FOT Forum

FOT Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: DanFromBrooklyn on February 16, 2010, 10:07:44 PM

Title: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: DanFromBrooklyn on February 16, 2010, 10:07:44 PM
Hey everyone,

I know a lot of people have already read this, but just in case, I strongly recommend it. This is, no joke, one of the best profiles I've ever read. I've always liked Roger Ebert, and I have a completely new respect for him. The man is a giant.

http://www.esquire.com/features/roger-ebert-0310

Dan
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: nec13 on February 16, 2010, 10:16:16 PM
Absolutely. He also has the best feed on Twitter, IMO.
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: masterofsparks on February 16, 2010, 10:27:22 PM
I checked this out earlier today. I really didn't know the extent of his illnesses until I read this. Very moving and well-done.

That photo is pretty rough.
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: Joe Rogaine on February 16, 2010, 10:38:18 PM
I checked this out earlier today. I really didn't know the extent of his illnesses until I read this. Very moving and well-done.

That photo is pretty rough.


Yeah if you looked at that photo not knowing anything about the article you would be hard pressed to know who that is.
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: DoodleJump! on February 16, 2010, 11:53:20 PM
That is a beautiful article.
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: TacoSmith on February 17, 2010, 01:07:48 AM
I read this earlier. It's great. I've always loved Ebert.
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: Christina on February 17, 2010, 02:17:22 AM
Me too. About a billion years ago on the interweb, which is like a blip in real time, Ebert actually read and liked a movie website me and this dude had ... he told us so, and it meant a shitload to us. He had no reason to do so, career-wise.

He gets a lifetime pass for giggling through the entire scriptwriting process of the Russ Meyer movies he worked on ... not only did he write that horseshit, but he laughed the whole time he did it. And, apparently slept with whichever Russ Meyer women would allow it.

what he's doing now? Incredible. His blog is first rate, and his twitter feed is just as good, about different stuff, not just things he's written, but stuff he likes, or whatever silly nonsense he's found on the internet.

The guy is top shelf. Balls to you if you disagree.
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: not that clay on February 17, 2010, 03:50:12 AM
Me too. About a billion years ago on the interweb, which is like a blip in real time, Ebert actually read and liked a movie website me and this dude had ... he told us so, and it meant a shitload to us. He had no reason to do so, career-wise.

He gets a lifetime pass for giggling through the entire scriptwriting process of the Russ Meyer movies he worked on ... not only did he write that horseshit, but he laughed the whole time he did it. And, apparently slept with whichever Russ Meyer women would allow it.

what he's doing now? Incredible. His blog is first rate, and his twitter feed is just as good, about different stuff, not just things he's written, but stuff he likes, or whatever silly nonsense he's found on the internet.

The guy is top shelf. Balls to you if you disagree.

Hey, that's cool!

I hear his film festival is really fun too.

I picked this book of his off a stack of free books once. It cracks me up:
http://books.google.com/books?id=48gFm7DSI5QC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q=&f=false
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: Martin on February 17, 2010, 04:01:55 AM
Very moving article. Never been a fan, but you gotta admire his spirit.
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: Bryan on February 17, 2010, 09:17:08 AM
What with all the brouhaha in the past few months about healthcare reform in the U.S., this article made me appreciate that if he lived in any other country in the world, he'd probably already be dead.

Also: he's an awesome dude.
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: Martin on February 17, 2010, 10:21:43 AM
What with all the brouhaha in the past few months about healthcare reform in the U.S., this article made me appreciate that if he lived in any other country in the world, he'd probably already be dead.

How so?
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: not that clay on February 17, 2010, 12:07:10 PM
What with all the brouhaha in the past few months about healthcare reform in the U.S., this article made me appreciate that if he lived in any other country in the world, he'd probably already be dead.


If you really want to have that discussion it's going to get really ugly and really personal really fast.
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: Bryan on February 17, 2010, 12:15:00 PM

If you really want to have that discussion it's going to get really ugly and really personal really fast.

Believe me, I'm all for socialized medicine, and further, I'm certainly not trying to stir anything up here. All I meant was that I was amazed at the treatment he's received, and it occurred to me that this is the sort of thing people mean when they talk about "the best system in the world."
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: bakersfieldchimp on February 17, 2010, 06:49:12 PM
That is a great article-- I didn't know how bad off he was, and for him to still have a positive attitude given all of the stuff he's been through... man. It sounds really cornball to call it inspiring, but it sorta is.
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: DanFromBrooklyn on February 17, 2010, 06:56:01 PM
That is a great article-- I didn't know how bad off he was, and for him to still have a positive attitude given all of the stuff he's been through... man. It sounds really cornball to call it inspiring, but it sorta is.

I don't think it's cornball at all. I was really inspired by this.
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: David on February 17, 2010, 07:06:46 PM

If you really want to have that discussion it's going to get really ugly and really personal really fast.

Believe me, I'm all for socialized medicine, and further, I'm certainly not trying to stir anything up here. All I meant was that I was amazed at the treatment he's received, and it occurred to me that this is the sort of thing people mean when they talk about "the best system in the world."


I don't want to start a whole thing here, but I one of the reasons Ebert is so supportive of US Health Care reform is because of the way people not as wealthy as he is deserve the same treatment. And to say that he wouldn't have done as well in another country? That's speculative. I think more money is spent on health care here, but less people have it. And a lot of that money is spent on frivolous stuff. I'm not saying what's right or wrong here, I just want to avoid sweeping generalizations about what's the right or wrong form of health care reform.
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: Cotton on February 17, 2010, 07:59:45 PM
without getting involved in any of that, I have to say this was a great article. I honestly had no idea that he wasn't speaking/eating. I've always enjoyed the guy's reviews, although I can't recall seeing his show since long before Siskel was gone.

Even better was Ebert's Twitter acknowledgment of it:
"I'm physically feeling tip-top these days. It's true I'm dying--but no faster than anyone else."

Edit: Here's more of a follow-up (http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/02/roger_eberts_last_words_cont.html)
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: crumbum on February 18, 2010, 08:33:02 AM
Awesome article.

I started following his blog/journal about six months ago, before I was aware of the extent of his health problems, but I immediately noticed something different in his writing. His reviews have always struck me as second-tier criticism, lacking much deep insight -- maybe because he produces at such a fast rate. But the journal is wonderful. It's expansive, but also revealing and personal without being mawkish. He's upped his game considerably.
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: Pat K on February 18, 2010, 10:58:04 AM
It seems like he's always been very into computers and the internet (which often goes hand in hand with some major critical myopia when it comes to bad sci-fi films). I've been following his blog for that past year or so, and that article is right on about it. He's definitely hit a new gear with it, and turned it into something really special on the net.

I've always been a fan of the guy, in spite of myself. I might even actually disagree with him more often than I agree, but I like the writing. One of his blog posts a while back brought up the fact that another critic somewhere accused him of being a better writer than critic, and that he won his Pulitzer for his prose and not his taste in movies, and that's probably not off the mark. But still, better that than the opposite.  He's kind of a comforting presence for me on the film scene, as weird as that sounds. It's nice to know that he's doing some of his best work now.
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: DanFromBrooklyn on February 18, 2010, 11:18:01 AM
Me too. About a billion years ago on the interweb, which is like a blip in real time, Ebert actually read and liked a movie website me and this dude had ... he told us so, and it meant a shitload to us. He had no reason to do so, career-wise.

He gets a lifetime pass for giggling through the entire scriptwriting process of the Russ Meyer movies he worked on ... not only did he write that horseshit, but he laughed the whole time he did it. And, apparently slept with whichever Russ Meyer women would allow it.

what he's doing now? Incredible. His blog is first rate, and his twitter feed is just as good, about different stuff, not just things he's written, but stuff he likes, or whatever silly nonsense he's found on the internet.

The guy is top shelf. Balls to you if you disagree.

Hey Christina, what was your site? Is it still up?
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: Joe Rogaine on February 18, 2010, 08:41:43 PM
Anybody see some of the articles attacking his political view on twitter. I cant remember which ones it was but the really trashed him.
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: ian on February 19, 2010, 12:46:08 AM
"I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state."

Amazing.
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: DanFromBrooklyn on February 19, 2010, 12:55:58 PM
Although it's short, I thought he nailed it in his letter to Limbaugh:

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100114/OPINION/100119985
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: NJL on March 03, 2010, 11:52:25 AM
I guess they have finished synthesizing his voice.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/8547645.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/8547645.stm)
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: ben on March 04, 2010, 02:17:25 AM
I saw him on Oprah.  Incredible and inspirational.  And the Esquire article was too.  A lot of people on the board are probably too young to remember or know Siskel, but I still called the show Siskel and Ebert even until the last year Roeper was on.  It was just so ingrained in me.

That part in the article where Chaz says, 'Oh, Gene' after seeing the picture of them together, something about that broke my heart.

And in agreement with others, his twitter feed is pretty great.
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: DanFromBrooklyn on March 04, 2010, 09:49:01 AM
I saw him on Oprah.  Incredible and inspirational.  And the Esquire article was too.  A lot of people on the board are probably too young to remember or know Siskel, but I still called the show Siskel and Ebert even until the last year Roeper was on.  It was just so ingrained in me.

That part in the article where Chaz says, 'Oh, Gene' after seeing the picture of them together, something about that broke my heart.

And in agreement with others, his twitter feed is pretty great.

Yeah, I saw a clip of the Oprah appearance. Really amazing what that company was able to do for his computerized voice. I couldn't believe how good it sounded.

And yeah, "Siskel and Ebert" is the brand. I always thought of the show that way too.
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: TacoSmith on March 04, 2010, 05:04:17 PM
Speaking of the Siskel and Ebert brand, I never get tired of this video of them essentially roasting each other while filming promos for their show. Ebert is much better at it than Siskel.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUMZjy8rXE4&feature=related[/youtube]
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: ben on March 05, 2010, 03:07:14 AM
Speaking of the Siskel and Ebert brand, I never get tired of this video of them essentially roasting each other while filming promos for their show. Ebert is much better at it than Siskel.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUMZjy8rXE4&feature=related[/youtube]

Wow.  That was SO great.
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: Pat K on April 12, 2010, 01:08:28 PM
Great blog post this weekend about his brief involvement with Malcolm McLaren and the Sex Pistols movie:

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/04/malcolm_meyer_rotten_vicious_m.html

Someone really needs to make a movie about Russ Meyer's crazy life. I'm thinking it could be some kind of cross between American Movie, Boogie Nights, and 24 Hour Party People.
Title: Re: Roger Ebert interview/profile in "Esquire"
Post by: Chris L on April 15, 2010, 08:04:43 AM
Quote
Let's say you're a big fan of the original comic book, and you think the move does it justice. You know what? You inhabit a world I am so very not interested in (http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100414/REVIEWS/100419986).