolled,
120
00:08:50,029 --> 00:08:52,115
gigantic presses,
two stories high,
121
00:08:52,282 --> 00:08:53,700
chug and chug,
122
00:08:53,867 --> 00:08:55,952
and Ebert was doing
what editors do
123
00:08:56,119 --> 00:08:58,413
at the end of the day:
check out the pages.
124
00:08:58,580 --> 00:09:03,376
And he opens it up and there's
a picture of John F. Kennedy,
125
00:09:03,543 --> 00:09:06,963
and an ad of a pilgrim
with a musket
126
00:09:07,130 --> 00:09:09,382
pointed at Kennedy's head.
127
00:09:09,549 --> 00:09:13,344
Ebert said,
"We gotta switch this."
128
00:09:13,511 --> 00:09:17,557
The pressman said like,
"Hear that sound, Roger?
129
00:09:17,724 --> 00:09:21,144
That's the sound
of newspapers being printed."
130
00:09:21,311 --> 00:09:25,315
Unlike in movies,
you didn't stop the presses.
131
00:09:25,482 --> 00:09:29,778
And Ebert said,
"We're not gonna print that tomorrow.
132
00:09:29,944 --> 00:09:31,404
We gotta stop the presses."
133
00:09:32,822 --> 00:09:35,158
Ebert became famous
to us for that,
134
00:09:35,325 --> 00:09:37,952
because, you know,
here was a kid
135
00:09:38,119 --> 00:09:41,331
taking control
of an adult situation
136
00:09:41,498 --> 00:09:44,667
and making a news judgment,
an important one.
137
00:09:49,506 --> 00:09:52,634
Chicago was the great city
over the horizon.
138
00:09:52,801 --> 00:09:54,719
We read Chicago's newspapers
139
00:09:54,886 --> 00:09:57,138
and listened to its powerful
AM radio stations.
140
00:09:57,263 --> 00:09:58,723
Good evening,
ladies and gentlemen,
141
00:09:58,807 --> 00:10:00,350
it's midnight here in Chicago.
142
00:10:00,475 --> 00:10:01,893
Long after midnight,
143
00:10:02,060 --> 00:10:03,978
I listened to Jack Egan
broadcasting live.
144
00:10:04,145 --> 00:10:07,315
...Chez Lounge and
the world famous Chez Paree.
145
00:10:07,482 --> 00:10:11,319
Chatting with Martin and
Lewis, or Rosemary Clooney.
146
00:10:11,486 --> 00:10:14,489
I'd been accepted
as a PhD candidate in English
147
00:10:14,656 --> 00:10:18,576
by the University of Chicago,
but I needed a job.
148
00:10:20,745 --> 00:10:22,789
I got a part time job
at the Sun-Times,
149
00:10:22,956 --> 00:10:24,499
and then five months later,
150
00:10:24,666 --> 00:10:26,751
the film critic retired
and they gave me the job.
151
00:10:26,918 --> 00:10:28,503
I did not apply for it.
152
00:10:28,670 --> 00:10:31,589
Newspaper film critics
had been interchangeable.
153
00:10:31,756 --> 00:10:35,009
Some papers had by-lines
that different people wrote under.
154
00:10:35,176 --> 00:10:37,303
For example,
the Tribune had Mae Tinee,
155
00:10:37,470 --> 00:10:39,722
and that could be whoever
went to the movies that day.
156
00:10:39,889 --> 00:10:42,642
Because Mae Tinee really
spelled out "matinee."
157
00:10:42,809 --> 00:10:46,312
I was at that time the youngest
daily film critic in America.
158
00:10:46,479 --> 00:10:48,982
And it was a real good time
to be a movie critic.
159
00:10:49,148 --> 00:10:51,276
Armed robbery.
160
00:11:06,207 --> 00:11:09,502
Bet you wouldn't have the gumption
to use it.
161
00:11:12,380 --> 00:11:14,007
Now, come here.
162
00:11:14,173 --> 00:11:15,049
It is also
163
00:11:20,555 --> 00:11:23,892
- Hey! What's your name, anyhow?
- Clyde Barrow.
164
00:11:24,559 --> 00:11:26,269
Hi, I'm Bonnie Parker.
165
00:11:26,436 --> 00:11:28,146
Pleased to meet you.
166
00:11:30,189 --> 00:11:31,774
"The fact that the story
167
00:11:31,941 --> 00:11:34,777
is set 35 years ago
doesn't mean a thing.
168
00:11:34,944 --> 00:11:36,571
It had to be set sometime,
169
00:11:42,035 --> 00:11:44,829
Roger was the most facile writer
I ever came across.
170
00:11:44,996 --> 00:11:47,248
Anybody that has ever seen him work.
171
00:11:47,415 --> 00:11:48,999
He could, he could knock out
172
00:11:49,167 --> 00:11:53,838
a full thought out movie review
in 30 minutes.
173
00:11:54,005 --> 00:11:56,507
Fast and furious.
174
00:11:56,674 --> 00:11:58,676
There were so many reporters
that formed
175
00:11:58,843 --> 00:12:01,888
easy quick friendships
because they were smart,
176
00:12:02,055 --> 00:12:04,724
they were good writers,
they were literate,
177
00:12:04,891 --> 00:12:07,018
and they could tell
a good story in a saloon.
178
00:12:08,728 --> 00:12:10,313
O'Rourke's was our stage,
179
00:12:10,813 --> 00:12:13,316
and we displayed
our personas there nightly.
180
00:12:13,483 --> 00:12:17,904
It was a shabby street corner tavern
on a dicey stretch of North Avenue,
181
00:12:18,071 --> 00:12:21,950
a block after Chicago's Old Town
stopped being a tourist haven.
182
00:12:23,242 --> 00:12:25,203
When a roomer
who lived upstairs died,
183
00:12:25,370 --> 00:12:29,499
his body was discovered when maggots
started to drop through the ceiling.
184
00:12:29,666 --> 00:12:31,376
For many years, I drank there
185
00:12:31,542 --> 00:12:33,920
more or less every night
when I was in town.
186
00:12:34,087 --> 00:12:36,089
So did a lot of people.
187
00:12:36,255 --> 00:12:37,799
We all sat at the same place.
188
00:12:37,966 --> 00:12:39,717
The newspaper guys here,
189
00:12:39,884 --> 00:12:41,594
the druggies in the middle,
190
00:12:41,761 --> 00:12:44,973
the surly staff
at the very end of the bar.
191
00:12:45,139 --> 00:12:50,478
Roger has always been attracted
to weird types.
192
00:12:50,645 --> 00:12:52,855
I mean, you should see
some of the women
193
00:12:53,022 --> 00:12:56,150
that he's hauled in
to O'Rourke's over the years.
194
00:12:56,317 --> 00:12:57,819
Back in the old days,
195
00:12:57,986 --> 00:13:00,196
Roger had, probably
the worst taste in women
196
00:13:00,363 --> 00:13:01,656
of any man I've ever known.
197
00:13:01,823 --> 00:13:04,659
They were either gold diggers,
198
00:13:04,826 --> 00:13:07,120
opportunists, or psychos.
199
00:13:07,286 --> 00:13:09,831
Yeah, I met Roger one time
with a woman
200
00:13:09,998 --> 00:13:12,709
that looked like
a young Linda Ronstadt,
201
00:13:12,875 --> 00:13:15,128
and when she was gone
from the table briefly,
202
00:13:15,294 --> 00:13:16,713
I said, "Who is that?"
203
00:13:16,879 --> 00:13:20,508
And he said,
"She's a hired lady."
204
00:13:20,675 --> 00:13:24,387
And I said, "A hooker?"
205
00:13:24,512 --> 00:13:27,682
And he said, "Now you
take care of her when I leave."
206
00:13:27,849 --> 00:13:30,935
And he left town.
And anyway...
207
00:13:33,271 --> 00:13:37,233
Roger, he used to hang from
the lamppost at the end of the bar.
208
00:13:37,400 --> 00:13:38,985
When he got going,
209
00:13:39,152 --> 00:13:41,487
Roger was one of
the finest storytellers
210
00:13:41,654 --> 00:13:43,656
that I have ever come across.
211
00:13:43,823 --> 00:13:45,324
He would hold court,
212
00:13:45,491 --> 00:13:48,453
and it's not like everyone
was invited to join in
213
00:13:48,619 --> 00:13:50,997
and have a colloquy with him.
214
00:13:51,164 --> 00:13:52,874
Since he bought drinks
for everybody
215
00:13:53,041 --> 00:13:56,586
when he had the money,
who's not to listen?
216
00:13:56,753 --> 00:13:59,714
His great friend
was John McHugh.
217
00:13:59,881 --> 00:14:02,383
And I remember
a famous argument
218
00:14:02,550 --> 00:14:06,721
over who was the more cosmopolitan
of the two.
219
00:14:06,888 --> 00:14:11,059
And Ebert was saying,
"John, I travel the world.
220
00:14:11,225 --> 00:14:13,227
I go to every country in Europe.
221
00:14:13,394 --> 00:14:14,937
I go to Cannes.
222
00:14:15,104 --> 00:14:17,857
I'm a cosmopolitan person."
223
00:14:18,024 --> 00:14:23,654
John said, "Ebert, you don't
even speak a foreign language."
224
00:14:23,821 --> 00:14:27,033
And Ebert said,
"I speak enough to be able
225
00:14:27,200 --> 00:14:31,204
to order two Johnny Walker Blacks
anywhere in the world."
226
00:14:31,370 --> 00:14:35,291
Any sober human being
looking at the two of them
227
00:14:35,458 --> 00:14:39,462
would have decided neither was
actually a cosmopolitan figure.
228
00:14:44,842 --> 00:14:46,886
I discovered there was
nothing like drinking
229
00:14:47,053 --> 00:14:48,930
with a crowd
to make you a member.
230
00:14:49,097 --> 00:14:52,391
I copied the idealism
and cynicism of the reporters.
231
00:14:52,558 --> 00:14:53,976
I spoke like they did.
232
00:14:54,143 --> 00:14:55,561
Laughed at the same things.
233
00:14:55,728 --> 00:14:57,480
Felt that I belonged.
234
00:15:00,608 --> 00:15:01,984
Studs wasn't a Chicagoan.
235
00:15:02,151 --> 00:15:03,820
Nelson Algren wasn't born here.
236
00:15:03,986 --> 00:15:05,988
Saul Bellow wasn't born here.
237
00:15:06,155 --> 00:15:08,741
But there's a certain kind
of Chicago character
238
00:15:08,908 --> 00:15:12,203
that Roger really came
to believe that he was.
239
00:15:15,373 --> 00:15:18,084
Roger was not just
the chief character
240
00:15:18,251 --> 00:15:20,837
and star of the movie
that was his life.
241
00:15:21,003 --> 00:15:25,258
He was also the director,
and he brought in the cast,
242
00:15:25,424 --> 00:15:29,470
and the scenario,
and he orchestrated it.
243
00:15:29,637 --> 00:15:31,264
He loved it!
244
00:15:31,430 --> 00:15:34,767
Those characters, what they did.
245
00:15:34,934 --> 00:15:37,562
John the garbage man.
Hank the communist.
246
00:15:37,728 --> 00:15:42,567
I remember the night that Jim Touley
punched J. Robert Nash,
247
00:15:42,733 --> 00:15:45,236
knocked him down
to the bar room floor,
248
00:15:45,403 --> 00:15:47,947
and Nash looked up and he said,
"Nice punch, Jimmy!"
249
00:15:50,908 --> 00:15:53,286
When O'Rourke's closed he would
go down to the Ale House,
250
00:15:53,452 --> 00:15:55,246
because that was a four o'clock bar.
251
00:15:57,081 --> 00:15:59,834
The mood got
rougher and rougher
252
00:16:00,001 --> 00:16:01,919
as people got
drunker and drunker.
253
00:16:04,005 --> 00:16:07,341
Roger was good at dishing,
but he also could take it.
254
00:16:07,508 --> 00:16:10,595
"I'm a fat guy, I'm gonna have to
learn how to take fat stuff."
255
00:16:10,761 --> 00:16:12,680
Roger could hold his own
with all of them.
256
00:16:14,307 --> 00:16:18,477
Everybody kind of says that
deep down he's a nice guy.
257
00:16:18,644 --> 00:16:21,105
He is a nice guy,
but he's not that nice.
258
00:16:22,773 --> 00:16:24,066
He's not that nice.
259
00:16:32,450 --> 00:16:34,493
The last week
he was drinking,
260
00:16:34,660 --> 00:16:38,372
I even realized that there was
a serious problem going on.
261
00:16:38,539 --> 00:16:40,833
Watching him
when he pulled out that night
262
00:16:40,999 --> 00:16:43,586
in front of O'Rourke's,
and almost, you know,
263
00:16:43,753 --> 00:16:45,296
ran into the North Avenue bus.
264
00:16:45,463 --> 00:16:47,215
I remember being in the drug store
265
00:16:47,381 --> 00:16:49,634
that was on the corner there
one morning,
266
00:16:49,800 --> 00:16:52,803
and Roger came in, and he
looked like absolute hell.
267
00:16:52,970 --> 00:16:55,014
And I'm like, "Are you okay?
What's the matter?"
268
00:16:55,181 --> 00:16:59,393
"I'm on a bender.
Can you come have a drink with me?"
269
00:16:59,602 --> 00:17:01,103
He said to me one time,
270
00:17:01,229 --> 00:17:03,272
and I don't think
he'll regard this as a betrayal,
271
00:17:03,439 --> 00:17:06,609
that he would walk home
late at night,
272
00:17:06,776 --> 00:17:08,611
after O'Rourke's had closed,
273
00:17:08,945 --> 00:17:10,655
and he would wish
he was dead.
274
00:17:12,865 --> 00:17:15,576
I found it almost impossible
once I started,
275
00:17:15,743 --> 00:17:20,206
to stop after one or two.
I paid a price in hangovers.
276
00:17:20,373 --> 00:17:21,791
Without hangovers,
it's possible
277
00:17:21,958 --> 00:17:23,876
that I would still be drinking.
278
00:17:24,043 --> 00:17:29,006
I would also be unemployed,
unmarried, and probably dead.
279
00:17:29,173 --> 00:17:33,219
In August 1979,
I took my last drink.
280
00:17:33,386 --> 00:17:36,847
It was about four o'clock
on a Saturday afternoon.
281
00:17:37,014 --> 00:17:39,433
The hot sun streaming
through the windows.
282
00:17:39,600 --> 00:17:43,229
I put a glass of scotch and soda
down on the living room table,
283
00:17:43,396 --> 00:17:46,816
went to bed, and pulled
the blankets over my head.
284
00:17:46,983 --> 00:17:48,985
I couldn't take it anymore.
285
00:17:49,151 --> 00:17:51,028
He says, "I quit."
286
00:17:51,195 --> 00:17:54,532
And then I realized
it's time for me to quit, too.
287
00:17:54,699 --> 00:17:57,660
The next time I saw Roger Ebert,
he was in AA.
288
00:17:57,827 --> 00:18:00,830
I was drinking very heavily.
289
00:18:00,997 --> 00:18:04,583
When I decided to out myself
as a recovering alcoholic,
290
00:18:04,750 --> 00:18:07,211
I hadn't taken a drink
for 31 years.
291
00:18:07,378 --> 00:18:09,463
And since my first AA meeting
I attended,
292
00:18:09,630 --> 00:18:11,757
I've never wanted to.
293
00:18:11,924 --> 00:18:14,760
Since surgery in July of 2006,
294
00:18:14,927 --> 00:18:18,806
I haven't been able to drink
at all, or eat or speak.
295
00:18:18,973 --> 00:18:22,518
Unless I go insane and start
pouring booze into my g-tube,
296
00:18:22,685 --> 00:18:25,271
I believe I'm reasonably safe.
297
00:18:52,256 --> 00:18:53,841
That's it.
298
00:18:54,008 --> 00:18:55,551
By the time I got home
from this shoot,
299
00:18:55,718 --> 00:18:57,678
there was an email waiting for me.
300
00:18:59,889 --> 00:19:01,557
Did we get it?
301
00:19:04,643 --> 00:19:06,437
I hope so, too.
302
00:19:11,817 --> 00:19:13,277
When I mentioned in my blog
303
00:19:13,444 --> 00:19:16,155
that I could no longer
eat, drink, or speak,
304
00:19:16,322 --> 00:19:19,158
a reader wrote,
"Do you miss it?"
305
00:19:20,826 --> 00:19:24,663
Not so much, really.
I lived in a world of words
306
00:19:24,789 --> 00:19:27,500
long before I was aware of it.
307
00:19:27,666 --> 00:19:30,378
The new reality took shape slowly.
308
00:19:30,544 --> 00:19:34,840
My blog became my voice,
my outlet.
309
00:19:35,007 --> 00:19:37,635
It let loose
the flood of memories.
310
00:19:39,261 --> 00:19:42,431
They came pouring forth
in a flood of relief.
311
00:19:44,975 --> 00:19:47,561
One day in the spring of 1967,
312
00:19:47,728 --> 00:19:50,272
I noticed
Faster, Pussycat! Kill Kill!
313
00:19:50,439 --> 00:19:53,109
playing at the Biograph
on Lincoln Avenue.
314
00:19:59,865 --> 00:20:02,493
The posters displayed
improbably buxom women,
315
00:20:02,660 --> 00:20:05,579
and I was inside in a flash.
316
00:20:05,746 --> 00:20:07,873
That was when it first registered
317
00:20:08,040 --> 00:20:10,459
that there was a filmmaker
named Russ Meyer.
318
00:20:13,921 --> 00:20:17,716
In 1969, the 20th Century Fox
studio invited Meyer
319
00:20:17,883 --> 00:20:19,301
to the lot for an interview.
320
00:20:19,468 --> 00:20:21,220
They owned the rights
to the title
321
00:20:21,387 --> 00:20:23,347
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls,
322
00:20:23,514 --> 00:20:26,267
and offered him the title
unattached to any story.
323
00:20:26,434 --> 00:20:28,894
Meyer offered me
the screenwriting job,
324
00:20:29,061 --> 00:20:31,897
and I fell into
a delirious adventure.
325
00:20:32,064 --> 00:20:35,359
The most impossible question
for me to answer is,
326
00:20:35,526 --> 00:20:38,279
"How on earth
did Roger Ebert write
327
00:20:38,529 --> 00:20:40,364
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls?"
328
00:20:43,993 --> 00:20:47,788
Or be interested
in writing such a script?
329
00:20:47,955 --> 00:20:51,083
Or be involved with Russ Meyer?
330
00:20:58,382 --> 00:21:00,885
I have no answer.
331
00:21:01,051 --> 00:21:04,513
What did he love
about Russ' films do you think?
332
00:21:05,723 --> 00:21:07,183
Boobs.
333
00:21:07,349 --> 00:21:10,311
The fact that there were
large breasted women involved
334
00:21:10,478 --> 00:21:12,271
probably was a plus.
335
00:21:14,523 --> 00:21:18,360
You know, we can talk a lot
about the art of cinema,
336
00:21:18,527 --> 00:21:21,280
and what we find in it,
337
00:21:21,447 --> 00:21:23,782
and the sort of the magic
338
00:21:23,949 --> 00:21:26,327
and the dreams
and the glory of it,
339
00:21:26,494 --> 00:21:28,871
but there are also other,
kind of, earthier appeals.
340
00:21:29,038 --> 00:21:30,748
You wanna make love?
341
00:21:30,915 --> 00:21:32,666
Then let's make love.
342
00:21:32,833 --> 00:21:34,168
Here?
343
00:21:34,335 --> 00:21:38,005
- No, in LA.
- L.A.?
344
00:21:38,172 --> 00:21:39,757
- Where is that?
- We'd get crushed.
345
00:21:39,924 --> 00:21:41,675
Meyer wanted everything
in the screenplay
346
00:21:41,842 --> 00:21:44,178
except the kitchen sink.
The movie, he explained,
347
00:21:44,345 --> 00:21:46,555
would simultaneously
be a satire,
348
00:21:46,722 --> 00:21:47,890
a serious melodrama,
349
00:21:48,057 --> 00:21:50,684
a rock musical, a comedy,
350
00:21:50,851 --> 00:21:52,311
a violent exploitation picture,
351
00:21:52,478 --> 00:21:55,814
a skin flick,
and a moralistic exposé
352
00:21:55,981 --> 00:21:58,651
of the oft-times nightmarish world
of show business.
353
00:21:58,776 --> 00:22:00,319
- It's a no talent town.
- Don't put it down.
354
00:22:00,486 --> 00:22:03,656
I had to review
for the Chicago Sun-Times,
355
00:22:03,822 --> 00:22:07,159
and I think I gave it three stars,
because Roger was my friend.
356
00:22:07,326 --> 00:22:08,786
And somewhere deep in the piece said,
357
00:22:08,953 --> 00:22:10,996
"This is a new rating system,
ten stars,
358
00:22:11,163 --> 00:22:12,540
so this gets three out of ten."
359
00:22:13,582 --> 00:22:15,668
This is my happening
and it freaks me out!
360
00:22:15,834 --> 00:22:18,504
I reviewed the film
in National Review.
361
00:22:18,671 --> 00:22:22,591
And listed it as one of
the 10 great films of the 19605.
362
00:22:22,758 --> 00:22:27,012
It was funny, it had
a pulse that raced past
363
00:22:27,179 --> 00:22:29,848
Howard Hawk's film
from the '405.
364
00:22:30,015 --> 00:22:32,851
But with the wild
who-gives-a-shit air,
365
00:22:33,018 --> 00:22:34,687
it was perfect for the late '605.
366
00:22:34,853 --> 00:22:36,397
You're a groovy boy.
367
00:22:36,564 --> 00:22:39,525
I'd like to strap you on sometime.
368
00:22:39,692 --> 00:22:41,485
Beyond the Valley.
369
00:22:41,652 --> 00:22:44,154
It's beyond it.
370
00:22:44,321 --> 00:22:48,409
You know, this is a title,
because you're gonna go beyond it.
371
00:22:48,576 --> 00:22:50,786
It went over my head.
372
00:22:50,953 --> 00:22:52,413
That doesn't mean
I didn't enjoy it.
373
00:22:52,580 --> 00:22:55,749
I did like her
having sex in the Bentley.
374
00:22:59,211 --> 00:23:01,547
It's my first time in a Rolls.
375
00:23:01,714 --> 00:23:03,799
Because of the way
he cut to the grill.
376
00:23:03,966 --> 00:23:06,760
There's nothing like a Rolls.
377
00:23:06,927 --> 00:23:08,721
Not even a Bentley.
378
00:23:08,887 --> 00:23:11,599
Not even a Bentley.
379
00:23:11,765 --> 00:23:13,851
Bentley! Rolls!
380
00:23:14,018 --> 00:23:16,353
A Rolls. A Rolls!
381
00:23:17,438 --> 00:23:19,732
But I did like that editing
in the Bentley.
382
00:23:21,442 --> 00:23:23,777
I don't really have
any new confessions.
383
00:23:26,447 --> 00:23:28,699
It is true that the first 10 years
I came to the conference,
384
00:23:28,866 --> 00:23:31,410
I came primarily hoping to get laid.
385
00:23:34,580 --> 00:23:37,041
That didn't work out.
386
00:23:39,209 --> 00:23:42,630
I lived more than nine months
of my life in Boulder, Colorado,
387
00:23:42,838 --> 00:23:44,548
one week at a time.
388
00:23:44,715 --> 00:23:47,217
It all happened
at the sleep-inducingly named,
389
00:23:47,384 --> 00:23:49,887
"Conference on World Affairs."
390
00:23:50,054 --> 00:23:53,807
It's a conference that comes
together once a year at Boulder.
391
00:23:53,974 --> 00:23:57,019
Astrophysicists, sociologists,
experts of the Middle East.
392
00:23:57,186 --> 00:23:59,897
Free wheeling...
and engaging.
393
00:24:00,856 --> 00:24:02,900
Roger was an absolute star.
394
00:24:03,067 --> 00:24:08,030
He was the longest running panelist
in history of the CWA.
395
00:24:08,197 --> 00:24:11,075
I was in my 205 when I first
came to the conference.
396
00:24:11,241 --> 00:24:13,661
There, I was on a panel
about the Establishment
397
00:24:13,827 --> 00:24:15,996
with Henry Fairly,
who coined the term.
398
00:24:16,163 --> 00:24:17,623
I discussed masturbation
399
00:24:17,790 --> 00:24:20,042
with the Greek Ambassador
to the United Nations.
400
00:24:20,209 --> 00:24:21,669
There I asked Ted Turner
401
00:24:21,835 --> 00:24:25,631
how he got so much right
and colorization wrong.
402
00:24:25,798 --> 00:24:28,467
He would hold what was called
Cinema Interruptus.
403
00:24:28,634 --> 00:24:32,721
On Monday of World Affairs week,
Roger would show a film.
404
00:24:32,888 --> 00:24:35,349
Tuesday through Friday
he would conduct
405
00:24:35,516 --> 00:24:38,394
a shot by shot
discussion of the film.
406
00:24:38,560 --> 00:24:41,689
To listen to Roger talk
for upwards of five hours
407
00:24:41,855 --> 00:24:43,607
about In Cold Blood,
or The Third Man,
408
00:24:43,774 --> 00:24:46,276
or Vertigo, or Citizen Kane,
409
00:24:46,443 --> 00:24:49,697
he was enlightening
with every new frame.
410
00:24:49,863 --> 00:24:52,616
It was a theatrical experience
of the highest order.
411
00:24:55,786 --> 00:24:58,789
And anybody who wanted to,
at any moment,
412
00:24:58,956 --> 00:25:00,332
could yell out, "Stop,"
413
00:25:00,499 --> 00:25:03,460
to ask a question
or make a statement.
414
00:25:03,627 --> 00:25:04,628
Stop!
415
00:25:04,795 --> 00:25:06,338
Look at that.
416
00:25:06,505 --> 00:25:09,466
Every year we find
something absolutely amazing,
417
00:25:09,633 --> 00:25:11,510
totally amazing in the films.
418
00:25:11,677 --> 00:25:13,262
It's not there, but we find it.
419
00:25:15,222 --> 00:25:19,685
There was a limit to Roger's
democratizing of film criticism.
420
00:25:19,852 --> 00:25:22,396
A student asked,
"Who do you think you are
421
00:25:22,563 --> 00:25:24,606
that you get to have
all these opinions?
422
00:25:24,773 --> 00:25:27,401
I saw Porky's
and I think Porky's is great,
423
00:25:27,568 --> 00:25:29,570
so why don't I get to talk about it?"
424
00:25:29,737 --> 00:25:32,406
And Roger said,
"I have two things to say.
425
00:25:32,573 --> 00:25:36,118
First, Marshall Field,
who owns the Chicago Sun-Times,
426
00:25:36,285 --> 00:25:38,954
appointed me film critic--
that's who I am."
427
00:25:39,121 --> 00:25:41,415
And he said,
"My other thing is a question.
428
00:25:41,582 --> 00:25:43,625
Would you wanna listen to you?"
429
00:25:48,213 --> 00:25:51,133
After the year that Roger came
430
00:25:51,300 --> 00:25:54,344
and worked with a voice synthesizer,
431
00:25:54,511 --> 00:25:57,598
he decided not to come again.
432
00:25:57,765 --> 00:25:59,683
He said it was too hard.
433
00:26:01,435 --> 00:26:03,604
I won't return
to the conference.
434
00:26:03,771 --> 00:26:07,399
It is fueled by speech,
and I am out of gas.
435
00:26:07,566 --> 00:26:10,360
But I went there
for my adult lifetime,
436
00:26:10,527 --> 00:26:12,446
and had a hell of a good time.
437
00:26:19,119 --> 00:26:20,454
The move is taking place,
438
00:26:20,621 --> 00:26:22,998
and they are loading up
the medical car
439
00:26:23,165 --> 00:26:25,542
to take us over to RIC.
440
00:26:25,709 --> 00:26:27,753
Will you send an email
for me, please?
441
00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:29,338
Come in.
442
00:26:29,505 --> 00:26:33,550
Is there a special back elevator
that we go down here or...?
443
00:26:33,717 --> 00:26:35,344
Well, actually, yeah.
444
00:26:35,511 --> 00:26:38,138
Because the last time
we took him from this hospital,
445
00:26:38,305 --> 00:26:41,433
we had to push the chair
past the morgue.
446
00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:44,144
Everything.
And we got lost down there.
447
00:26:46,104 --> 00:26:50,025
He's excited because he gets
to see a movie he wants to see.
448
00:26:50,192 --> 00:26:53,612
It should be coming over
later today.
449
00:26:53,779 --> 00:26:55,739
So he's happy about that.
450
00:27:00,327 --> 00:27:02,162
I'm glad we don't have
to go under that--
451
00:27:02,329 --> 00:27:04,581
the underground anymore.
452
00:27:06,250 --> 00:27:08,502
Past the morgue.
453
00:27:13,590 --> 00:27:15,217
We're not ready for it!
454
00:27:18,303 --> 00:27:20,931
You've been working away, huh?
455
00:27:21,098 --> 00:27:23,642
You have a lot of writing to do.
456
00:27:23,809 --> 00:27:25,227
I was hoping you could see
457
00:27:25,394 --> 00:27:28,188
at least one of them
on a big screen.
458
00:27:28,355 --> 00:27:30,941
When he was
in the hospital before,
459
00:27:31,108 --> 00:27:34,987
we took a semi-not sanctioned
trip out of the hospital.
460
00:27:35,153 --> 00:27:36,864
Bundled him up
and took him to the movies.
461
00:27:37,990 --> 00:27:41,743
But I don't know if-- I don't think
the doctor will let you out.
462
00:27:43,579 --> 00:27:45,122
Oops.
463
00:27:50,335 --> 00:27:54,214
Chaz is a strong woman.
I never met anyone like her.
464
00:27:54,381 --> 00:27:55,757
I think it'll be easier.
You can...
465
00:27:55,924 --> 00:27:57,509
She is the love of my life.
466
00:27:57,676 --> 00:27:59,469
Just wanna make sure
that you don't get cold.
467
00:27:59,636 --> 00:28:03,307
She saved me from the fate
of living out my life alone,
468
00:28:03,473 --> 00:28:05,726
which is where
I seemed to be heading.
469
00:28:07,936 --> 00:28:12,190
The first time he actually
saw me was at an AA meeting.
470
00:28:12,357 --> 00:28:16,028
And it's the first time
I've ever said it publicly.
471
00:28:17,654 --> 00:28:21,700
Roger became very public about his--
472
00:28:21,867 --> 00:28:25,746
but I felt that it was,
you know, more private for me.
473
00:28:27,497 --> 00:28:29,625
If it doesn't fit,
you must acquit.
474
00:28:31,543 --> 00:28:36,757
Roger weighed 300 pounds
when we first started dating.
475
00:28:36,924 --> 00:28:39,843
He didn't care that he was fat.
476
00:28:40,010 --> 00:28:42,512
He thought he was great.
477
00:28:42,679 --> 00:28:44,932
And that was so sexy.
478
00:28:46,141 --> 00:28:48,518
I take it this is not yours.
479
00:28:50,228 --> 00:28:54,149
If my cancer had come,
and Chaz had not been there with me,
480
00:28:54,316 --> 00:28:58,445
I can imagine a descent
into lonely decrepitude.
481
00:28:58,612 --> 00:29:01,323
That I am still active,
going places,
482
00:29:01,490 --> 00:29:03,659
moving,
is directly because of her.
483
00:29:05,619 --> 00:29:08,413
My instinct was to guard myself.
484
00:29:08,580 --> 00:29:12,334
I could never again be
on television as I once was.
485
00:29:12,501 --> 00:29:15,253
She said, "Yes, but people
are interested
486
00:29:15,420 --> 00:29:18,632
in what you have to say,
not in how you say it."
487
00:29:21,677 --> 00:29:23,178
With Roger now headed
488
00:29:23,345 --> 00:29:25,305
for at least
a couple of weeks of rehab,
489
00:29:25,472 --> 00:29:27,808
he suggested I email him
questions in advance
490
00:29:27,975 --> 00:29:30,227
of our major interview
when he gets back home.
491
00:29:32,187 --> 00:29:36,108
I sent him the first third
of nine pages of questions.
492
00:29:36,274 --> 00:29:37,859
He emailed me back.
493
00:29:38,026 --> 00:29:39,361
- Hello.
- Hi, how are you?
494
00:29:39,528 --> 00:29:44,658
Welcome to RIC. My name's Jackie
and we're going to go in this room.
495
00:29:44,825 --> 00:29:47,119
- Okay.
- How are you?
496
00:30:06,471 --> 00:30:08,849
I am politically my father's child,
497
00:30:09,016 --> 00:30:11,727
and emotionally more my mother's.
498
00:30:11,893 --> 00:30:16,023
My mother supported me as if
I was the local sports team.
499
00:30:16,189 --> 00:30:18,734
But she was fatalistic.
500
00:30:18,900 --> 00:30:21,903
She was permanently scarred
by the Depression,
501
00:30:22,070 --> 00:30:26,658
and constantly predicted she would
end up in the county poor home.
502
00:30:26,825 --> 00:30:31,038
My parents so strongly
encouraged my schoolwork.
503
00:30:31,204 --> 00:30:33,665
We even took
a third paper at home,
504
00:30:33,832 --> 00:30:36,835
the Chicago Daily News,
for me to read.
505
00:30:37,002 --> 00:30:39,046
When I stood
in the kitchen door,
506
00:30:39,212 --> 00:30:41,339
and used a sentence
with a new word in it,
507
00:30:41,506 --> 00:30:44,051
they would look up
from their coffee and cigarettes
508
00:30:44,217 --> 00:30:46,386
and actually applaud me.
509
00:30:51,058 --> 00:30:53,894
This is the memorable occasion
510
00:30:54,061 --> 00:30:57,773
that Roger was given
the Pulitzer Prize.
511
00:30:57,939 --> 00:31:00,400
Usually, when somebody
won a Pulitzer Prize,
512
00:31:00,567 --> 00:31:02,611
it was, "Who is he to win
a Pulitzer?", you know.
513
00:31:02,778 --> 00:31:05,072
"Yeah, I'll go
congratulate him, yeah."
514
00:31:05,238 --> 00:31:08,784
But for Roger,
there was real joy.
515
00:31:08,950 --> 00:31:11,536
You know, it was our Roger.
516
00:31:11,703 --> 00:31:13,413
One of us.
517
00:31:13,580 --> 00:31:15,999
The only Pulitzer Prize,
for years and years,
518
00:31:16,166 --> 00:31:19,461
ever given to a movie critic.
519
00:31:19,628 --> 00:31:21,630
Roger wrote his movie reviews
520
00:31:21,797 --> 00:31:24,424
as if he were sitting
in the 15th row,
521
00:31:24,591 --> 00:31:27,469
taking notes with one hand
and eating popcorn with the other.
522
00:31:27,636 --> 00:31:31,139
But he didn't simplify things.
523
00:31:40,649 --> 00:31:44,236
It envelops us in a red membrane
of passion and fear.
524
00:31:44,402 --> 00:31:46,822
And in some way that
I do not fully understand,
525
00:31:46,988 --> 00:31:50,826
it employs taboos and ancient
superstitions to make its effect.
526
00:31:56,957 --> 00:31:59,251
I think the way
that he writes,
527
00:31:59,417 --> 00:32:03,171
that sort of clear, plain,
Midwestern newspaper style,
528
00:32:03,338 --> 00:32:05,841
conveys enormous intelligence,
529
00:32:06,007 --> 00:32:07,509
encyclopedic learning,
530
00:32:07,676 --> 00:32:10,929
but doesn't condescend,
doesn't pander.
531
00:32:11,096 --> 00:32:14,975
Roger would become the definitive
mainstream film critic
532
00:32:15,142 --> 00:32:16,768
in American letters.
533
00:32:16,935 --> 00:32:20,063
He made it possible
for a bigger audience,
534
00:32:20,230 --> 00:32:23,733
a wider audience to appreciate
cinema as an art form.
535
00:32:23,900 --> 00:32:25,986
Because he really loved it.
536
00:32:26,153 --> 00:32:28,238
Really, really loved films,
537
00:32:28,405 --> 00:32:30,782
and he did not get caught up
538
00:32:30,949 --> 00:32:35,537
in certain ideologies
about what cinema should be.
539
00:32:35,704 --> 00:32:37,247
After he won the Pulitzer,
540
00:32:37,414 --> 00:32:39,207
if he had a mind
to go to The New York Times,
541
00:32:39,374 --> 00:32:40,917
he could've done that,
The Boston Globe,
542
00:32:41,084 --> 00:32:42,836
The LA Times, no problem.
543
00:32:43,003 --> 00:32:46,298
Ben Bradley, editor
of The Washington Post,
544
00:32:46,464 --> 00:32:49,634
of Watergate fame,
went after Roger hard.
545
00:32:49,801 --> 00:32:52,345
Offered him the sun and the moon.
546
00:32:52,512 --> 00:32:54,556
Ebert just kept saying no.
547
00:32:54,723 --> 00:32:57,350
He said, "I'm not gonna
learn new streets..."
548
00:33:00,145 --> 00:33:02,647
...which is very Ebert-like.
549
00:33:05,025 --> 00:33:07,694
The Sun-Times
went through rough times.
550
00:33:07,861 --> 00:33:10,530
So many regimes.
551
00:33:10,697 --> 00:33:13,575
The Murdoch era
which had crashed the paper.
552
00:33:15,577 --> 00:33:18,038
So many people left.
553
00:33:18,205 --> 00:33:20,832
And Roger remained steadfast.
554
00:33:20,999 --> 00:33:22,792
I remember Roger saying,
"I'm not gonna run away."
555
00:33:22,959 --> 00:33:24,544
- Right.
- These are my colleagues
556
00:33:24,711 --> 00:33:26,129
and not everybody
can get another job.
557
00:33:26,296 --> 00:33:29,049
If someone went across the street
for a job, they were selling out.
558
00:33:29,216 --> 00:33:30,842
You didn't even say
the Tribune.
559
00:33:31,009 --> 00:33:33,553
You'd just say
went across the street.
560
00:33:33,720 --> 00:33:36,681
It was a huge clash
in political difference
561
00:33:36,848 --> 00:33:39,768
between the Sun-Times
and the Tribune.
562
00:33:39,935 --> 00:33:42,854
We were a working class paper.
563
00:33:43,021 --> 00:33:46,483
And we reached
the black community.
564
00:33:46,650 --> 00:33:50,153
The Tribune was
a very wealthy paper.
565
00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:52,614
I mean, look at the Tribune tower.
566
00:33:52,781 --> 00:33:57,953
This huge gothic structure
studded at its base
567
00:33:58,119 --> 00:34:00,455
with all the great art works
of the world.
568
00:34:00,622 --> 00:34:03,458
You know, here is part
of the pyramid of Giza.
569
00:34:03,625 --> 00:34:05,043
And you're thinking, what?
570
00:34:05,210 --> 00:34:07,963
Did the Tribune guy 90 out with
a chisel and steal this thing?
571
00:34:10,048 --> 00:34:12,217
From the day
the Chicago Tribune
572
00:34:12,384 --> 00:34:14,010
made Gene Siskel
its film critic,
573
00:34:14,177 --> 00:34:16,096
we were professional enemies.
574
00:34:16,263 --> 00:34:18,431
For the first five years
we knew one another,
575
00:34:18,598 --> 00:34:20,850
Siskel and I hardly spoke.
576
00:34:24,604 --> 00:34:28,400
When Gene and I were asked
to work together on a TV show,
577
00:34:28,566 --> 00:34:31,903
we both said we'd
rather do it with someone else.
578
00:34:32,070 --> 00:34:33,571
Anyone else.
579
00:34:35,824 --> 00:34:38,743
The name of our show is Opening
Soon at a Theatre Near You,
580
00:34:38,910 --> 00:34:40,495
two film critics
talking about the movies.
581
00:34:40,662 --> 00:34:42,580
And this is Roger Ebert
from the Chicago Sun-Times.
582
00:34:42,747 --> 00:34:44,082
And right over here
is Gene Siskel
583
00:34:44,249 --> 00:34:45,959
from the Chicago Tribune
and Channel 2 news.
584
00:34:46,126 --> 00:34:48,962
Gene and Roger
were sitting kind of pinioned,
585
00:34:49,129 --> 00:34:50,588
in director's chairs,
586
00:34:50,755 --> 00:34:53,425
looking into the camera
very seriously,
587
00:34:53,591 --> 00:34:55,802
talking about the movie.
588
00:34:55,969 --> 00:34:58,430
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
just had the audience
589
00:34:58,597 --> 00:35:00,140
tearing up the seats with joy.
590
00:35:00,307 --> 00:35:02,892
Yeah, and also, tearing up a little
my enjoyment of the film.
591
00:35:03,059 --> 00:35:05,020
They were applauding
even during the credits...
592
00:35:05,186 --> 00:35:09,482
It was stiff, and wooden.
593
00:35:09,649 --> 00:35:12,986
But when Foreman backs up and tries
to make his big points
594
00:35:13,153 --> 00:35:14,946
about the establishment
and authority...
595
00:35:15,113 --> 00:35:17,407
But there was
something there.
596
00:35:17,574 --> 00:35:19,993
It was interesting
to hear two people
597
00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:22,996
who knew what they were talking
about, talk about a movie.
598
00:35:23,163 --> 00:35:25,749
Bremen Freedom
by Rainer Werner Fassbinder,
599
00:35:25,915 --> 00:35:28,001
one of the new generation
of West German directors...
600
00:35:28,168 --> 00:35:30,670
Roger loved the idea of
being on public television.
601
00:35:30,837 --> 00:35:32,589
He had been on it before
602
00:35:32,756 --> 00:35:36,384
on a show where he introduced
films by Ingmar Bergman.
603
00:35:36,551 --> 00:35:38,178
It was awful.
604
00:35:38,345 --> 00:35:40,180
And in this movie
his name is Spegel,
605
00:35:40,347 --> 00:35:41,723
which is Swedish for "mirror."
606
00:35:41,890 --> 00:35:43,683
It was a deer caught
in the headlights.
607
00:35:43,850 --> 00:35:45,560
What is real
and what is illusion,
608
00:35:45,727 --> 00:35:47,687
and who's being fooled
by the art?
609
00:35:47,854 --> 00:35:50,106
Is it the artist,
or his audience, or both?
610
00:35:57,489 --> 00:35:58,948
And the movie's ending,
a confrontation
611
00:35:59,115 --> 00:36:01,034
with the heavyweight champion
of the world...
612
00:36:01,201 --> 00:36:03,661
Roger needed to learn
how to write for television.
613
00:36:03,828 --> 00:36:05,914
...emotionally fulfilling scenes
I've seen in a long time.
614
00:36:06,081 --> 00:36:08,083
To keep sentences short.
615
00:36:08,249 --> 00:36:09,959
He would get irritated
and he would say,
616
00:36:10,126 --> 00:36:12,587
"Thea, I have a Pulitzer Prize."
617
00:36:12,754 --> 00:36:14,798
And I would say to him,
"Roger, I know that,
618
00:36:14,964 --> 00:36:16,716
but that doesn't mean you know
how to write for television."
619
00:36:16,883 --> 00:36:19,761
And right through that last scene
I was really loving Taxi Driver,
620
00:36:19,928 --> 00:36:22,472
because up until that point,
the relationship between
621
00:36:22,639 --> 00:36:24,265
De Niro and Cybill Shepherd
has been electric...
622
00:36:24,432 --> 00:36:26,142
Gene was a natural.
623
00:36:26,309 --> 00:36:29,020
He was one of these people,
he could talk to the camera.
624
00:36:29,187 --> 00:36:32,190
He had a huge
handlebar mustache.
625
00:36:32,357 --> 00:36:33,650
And so I just said,
626
00:36:33,817 --> 00:36:37,028
"That is a funny looking thing
on your face, get rid of it."
627
00:36:37,195 --> 00:36:39,656
I thought, these two guys
628
00:36:39,823 --> 00:36:42,450
would never be on television.
629
00:36:42,617 --> 00:36:45,078
These are unusual,
odd-looking characters
630
00:36:45,245 --> 00:36:47,914
for the medium, TV,
that's all beautifully quaffed,
631
00:36:48,081 --> 00:36:50,834
and beautiful teeth,
and everything's fine.
632
00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:53,837
And they dressed
like a couple of clowns
633
00:36:54,003 --> 00:36:56,506
if they wore
these outfits today.
634
00:36:56,673 --> 00:37:02,095
You couldn't make Siskel and Ebert
if you were Dr. Frankenstein.
635
00:37:02,262 --> 00:37:05,849
I think in the beginning
it was very difficult.
636
00:37:06,015 --> 00:37:09,144
Gene sat in the back row,
Roger had his favorite seat.
637
00:37:09,310 --> 00:37:13,148
They left without saying
a word to one another.
638
00:37:15,191 --> 00:37:16,484
We both thought of ourselves
639
00:37:16,651 --> 00:37:19,112
as full service,
one-stop film critics.
640
00:37:19,279 --> 00:37:22,115
We didn't see why
the other one was necessary.
641
00:37:22,282 --> 00:37:24,117
Alone together in an elevator,
642
00:37:24,284 --> 00:37:28,580
we would study the numbers
changing above the door.
643
00:37:28,746 --> 00:37:31,040
Their lifestyles couldn't have
been more different.
644
00:37:31,207 --> 00:37:33,001
Roger was single.
645
00:37:33,168 --> 00:37:34,836
He was an only child.
646
00:37:35,003 --> 00:37:38,173
Gene, in childhood,
lost both his parents,
647
00:37:38,339 --> 00:37:40,008
one after the other.
648
00:37:40,175 --> 00:37:44,137
He was a philosophy major
at Yale.
649
00:37:44,304 --> 00:37:46,014
While Roger was, you know,
650
00:37:46,181 --> 00:37:49,392
one of the good old boy
news reporters.
651
00:37:49,559 --> 00:37:52,854
Gene just was more of a...
652
00:37:53,021 --> 00:37:56,441
for lack of a better word,
elegant character.
653
00:37:56,608 --> 00:37:58,610
He caught the eye of Hugh Hefner,
654
00:37:58,776 --> 00:38:04,157
and he was adopted
by the clan at the mansion.
655
00:38:04,324 --> 00:38:09,621
And he traveled with Hefner
in the Bunny Jet.
656
00:38:09,787 --> 00:38:13,833
Even though Roger wrote
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls,
657
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:17,962
I think Gene lived the life
for a while.
658
00:38:24,719 --> 00:38:28,264
The perfect matching
of opposites, Siskel and Ebert,
659
00:38:28,431 --> 00:38:31,518
Laurel and Hardy,
Oscar and Felix,
660
00:38:31,684 --> 00:38:33,853
really made Sneak Previews
661
00:38:34,020 --> 00:38:37,398
a sitcom about two guys
who lived in a movie theater.
662
00:38:37,565 --> 00:38:40,193
And how Roger and I go to the movies
as critics is the subject
663
00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:42,403
of this special take two program
on Sneak Previews.
664
00:38:42,570 --> 00:38:44,531
- Hi, Gene.
- Hi, Roger.
665
00:38:44,697 --> 00:38:46,574
In every theater I have
a favorite seat I like to sit in.
666
00:38:46,741 --> 00:38:48,409
In the last row,
sort of off to the side.
667
00:38:48,576 --> 00:38:51,454
Not just kind of reading
or speaking criticism,
668
00:38:51,621 --> 00:38:53,248
but acting out these roles.
669
00:38:53,414 --> 00:38:55,917
I always choose a seat
that's twice as far back
670
00:38:56,084 --> 00:38:58,336
from the screen
as the screen is wide.
671
00:38:59,712 --> 00:39:02,757
Then you must make
a friend of horror.
672
00:39:03,675 --> 00:39:07,178
Horror and moral terror.
673
00:39:07,345 --> 00:39:09,514
I think we can
save ourselves a lot of time
674
00:39:09,681 --> 00:39:11,099
if I admit to you right now
675
00:39:11,266 --> 00:39:13,226
that although I think
the last half hour works,
676
00:39:13,393 --> 00:39:15,353
I doubt if I can ever
convince you of that,
677
00:39:15,520 --> 00:39:17,021
and that the first
two hours of the film
678
00:39:17,188 --> 00:39:20,984
consist of some of the most
beautiful, heartbreaking, tragic,
679
00:39:21,150 --> 00:39:23,653
memorable footage of war
that I've ever seen.
680
00:39:23,820 --> 00:39:27,073
I think that you can show almost
anything to do with Vietnam,
681
00:39:27,240 --> 00:39:29,492
and people feel,
"Oh, my God, the human waste."
682
00:39:29,659 --> 00:39:31,244
That may be true,
but this movie is made
683
00:39:31,411 --> 00:39:32,662
on such an epic scale.
684
00:39:32,829 --> 00:39:36,249
And because
they could get agitated,
685
00:39:36,416 --> 00:39:39,627
that raised the temperature of
the movies they were discussing.
686
00:39:43,965 --> 00:39:45,300
Tremendously boring,
687
00:39:45,466 --> 00:39:47,135
boring from the beginning
of the movie.
688
00:39:47,302 --> 00:39:50,221
- I just wanna compare this film...
- Oh, no. Wait a minute.
689
00:39:50,388 --> 00:39:52,807
- Now he's not boring at all.
- Oh, yes. Fabulously boring.
690
00:39:52,974 --> 00:39:55,226
- He is fabulously boring?
- I would pass--
691
00:39:55,393 --> 00:39:58,021
There was something almost
transgressive and exciting
692
00:39:58,187 --> 00:40:02,775
about seeing on TV
somebody say about a movie,
693
00:40:02,942 --> 00:40:04,986
you know what you might always
want to say to your friend,
694
00:40:05,153 --> 00:40:07,363
or your girlfriend
or your mother or your sister,
695
00:40:07,530 --> 00:40:09,741
"No, you're wrong.
It's not a good movie."
696
00:40:09,907 --> 00:40:12,035
That's the way
people do relate to films,
697
00:40:12,201 --> 00:40:13,870
is in that argumentative
sort of way,
698
00:40:14,037 --> 00:40:16,706
in which if you're right nobody
can tell you that you're wrong.
699
00:40:16,873 --> 00:40:19,375
I sit at the desk next to our
music critic at the Sun-Times.
700
00:40:19,542 --> 00:40:21,294
People are very worshipful of him.
701
00:40:21,461 --> 00:40:24,422
"Oh, what did you think about
Shulty's conducting last night?"
702
00:40:24,589 --> 00:40:26,716
And then he will say, and they
will nod like this and go away.
703
00:40:26,883 --> 00:40:28,635
And then they'll turn around
and come up to me and say,
704
00:40:28,801 --> 00:40:30,637
"I totally disagree with your review
in this morning's paper."
705
00:40:35,224 --> 00:40:37,018
The success of the show
was undeniable,
706
00:40:37,185 --> 00:40:39,729
except we were not on
in two major markets:
707
00:40:39,896 --> 00:40:41,981
New York and Los Angeles.
708
00:40:42,148 --> 00:40:43,816
Here I am
at the little popcorn shop
709
00:40:43,983 --> 00:40:46,611
a half a block from the screening
room where I see all the movies.
710
00:40:46,778 --> 00:40:48,404
This is the Chicago Theater
on State Street.
711
00:40:48,571 --> 00:40:51,824
Their position was,
if there's gonna be a movie show,
712
00:40:51,991 --> 00:40:53,785
it's not gonna be
two guys from Chicago.
713
00:40:53,951 --> 00:40:58,623
We're gonna have New York critics,
or we're Hollywood.
714
00:40:58,790 --> 00:41:00,166
Who are these guys, right?
715
00:41:00,333 --> 00:41:02,418
This is not Andrew Sarris,
and Pauline Kael.
716
00:41:02,585 --> 00:41:05,171
And it's also not
the kind of, the wised up players
717
00:41:05,338 --> 00:41:06,756
who might be in Los Angeles.
718
00:41:06,923 --> 00:41:08,216
What do these people
have to tell us about movies?
719
00:41:15,390 --> 00:41:20,019
The arrival of Pauline Kael
on the scene shook everything up.
720
00:41:20,186 --> 00:41:21,771
The New Yorker recognized that
721
00:41:21,938 --> 00:41:24,774
maybe this was the time for
a new kind of movie criticism.
722
00:41:24,941 --> 00:41:28,903
Suddenly movie critics
become new players in the game.
723
00:41:29,070 --> 00:41:31,280
You weren't crazy
about Prince of the City.
724
00:41:31,447 --> 00:41:33,408
No. Prince of the City.
725
00:41:33,574 --> 00:41:36,911
I thought, it really,
as a piece of narrative,
726
00:41:37,078 --> 00:41:39,956
it's almost a case study
in confusion.
727
00:41:41,124 --> 00:41:44,585
Kael's influence shaped
how critics looked at movies...
728
00:41:44,752 --> 00:41:46,879
...and how people read them.
729
00:41:47,046 --> 00:41:50,800
Film was taken seriously
and so were film critics.
730
00:41:50,967 --> 00:41:53,469
Andrew Sarris was promoting
731
00:41:53,636 --> 00:41:56,889
the idea of the director
as the maker of the film,
732
00:41:57,056 --> 00:42:01,352
and Pauline Kael,
elevating film writing,
733
00:42:01,519 --> 00:42:03,646
film criticism as an art.
734
00:42:03,813 --> 00:42:07,150
But these were
towering figures, clashing.
735
00:42:07,316 --> 00:42:08,901
Rather like Siskel and Ebert,
736
00:42:09,068 --> 00:42:11,446
but with more intellectual heft.
737
00:42:12,530 --> 00:42:14,240
Uh-oh, Gene.
This bowser in the balcony
738
00:42:14,407 --> 00:42:15,783
means it's time
for Dog Of The Week.
739
00:42:15,950 --> 00:42:18,786
A regular feature where each of us
picks the week's worst movie.
740
00:42:18,953 --> 00:42:20,913
Well, Roger, you and Spot
may not believe this,
741
00:42:21,080 --> 00:42:23,416
but I have just seen
my first nudie karate film.
742
00:42:23,583 --> 00:42:24,792
- You're kidding.
- No.
743
00:42:24,959 --> 00:42:28,171
Roger once said,
"Do you think Pauline Kael
744
00:42:28,337 --> 00:42:31,382
would be working with a dog?"
745
00:42:31,549 --> 00:42:34,135
I don't know Pauline Kael,
I never knew Pauline Kael.
746
00:42:34,302 --> 00:42:37,013
But fuck Pauline Kael.
747
00:42:37,180 --> 00:42:39,015
Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel
748
00:42:39,182 --> 00:42:41,642
were the most powerful critics
of all time.
749
00:42:41,809 --> 00:42:43,478
In any realm.
750
00:42:43,644 --> 00:42:46,647
Finally, they had to cave in
751
00:42:46,814 --> 00:42:49,525
and run the show
in New York and LA.
752
00:42:49,692 --> 00:42:52,862
It was a victory we relished,
I have to tell you.
753
00:42:55,031 --> 00:42:57,825
Here to help us sort
the blockbusters from the bombs
754
00:42:57,992 --> 00:43:02,121
are the team At the Movies,
Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert.
755
00:43:03,831 --> 00:43:06,250
You guys live in Chicago still,
down there in Oprah-land?
756
00:43:06,417 --> 00:43:07,960
What I'd like to do
is come to Chicago one night
757
00:43:08,127 --> 00:43:10,546
and we'll just go nuts.
We'll just get stinking drunk.
758
00:43:10,713 --> 00:43:12,215
We'll go out
and eat steaks all night.
759
00:43:12,381 --> 00:43:14,300
My next two guests are
regarded as the most popular
760
00:43:14,467 --> 00:43:16,093
and most important film critics
in the country.
761
00:43:18,721 --> 00:43:21,349
They are the two most influential
movie critics in the country.
762
00:43:23,643 --> 00:43:25,895
Is there anybody more popular?
We'll find out and ask them.
763
00:43:29,106 --> 00:43:30,691
And ultimately,
764
00:43:30,858 --> 00:43:32,485
I think they were
on the Johnny Carson Show
765
00:43:32,652 --> 00:43:34,862
more than just about anybody.
766
00:43:35,655 --> 00:43:37,615
Is there something out there
that is really so bad?
767
00:43:39,575 --> 00:43:40,576
Roger?
768
00:43:40,743 --> 00:43:43,162
I can't really recommend
Three Amigos.
769
00:43:46,082 --> 00:43:48,209
It's the Christmas picture
I like the least.
770
00:43:50,670 --> 00:43:53,047
- This is the happy hour.
- Yes.
771
00:43:53,214 --> 00:43:55,091
I don't think I'd ask you if
I knew you were gonna say that.
772
00:43:55,258 --> 00:43:56,843
Chevy Chase has made
a lot of good movies,
773
00:43:57,009 --> 00:43:59,887
and God willing, he will make a lot
more good movies in the future.
774
00:44:00,054 --> 00:44:01,764
- With your help.
- Yes, well, I...
775
00:44:01,931 --> 00:44:04,392
Yes, with your help.
776
00:44:04,559 --> 00:44:07,019
There is a tendency
for somebody...
777
00:44:09,272 --> 00:44:12,441
...who is naturally funny,
778
00:44:12,608 --> 00:44:18,114
as Chevy is,
to try to get laughs
779
00:44:18,281 --> 00:44:20,825
by standing there
and ad-libbing
780
00:44:20,992 --> 00:44:22,368
when somebody else
is trying to talk.
781
00:44:22,535 --> 00:44:24,328
That's right.
782
00:44:24,495 --> 00:44:27,540
The movie studios
went from helping us...
783
00:44:28,291 --> 00:44:31,085
to hating us, to fearing us.
784
00:44:31,252 --> 00:44:33,421
The circulations of all
of the newspaper critics,
785
00:44:33,588 --> 00:44:35,339
and all of the magazines,
could not match
786
00:44:35,506 --> 00:44:37,758
the reach of the show
at its height.
787
00:44:37,925 --> 00:44:40,386
It became quite clear
very often
788
00:44:40,553 --> 00:44:44,223
that the film companies cared a lot
about Roger and Gene seeing it,
789
00:44:44,390 --> 00:44:46,684
but not so much
about the rest of us.
790
00:44:46,851 --> 00:44:50,646
Two thumbs up became
everything for a Hollywood movie.
791
00:44:50,813 --> 00:44:52,398
Back when moviemakers
still thought
792
00:44:52,565 --> 00:44:55,192
critics' enthusiasm
could sell a movie.
793
00:44:55,359 --> 00:44:57,695
In 1991,
Richard Corliss published
794
00:44:57,862 --> 00:45:02,491
a piece in Film Comment
about how the show
795
00:45:02,658 --> 00:45:07,413
was ruining and vulgarizing
film criticism.
796
00:45:09,123 --> 00:45:10,917
"Will anyone
read this story?
797
00:45:11,083 --> 00:45:14,879
It has too many words
and not enough pictures.
798
00:45:15,046 --> 00:45:17,632
Does anyone read this magazine?
799
00:45:17,798 --> 00:45:21,510
Every article in it wants
to be a meal, not a McNugget.
800
00:45:21,677 --> 00:45:23,846
Is anyone reading film criticism?
801
00:45:24,013 --> 00:45:26,682
It lacks punch,
the clips, the thumbs.
802
00:45:26,849 --> 00:45:30,269
I simply don't want people to think
that what they have to do on TV
803
00:45:30,436 --> 00:45:32,021
is what I am supposed
to do in print.
804
00:45:33,022 --> 00:45:35,608
I don't want junk food to be
the only cuisine at the banquet."
805
00:45:35,775 --> 00:45:38,569
Yeah, et cetera.
806
00:45:40,988 --> 00:45:43,532
Uh... I really did sound angry there,
807
00:45:43,699 --> 00:45:47,620
but it seemed to me that
the Siskel-Ebert effect
808
00:45:47,787 --> 00:45:51,123
was that a film
was either good or bad
809
00:45:51,290 --> 00:45:53,834
and the rest
didn't matter so much.
810
00:45:55,544 --> 00:45:57,380
I am the first
to agree with Corliss
811
00:45:57,505 --> 00:45:59,090
that the Siskel and Ebert program
812
00:45:59,215 --> 00:46:01,300
is not in depth film criticism.
813
00:46:01,467 --> 00:46:04,679
As indeed, how could it be,
given our time constraints.
814
00:46:09,892 --> 00:46:12,186
But we would have to do it
for our own amusement
815
00:46:12,353 --> 00:46:14,313
because nobody would play it
on television.
816
00:46:15,982 --> 00:46:17,733
The program's purpose
is to provide
817
00:46:17,900 --> 00:46:20,152
exactly what Corliss
says it provides:
818
00:46:20,319 --> 00:46:23,614
information on what's new
at the movies, who's in it,
819
00:46:23,781 --> 00:46:26,367
and whether the critic thinks
it's any good or not.
820
00:46:26,534 --> 00:46:29,370
If you're talking about
film criticism in a serious way,
821
00:46:29,537 --> 00:46:32,832
consumer advice is not
the same thing as criticism.
822
00:46:32,999 --> 00:46:35,501
To assume that something
is good for everybody,
823
00:46:35,668 --> 00:46:39,714
or bad for everybody
is insulting to everybody.
824
00:46:41,549 --> 00:46:44,343
The subject of Crash
left me feeling empty.
825
00:46:44,552 --> 00:46:46,762
Crash has some
beautiful bodies on view,
826
00:46:46,929 --> 00:46:49,056
but also some ugly ideas.
827
00:46:49,223 --> 00:46:53,853
The car crash is a fertilizing
rather than a destructive event.
828
00:46:54,020 --> 00:46:56,313
When we have
an opinion about a movie,
829
00:46:56,480 --> 00:46:58,733
that opinion may light
a bulb over the head
830
00:46:58,899 --> 00:47:01,152
of an ambitious youth
who then understands
831
00:47:01,318 --> 00:47:03,946
that people can make up
their own minds about the movies.
832
00:47:04,113 --> 00:47:06,365
I think I liked the movie
a lot more than you did.
833
00:47:06,532 --> 00:47:07,950
I'd like to make it clear
that most people are probably
834
00:47:08,117 --> 00:47:10,244
going to hate it, be repelled
by it or walk out of it,
835
00:47:10,411 --> 00:47:11,704
just as they did at
the Cannes Film Festival.
836
00:47:11,871 --> 00:47:14,040
- Why is that?
- Because it's too tough to take.
837
00:47:14,206 --> 00:47:17,460
The reason Roger loved
being on television
838
00:47:17,626 --> 00:47:19,670
is that at his heart,
839
00:47:19,837 --> 00:47:22,923
he really is a populist.
840
00:47:23,090 --> 00:47:26,927
Roger believes that everybody
ought to be able to get a movie.
841
00:47:27,094 --> 00:47:30,681
I think they were conscientious
about trying to
842
00:47:30,848 --> 00:47:33,309
do what they were doing
as well as they could,
843
00:47:33,476 --> 00:47:35,436
and as seriously as they could.
844
00:47:35,603 --> 00:47:39,106
But invariably, a show
like Gene and Roger's show
845
00:47:39,273 --> 00:47:41,442
becomes a part of
that mainstream system.
846
00:47:41,609 --> 00:47:43,360
This week,
Siskel and Ebert review
847
00:47:43,527 --> 00:47:45,863
Arnold Schwarzenegger
in Last Action Hero.
848
00:47:46,030 --> 00:47:49,617
And by and large,
the purpose of mainstream reviewing
849
00:47:49,784 --> 00:47:51,619
is not just to valorize films
850
00:47:51,786 --> 00:47:53,954
that get multi-million dollar
ad campaigns.
851
00:47:54,121 --> 00:47:56,082
...Jurassic Park.
852
00:47:56,248 --> 00:47:58,209
But to eliminate everything else.
853
00:47:58,375 --> 00:48:03,047
I think what Gene and Roger did
was the opposite of that.
854
00:48:03,214 --> 00:48:05,883
Roger went out and he looked
for people like Michael Moore.
855
00:48:06,050 --> 00:48:08,135
He looked for people like me.
856
00:48:20,606 --> 00:48:22,525
As a film critic,
he was somebody
857
00:48:22,691 --> 00:48:26,028
who gave life to new voices,
gave life to new visions,
858
00:48:26,195 --> 00:48:29,198
that reflected all the diversity
of this nation.
859
00:48:29,365 --> 00:48:31,617
Different classes,
points of view,
860
00:48:31,784 --> 00:48:33,744
he wanted it all out there.
861
00:48:36,372 --> 00:48:37,957
My assurance to the pet owner
862
00:48:38,749 --> 00:48:41,544
that they will be
reunited with their pet.
863
00:48:41,710 --> 00:48:44,213
My first film, Gates of Heaven.
864
00:48:44,380 --> 00:48:45,881
There was a newspaper strike.
865
00:48:46,048 --> 00:48:49,468
And so the movie wasn't reviewed
866
00:48:49,635 --> 00:48:53,514
by any of the New York newspapers,
which is a disaster.
867
00:48:53,681 --> 00:48:55,724
I miss that little black kitten
so much.
868
00:48:55,891 --> 00:48:59,395
I just thought, that's it,
the movie's just going to vanish.
869
00:48:59,562 --> 00:49:01,397
Both of them wanted
to review it.
870
00:49:01,564 --> 00:49:04,942
I was troubled
because the number of theaters
871
00:49:05,109 --> 00:49:07,361
in which it was playing
was extremely small,
872
00:49:07,528 --> 00:49:08,863
and here you have a show
that's being shown
873
00:49:09,029 --> 00:49:11,490
on 300 some-odd public television
stations around the country.
874
00:49:11,657 --> 00:49:13,117
How are people gonna get to see it?
875
00:49:13,284 --> 00:49:14,910
Let's move on to a movie now
876
00:49:15,077 --> 00:49:17,621
that I think is one of the most
brilliant, weird, and unusual
877
00:49:17,788 --> 00:49:20,374
American documentary films
I've seen in a long time.
878
00:49:20,541 --> 00:49:22,418
And then
really out of nowhere,
879
00:49:22,585 --> 00:49:25,588
those guys started reviewing
Gates of Heaven.
880
00:49:25,754 --> 00:49:28,591
Well, I agree with you completely.
I think it's a superb film.
881
00:49:28,757 --> 00:49:31,135
Then they found an excuse
to review it again.
882
00:49:31,302 --> 00:49:33,846
There are films that
we call "Buried Treasures."
883
00:49:34,013 --> 00:49:35,139
And a third time.
884
00:49:35,306 --> 00:49:37,558
I don't think anyone who's seen
this film can ever forget it.
885
00:49:37,725 --> 00:49:39,310
I believe that I would not
886
00:49:39,476 --> 00:49:42,730
really have a career
if not for those guys.
887
00:49:46,609 --> 00:49:48,944
I made my first film.
I kind of made it alone.
888
00:49:49,111 --> 00:49:51,155
I didn't know anyone
in the industry.
889
00:49:51,322 --> 00:49:53,449
I don't even know
how I got Roger's email,
890
00:49:53,616 --> 00:49:55,534
but I emailed, assuming
no one would answer.
891
00:49:55,701 --> 00:49:58,746
And he answered. And he said,
"If your film gets into Sundance,"
892
00:49:58,913 --> 00:50:00,581
tell me and I would
watch it there."
893
00:50:00,748 --> 00:50:02,166
So then later,
the film did go to Sundance,
894
00:50:02,333 --> 00:50:04,293
and I emailed him again,
and he said,
895
00:50:04,460 --> 00:50:06,921
"Yes, I'll come to see it." I said,
"Here are the three times."
896
00:50:07,087 --> 00:50:08,839
He didn't come
to the first screening,
897
00:50:09,006 --> 00:50:10,549
he didn't come
to the second screening,
898
00:50:10,716 --> 00:50:12,676
and the last screening
was a Sunday morning, I think,
899
00:50:12,843 --> 00:50:15,846
8:00 a.m., on the last day
of the festival.
900
00:50:16,013 --> 00:50:18,432
I said he's
probably not even here.
901
00:50:18,599 --> 00:50:21,018
In fact, he was one of
the first people there.
902
00:50:21,185 --> 00:50:23,103
And I was there
with my actor, and he said,
903
00:50:23,270 --> 00:50:24,688
"Do you mind
if I take some pictures
904
00:50:24,855 --> 00:50:27,483
with you and your actor,
just in case I like the film?
905
00:50:27,650 --> 00:50:29,902
If I don't like it, don't worry,
I'll never use them."
906
00:50:37,701 --> 00:50:40,663
I was, I think, I was maybe
eight or nine or something,
907
00:50:40,829 --> 00:50:44,541
and my Aunt Denise,
who was a massive film geek,
908
00:50:44,708 --> 00:50:47,503
who passed
her film geekdom onto me,
909
00:50:47,670 --> 00:50:50,422
found out about
these rehearsals for the Oscars,
910
00:50:50,589 --> 00:50:53,300
and one day
he walked through.
911
00:50:53,467 --> 00:50:55,803
And I remember saying,
"Thumbs up! Thumbs up!"
912
00:50:55,970 --> 00:50:58,347
screaming, screaming,
and he came over.
913
00:50:58,514 --> 00:51:00,432
I grew up.
914
00:51:00,599 --> 00:51:02,810
I made this film
when I was 34 years old.
915
00:51:02,977 --> 00:51:04,687
It was the first film
I ever made.
916
00:51:04,853 --> 00:51:06,814
You're second generation.
917
00:51:09,191 --> 00:51:11,360
Joshua Tree generation.
918
00:51:11,527 --> 00:51:14,321
The film
was about my aunt,
919
00:51:14,488 --> 00:51:16,699
my aunt who took me
to the Oscar's that day.
920
00:51:16,865 --> 00:51:18,367
Nothing wrong with that.
921
00:51:18,534 --> 00:51:20,619
And about
losing someone that you love.
922
00:51:20,786 --> 00:51:24,456
And it was Ebert's review
that really got to the heart
923
00:51:24,623 --> 00:51:26,625
of what I was trying
to articulate.
924
00:51:26,792 --> 00:51:29,628
And just touched me so much,
925
00:51:29,795 --> 00:51:33,173
that I sent him
the picture from the Oscar's.
926
00:51:40,806 --> 00:51:44,435
His reply was,
"We were both younger then."
927
00:51:48,105 --> 00:51:50,566
The next day,
a blog post turned up
928
00:51:50,733 --> 00:51:52,318
where he wrote,
929
00:51:52,484 --> 00:51:54,820
in a very heartfelt way,
about his own aunt
930
00:51:54,987 --> 00:51:58,949
who kind of gave him the gift
of art and film as well.
931
00:51:59,116 --> 00:52:02,870
You know, I broke down crying,
and it was a mess.
932
00:52:03,871 --> 00:52:07,708
It's dangerous as a black woman
to give something that you've made
933
00:52:07,875 --> 00:52:09,418
from your point of view,
934
00:52:09,585 --> 00:52:11,295
very steeped in your identity
and your personhood
935
00:52:11,462 --> 00:52:14,673
to a white man whose gaze
is usually the exact opposite,
936
00:52:14,840 --> 00:52:18,052
and to say, you are the carrier
of this film to the public.
937
00:52:18,218 --> 00:52:21,680
You're the one that's gonna
dictate whether it has value.
938
00:52:21,847 --> 00:52:26,185
And you had a lot less fears
around that with Roger.
939
00:52:26,352 --> 00:52:29,605
Because you knew it was someone
who was gonna take it seriously,
940
00:52:29,772 --> 00:52:31,273
gonna come with
some historical context,
941
00:52:31,440 --> 00:52:34,318
some cultural nuance.
942
00:52:34,485 --> 00:52:36,403
I mean, everybody knows
Roger had a black wife.
943
00:52:36,570 --> 00:52:38,364
You know what I mean?
You know.
944
00:52:38,530 --> 00:52:39,990
He's like an honorary brother.
945
00:52:40,157 --> 00:52:42,451
I mean, you live with a sister.
946
00:52:42,618 --> 00:52:45,621
That's a whole different
understanding of black women, right?
947
00:52:45,788 --> 00:52:47,331
So maybe you watch
my film differently.
948
00:52:48,457 --> 00:52:51,502
Every time I see him, I'll walk away
with something new, you know.
949
00:52:51,668 --> 00:52:56,048
And every time I sit down
at the table to do the work,
950
00:52:56,215 --> 00:52:57,841
I think about him,
951
00:52:58,008 --> 00:53:00,719
because what if something happens
and I don't get to see him again.
952
00:53:01,804 --> 00:53:04,640
It was just a few days
before Christmas.
953
00:53:04,807 --> 00:53:07,518
I said, "Well, Chaz,
can I come there?"
954
00:53:09,228 --> 00:53:11,563
- So...
- Merry Christmas.
955
00:53:13,273 --> 00:53:15,734
Come on over and say hi.
956
00:53:16,944 --> 00:53:18,487
How are you?
Good to see you.
957
00:53:18,654 --> 00:53:20,114
What are you doing in here?
958
00:53:21,657 --> 00:53:23,492
Chaz is missing you at home,
you gotta get out.
959
00:53:23,659 --> 00:53:27,413
Oh, I like the glasses.
Get off the road...
960
00:53:27,579 --> 00:53:30,457
It was nice to see him
interacting with his grandkids.
961
00:53:30,624 --> 00:53:32,167
Grandpa Roger, do you think...
962
00:53:32,334 --> 00:53:34,503
I know that he must be
in pain physically,
963
00:53:34,670 --> 00:53:37,548
but he ends up being
the happiest guy around.
964
00:53:37,714 --> 00:53:40,634
- From the Christmas stocking.
- From Santa.
965
00:53:40,801 --> 00:53:42,094
From Santa.
966
00:53:47,933 --> 00:53:50,477
I just remember being so young,
967
00:53:50,644 --> 00:53:54,106
and watching for the first time
so many movies
968
00:53:54,273 --> 00:53:56,233
and him sort of explaining
to me, you know,
969
00:53:56,400 --> 00:53:59,653
what's important about this one,
or this is a really great movie.
970
00:54:00,404 --> 00:54:02,990
Ever heard of this film?
971
00:54:03,157 --> 00:54:05,617
This movie begins
with seven children
972
00:54:05,784 --> 00:54:07,744
who are seven,
and check in on them
973
00:54:07,911 --> 00:54:10,330
every seven years
of their lives.
974
00:54:12,040 --> 00:54:15,002
Are they 56 now? Really?
975
00:54:15,169 --> 00:54:16,837
Oh, my gosh, wow.
976
00:54:17,004 --> 00:54:20,632
All the great conversations
and things that he taught me
977
00:54:20,799 --> 00:54:24,428
about movies and life
and family and books,
978
00:54:24,595 --> 00:54:27,181
and you know,
all this stuff, I just...
979
00:54:29,141 --> 00:54:33,145
Those experiences
mean a lot to me.
980
00:54:33,312 --> 00:54:36,565
There's another
chocolate bar, chocolate bars.
981
00:54:36,732 --> 00:54:39,151
So I spoke to Werner,
I said I was coming to see you,
982
00:54:39,318 --> 00:54:40,694
and he sends his regards,
983
00:54:40,861 --> 00:54:42,654
and he says
you have to keep writing
984
00:54:42,821 --> 00:54:45,491
because he's very worried
about cinema.
985
00:54:45,657 --> 00:54:48,160
Can you say it the way
Werner would say it?
986
00:54:48,327 --> 00:54:50,078
Oh, gosh. No.
987
00:54:50,245 --> 00:54:52,289
- Roger--
- Roger you must get better.
988
00:54:52,456 --> 00:54:54,958
You must soldier on, Roger.
989
00:54:55,125 --> 00:54:56,585
Really bad shape.
990
00:54:56,752 --> 00:54:59,171
He's the soldier of cinema.
991
00:55:00,464 --> 00:55:02,382
He's a wounded comrade
992
00:55:02,549 --> 00:55:05,552
who cannot even speak anymore,
and he plows on,
993
00:55:05,719 --> 00:55:07,721
and that touches my heart
very deeply.
994
00:55:12,392 --> 00:55:14,937
I never dedicate films
to anyone.
995
00:55:19,942 --> 00:55:22,986
I dedicated a film to him
where I ventured out
996
00:55:23,153 --> 00:55:25,948
to the last corner
of this planet...
997
00:55:26,782 --> 00:55:29,117
to Antarctica,
998
00:55:29,284 --> 00:55:30,827
to the ice.
999
00:55:32,621 --> 00:55:35,999
And from there I bow my head
in his direction.
1000
00:55:39,503 --> 00:55:42,589
He reinforces my courage.
1001
00:55:48,762 --> 00:55:51,431
One time,
I went to see Roger.
1002
00:55:51,598 --> 00:55:55,310
He was kind of eager and
bouncing to give me something.
1003
00:55:55,477 --> 00:55:59,648
He gave me this letter,
actually from Laura Dern.
1004
00:55:59,815 --> 00:56:01,525
"Dear Roger,
I want you to know
1005
00:56:01,692 --> 00:56:04,695
that your generosity
and expertise
1006
00:56:04,861 --> 00:56:07,114
at the Sundance Tribute
meant the world to me.
1007
00:56:07,281 --> 00:56:10,450
I've tried to come up with
an appropriate way to thank you.
1008
00:56:10,617 --> 00:56:14,413
This box and its contents,
a jigsaw puzzle,
1009
00:56:14,580 --> 00:56:16,373
I have treasured for some time.
1010
00:56:16,540 --> 00:56:19,334
It was given to me
by the Strasberg family
1011
00:56:19,501 --> 00:56:22,421
when Lee Strasberg
passed away.
1012
00:56:22,588 --> 00:56:26,300
It was Marilyn Monroe's,
who collected puzzles,
1013
00:56:26,466 --> 00:56:29,386
and it had been given to her
by Alfred Hitchcock.
1014
00:56:29,553 --> 00:56:32,472
That night at Sundance
you inspired me
1015
00:56:32,639 --> 00:56:36,685
about film and contribution
and I wanted to pass along
1016
00:56:36,852 --> 00:56:40,147
film and connection in some way.
Thank you again.
1017
00:56:40,314 --> 00:56:42,608
Love to you and Chaz.
Laura."
1018
00:56:42,774 --> 00:56:45,777
And then Roger gave me this gift,
which I refused.
1019
00:56:45,944 --> 00:56:47,279
I said, "You cannot
give me this gift.
1020
00:56:47,446 --> 00:56:49,114
I cannot accept this gift."
1021
00:56:49,281 --> 00:56:51,450
And then he said,
"You're going to accept the gift,
1022
00:56:51,617 --> 00:56:53,285
because you have to one day
give this
1023
00:56:53,452 --> 00:56:55,996
to somebody else
who deserves it."
1024
00:57:02,628 --> 00:57:04,546
What's it a jigsaw puzzle of?
1025
00:57:04,713 --> 00:57:07,299
I've always
been terrified to make it.
1026
00:57:09,885 --> 00:57:13,889
I mean, this is
the jigsaw puzzle
1027
00:57:14,056 --> 00:57:17,643
that Alfred Hitchcock
gave Marilyn Monroe.
1028
00:57:28,820 --> 00:57:30,864
In the autumn of 1967,
1029
00:57:31,406 --> 00:57:33,825
I saw a movie named I Call First,
1030
00:57:33,992 --> 00:57:37,579
later to be retitled,
Who's That Knocking at My Door.
1031
00:57:39,623 --> 00:57:42,000
The energy of the cutting grabbed me.
1032
00:57:42,167 --> 00:57:45,504
It was the work
of a natural director.
1033
00:57:45,671 --> 00:57:47,923
I wrote a review
suggesting in 10 years
1034
00:57:48,090 --> 00:57:51,343
he would become
the American Fellini.
1035
00:57:51,510 --> 00:57:54,054
I said, "You think it's gonna take
that long?", and I was serious.
1036
00:57:54,221 --> 00:57:57,015
I'm just like, it's over here.
What are you talking about?
1037
00:57:57,724 --> 00:58:00,936
It was the first
real strong encouragement.
1038
00:58:01,103 --> 00:58:03,105
Yes, there are defects
in the movie.
1039
00:58:03,271 --> 00:58:07,234
But he saw something special
and that had to be nourished.
1040
00:58:07,401 --> 00:58:09,152
As you know, I carried your review
around with me
1041
00:58:09,319 --> 00:58:12,698
when I was in Europe in 1968.
It made me--
1042
00:58:12,864 --> 00:58:15,242
I kept reading. Is that really
about me? You know, wow.
1043
00:58:18,620 --> 00:58:21,748
So refreshing to find
a director and an actor
1044
00:58:21,915 --> 00:58:24,418
working right
at the top of their form.
1045
00:58:25,210 --> 00:58:27,754
I think Raging Bull is one of the
great American pictures of the year.
1046
00:58:27,921 --> 00:58:32,092
His greatest film is
an act of self-redemption.
1047
00:58:32,259 --> 00:58:35,554
In the period before it,
he'd become addicted to cocaine
1048
00:58:35,721 --> 00:58:38,724
and told me that after an overdose,
he was pronounced dead
1049
00:58:38,890 --> 00:58:41,852
in an emergency room
and resuscitated.
1050
00:58:43,562 --> 00:58:47,065
During the '80s was extremely--
I was gone, basically.
1051
00:58:47,232 --> 00:58:50,986
Broke, and I'd gone through
some bad, bad periods.
1052
00:58:51,153 --> 00:58:53,613
My third marriage had broken up,
1053
00:58:53,780 --> 00:58:55,699
and I was basically alone.
1054
00:58:55,866 --> 00:58:57,909
The only thing that saved me
1055
00:58:58,076 --> 00:58:59,828
or made me want to...
1056
00:59:02,330 --> 00:59:06,001
continue just like living,
in a way, was my agent called
1057
00:59:06,168 --> 00:59:08,128
and said, "You know, there's
this festival up in Toronto."
1058
00:59:08,295 --> 00:59:09,755
I said, "Yeah."
1059
00:59:09,921 --> 00:59:11,840
"Roger Ebert, Gene Siskel,
1060
00:59:12,007 --> 00:59:14,009
they wanna give you this tribute."
1061
00:59:15,635 --> 00:59:17,429
I was kind of scared.
1062
00:59:17,596 --> 00:59:20,557
Could I walk down
this theater aisle
1063
00:59:20,724 --> 00:59:23,935
and go up on a stage,
knowing who I am?
1064
00:59:25,729 --> 00:59:27,564
But I knew
that they believed in me,
1065
00:59:27,731 --> 00:59:29,316
and I have that in my house now,
1066
00:59:29,483 --> 00:59:31,693
in a special place
where only I can see it,
1067
00:59:31,860 --> 00:59:36,990
that I pass by every maybe,
five to six minutes, I see it.
1068
00:59:37,157 --> 00:59:40,702
But that night changed it.
1069
00:59:40,869 --> 00:59:44,039
And I started
my life again, you know.
1070
00:59:46,917 --> 00:59:49,211
It was...
1071
00:59:53,173 --> 00:59:57,677
I didn't feel inhibited with Roger.
1072
00:59:57,844 --> 00:59:59,679
He was that close.
1073
01:00:00,847 --> 01:00:04,684
Roger has, unlike just about
any of the rest of us,
1074
01:00:04,851 --> 01:00:07,521
arrived at this point
where he is
1075
01:00:07,687 --> 01:00:09,147
kind of the peer of the people,
1076
01:00:09,314 --> 01:00:11,358
of some of the people
that he writes about.
1077
01:00:11,525 --> 01:00:14,361
It's very complicated,
I think, when you have
1078
01:00:14,528 --> 01:00:16,822
personal relationships and
friendships with these people,
1079
01:00:16,988 --> 01:00:20,033
because it cannot
but cloud your judgment.
1080
01:00:20,200 --> 01:00:21,827
I am infinitely corruptible.
1081
01:00:21,993 --> 01:00:25,080
I do not want to get to know
these people as people.
1082
01:00:25,247 --> 01:00:27,499
I want to think of them
as fictional characters.
1083
01:00:27,666 --> 01:00:29,417
I mean,
my obligation is to write
1084
01:00:29,584 --> 01:00:31,336
what I think about a movie,
1085
01:00:31,503 --> 01:00:34,214
and not to worry
about someone I know
1086
01:00:34,381 --> 01:00:36,842
perching on my shoulder saying,
"No, I wouldn't say that."
1087
01:00:37,008 --> 01:00:38,885
When you look
at the nineteenth century
1088
01:00:39,052 --> 01:00:40,554
and the great critics in music,
1089
01:00:40,720 --> 01:00:44,599
they hung together,
critics and artists.
1090
01:00:44,766 --> 01:00:46,643
They were in the same circles.
1091
01:00:46,810 --> 01:00:49,813
And that helped the critics
and it helped the composers.
1092
01:00:49,980 --> 01:00:54,150
Roger brought back that concept
and he was criticized for it.
1093
01:00:59,531 --> 01:01:01,575
That was real
distracting for me there,
1094
01:01:01,741 --> 01:01:03,660
the way all those pool balls
bounced around like that,
1095
01:01:03,827 --> 01:01:05,370
and the scene gets
even worse as it goes on.
1096
01:01:05,537 --> 01:01:07,163
And it's all the more disappointing
1097
01:01:07,330 --> 01:01:10,166
because The Color of Money
was directed by Martin Scorsese,
1098
01:01:10,333 --> 01:01:12,919
who is one of the two or three
best movie directors around today.
1099
01:01:13,962 --> 01:01:16,214
Devastating.
1100
01:01:16,381 --> 01:01:19,175
It doesn't have the interior energy,
and the drive,
1101
01:01:19,342 --> 01:01:21,428
and the obsession of most
of the best Scorsese films.
1102
01:01:21,595 --> 01:01:23,638
- The script isn't good.
- It's just a standard,
1103
01:01:23,805 --> 01:01:25,056
sort of predictable narrative.
1104
01:01:25,932 --> 01:01:29,936
I said, I know, but beautiful--
Michael Ballhouse, Paul Newman.
1105
01:01:30,103 --> 01:01:32,314
But you know,
they wouldn't accept it.
1106
01:01:32,480 --> 01:01:36,192
That was a way
of condemning and helping.
1107
01:01:36,359 --> 01:01:38,820
In other words,
you've done this now, once,
1108
01:01:38,987 --> 01:01:41,281
you may have done it twice,
but watch yourself.
1109
01:01:41,448 --> 01:01:46,411
As opposed to
toxic, poisonous, unkind,
1110
01:01:46,578 --> 01:01:51,082
ungenerous, lack of charity,
on so many others.
1111
01:01:51,249 --> 01:01:55,128
I think he was a tougher critic
when he was younger.
1112
01:01:55,295 --> 01:01:58,632
He could be really cutting,
and relentless,
1113
01:01:58,798 --> 01:02:01,426
and ruthless, and sarcastic.
1114
01:02:04,220 --> 01:02:06,264
You motherfucker!
1115
01:02:12,145 --> 01:02:14,022
Not a bad movie,
but it's not original,
1116
01:02:14,189 --> 01:02:16,024
- and it's not a masterpiece.
- I think it's very original
1117
01:02:16,191 --> 01:02:17,484
and very close
to being a masterpiece.
1118
01:02:17,651 --> 01:02:21,404
I have never felt a kill
in a movie quite like that.
1119
01:02:21,571 --> 01:02:23,448
Not in Apocalypse Now,
not in The Deer Hunter?
1120
01:02:23,615 --> 01:02:25,575
No, not like that.
Not like that.
1121
01:02:25,742 --> 01:02:27,035
In that case, you're
gonna love the late show
1122
01:02:27,202 --> 01:02:28,703
because they have kills
like that every night
1123
01:02:28,870 --> 01:02:30,580
in black and white
starring John Wayne.
1124
01:02:30,747 --> 01:02:33,083
They would get
into their cross talk.
1125
01:02:33,249 --> 01:02:36,294
The camera would stop,
they would still be at it.
1126
01:02:36,461 --> 01:02:38,129
And I disagree particularly
about the part that you like.
1127
01:02:38,296 --> 01:02:40,924
They truly felt it
in their soul.
1128
01:02:41,091 --> 01:02:43,843
They could still show them
the error of their ways,
1129
01:02:44,010 --> 01:02:45,428
the folly of their thinking.
1130
01:02:45,595 --> 01:02:47,639
Benji the Hunted exhausted me.
1131
01:02:47,806 --> 01:02:49,891
This is the first time
I wanted to tell a dog
1132
01:02:50,058 --> 01:02:52,268
to slow down and stop
to smell the flowers.
1133
01:02:52,435 --> 01:02:55,605
I don't know, Gene.
Your review is the typical sort of
1134
01:02:55,772 --> 01:02:58,233
blasé, sophisticated,
cynical review...
1135
01:02:58,400 --> 01:02:59,818
I'll take the word "sophisticated."
1136
01:02:59,985 --> 01:03:01,361
...I would expect from an adult.
1137
01:03:01,528 --> 01:03:03,405
You're wrapping yourself
in the flag of children.
1138
01:03:03,571 --> 01:03:06,157
You're wrapping yourself in the flag
of the sophisticated film critic.
1139
01:03:06,324 --> 01:03:07,867
- No, boredom.
- You've seen it all.
1140
01:03:08,034 --> 01:03:09,327
Boredom with Benji running.
1141
01:03:09,494 --> 01:03:11,329
I don't think that any child
is gonna be bored by this movie.
1142
01:03:11,496 --> 01:03:13,665
It was not you know,
gentlemanly, it was not,
1143
01:03:13,832 --> 01:03:15,125
"Well, I see
you have a good point."
1144
01:03:15,291 --> 01:03:16,960
It was I'm gonna crush you.
1145
01:03:17,127 --> 01:03:19,170
And this is the show where
you give Benji The Hunted
1146
01:03:19,337 --> 01:03:21,214
a positive review
and not Kubrick's film?
1147
01:03:21,381 --> 01:03:22,757
Now, Gene, that's totally unfair,
1148
01:03:22,924 --> 01:03:25,677
because you realize that
these reviews are relative.
1149
01:03:25,844 --> 01:03:27,554
Benji the Hunted is not
one-tenth the film...
1150
01:03:27,721 --> 01:03:29,472
- Roger--
- ...that the Kubrick film is
1151
01:03:29,639 --> 01:03:31,266
but you know that you
review films within context.
1152
01:03:31,433 --> 01:03:33,268
And you know it, and you
should be ashamed of yourself.
1153
01:03:33,435 --> 01:03:35,103
- No, I'm not.
- Now let's take another look...
1154
01:03:35,270 --> 01:03:39,399
They almost didn't care what
anyone else thought about anything,
1155
01:03:39,566 --> 01:03:41,735
as long as they could try
to persuade the other.
1156
01:03:41,901 --> 01:03:44,154
And I'm not talking about just,
about movie reviews.
1157
01:03:44,320 --> 01:03:46,364
I'm talking about anything in life,
1158
01:03:46,531 --> 01:03:49,159
the tie you're wearing,
what you think of that person,
1159
01:03:49,325 --> 01:03:51,286
a book, a restaurant.
1160
01:03:51,453 --> 01:03:55,373
When there was, and when
wasn't there disagreement,
1161
01:03:55,540 --> 01:03:57,625
the coin of the realm
was the quarter.
1162
01:03:57,792 --> 01:03:59,252
It's hard to think of anything
1163
01:03:59,419 --> 01:04:02,005
that wasn't decided
by a coin toss.
1164
01:04:02,172 --> 01:04:05,383
Were we going to get tuna fish
sandwiches for lunch?
1165
01:04:05,550 --> 01:04:08,470
Who would get one movie,
who would get another movie.
1166
01:04:08,636 --> 01:04:10,972
Who got to sit next
to Johnny Carson on the couch.
1167
01:04:13,808 --> 01:04:15,310
They actually wanted us
1168
01:04:15,393 --> 01:04:18,229
to change the opening
of the show every week
1169
01:04:18,396 --> 01:04:19,981
so that Roger
would be first one week
1170
01:04:20,148 --> 01:04:22,609
and Gene would be first
the next week, and we said no.
1171
01:04:22,776 --> 01:04:25,403
Why is the show
Siskel and Ebert?
1172
01:04:25,570 --> 01:04:27,572
And by the way will it ever be
Ebert and Siskel?
1173
01:04:27,739 --> 01:04:29,324
No.
1174
01:04:29,491 --> 01:04:30,909
You've signed on
to Siskel and--
1175
01:04:31,076 --> 01:04:32,660
There's a long story about that.
1176
01:04:32,827 --> 01:04:34,913
A long story.
You know, I'm older,
1177
01:04:35,080 --> 01:04:36,623
I've been a movie critic longer,
1178
01:04:36,790 --> 01:04:38,625
E comes before S
in the alphabet,
1179
01:04:38,792 --> 01:04:40,752
I've got the Pulitzer Prize,
1180
01:04:40,919 --> 01:04:43,088
and yet it's called
Siskel and Ebert.
1181
01:04:43,254 --> 01:04:45,548
And if you wanna know why
that is, you can ask Siskel.
1182
01:04:45,715 --> 01:04:46,925
A flip of the coin.
1183
01:04:48,510 --> 01:04:51,221
Gene Siskel was among
the most competitive people
1184
01:04:51,387 --> 01:04:53,264
on the face of this planet.
1185
01:04:53,431 --> 01:04:55,683
But Roger always
could lord it over Gene
1186
01:04:55,850 --> 01:04:58,019
that he had a Pulitzer Prize.
1187
01:04:58,186 --> 01:05:00,939
Roger was a bit of a braggadocio.
1188
01:05:01,106 --> 01:05:03,441
He was a great raconteur.
1189
01:05:03,608 --> 01:05:06,194
But frankly,
he was full of himself.
1190
01:05:06,361 --> 01:05:08,988
Roger was a bit
of a control freak.
1191
01:05:09,155 --> 01:05:11,449
He could not direct Gene Siskel.
1192
01:05:11,616 --> 01:05:15,495
He was a rogue planet
in Roger's solar system.
1193
01:05:15,662 --> 01:05:19,457
Gene was a source
of madness in Roger's life.
1194
01:05:19,624 --> 01:05:21,835
Roger is an only child.
1195
01:05:22,001 --> 01:05:25,213
He was used to getting his way.
Absolutely.
1196
01:05:25,380 --> 01:05:28,591
And he could be a real big baby
1197
01:05:28,758 --> 01:05:30,677
when he didn't get
what he wanted.
1198
01:05:30,844 --> 01:05:33,847
Gene, on the other hand,
would just go in there
1199
01:05:34,013 --> 01:05:36,558
and pummel you
until you agree with him,
1200
01:05:36,724 --> 01:05:38,935
until you just say,
"All right, Gene!
1201
01:05:39,102 --> 01:05:40,770
Okay, you're right.
Got it."
1202
01:05:40,937 --> 01:05:42,689
It wasn't a game with him.
1203
01:05:42,856 --> 01:05:44,774
He saw something,
he wanted it to happen.
1204
01:05:44,941 --> 01:05:46,651
He made it happen.
1205
01:05:46,818 --> 01:05:47,944
Gene was very good
1206
01:05:48,069 --> 01:05:50,738
at reading Roger's date book
upside down.
1207
01:05:50,905 --> 01:05:54,659
As soon as he saw LA.
and the date,
1208
01:05:54,826 --> 01:05:56,703
he knew what films
were coming out.
1209
01:05:56,870 --> 01:05:58,163
He knew what big star
1210
01:05:58,329 --> 01:06:00,540
that Roger would be
going out to interview.
1211
01:06:00,707 --> 01:06:05,044
And that's all it took
for him to make sure
1212
01:06:05,211 --> 01:06:07,881
that he got the interview
before Roger got it.
1213
01:06:08,047 --> 01:06:11,426
Fumes you could almost see coming
out of Roger's head, you know.
1214
01:06:11,593 --> 01:06:15,597
Gene had done him in again,
that wascally wabbit.
1215
01:06:15,763 --> 01:06:18,057
Roger,
who was the picture
1216
01:06:18,224 --> 01:06:20,727
of equanimity
for most of his life,
1217
01:06:20,894 --> 01:06:25,273
did all of a sudden, produce a
petulance that I hadn't seen before.
1218
01:06:25,565 --> 01:06:27,817
I thought this movie was awful.
1219
01:06:27,984 --> 01:06:30,153
- Oh, no, Roger.
- Dreadful, terrible,
1220
01:06:30,320 --> 01:06:31,905
stupid, idiotic...
1221
01:06:32,071 --> 01:06:33,615
- No. no.
- ...unfunny.
1222
01:06:33,781 --> 01:06:37,076
- ...forced, painful, bad.
- Oh, Roger, Roger.
1223
01:06:37,243 --> 01:06:38,578
What happened
to your sense of humor?
1224
01:06:38,745 --> 01:06:41,956
I don't think Roger was,
by nature, a fighter.
1225
01:06:42,123 --> 01:06:44,876
But it's like,
if you have a brother
1226
01:06:45,043 --> 01:06:49,589
who likes to fight all the time,
so then you learn how to fight.
1227
01:06:51,257 --> 01:06:53,009
And Gene had his number.
1228
01:06:53,176 --> 01:06:55,511
Gene knew the buttons
to push and everything else.
1229
01:06:57,055 --> 01:06:59,933
They're in
a first class cabin,
1230
01:07:00,099 --> 01:07:02,185
Gene's in one of the front rows.
1231
01:07:02,352 --> 01:07:05,480
Roger's behind him,
and Gene hears
1232
01:07:05,647 --> 01:07:09,150
the same old stories that
he's heard over and over again.
1233
01:07:09,317 --> 01:07:11,527
And he's just annoyed.
1234
01:07:11,694 --> 01:07:13,196
He writes a little note
1235
01:07:13,363 --> 01:07:15,782
and he gives it
to the flight attendant.
1236
01:07:15,949 --> 01:07:19,118
Said, "Would you pass this
to Mr. Ebert?"
1237
01:07:19,285 --> 01:07:22,872
So Roger gets the note,
and it says, "Dear Mr. Ebert,
1238
01:07:23,039 --> 01:07:27,085
we in the cockpit have noticed
that you are on our flight.
1239
01:07:28,294 --> 01:07:32,340
Frankly, we both agree more
with you than your partner,
1240
01:07:32,507 --> 01:07:35,927
and we would be so honored
if you would join us
1241
01:07:36,094 --> 01:07:39,222
in the cockpit
for a bit of the flight."
1242
01:07:39,389 --> 01:07:43,601
I mean, Gene knows
that Roger was really excited.
1243
01:07:43,768 --> 01:07:46,437
He gets into the aisle,
and Roger was a big guy then,
1244
01:07:46,604 --> 01:07:49,148
he just kind of
bounds down the aisle,
1245
01:07:49,315 --> 01:07:53,194
and gets ready to knock
on the door of the cabin.
1246
01:07:53,361 --> 01:07:55,280
And you know,
the flight attendants
1247
01:07:55,446 --> 01:07:58,533
and people are horrified,
and Gene says,
1248
01:07:58,700 --> 01:08:02,787
"Dear Mr. Ebert,
we in the cockpit."
1249
01:08:07,208 --> 01:08:08,501
Gotcha.
1250
01:08:08,668 --> 01:08:11,838
And he finally tells Gene Siskel,
you know, "You just hate me.
1251
01:08:12,005 --> 01:08:13,589
You just don't like me,"
you know.
1252
01:08:13,881 --> 01:08:18,386
I mean, that relationship
was absolutely radioactive.
1253
01:08:18,553 --> 01:08:21,097
Two thrillers this week
on Siskel and Ebert.
1254
01:08:21,264 --> 01:08:23,599
First, we'll review Michael Caine
and Pierce Brosnan
1255
01:08:23,766 --> 01:08:26,894
- in The Fourth Protocol.
- And then, Gene Hackman
1256
01:08:27,061 --> 01:08:28,563
and Kevin Costner
star in No Way Out,
1257
01:08:28,730 --> 01:08:30,606
and we have a third thriller, too
if you're interested.
1258
01:08:30,773 --> 01:08:32,358
What do you mean,
two thrillers?
1259
01:08:32,525 --> 01:08:34,944
It's thriller week
1260
01:08:35,111 --> 01:08:37,155
on Siskel and Ebert
and we've got three big ones.
1261
01:08:37,322 --> 01:08:40,283
Okay. Ready?
1262
01:08:40,450 --> 01:08:43,036
- I guess you're gonna do it.
- We have to rewrite it, don't we?
1263
01:08:43,202 --> 01:08:45,747
- No. Let's--
- You can't ad lib, Gene.
1264
01:08:45,913 --> 01:08:48,249
Can we for the last week,
and next week we'll do it?
1265
01:08:48,416 --> 01:08:49,667
No, every week counts.
1266
01:08:49,834 --> 01:08:51,711
You read it then,
you ad-lib it.
1267
01:08:51,878 --> 01:08:53,880
I'll do nothing.
Let him do whatever he wants.
1268
01:08:54,047 --> 01:08:56,632
It's thriller week
on Siskel and Ebert and the Movies,
1269
01:08:56,799 --> 01:08:58,468
and we've got three new ones.
1270
01:08:58,634 --> 01:09:01,679
Gotta have energy up
and the movie's out.
1271
01:09:01,846 --> 01:09:04,349
- Why don't you read both parts?
- I'd like to.
1272
01:09:04,515 --> 01:09:06,559
- I know that.
- Please get your energy up.
1273
01:09:07,560 --> 01:09:09,854
It's thriller week
on Siskel and Ebert and the Movies,
1274
01:09:10,021 --> 01:09:11,439
and we've got three new ones.
1275
01:09:11,606 --> 01:09:13,024
Dennis Quaid in The Big Easy,
1276
01:09:13,191 --> 01:09:14,859
Michael Caine
in The Fourth Protocol,
1277
01:09:15,026 --> 01:09:18,237
and Kevin Costner and Gene Hackman
in No Way Out.
1278
01:09:18,404 --> 01:09:22,033
- Sound a little excited, Gene.
- Sound less excited, Roger.
1279
01:09:22,200 --> 01:09:24,327
That's why we're re-doing it
because of what you did.
1280
01:09:26,120 --> 01:09:28,498
It's thriller week on
Siskel and Ebert At The Movies.
1281
01:09:28,664 --> 01:09:29,707
And we've got three new ones--
1282
01:09:29,874 --> 01:09:32,293
It's called And The Movies,
not At The Movies.
1283
01:09:33,836 --> 01:09:35,713
And that's why we're
re-doing it this time.
1284
01:09:38,216 --> 01:09:40,343
It's thriller week
on Siskel and Ebert and the Movies.
1285
01:09:40,510 --> 01:09:41,886
And we've got three new ones.
1286
01:09:42,053 --> 01:09:43,846
Dennis Quaid in The Big Easy,
1287
01:09:44,013 --> 01:09:46,474
Michael Caine
in The Fourth Protocol,
1288
01:09:46,641 --> 01:09:49,769
and Kevin Costner and Gene Hackman
in No Way Out.
1289
01:09:49,936 --> 01:09:53,606
That's this week
on Siskel, and Ebert,
1290
01:09:53,773 --> 01:09:56,359
And the Movies,
and the asshole.
1291
01:09:56,526 --> 01:09:58,152
Great.
1292
01:09:58,319 --> 01:10:02,824
They were still,
in their hearts,
1293
01:10:02,990 --> 01:10:06,953
little boys fighting it out
on the playground
1294
01:10:07,120 --> 01:10:09,706
and both of them
expecting to win.
1295
01:10:22,718 --> 01:10:25,346
I've been in here
a little more than a month.
1296
01:10:25,513 --> 01:10:27,056
Can we stand?
1297
01:10:27,223 --> 01:10:30,226
I came in expecting
to repair my walking ability
1298
01:10:30,393 --> 01:10:33,646
after the hairline fracture,
but have discovered
1299
01:10:33,813 --> 01:10:34,897
that it wasn't that simple.
1300
01:10:35,064 --> 01:10:37,316
...two, three, push up.
1301
01:10:42,822 --> 01:10:45,533
Bigger step
with that right foot.
1302
01:10:45,700 --> 01:10:48,453
Bigger step, Roger.
1303
01:10:48,619 --> 01:10:52,331
I can no longer
take good health for granted.
1304
01:10:53,541 --> 01:10:55,835
I hate that.
1305
01:10:56,002 --> 01:10:57,837
Big step.
1306
01:11:01,757 --> 01:11:06,137
- Pardon?
- He's saying no.
1307
01:11:06,304 --> 01:11:08,139
Are you okay?
1308
01:11:08,306 --> 01:11:11,142
Do you want me to stop?
Okay.
1309
01:11:12,560 --> 01:11:13,936
- That was good.
- That was good.
1310
01:11:14,103 --> 01:11:16,063
That was good.
That was good.
1311
01:11:17,773 --> 01:11:19,650
Relax.
1312
01:11:22,778 --> 01:11:26,532
I never thought he'd
have to be here again.
1313
01:11:26,699 --> 01:11:30,411
He's at the best place...
1314
01:11:30,578 --> 01:11:32,538
but it's just overwhelming
1315
01:11:32,705 --> 01:11:35,625
to think that
he's been here five times.
1316
01:11:40,588 --> 01:11:43,883
If he gave up, then
it would be very difficult.
1317
01:11:52,600 --> 01:11:55,686
Do you want
your speakers plugged in?
1318
01:11:55,853 --> 01:11:58,189
You know what,
let her suction you first.
1319
01:11:58,356 --> 01:12:00,775
Please, Roger.
1320
01:12:00,942 --> 01:12:04,278
Can you let
the nurse do that first?
1321
01:12:06,697 --> 01:12:11,202
Roger, can we set
this up after?
1322
01:12:11,369 --> 01:12:13,496
Roger.
1323
01:12:21,254 --> 01:12:23,589
He loves his music.
1324
01:12:26,467 --> 01:12:27,969
Ready?
1325
01:12:41,190 --> 01:12:42,817
Sounds good.
1326
01:12:47,822 --> 01:12:49,740
Sometimes,
I just stare at him
1327
01:12:49,907 --> 01:12:54,120
and say where did
this determination come from?
1328
01:12:59,208 --> 01:13:03,754
Roger had an inner core
that was made of steel.
1329
01:13:17,810 --> 01:13:20,855
How have you
kept your spirits up?
1330
01:13:22,690 --> 01:13:25,234
I've zeroed in on my work.
1331
01:13:25,401 --> 01:13:28,362
When I'm seeing a movie,
or writing the review,
1332
01:13:28,529 --> 01:13:30,531
that makes me feel good.
1333
01:13:30,698 --> 01:13:34,118
You know how they talk
about being in the zone?
1334
01:13:34,285 --> 01:13:36,662
When you're doing something
you're good at,
1335
01:13:36,829 --> 01:13:38,623
you get in the zone.
1336
01:13:38,789 --> 01:13:42,793
It sort of pushes your troubles
to the back of your mind.
1337
01:13:44,587 --> 01:13:47,089
You have this
tremendous body of work.
1338
01:13:47,256 --> 01:13:51,886
He's been writing for half
of the history of feature films.
1339
01:13:52,053 --> 01:13:56,265
And that's just
one slice of the cake.
1340
01:13:56,432 --> 01:13:59,560
A novel in weekly installments.
1341
01:13:59,727 --> 01:14:02,980
Just like Dickens.
Not quite of that level.
1342
01:14:04,023 --> 01:14:08,819
He wrote a book about how
to keep your computer bug-free.
1343
01:14:08,986 --> 01:14:11,364
Strolls through London.
1344
01:14:11,530 --> 01:14:14,408
A book about
the Cannes Film Festival.
1345
01:14:14,575 --> 01:14:17,244
The Cannes Film Festival
is one of those events
1346
01:14:17,411 --> 01:14:20,831
like the Super Bowl, Wimbledon,
or the Kentucky Derby
1347
01:14:20,998 --> 01:14:23,626
that comes cloaked
in its own legend.
1348
01:14:23,793 --> 01:14:26,379
This is Cannes
on the French Riviera,
1349
01:14:26,545 --> 01:14:28,589
a fishing village
since Roman times.
1350
01:14:28,756 --> 01:14:30,424
And every year
in the month of May,
1351
01:14:30,591 --> 01:14:33,010
the population grows
by forty thousand
1352
01:14:33,177 --> 01:14:35,471
for the world's
most famous film festival.
1353
01:14:38,265 --> 01:14:41,268
It's been called
the world's biggest party.
1354
01:14:41,435 --> 01:14:43,688
The town of Cannes
is bursting to the seams
1355
01:14:43,854 --> 01:14:46,107
with directors, producers, and stars.
1356
01:14:46,273 --> 01:14:47,233
Hi.
1357
01:14:47,316 --> 01:14:48,526
It wouldn't be
a Cannes Film Festival
1358
01:14:48,651 --> 01:14:51,946
without a beautiful blonde here
on the terrace of the Carlton Hotel.
1359
01:14:52,113 --> 01:14:54,573
Here was this kid
from Southern Illinois
1360
01:14:54,740 --> 01:14:58,202
hobnobbing with all of
the international movie stars.
1361
01:14:58,369 --> 01:15:00,496
That's me with Robert De Niro.
1362
01:15:00,663 --> 01:15:02,456
Yes, your faithful correspondent
1363
01:15:02,623 --> 01:15:04,417
is getting
an exclusive interview.
1364
01:15:04,583 --> 01:15:07,169
And De Niro was telling me
he's just happy to be here.
1365
01:15:07,336 --> 01:15:10,089
He loved that.
He did, and they loved him.
1366
01:15:10,256 --> 01:15:12,967
Roger! Roger Ebert!
1367
01:15:14,427 --> 01:15:17,847
I always wake up very early
in the morning after I arrive.
1368
01:15:18,347 --> 01:15:22,101
I walk down the Rue FĂ©lix Faure,
passing the flower sellers,
1369
01:15:22,268 --> 01:15:25,062
the fishmongers
unloading iced oysters,
1370
01:15:25,229 --> 01:15:28,357
and at particular cafe,
at a particular table,
1371
01:15:28,524 --> 01:15:30,985
I order,
in shameful French,
1372
01:15:31,152 --> 01:15:34,905
a cafe au Iait,
a Perrier, and a croissant.
1373
01:15:35,072 --> 01:15:38,701
Such returns are
an important ritual to me.
1374
01:15:38,868 --> 01:15:41,537
He stayed at the same frickin'
little hotel in Cannes,
1375
01:15:41,704 --> 01:15:45,332
the Splendid, which is a dump.
But he loved it.
1376
01:15:45,499 --> 01:15:47,585
I'd go over and see him
at the Splendid,
1377
01:15:47,752 --> 01:15:50,421
and he'd say,
"Tomorrow, be here at ten."
1378
01:15:50,588 --> 01:15:54,759
And so we go over to the Swedish
Film Institute's hotel suite,
1379
01:15:54,925 --> 01:15:58,471
and there's Erland Josephson
the actor lying on the bed,
1380
01:15:58,637 --> 01:16:01,015
and he and I talk about
Ingmar Bergman for an hour.
1381
01:16:01,182 --> 01:16:03,893
You know, no interview,
no formality.
1382
01:16:04,059 --> 01:16:05,853
Just yacking.
1383
01:16:06,353 --> 01:16:07,938
If I am lucky,
1384
01:16:08,105 --> 01:16:11,275
something extraordinary will
happen to me during this festival.
1385
01:16:11,442 --> 01:16:15,404
I will see a film that will make
my spine tingle with its greatness.
1386
01:16:15,571 --> 01:16:18,199
And I will
leave the theater speechless.
1387
01:16:20,284 --> 01:16:22,453
It was at Cannes
that I saw Bresson's
1388
01:16:22,620 --> 01:16:25,331
precise, unforgiving L'Argent.
1389
01:16:25,498 --> 01:16:27,124
L'Argent.
1390
01:16:27,291 --> 01:16:28,501
A film that was
1391
01:16:30,961 --> 01:16:34,006
so cold on its surface,
1392
01:16:34,173 --> 01:16:36,884
that I finally realized
that no man could make
1393
01:16:37,051 --> 01:16:39,845
such distant and austere films
1394
01:16:46,143 --> 01:16:49,104
There are Dantean levels
to this festival.
1395
01:16:49,271 --> 01:16:52,274
At the top level
is the official selection,
1396
01:16:52,441 --> 01:16:55,110
films chosen
from all over the world.
1397
01:16:55,277 --> 01:16:57,196
But down, down, down, down here
1398
01:16:57,363 --> 01:17:00,241
in the basement of the Palais,
this is the movie supermarket.
1399
01:17:00,407 --> 01:17:03,077
This is where they sell
porno and exploitation
1400
01:17:03,244 --> 01:17:04,995
and horror and action
and violence.
1401
01:17:05,162 --> 01:17:08,249
You take out ads in Variety
saying we will buy movies
1402
01:17:08,415 --> 01:17:09,625
- sight unseen.
- Right.
1403
01:17:09,792 --> 01:17:12,920
- Last year, 350 movies.
- How do you sell them?
1404
01:17:13,087 --> 01:17:15,256
By the title,
by the foot, by the inch?
1405
01:17:15,422 --> 01:17:16,465
By the pound.
1406
01:17:16,632 --> 01:17:18,801
Most of us
were writing our stories
1407
01:17:18,968 --> 01:17:20,970
after the festival was over.
1408
01:17:21,136 --> 01:17:23,389
Roger, anticipating the Internet,
1409
01:17:23,556 --> 01:17:25,349
or recalling daily journalism,
1410
01:17:25,516 --> 01:17:27,601
was filing stories
all through the festival.
1411
01:17:27,768 --> 01:17:31,397
For best film, Kagemusha,
which is the Akira Kurosawa film.
1412
01:17:32,690 --> 01:17:34,525
While photographers
are trying to get
1413
01:17:34,692 --> 01:17:36,819
pictures of stars at the festival,
1414
01:17:36,986 --> 01:17:39,280
would-be stars and hopefuls
are trying to get their pictures
1415
01:17:39,446 --> 01:17:41,532
taken by photographers.
1416
01:17:41,699 --> 01:17:43,534
In the dreams of the starlet,
1417
01:17:43,701 --> 01:17:46,787
there's always that scene where
the cigar-chomping producer
1418
01:17:46,954 --> 01:17:49,540
spots a lovely young woman
on the Carlton terrace
1419
01:17:49,707 --> 01:17:52,084
and shouts,
"Who is that girl?
1420
01:17:52,251 --> 01:17:55,212
I must have her
for my next picture."
1421
01:17:55,379 --> 01:17:59,216
So much of what we did
was not me as the producer
1422
01:17:59,383 --> 01:18:01,051
saying do this, do that,
do that, was Roger.
1423
01:18:01,218 --> 01:18:02,678
He had fabulous ideas.
1424
01:18:02,845 --> 01:18:05,139
...topless beaches,
starlets, interviews.
1425
01:18:05,306 --> 01:18:08,517
Whenever we were
doing something on the show
1426
01:18:08,684 --> 01:18:10,936
that required some creativity...
1427
01:18:11,103 --> 01:18:13,230
I don't know why you keep--
that isn't the issue.
1428
01:18:13,397 --> 01:18:16,483
It was Gene who
would usually win out that argument,
1429
01:18:16,650 --> 01:18:19,904
and Roger would say,
"Well... fine."
1430
01:18:22,323 --> 01:18:25,200
The Cannes
Film Festival was only Roger.
1431
01:18:25,367 --> 01:18:29,747
He loved that he didn't have
to convince someone else.
1432
01:18:31,624 --> 01:18:33,876
Roger had
everything he needed.
1433
01:18:34,043 --> 01:18:37,004
Gene was just afraid
that at some point
1434
01:18:37,171 --> 01:18:40,591
Roger would go it alone
and quit.
1435
01:18:40,758 --> 01:18:43,093
And this
literally haunted Gene.
1436
01:18:43,260 --> 01:18:44,553
When the next contract
would come up,
1437
01:18:44,720 --> 01:18:47,222
would Roger not be there?
1438
01:18:47,389 --> 01:18:51,518
Joe Antelo just sat down
and did the math.
1439
01:18:51,685 --> 01:18:54,980
In syndication, we can put
commercials around it.
1440
01:18:55,147 --> 01:18:59,151
So he offered Gene and Roger
a tremendous amount of money.
1441
01:18:59,318 --> 01:19:02,655
Roger didn't go out
and buy a new car or anything.
1442
01:19:02,821 --> 01:19:05,699
He moved out of that
garage apartment he had.
1443
01:19:07,534 --> 01:19:11,163
I know that I would hear them
sometimes talk about money,
1444
01:19:11,330 --> 01:19:14,541
like "Hey, big boy, did you get
that check in the mail?"
1445
01:19:14,708 --> 01:19:18,837
These guys were Siamese twins
joined at the rear end.
1446
01:19:19,880 --> 01:19:22,299
And they were gonna make
this thing work.
1447
01:19:22,466 --> 01:19:24,718
Gene would say,
and this is as they became
1448
01:19:24,885 --> 01:19:26,971
more and more of a team,
1449
01:19:27,137 --> 01:19:29,223
"He's an asshole.
1450
01:19:29,390 --> 01:19:31,308
But he's my asshole."
1451
01:19:31,475 --> 01:19:33,602
This week on
Siskel and Ebert and the Movies,
1452
01:19:33,769 --> 01:19:36,313
the science fiction adventure,
Robocop.
1453
01:19:36,480 --> 01:19:38,524
Why don't we do that again?
1454
01:19:38,691 --> 01:19:41,151
Did you know that for Gene,
speech is a second language?
1455
01:19:42,820 --> 01:19:45,656
Roger's first language is,
1456
01:19:45,823 --> 01:19:47,741
"Yes, I'll have apple pie
with my order."
1457
01:19:47,908 --> 01:19:49,660
He asks the McDonald's girl
1458
01:19:49,827 --> 01:19:51,954
if he can have apple pie
with the order,
1459
01:19:52,121 --> 01:19:53,789
before they ask him.
1460
01:19:53,956 --> 01:19:56,333
And you know what Gene says
when he goes into McDonald's?
1461
01:19:56,500 --> 01:19:59,128
Can I have a apple
with thei-- with their order?
1462
01:20:02,297 --> 01:20:04,425
Okay, ready?
1463
01:20:04,591 --> 01:20:08,303
You know they don't get enough shit
basically raw. They don't.
1464
01:20:08,470 --> 01:20:10,055
They don't.
They're called yuppies now.
1465
01:20:10,222 --> 01:20:13,267
They run the goddamn country,
and all of us, all of our--
1466
01:20:13,434 --> 01:20:15,853
I'm speaking to everyone
who's eavesdropping right now.
1467
01:20:16,020 --> 01:20:18,647
Come on, band together, people,
let's overthrow the country.
1468
01:20:18,814 --> 01:20:20,816
Protestants, people
who sort of want a religion.
1469
01:20:20,983 --> 01:20:22,151
- Let's stick together.
- I know--
1470
01:20:22,317 --> 01:20:23,527
The Catholics
and the fucking Jews,
1471
01:20:23,694 --> 01:20:24,862
we go back a few years together.
1472
01:20:25,029 --> 01:20:26,655
Come on, we're real.
1473
01:20:26,822 --> 01:20:28,532
We're real.
We get down and get dirty.
1474
01:20:28,699 --> 01:20:30,325
- I'll take it.
- We were burning each other
1475
01:20:30,492 --> 01:20:32,786
when Martin Luther was only
a gleam in his mother's eye.
1476
01:20:32,953 --> 01:20:34,747
I'll take a Bap--
I'll take a Baptist.
1477
01:20:34,913 --> 01:20:36,540
I go back 6,000 years.
1478
01:20:36,707 --> 01:20:39,626
I mean Ba-- Somebody that
has some goddamn passion,
1479
01:20:39,793 --> 01:20:41,211
some blood coursing
through their veins.
1480
01:20:41,378 --> 01:20:42,671
- Case closed.
- Anything.
1481
01:20:42,838 --> 01:20:43,714
Right.
1482
01:20:43,881 --> 01:20:46,508
Steve Martin's new comedy,
Roxanne.
1483
01:20:46,675 --> 01:20:48,719
This week on
Siskel and Ebert and the Movies.
1484
01:20:48,886 --> 01:20:50,387
You said it a little too fast.
1485
01:20:50,554 --> 01:20:54,683
The greatest day for Gene
was when Roger came in
1486
01:20:54,850 --> 01:20:57,603
to say that
he was going to get married.
1487
01:20:57,770 --> 01:20:59,855
I remember Gene saying to me,
1488
01:21:00,022 --> 01:21:02,399
"Can you believe
this is happening?"
1489
01:21:02,566 --> 01:21:04,568
He's gonna have a mortgage.
1490
01:21:04,735 --> 01:21:06,487
He's gonna have
to buy furniture.
1491
01:21:06,653 --> 01:21:08,155
He's gonna have
all the same things
1492
01:21:08,322 --> 01:21:09,823
that we do
to have to deal with.
1493
01:21:09,990 --> 01:21:11,992
He's gonna need the show.
1494
01:21:12,159 --> 01:21:13,786
He'll never leave now.
1495
01:21:15,621 --> 01:21:18,165
Chaz was probably
more life-altering
1496
01:21:18,290 --> 01:21:20,584
for him than his TV show.
1497
01:21:20,751 --> 01:21:23,754
She really, really liked him
1498
01:21:23,921 --> 01:21:27,049
for what he was
and not who he was.
1499
01:21:27,216 --> 01:21:31,553
She changed
his life immeasurably.
1500
01:21:31,720 --> 01:21:33,972
She changed his personality.
1501
01:21:34,139 --> 01:21:36,683
Hey, I was eight months pregnant
and Roger
1502
01:21:36,850 --> 01:21:39,686
grabbed the cab
in front of me in New York.
1503
01:21:39,853 --> 01:21:42,731
It's not that kind of guy now.
1504
01:21:44,149 --> 01:21:46,193
I think Gene was so happy
1505
01:21:46,360 --> 01:21:50,322
that Roger found his mate.
1506
01:21:50,489 --> 01:21:54,785
He was 50 years old
when we got married.
1507
01:21:54,952 --> 01:21:56,787
He used to tell me,
1508
01:21:56,954 --> 01:22:01,458
"I waited just about
all my life to find you.
1509
01:22:01,625 --> 01:22:03,460
And I'm glad I did.
1510
01:22:03,627 --> 01:22:05,379
And I'm never
gonna let you go."
1511
01:22:05,546 --> 01:22:07,172
I mean...
1512
01:22:14,096 --> 01:22:17,891
Our wedding
was like a fairy tale.
1513
01:22:18,058 --> 01:22:20,936
Gene Siskel's
daughters Kate and Kali,
1514
01:22:21,103 --> 01:22:24,481
they were our beautiful
little flower girls.
1515
01:22:24,648 --> 01:22:29,111
And Roger's idea of a wedding
was like Father of the Bride,
1516
01:22:29,278 --> 01:22:31,238
where the father says,
1517
01:22:31,405 --> 01:22:33,574
"Can't you just have the wedding
in the backyard
1518
01:22:33,740 --> 01:22:36,201
and put some brats on the grill?"
1519
01:22:42,332 --> 01:22:46,295
People who knew me then
would be very surprised
1520
01:22:46,461 --> 01:22:48,839
that I would marry
a white man...
1521
01:22:50,007 --> 01:22:53,218
because I felt that
African-American men had gotten
1522
01:22:53,385 --> 01:22:56,471
such a raw deal
in this society.
1523
01:22:56,638 --> 01:23:00,976
In college, I was the head
of the black student union.
1524
01:23:01,143 --> 01:23:04,563
I marched with Martin Luther King.
1525
01:23:04,730 --> 01:23:06,690
I talked to my mother about it.
1526
01:23:06,857 --> 01:23:09,484
"Mom, what do you think
people would say,"
1527
01:23:09,651 --> 01:23:12,112
and she said,
"Doesn't matter, doesn't matter.
1528
01:23:12,279 --> 01:23:15,699
What do you say?
What does your heart say?"
1529
01:23:15,866 --> 01:23:18,577
Chaz and Roger,
you have come together
1530
01:23:18,744 --> 01:23:20,662
according to God's wonderful plan...
1531
01:23:20,829 --> 01:23:23,373
And as sophisticated
as Roger was,
1532
01:23:23,540 --> 01:23:27,252
he didn't know
how his family would take this.
1533
01:23:27,419 --> 01:23:29,046
He used to say,
1534
01:23:29,213 --> 01:23:34,009
"You know, maybe my Uncle Bill, um...
1535
01:23:34,176 --> 01:23:37,763
or my Aunt Mary, you know,
because you're not Catholic."
1536
01:23:37,930 --> 01:23:40,390
I said, "Roger, come on,
1537
01:23:40,557 --> 01:23:43,560
if we're gonna have this
relationship, we have to be serious.
1538
01:23:43,727 --> 01:23:47,022
Not Catholic, or not white?"
1539
01:23:47,189 --> 01:23:49,775
He said, "Yeah, probably
some of that too."
1540
01:23:56,657 --> 01:23:58,450
After a while though,
1541
01:23:58,617 --> 01:24:01,662
his family accepted me
with open arms.
1542
01:24:03,580 --> 01:24:07,459
He was on
a lifelong quest for love.
1543
01:24:07,626 --> 01:24:09,670
He found romantic love
with Chaz.
1544
01:24:09,836 --> 01:24:12,130
Hey, I'm just
about to beat up--
1545
01:24:12,297 --> 01:24:15,884
And he loved that family,
her kids and her grandkids.
1546
01:24:16,051 --> 01:24:17,928
Hey, you better not
drool on me.
1547
01:24:18,095 --> 01:24:20,681
Oh, he fit right in,
I mean, perfectly.
1548
01:24:20,847 --> 01:24:24,685
Grandpa Roger.
Grandpa Roger.
1549
01:24:24,851 --> 01:24:26,812
Oh, I forgot
what I was gonna say.
1550
01:24:27,062 --> 01:24:28,814
There were no strangers
in her family.
1551
01:24:28,981 --> 01:24:31,858
- Howdy, cowboy!
- I love and am loved.
1552
01:24:32,025 --> 01:24:33,277
Okay, try to get that pole.
1553
01:24:33,443 --> 01:24:35,028
And as a member
of another race,
1554
01:24:35,195 --> 01:24:38,490
I have, without exception,
been accepted and embraced.
1555
01:24:39,491 --> 01:24:41,743
The greatest pleasure
came from annual trips
1556
01:24:41,910 --> 01:24:44,871
we made with our grandchildren,
Raven, Emile, and Taylor,
1557
01:24:45,038 --> 01:24:46,999
and their parents,
Sonya and Mark,
1558
01:24:47,165 --> 01:24:49,584
where we made our way
from Budapest to Prague,
1559
01:24:49,751 --> 01:24:52,379
Vienna,
Hawai'i, Los Angeles,
1560
01:24:52,546 --> 01:24:56,425
London, Paris,
Venice twice, and Stockholm.
1561
01:24:56,591 --> 01:24:59,720
What do you have
to say about the trip?
1562
01:24:59,886 --> 01:25:01,388
We are having
a wonderful time,
1563
01:25:01,555 --> 01:25:03,807
and right now we're
about to take the garden walk,
1564
01:25:03,974 --> 01:25:06,685
which is a great tradition
of all of our vacations
1565
01:25:06,852 --> 01:25:08,770
when we go on nature walks.
1566
01:25:08,937 --> 01:25:10,647
Emile announced that, for him,
1567
01:25:10,814 --> 01:25:13,233
there was no such thing
as getting up too early.
1568
01:25:13,400 --> 01:25:16,486
And every morning, the two of us
would meet in the hotel lobby
1569
01:25:16,653 --> 01:25:18,363
and go out
for long walks together.
1570
01:25:18,530 --> 01:25:20,157
And there are some flowers.
1571
01:25:20,324 --> 01:25:23,160
One morning in Budapest,
he asked me to take a photo
1572
01:25:23,327 --> 01:25:26,038
of two people walking
ahead of us and holding hands.
1573
01:25:26,204 --> 01:25:28,081
"Why?"
1574
01:25:28,248 --> 01:25:30,167
"Because they look happy."
1575
01:25:35,047 --> 01:25:37,007
Those times seem more precious
1576
01:25:37,174 --> 01:25:39,926
now that they're in the past.
1577
01:25:40,093 --> 01:25:42,804
I don't walk easily anymore.
1578
01:25:54,858 --> 01:25:56,860
Nice job, Roger.
1579
01:26:00,030 --> 01:26:01,656
Beautiful.
1580
01:26:04,409 --> 01:26:06,119
One more step.
1581
01:26:15,879 --> 01:26:19,633
I walked everyday in the years
before my troubles,
1582
01:26:19,800 --> 01:26:22,844
aiming for 10,000 steps
with a pedometer.
1583
01:26:24,179 --> 01:26:27,682
The Caldwell Lily pond
had a special serenity.
1584
01:26:29,059 --> 01:26:31,937
I usually had it to myself.
1585
01:26:33,021 --> 01:26:35,065
I chose it
as the perfect location
1586
01:26:35,232 --> 01:26:38,110
to make a little film
featuring my friend Bill Nack
1587
01:26:38,276 --> 01:26:41,988
reciting the last page
of The Great Gatsby,
1588
01:26:42,155 --> 01:26:44,991
which he has recited to me
several times annually
1589
01:26:45,158 --> 01:26:48,453
since we first met
in the 19605.
1590
01:26:48,620 --> 01:26:50,080
"It's vanished trees,
1591
01:26:50,247 --> 01:26:52,499
the trees that had made way
for Gatsby's house,
1592
01:26:52,666 --> 01:26:54,042
had once pandered in whispers
1593
01:26:54,209 --> 01:26:57,003
to the last and greatest
of all human dreams..."
1594
01:26:57,212 --> 01:26:58,338
Every time I see Bill,
1595
01:26:58,797 --> 01:27:00,966
I ask him to recite for me,
from memory,
1596
01:27:01,091 --> 01:27:04,302
the closing words of Gatsby.
And every time, he does.
1597
01:27:04,469 --> 01:27:06,430
"Compelled into
an aesthetic contemplation...
1598
01:27:06,596 --> 01:27:09,141
...he neither understood
nor desired.
1599
01:27:09,307 --> 01:27:11,810
Face to face
for the last time in history,
1600
01:27:11,977 --> 01:27:15,647
with something commensurate
to his capacity for wonder..."
1601
01:27:15,814 --> 01:27:18,233
We're both conscious
of the passage of time,
1602
01:27:18,400 --> 01:27:21,027
of its flow,
slipping through our fingers,
1603
01:27:21,194 --> 01:27:23,363
like a long silk scarf.
1604
01:27:23,530 --> 01:27:26,783
I think this was Roger's favorite
passage from all of literature.
1605
01:27:27,909 --> 01:27:31,121
It was really a passage
about the American Dream.
1606
01:27:31,288 --> 01:27:33,457
You can be anything you want.
1607
01:27:33,623 --> 01:27:37,169
You know, Roger went from this
small town kid in Urbana
1608
01:27:37,335 --> 01:27:39,504
to this huge national celebrity.
1609
01:27:39,671 --> 01:27:42,841
His father was an electrician.
His mother was a housewife.
1610
01:27:44,509 --> 01:27:49,097
But I think The Great Gatsby
was also, for Roger, about death.
1611
01:27:49,264 --> 01:27:51,933
Death might have
obsessed him a bit.
1612
01:27:52,100 --> 01:27:55,103
You know, his father died
fairly young.
1613
01:27:55,270 --> 01:27:57,355
I knew he adored him.
1614
01:28:09,242 --> 01:28:12,454
There's an inescapable
parallel between us.
1615
01:28:12,621 --> 01:28:15,582
Both my father and I have cancer.
1616
01:28:15,749 --> 01:28:17,584
My disease may have been started
1617
01:28:17,751 --> 01:28:21,254
by childhood radiation treatments
for an ear infection.
1618
01:28:21,421 --> 01:28:24,216
I got those
because they loved me.
1619
01:28:24,382 --> 01:28:27,302
In my case,
recently discovered tumors
1620
01:28:27,469 --> 01:28:30,180
of the spine have metastasized.
1621
01:28:32,182 --> 01:28:34,059
The doctor said
it was these tumors
1622
01:28:34,226 --> 01:28:35,852
that caused the hip fracture.
1623
01:28:36,019 --> 01:28:37,896
Roger emailed me
that sharing the news
1624
01:28:38,063 --> 01:28:41,358
of the cancer's return
could anger Chaz.
1625
01:28:58,375 --> 01:29:00,585
We don't know.
1626
01:29:00,752 --> 01:29:04,172
We haven't really
fully discussed this.
1627
01:29:04,339 --> 01:29:08,176
It's so new that we,
we really don't know,
1628
01:29:08,343 --> 01:29:11,263
and I'm uncomfortable
talking about it.
1629
01:29:11,429 --> 01:29:13,348
Just sort of
taking it a day at a time,
1630
01:29:13,515 --> 01:29:15,559
like I do everything else.
1631
01:29:15,725 --> 01:29:19,229
So, what do the doctors say?
1632
01:29:19,396 --> 01:29:21,606
Six to sixteen months.
1633
01:29:23,233 --> 01:29:27,153
It is likely I will have passed
when the film is ready.
1634
01:29:30,365 --> 01:29:31,908
We'll see.
1635
01:29:32,075 --> 01:29:34,536
The radiation
could do its job so well
1636
01:29:34,703 --> 01:29:38,456
that he's around a lot longer.
1637
01:29:43,837 --> 01:29:49,634
So we'll have the radiation,
and we'll hope for the best.
1638
01:29:51,177 --> 01:29:54,598
I mean, here he is in 2013,
1639
01:29:54,764 --> 01:29:58,101
and in 2006,
there were times when they said
1640
01:29:58,268 --> 01:30:00,937
he wouldn't be here
the next day, so...
1641
01:30:02,439 --> 01:30:04,983
I have no fear of death.
1642
01:30:05,150 --> 01:30:07,277
We all die.
1643
01:30:07,444 --> 01:30:11,323
I consider my remaining days
to be like money in the bank.
1644
01:30:11,489 --> 01:30:14,826
When it is all gone,
I will be repossessed.
1645
01:30:16,369 --> 01:30:18,747
When the pain gets
to be unbearable,
1646
01:30:18,913 --> 01:30:21,541
I may not be so jolly.
1647
01:30:21,708 --> 01:30:24,127
My senior English teacher asked me,
1648
01:30:24,294 --> 01:30:27,672
"Ebert, why are you always
writing about death?"
1649
01:30:27,839 --> 01:30:31,134
I think it began
in Catholic grade school
1650
01:30:31,301 --> 01:30:34,846
where they place so much attention
on mortal sin and dying.
1651
01:30:35,013 --> 01:30:38,308
I found it kind of exciting.
1652
01:30:38,475 --> 01:30:41,061
I would have been infuriated
if I missed this
1653
01:30:41,227 --> 01:30:44,272
because of an accident,
or sudden death.
1654
01:30:44,439 --> 01:30:47,942
This is the third act
and it is an experience.
1655
01:30:50,487 --> 01:30:53,782
So you see, little Ebert
has always been a macabre sort.
1656
01:30:53,948 --> 01:30:56,868
Most people probably
don't know that about him.
1657
01:30:57,035 --> 01:31:00,997
Maybe that's why he's jolly,
maybe it's just like, "Okay!"
1658
01:31:05,502 --> 01:31:07,379
It makes for a better story.
1659
01:31:24,813 --> 01:31:27,315
"Gatsby believed
in the green light
1660
01:31:27,482 --> 01:31:30,777
and the orgiastic future that
year by year recedes before us.
1661
01:31:30,944 --> 01:31:33,071
It eluded us then,
but that's no matter--
1662
01:31:33,238 --> 01:31:36,032
tomorrow,
tomorrow we will run faster,
1663
01:31:36,199 --> 01:31:37,826
stretch out our arms farther,
1664
01:31:37,992 --> 01:31:41,705
and one fine morning
so we beat on.
1665
01:31:41,871 --> 01:31:43,456
Boats against the current,
1666
01:31:43,623 --> 01:31:47,252
borne back ceaselessly
into the past."
1667
01:31:57,637 --> 01:32:01,975
On April 30th, 1998,
1668
01:32:02,142 --> 01:32:05,186
Gene was asked to throw out
the first ball of the season
1669
01:32:05,353 --> 01:32:07,355
at the White Sox game.
1670
01:32:07,522 --> 01:32:12,068
And he had had a headache
for some weeks.
1671
01:32:12,235 --> 01:32:16,281
May 8th, he was diagnosed,
1672
01:32:16,448 --> 01:32:19,492
terminal brain cancer.
1673
01:32:19,659 --> 01:32:23,496
And, um, pretty much...
1674
01:32:25,039 --> 01:32:27,125
you don't live more than a year.
1675
01:32:27,292 --> 01:32:31,755
But on April 30th,
he threw out a damn good pitch.
1676
01:32:33,882 --> 01:32:36,718
He didn't really want
the folks at Disney
1677
01:32:36,885 --> 01:32:40,180
to know how sick he was.
1678
01:32:40,346 --> 01:32:44,601
He was afraid that if they heard
the words "brain tumor,"
1679
01:32:44,768 --> 01:32:48,271
they would put in
a substitute for him,
1680
01:32:48,438 --> 01:32:50,273
and that would be the end.
1681
01:32:50,440 --> 01:32:52,484
Our mothers knew,
1682
01:32:52,650 --> 01:32:54,194
and Gene's siblings,
1683
01:32:54,360 --> 01:32:56,446
and my two sisters knew.
1684
01:32:56,613 --> 01:32:57,989
That's it.
1685
01:32:58,156 --> 01:33:00,450
And Roger didn't know.
1686
01:33:00,617 --> 01:33:04,204
And that really wounded Roger.
1687
01:33:04,370 --> 01:33:07,332
I don't think it's that he
didn't trust Roger personally.
1688
01:33:07,499 --> 01:33:09,209
Nonetheless, when something
like that happens,
1689
01:33:09,375 --> 01:33:11,961
you take it personally, how else
is there to take it, you know.
1690
01:33:13,087 --> 01:33:16,591
Even though he may have been
a few years older than Gene,
1691
01:33:16,758 --> 01:33:20,970
Gene was like
the older brother he never had.
1692
01:33:21,137 --> 01:33:24,516
And I was so sad for Roger for not--
1693
01:33:24,682 --> 01:33:28,061
Really, for not being able
to tell his brother goodbye.
1694
01:33:28,228 --> 01:33:31,105
Gene didn't want to be seen
as a victim.
1695
01:33:31,272 --> 01:33:34,400
But more importantly,
he didn't want
1696
01:33:34,567 --> 01:33:39,447
to watch the effect
of his dying on his children.
1697
01:33:39,614 --> 01:33:43,493
And my children celebrated
many things that year,
1698
01:33:43,660 --> 01:33:47,330
and had a happy year,
1699
01:33:47,497 --> 01:33:49,749
instead of watching the clock,
1700
01:33:49,916 --> 01:33:51,918
which they would've done.
1701
01:33:53,378 --> 01:33:55,505
He wanted to do
just what he was doing.
1702
01:33:55,672 --> 01:33:57,799
He wanted to be with his family,
1703
01:33:57,966 --> 01:33:59,968
and go back to work.
1704
01:34:00,134 --> 01:34:01,511
Our next film
is Meet the Deedles.
1705
01:34:01,678 --> 01:34:04,514
And boy, is this
an annoying experience.
1706
01:34:04,681 --> 01:34:06,975
To the point that from now on,
for the rest of my life,
1707
01:34:07,141 --> 01:34:09,769
I may have a negative physical
reaction to hearing the word--
1708
01:34:09,936 --> 01:34:11,771
Well, it's the title word
in the film.
1709
01:34:11,938 --> 01:34:13,982
- Deedles?
- Oh. Roger, don't.
1710
01:34:14,148 --> 01:34:18,069
Toward the end, I said,
"We should go see him."
1711
01:34:18,236 --> 01:34:22,740
And we were gonna go
and visit him that Monday,
1712
01:34:22,907 --> 01:34:25,869
but he passed away
that Saturday.
1713
01:34:28,162 --> 01:34:32,041
It was a friendship
that he cherished,
1714
01:34:32,208 --> 01:34:35,003
and it was a horrible pain for him.
1715
01:34:37,463 --> 01:34:39,382
This year
on Gene's birthday,
1716
01:34:39,549 --> 01:34:43,845
Roger tweeted
every hour on the hour
1717
01:34:44,012 --> 01:34:47,807
with links to memories high and low.
1718
01:34:47,974 --> 01:34:52,186
I was really touched,
and I wrote him a thank you,
1719
01:34:52,353 --> 01:34:55,481
and he sent me this response.
1720
01:34:55,648 --> 01:34:58,610
"Dear Marlene,
I'm sick and old
1721
01:34:58,776 --> 01:35:01,779
and find myself thinking
about Gene more than ever.
1722
01:35:01,946 --> 01:35:06,618
My stupid ego and maybe his,
complicated the fact
1723
01:35:06,784 --> 01:35:10,580
that I have never met
a smarter or funnier man.
1724
01:35:10,747 --> 01:35:13,249
We fought like cats and dogs.
1725
01:35:13,416 --> 01:35:16,210
But there were times
often unobserved,
1726
01:35:16,377 --> 01:35:20,423
like after a long hotel dinner
we had once in Boston,
1727
01:35:20,590 --> 01:35:23,468
when I've never felt closer
to a man."
1728
01:35:25,678 --> 01:35:29,474
I think
their relationship evolved.
1729
01:35:29,641 --> 01:35:32,644
They grew to respect each other.
1730
01:35:32,810 --> 01:35:35,563
And I do believe
they did love each other.
1731
01:35:38,816 --> 01:35:42,737
After Gene's funeral,
Roger vowed
1732
01:35:42,904 --> 01:35:45,740
that he was never gonna keep
any secrets about his health.
1733
01:35:45,907 --> 01:35:49,702
He said, "If anything like this
ever happens to me,
1734
01:35:49,869 --> 01:35:51,746
I don't want to hide it,
1735
01:35:51,913 --> 01:35:56,334
especially from the people
who mean something to us."
1736
01:35:56,501 --> 01:35:59,128
I've been coming
to this conference for 35 years,
1737
01:35:59,295 --> 01:36:03,967
and this morning I confessed
that I am a sick person.
1738
01:36:04,133 --> 01:36:07,011
About two and a half
or three years ago,
1739
01:36:07,178 --> 01:36:09,597
I found a lump under my chin,
and I went to the doctor,
1740
01:36:09,764 --> 01:36:12,517
and it turned out to be
associated with thyroid cancer.
1741
01:36:12,684 --> 01:36:17,230
He was in the hospital
maybe two days at the most,
1742
01:36:17,397 --> 01:36:18,898
ready to get out.
1743
01:36:19,065 --> 01:36:21,776
Went back to the show.
He's such an optimist.
1744
01:36:21,943 --> 01:36:26,197
And he thought, this was
probably the end of it.
1745
01:36:26,364 --> 01:36:29,033
We didn't know that was
just the warm up act.
1746
01:36:30,410 --> 01:36:33,413
A few years later,
I went in for a routine scan
1747
01:36:33,579 --> 01:36:35,540
to check for any new problems.
1748
01:36:35,707 --> 01:36:37,625
The news was not good.
1749
01:36:37,792 --> 01:36:40,962
Cancer had been seen
in my right lower jawbone.
1750
01:36:41,129 --> 01:36:43,589
Again he had surgery.
1751
01:36:43,756 --> 01:36:45,758
We were going home.
1752
01:36:45,925 --> 01:36:51,055
We were all packed up and ready
to go home just like today.
1753
01:36:51,222 --> 01:36:53,641
Chaz and I
had a Leonard Cohen song
1754
01:36:53,808 --> 01:36:57,061
we both really liked
called I'm Your Man.
1755
01:36:57,228 --> 01:37:01,441
It's sort of long but I wanted
to play it one last time.
1756
01:37:21,294 --> 01:37:22,670
As it was playing,
1757
01:37:22,837 --> 01:37:25,715
I had a sudden hemorrhage
of an artery.
1758
01:37:25,882 --> 01:37:29,010
The doctors rushed me
into the operating room.
1759
01:37:29,177 --> 01:37:31,471
The whole thing had burst.
1760
01:37:31,637 --> 01:37:35,600
His neck,
it just was gushing blood.
1761
01:37:35,767 --> 01:37:38,352
There was about 15 doctors
standing there.
1762
01:37:38,519 --> 01:37:42,356
They were grabbing towels, squeezing
to get the blood stopped, and--
1763
01:37:43,816 --> 01:37:46,736
If he hadn't been
playing that song,
1764
01:37:46,903 --> 01:37:49,238
we would've been out
of the hospital already.
1765
01:37:49,405 --> 01:37:51,741
If that song
had been shorter
1766
01:37:51,908 --> 01:37:54,911
and I had left,
I would be dead.
1767
01:38:04,462 --> 01:38:05,922
Bye-bye.
1768
01:38:14,972 --> 01:38:17,225
"Probable. Workable."
1769
01:38:41,290 --> 01:38:45,586
We are told the next surgery
will not be life threatening.
1770
01:38:45,753 --> 01:38:47,505
The perfect ending would be
1771
01:38:47,672 --> 01:38:50,591
that I regain
the ability to speak well,
1772
01:38:50,758 --> 01:38:53,094
eat and drink,
but I would settle
1773
01:38:53,261 --> 01:38:56,806
for drinking coffee
and having milkshakes.
1774
01:38:56,973 --> 01:38:59,809
There were
a series of surgeries,
1775
01:38:59,976 --> 01:39:03,229
and his plan
was to return to the show,
1776
01:39:03,396 --> 01:39:05,523
to return to broadcasting.
1777
01:39:05,690 --> 01:39:07,817
It is a major surgery.
1778
01:39:07,984 --> 01:39:09,485
Yes, it is.
1779
01:39:09,652 --> 01:39:11,946
Is it worth it?
1780
01:39:18,828 --> 01:39:20,288
Excuse me.
1781
01:39:26,961 --> 01:39:30,464
He's very brave about it,
but I'm not.
1782
01:39:30,631 --> 01:39:32,842
I think it's going to be successful
1783
01:39:33,009 --> 01:39:35,595
and everything's
gonna turn out fine.
1784
01:39:37,638 --> 01:39:41,475
And the first day or two
he looked in the mirror...
1785
01:39:43,895 --> 01:39:46,397
he was very pleased
with what he saw.
1786
01:39:48,274 --> 01:39:50,693
But just like
all the other surgeries,
1787
01:39:50,860 --> 01:39:54,363
there was an infection
and they had to undo everything.
1788
01:39:56,324 --> 01:39:59,827
That left him
more debilitated than ever,
1789
01:39:59,994 --> 01:40:03,164
and he just decided
no more surgeries.
1790
01:40:03,331 --> 01:40:05,124
No more.
1791
01:40:07,043 --> 01:40:09,337
Roger's not one
to look back and say,
1792
01:40:09,503 --> 01:40:12,506
"Oh, coulda, woulda, shoulda."
1793
01:40:12,673 --> 01:40:16,636
But there were times
when he wrote a note that said,
1794
01:40:16,802 --> 01:40:18,888
"Kill me."
1795
01:40:19,055 --> 01:40:21,557
I mean, I have that note.
1796
01:40:21,724 --> 01:40:23,726
"Kill me."
1797
01:40:23,893 --> 01:40:27,521
And I said, "No. No."
1798
01:40:30,816 --> 01:40:34,153
I told him
that was not an option.
1799
01:40:45,790 --> 01:40:48,709
Oh, you want to walk
until there, or you wanna...?
1800
01:40:48,876 --> 01:40:49,919
Okay.
1801
01:40:50,086 --> 01:40:53,339
But you know, getting
over there, over that bump...
1802
01:40:57,009 --> 01:41:00,263
Okay, who's gonna help him stand
to go up to the stairs?
1803
01:41:00,429 --> 01:41:02,390
I know he wants
to write instructions.
1804
01:41:02,556 --> 01:41:04,267
Do you want the walker?
1805
01:41:04,433 --> 01:41:06,102
Yes or no,
do you want the walker? No.
1806
01:41:06,269 --> 01:41:08,562
Okay, then let's get--
1807
01:41:09,730 --> 01:41:11,816
Yeah, but we have
to get up and get going.
1808
01:41:13,651 --> 01:41:15,945
People would say,
"Don't you get tired?"
1809
01:41:16,612 --> 01:41:18,322
You have to trust us.
1810
01:41:18,489 --> 01:41:20,866
You have to trust that
we know what we're doing.
1811
01:41:21,033 --> 01:41:22,618
Yeah, I get tired sometimes.
1812
01:41:22,785 --> 01:41:25,413
"Move this chair
so it faces stairs."
1813
01:41:25,579 --> 01:41:28,666
You know, no, no, guess what,
it's a few steps.
1814
01:41:28,833 --> 01:41:31,919
You can get out of the chair
and you can walk up the stairs.
1815
01:41:32,086 --> 01:41:34,046
That's what you've
been practicing every day.
1816
01:41:34,213 --> 01:41:35,840
You can do this.
1817
01:41:36,007 --> 01:41:38,134
But I never got so tired
1818
01:41:38,301 --> 01:41:39,677
that I wanted to give up.
1819
01:41:39,844 --> 01:41:41,554
Come on, Uncle Roger.
1820
01:41:41,721 --> 01:41:44,682
No, he's not gonna do that.
Let me handle it, please.
1821
01:41:44,849 --> 01:41:47,184
I'm gonna pull
the chair out of the way.
1822
01:41:47,351 --> 01:41:49,520
There's so many people
out there
1823
01:41:49,687 --> 01:41:52,982
taking care of people
who are sick or disabled.
1824
01:41:53,149 --> 01:41:56,986
We all go through
the whole gamut of emotions.
1825
01:41:57,153 --> 01:42:00,156
Two, three, up...
1826
01:42:00,323 --> 01:42:01,532
Okay, now hold.
1827
01:42:01,699 --> 01:42:03,117
You know,
it's been a long road.
1828
01:42:03,284 --> 01:42:05,369
- I think it's hard.
- All right.
1829
01:42:05,536 --> 01:42:08,289
It's always been hard,
but it's even harder now.
1830
01:42:11,167 --> 01:42:14,837
He calls her "my angel."
And he means it.
1831
01:42:15,004 --> 01:42:17,798
Valentine's Day wreath
I got for you.
1832
01:42:24,430 --> 01:42:26,390
This woman
never lost her love.
1833
01:42:26,557 --> 01:42:28,100
Now do you want to go upstairs?
1834
01:42:28,267 --> 01:42:31,020
She was always there
believing I could do it.
1835
01:42:31,187 --> 01:42:35,191
And her love was like a wind
pushing me back from the grave.
1836
01:42:35,358 --> 01:42:39,111
And I told him
if you promise me
1837
01:42:39,278 --> 01:42:41,572
that you will give it your all,
1838
01:42:41,739 --> 01:42:45,326
I promise you
that I will try to make life
1839
01:42:45,493 --> 01:42:47,328
as interesting for you as possible...
1840
01:42:48,996 --> 01:42:50,664
...so that every day,
1841
01:42:50,831 --> 01:42:54,543
you have something
to look forward to.
1842
01:42:56,295 --> 01:42:59,340
How does it feel
to be back in your own chair?
1843
01:43:00,966 --> 01:43:02,218
Okay.
1844
01:43:02,385 --> 01:43:03,844
Today is a big day,
1845
01:43:04,011 --> 01:43:08,015
coming home after two months
is very difficult.
1846
01:43:08,182 --> 01:43:09,892
It's a joy,
1847
01:43:10,059 --> 01:43:12,686
but it's also very stressful.
1848
01:43:15,356 --> 01:43:17,900
"Especially for you."
1849
01:43:19,193 --> 01:43:21,153
Is that-- Are you trying
to be a smart alec?
1850
01:43:21,320 --> 01:43:23,489
Are you trying
to be a smart alec?
1851
01:43:26,742 --> 01:43:28,744
We have a saying
in the Latino community,
1852
01:43:28,911 --> 01:43:30,413
"Make your heart your face."
1853
01:43:30,579 --> 01:43:33,624
Oh, now. Aw, okay.
1854
01:43:33,791 --> 01:43:36,043
More than anybody
I have ever known,
1855
01:43:36,210 --> 01:43:38,879
his heart is his face.
1856
01:43:39,046 --> 01:43:42,174
That photograph that was on the cover
of Esquire says it all.
1857
01:43:43,259 --> 01:43:45,636
This is me. Right?
1858
01:43:45,803 --> 01:43:48,597
And I want you to know
1859
01:43:48,764 --> 01:43:51,767
who I am
and what I'm going through.
1860
01:43:51,934 --> 01:43:54,728
I may have things
to be depressed about,
1861
01:43:54,895 --> 01:43:57,106
but I am not depressed.
1862
01:43:57,273 --> 01:43:59,525
My life seems full again.
1863
01:44:00,234 --> 01:44:01,986
Here we are full screen.
1864
01:44:02,153 --> 01:44:03,946
As we start
to bring the screen size down,
1865
01:44:04,113 --> 01:44:06,866
eventually getting
towards iPhone size,
1866
01:44:07,032 --> 01:44:09,827
it's gonna drop,
it's gonna break.
1867
01:44:09,994 --> 01:44:10,995
And now, look at this...
1868
01:44:11,162 --> 01:44:13,747
My attention is focused
on my new website,
1869
01:44:13,914 --> 01:44:16,709
which will provide a home
for my life's work
1870
01:44:16,876 --> 01:44:18,878
and has an enduring life
of its own.
1871
01:44:21,297 --> 01:44:23,632
"Josh, this is beyond
my wildest dreams."
1872
01:44:23,799 --> 01:44:26,427
Well, I'm glad.
I like to make you happy.
1873
01:44:26,594 --> 01:44:29,013
Roger has been
ahead of the curve,
1874
01:44:29,180 --> 01:44:32,475
becoming an early and massive
adopter of social media.
1875
01:44:32,641 --> 01:44:35,478
He has almost
800,000 followers on Twitter
1876
01:44:35,644 --> 01:44:37,146
and 100,000 followers
on Facebook.
1877
01:44:37,313 --> 01:44:40,024
"Nice links to IMDB
and Wikipedia."
1878
01:44:40,483 --> 01:44:42,193
If you look at
the other people who have
1879
01:44:42,359 --> 01:44:46,322
like 850,000 Twitter followers,
it's like Kardashians.
1880
01:44:46,489 --> 01:44:48,699
Beyond the search widget...
1881
01:44:48,866 --> 01:44:52,286
Right now, there's
an argument about the Internet.
1882
01:44:52,453 --> 01:44:55,748
Some people say
film criticism is at the end,
1883
01:44:55,915 --> 01:44:58,167
the art of cinema
is at the end.
1884
01:44:58,334 --> 01:45:00,836
Roger sees it
in a much more positive way.
1885
01:45:01,003 --> 01:45:02,671
It's a renaissance.
1886
01:45:02,838 --> 01:45:06,258
It's a renaissance in film
appreciation and film criticism.
1887
01:45:06,425 --> 01:45:08,844
The roving reporters
that he uses,
1888
01:45:09,011 --> 01:45:11,222
like on his blog,
for example,
1889
01:45:11,388 --> 01:45:15,351
is giving a critical birth
to lots of other points of view.
1890
01:45:15,518 --> 01:45:19,063
The passionate fan culture,
or movie geek culture,
1891
01:45:19,230 --> 01:45:21,607
that exists on the Internet,
when people are really,
1892
01:45:21,774 --> 01:45:23,025
get really, really worked up,
1893
01:45:23,192 --> 01:45:28,322
is something that the Siskel
and Ebert show helped to seed.
1894
01:45:28,489 --> 01:45:31,700
It follows from Roger's
understanding of criticism,
1895
01:45:31,867 --> 01:45:33,452
which is it's
a mode of conversation.
1896
01:45:33,619 --> 01:45:35,204
It's the public square.
1897
01:45:35,371 --> 01:45:37,289
This is allowing
your fans to access
1898
01:45:37,456 --> 01:45:40,251
this database of your reviews
going back to 1967
1899
01:45:40,417 --> 01:45:43,420
that has never been available
in this form before.
1900
01:45:44,922 --> 01:45:49,093
When I am writing, I am
the same person I always was.
1901
01:45:51,595 --> 01:45:55,432
In April 2008, I wrote
my first blog entry,
1902
01:45:55,599 --> 01:45:59,520
and began this current, and probably
final stage of my life.
1903
01:45:59,687 --> 01:46:02,815
My blog became my voice,
my outlet,
1904
01:46:02,982 --> 01:46:06,318
my social media in a way
I couldn't have dreamed of.
1905
01:46:06,485 --> 01:46:10,906
Into it, I poured my regrets,
desires and memories.
1906
01:46:11,073 --> 01:46:15,369
Most people choose to write a blog.
I needed to.
1907
01:46:15,536 --> 01:46:18,372
Racism was ingrained
in daily life.
1908
01:46:18,539 --> 01:46:21,083
It wasn't the overt racism
of the South,
1909
01:46:21,250 --> 01:46:23,002
but more like
the pervading background
1910
01:46:23,168 --> 01:46:25,462
against which we lived.
We were here...
1911
01:46:25,629 --> 01:46:28,340
I've never held a handgun in my life.
1912
01:46:28,507 --> 01:46:31,302
The theory is that
gun ownership makes us safer.
1913
01:46:31,468 --> 01:46:34,430
That doesn't seem
to be working out for us.
1914
01:46:34,597 --> 01:46:37,391
The body count rises.
1915
01:46:37,558 --> 01:46:40,894
He took all of that energy
he put into television,
1916
01:46:41,061 --> 01:46:43,397
and he transferred it
to his blog,
1917
01:46:43,564 --> 01:46:45,774
and the Internet,
and to his movie reviews,
1918
01:46:45,941 --> 01:46:48,861
and wrote better
than he ever had in his life.
1919
01:46:51,739 --> 01:46:53,240
Bless these boys.
1920
01:46:59,121 --> 01:47:02,583
I don't know when a film
has connected more immediately
1921
01:47:02,750 --> 01:47:04,835
with my own personal experience.
1922
01:47:05,002 --> 01:47:06,754
That's how you grow up.
1923
01:47:09,757 --> 01:47:13,844
Surrounded by the realms
of unimaginable time and space.
1924
01:47:15,554 --> 01:47:17,598
We are now seeing
the polymathic genius
1925
01:47:17,765 --> 01:47:21,310
that those of us
who knew Roger always saw.
1926
01:47:22,478 --> 01:47:24,855
His voice was stilled,
1927
01:47:25,022 --> 01:47:27,399
but of course
he's talking more than ever.
1928
01:47:30,486 --> 01:47:33,447
In the past 25 years,
I have probably seen
1929
01:47:33,614 --> 01:47:36,700
ten thousand movies, and
reviewed six thousand of them.
1930
01:47:36,867 --> 01:47:39,578
- She threw them there.
- I understand, but why?
1931
01:47:39,745 --> 01:47:42,998
I have forgotten
most of them, I hope.
1932
01:47:47,961 --> 01:47:51,090
But I remember
those worth remembering.
1933
01:47:52,841 --> 01:47:55,761
And they are on the same shelf
in my mind.
1934
01:47:56,595 --> 01:47:58,514
Look at a movie
that a lot of people love...
1935
01:47:58,681 --> 01:48:00,224
Match me, Sydney.
1936
01:48:00,391 --> 01:48:02,267
...and you'll find
something profound...
1937
01:48:04,019 --> 01:48:06,188
...no matter how silly
the film may seem.
1938
01:48:09,692 --> 01:48:13,237
Sing!
1939
01:48:13,445 --> 01:48:16,115
What I miss though,
is the wonder.
1940
01:48:16,281 --> 01:48:18,200
Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
1941
01:48:18,367 --> 01:48:21,120
People my age can remember
walking into a movie palace...
1942
01:48:21,286 --> 01:48:22,663
I'm sorry, Dave.
1943
01:48:22,830 --> 01:48:24,206
...when the ceiling
was far overhead...
1944
01:48:24,373 --> 01:48:25,791
I'm afraid I can't do that.
1945
01:48:25,958 --> 01:48:28,460
...balconies reached
way into the shadows.
1946
01:48:28,627 --> 01:48:30,629
We remember the sound
of a thousand people
1947
01:48:30,796 --> 01:48:32,548
laughing all at once,
1948
01:48:32,715 --> 01:48:34,717
and screens
the size of billboards,
1949
01:48:34,883 --> 01:48:38,262
so every seat in the house
was a good seat.
1950
01:48:38,429 --> 01:48:41,890
"I lost it at the movies,"
Pauline Kael said,
1951
01:48:42,057 --> 01:48:45,185
and we all knew
just what she meant.
1952
01:48:45,352 --> 01:48:47,020
Charles Foster Kane.
1953
01:48:52,568 --> 01:48:55,195
Only two days
after he'd returned home,
1954
01:48:55,362 --> 01:48:58,824
Roger was readmitted
to the hospital with pneumonia.
1955
01:48:58,991 --> 01:49:02,244
Chaz thought this was a brief
if frustrating setback,
1956
01:49:02,411 --> 01:49:04,830
and so Roger and I resumed
our email interview
1957
01:49:04,997 --> 01:49:08,709
with the plan to film him as soon
as he returned home again.
1958
01:49:08,876 --> 01:49:11,545
Roger was energetic
and answered questions
1959
01:49:11,712 --> 01:49:13,338
about a variety of subjects.
1960
01:49:15,382 --> 01:49:18,218
My favorite places in the city
are the used bookstores.
1961
01:49:18,385 --> 01:49:20,929
You can't get me out of one.
1962
01:49:24,099 --> 01:49:26,894
Those standard places
with standard menus
1963
01:49:27,060 --> 01:49:30,147
and breakfast 24 hours a day.
1964
01:49:32,983 --> 01:49:35,819
I asked him about one of
his most controversial reviews
1965
01:49:35,986 --> 01:49:38,238
for Blue Velvet,
and his moral indignation
1966
01:49:38,405 --> 01:49:39,823
at director David Lynch.
1967
01:49:39,990 --> 01:49:42,159
But he asked Isabella Rossellini
in this movie
1968
01:49:42,326 --> 01:49:44,495
to be undressed
and humiliated on the screen...
1969
01:49:57,966 --> 01:49:59,843
Drama holds a mirror up to life,
1970
01:50:00,010 --> 01:50:02,679
but needn't reproduce it.
1971
01:50:02,846 --> 01:50:07,017
Attempts to film Roger in
rehab were rebuffed by doctors.
1972
01:50:08,936 --> 01:50:13,273
Then suddenly one day his email
output slowed to a trickle.
1973
01:50:16,693 --> 01:50:19,488
I'm trying to figure out what
questions would engage you most fully.
1974
01:50:33,293 --> 01:50:38,006
Fearing the worst, I called
Chaz. She dissolved into tears.
1975
01:50:38,173 --> 01:50:40,717
Roger seemed determined
to give up.
1976
01:50:52,020 --> 01:50:56,567
He said he was beginning
to feel trapped inside.
1977
01:50:56,733 --> 01:51:01,071
And he said, "You know,
I don't wanna fight this time.
1978
01:51:01,238 --> 01:51:04,032
I don't wanna--l don't--
I don't wanna fight cancer."
1979
01:51:04,199 --> 01:51:05,784
He said, "I am ready to go.
1980
01:51:05,951 --> 01:51:10,914
I've had a beautiful life
and death is a part of life.
1981
01:51:11,081 --> 01:51:12,541
And I'm ready to go,
1982
01:51:12,708 --> 01:51:15,627
and you must let me go,
you must let me go."
1983
01:51:21,842 --> 01:51:25,470
He had signed a DNR,
1984
01:51:25,637 --> 01:51:28,181
a do not resuscitate order.
1985
01:51:30,475 --> 01:51:33,061
He signed it...
1986
01:51:33,228 --> 01:51:36,565
while I wasn't there one day.
1987
01:51:36,732 --> 01:51:39,693
And usually we make those kind
of decisions together.
1988
01:51:39,860 --> 01:51:43,572
But I think he knew...
1989
01:51:43,739 --> 01:51:46,408
that that wouldn't have been
my choice.
1990
01:51:48,869 --> 01:51:50,454
And so...
1991
01:51:52,039 --> 01:51:56,043
when we realized
that he was leaving
1992
01:51:56,209 --> 01:51:59,713
I wanted them to use
the defibrillator.
1993
01:51:59,880 --> 01:52:01,548
And they said no.
1994
01:52:11,224 --> 01:52:12,601
And short of going over
1995
01:52:12,768 --> 01:52:16,063
and taking it
and doing it myself, you know...
1996
01:52:22,653 --> 01:52:24,112
And I could've screamed
1997
01:52:24,279 --> 01:52:28,200
and made a fuss
and forced them to do it.
1998
01:52:28,367 --> 01:52:33,121
But you know what,
something came over me.
1999
01:52:33,288 --> 01:52:36,583
Roger calls it a wind of peace
2000
01:52:36,750 --> 01:52:38,919
just kind of flowed over me,
2001
01:52:39,086 --> 01:52:41,755
and I knew
it was time to accept it.
2002
01:52:43,340 --> 01:52:45,592
And accept that he was leaving.
2003
01:52:49,471 --> 01:52:51,056
And so...
2004
01:52:53,684 --> 01:52:58,605
I put on Dave Brubeck music
in the room.
2005
01:52:58,772 --> 01:53:00,607
And I had everyone
just settle down.
2006
01:53:03,527 --> 01:53:06,905
I was sitting next to his bed,
2007
01:53:07,072 --> 01:53:10,450
holding his left hand,
2008
01:53:10,617 --> 01:53:12,494
and other people
held my hand,
2009
01:53:12,661 --> 01:53:15,664
and gathered and formed a circle
around and held hands.
2010
01:53:18,417 --> 01:53:20,544
Until the doctor...
2011
01:53:22,629 --> 01:53:26,675
said that he was going
to call it,
2012
01:53:26,842 --> 01:53:30,262
1:40 pm.
as the time of death.
2013
01:53:36,852 --> 01:53:41,231
I have never seen anything
so beautiful
2014
01:53:41,398 --> 01:53:43,775
and so serene.
2015
01:53:43,942 --> 01:53:47,029
It became-- It was
so peaceful in that room.
2016
01:53:47,195 --> 01:53:49,698
And he-- everything just--
2017
01:53:49,865 --> 01:53:52,075
everything just relaxed.
2018
01:53:52,242 --> 01:53:56,079
He looked young,
he looked happy,
2019
01:53:56,246 --> 01:53:59,666
and those warm hands,
and, you know...
2020
01:54:18,769 --> 01:54:21,188
What in the world
is a Leave of Presence?
2021
01:54:21,354 --> 01:54:25,358
It means I am not going away.
2022
01:54:25,567 --> 01:54:28,278
Forty-six years ago,
I became the film critic
2023
01:54:28,445 --> 01:54:30,864
for the Chicago Sun-Times.
2024
01:54:32,240 --> 01:54:35,577
However you came to know me,
I'm glad you did,
2025
01:54:35,744 --> 01:54:37,454
and thank you
for being the best readers
2026
01:54:37,621 --> 01:54:39,790
any film critic could ask for.
2027
01:54:46,630 --> 01:54:48,757
He had a heart big enough
2028
01:54:48,924 --> 01:54:51,218
to accept and love all.
2029
01:54:52,385 --> 01:54:55,263
I have to keep--
He loved this hat,
2030
01:54:55,430 --> 01:54:57,557
that's why I wore it today.
2031
01:55:00,352 --> 01:55:02,896
I felt that
as long as Roger was alive,
2032
01:55:03,063 --> 01:55:05,148
a little bit of Gene was too.
2033
01:55:05,315 --> 01:55:06,775
He was the first person I met
2034
01:55:06,942 --> 01:55:09,111
who actually walked out
of the television.
2035
01:55:18,829 --> 01:55:20,789
Famous people
have died before in Chicago.
2036
01:55:20,956 --> 01:55:22,582
Famous writers have died.
2037
01:55:24,042 --> 01:55:28,004
But what I thought
marked the stories about Roger
2038
01:55:28,171 --> 01:55:30,841
was a genuine affection.
2039
01:55:31,007 --> 01:55:33,343
I mean, thousands of people came out
2040
01:55:33,510 --> 01:55:36,596
and thousands more
wrote tributes on the Internet,
2041
01:55:36,763 --> 01:55:38,390
which are still continuing.
2042
01:55:54,739 --> 01:55:58,285
I like to walk down
on Hollywood Boulevard
2043
01:55:58,451 --> 01:56:01,580
because I know
it's his star coming.
2044
01:56:01,746 --> 01:56:03,915
I set my gaze straight,
2045
01:56:04,082 --> 01:56:07,294
I don't look down at the star.
I know it's coming.
2046
01:56:07,460 --> 01:56:12,132
Looking straight
at the horizon into the future.
2047
01:56:19,055 --> 01:56:22,434
So on this day of reflection,
2048
01:56:23,226 --> 01:56:26,897
I say thank you for going on
this journey with me.
2049
01:56:30,400 --> 01:56:32,819
I'll see you at the movies.
155274