1
00:00:51,968 --> 00:00:54,887
We all are born
with a certain package.

2
00:00:55,055 --> 00:00:57,389
We are who we are.

3
00:00:57,557 --> 00:00:59,350
Where we were born,
who we were born as,

4
00:00:59,517 --> 00:01:01,644
how we were raised.

5
00:01:01,811 --> 00:01:06,023
We're kind of
stuck inside that person...

6
00:01:06,191 --> 00:01:08,651
...and the purpose of
civilization and growth,

7
00:01:08,818 --> 00:01:10,236
is to be able to reach out

8
00:01:10,403 --> 00:01:12,905
and empathize a little bit
with other people.

9
00:01:13,531 --> 00:01:17,534
And for me, the movies are like
a machine that generates empathy.

10
00:01:17,994 --> 00:01:20,204
It lets you understand
a little bit more

11
00:01:20,372 --> 00:01:23,958
about different hopes,
aspirations, dreams and fears.

12
00:01:24,125 --> 00:01:26,126
It helps us
to identify with the people

13
00:01:26,294 --> 00:01:28,545
who are sharing
this journey with us.

14
00:02:27,105 --> 00:02:29,315
Exactly five months
before his death,

15
00:02:29,482 --> 00:02:31,400
Roger and Chaz and I
met to plan

16
00:02:31,568 --> 00:02:34,028
the beginning of an ambitious
schedule of filming,

17
00:02:34,195 --> 00:02:37,114
including interviews
and critic screenings.

18
00:02:37,282 --> 00:02:40,200
Roger mentioned in passing
that his hip was sore.

19
00:02:40,368 --> 00:02:43,203
The very next day
he entered the hospital.

20
00:03:04,851 --> 00:03:09,063
So now I got a
hairline fracture to the femur bone.

21
00:03:09,230 --> 00:03:13,859
I didn't fall and have no idea
how it happened.

22
00:03:15,612 --> 00:03:17,696
It's bloody painful.

23
00:03:21,159 --> 00:03:24,787
This is my seventh time at rehab.

24
00:03:24,954 --> 00:03:26,872
This table is weird.

25
00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:30,876
I type much, much better
at home in my usual chair.

26
00:03:31,044 --> 00:03:34,546
Show Steve the new chair.

27
00:03:40,095 --> 00:03:42,137
It reclines.

28
00:03:43,598 --> 00:03:45,808
He will see more of it.

29
00:03:49,896 --> 00:03:52,856
So Roger, did you not pay
your insurance premiums,

30
00:03:53,024 --> 00:03:55,651
and so you didn't get
the chair till now?

31
00:04:00,657 --> 00:04:03,909
Steve, I'll do the jokes here.

32
00:04:05,870 --> 00:04:07,913
This is Flora.

33
00:04:08,081 --> 00:04:12,835
Also, this is Sonya Evans,
my stepdaughter.

34
00:04:13,002 --> 00:04:16,046
I do what they tell me to do.

35
00:04:21,136 --> 00:04:23,720
You wanna rest a little bit,
or work a little bit?

36
00:04:25,807 --> 00:04:27,850
Steve is the director.

37
00:04:28,017 --> 00:04:30,060
I'm just gonna sit down.

38
00:04:32,397 --> 00:04:35,607
Although Roger had supported
my films over the years,

39
00:04:35,775 --> 00:04:39,403
this film was the first chance
to really get to know him.

40
00:04:39,571 --> 00:04:42,656
Steve, shoot yourself
in the mirror.

41
00:04:43,908 --> 00:04:46,577
There he is.

42
00:04:46,744 --> 00:04:47,744
Hi, Carol.

43
00:04:47,912 --> 00:04:50,747
I'm Carol.
I'm Roger's assistant

44
00:04:50,915 --> 00:04:53,584
for over 20 years,
Roger and Chaz.

45
00:04:53,751 --> 00:04:57,671
And Zero Dark something
is winning all the awards, Roger.

46
00:04:57,839 --> 00:04:59,214
It won another big award.

47
00:04:59,382 --> 00:05:01,300
And the Bears lost.

48
00:05:04,721 --> 00:05:06,972
"My daily..." What?

49
00:05:07,140 --> 00:05:09,725
"briefing."

50
00:05:09,934 --> 00:05:11,602
Okay, Roger.

51
00:05:11,769 --> 00:05:15,647
And then Mayor Daley's,
you know, nephew

52
00:05:15,815 --> 00:05:18,442
went to court today.
Remember, for the Koschman thing

53
00:05:18,610 --> 00:05:20,068
that the Sun-Times
really uncovered...

54
00:05:20,236 --> 00:05:22,613
I always worked
on newspapers.

55
00:05:24,199 --> 00:05:25,699
There was a persistent need,

56
00:05:25,867 --> 00:05:28,035
not only to write,
but to publish.

57
00:05:28,203 --> 00:05:32,414
In grade school, I wrote and
published the Washington Street News,

58
00:05:32,582 --> 00:05:35,667
which I solemnly delivered
to neighbors in Urbana, Illinois,

59
00:05:35,835 --> 00:05:39,129
as if it existed independently of me.

60
00:05:39,297 --> 00:05:41,924
At the News Gazette,
a line-o-type operator

61
00:05:42,091 --> 00:05:46,011
set my by-line in lead:
"By Roger Ebert."

62
00:05:46,179 --> 00:05:48,305
I was electrified.

63
00:05:48,473 --> 00:05:50,766
When I went home with it,
you could take a stamp pad,

64
00:05:50,934 --> 00:05:52,601
you could put your by-line
on everything.

65
00:05:52,769 --> 00:05:55,979
My parents finally
had to take it away from me.

66
00:05:56,147 --> 00:05:58,315
Everything was by Roger Ebert.

67
00:05:59,692 --> 00:06:01,902
And I went to work full-time
for the local newspaper

68
00:06:02,070 --> 00:06:04,530
when I was 15,
first as a sports writer,

69
00:06:04,697 --> 00:06:06,949
general assignment,
working late,

70
00:06:07,116 --> 00:06:09,993
being there with the newspapermen
back in the '50s.

71
00:06:10,161 --> 00:06:13,121
It was unspeakably romantic.

72
00:06:13,289 --> 00:06:16,083
I can write,
I just always could.

73
00:06:16,251 --> 00:06:19,711
On the other hand,
I flunked French five times.

74
00:06:21,798 --> 00:06:25,175
In the spring of 1960, I announced
I wanted to go to Harvard,

75
00:06:25,343 --> 00:06:27,761
like Jack Kennedy
and Thomas Wolfe.

76
00:06:27,929 --> 00:06:31,056
"Boy, there's no money to send
you to Harvard," Daddy said.

77
00:06:31,224 --> 00:06:34,726
The Urbana Champaign campus
of the University of Illinois:

78
00:06:34,894 --> 00:06:37,187
to provide knowledge
for a better tomorrow.

79
00:06:37,355 --> 00:06:39,648
I would go
to my hometown university.

80
00:06:39,816 --> 00:06:42,901
I wouldn't be
an electrician like my father.

81
00:06:43,069 --> 00:06:45,445
He told me one day
his father said to him,

82
00:06:45,613 --> 00:06:47,489
"Roger, there's professors
over there,

83
00:06:47,657 --> 00:06:49,366
that's what you oughta do some day.

84
00:06:49,534 --> 00:06:51,034
You wanna sit there
with a pipe,

85
00:06:51,202 --> 00:06:53,829
and a cardigan sweater
with your feet up on the desk."

86
00:06:53,997 --> 00:06:57,165
I think his father recognized
early on that Roger had a gift.

87
00:06:57,333 --> 00:07:02,129
I joined The Daily Illini,
and I ran into him then.

88
00:07:03,548 --> 00:07:04,965
During my years at Illinois,

89
00:07:05,133 --> 00:07:08,510
I spent more time working on
The Daily Illini than studying.

90
00:07:08,678 --> 00:07:11,263
It was in every sense
a real newspaper,

91
00:07:11,431 --> 00:07:14,933
published five days a week,
on an ancient Goss rotary press

92
00:07:15,101 --> 00:07:17,519
that made the building tremble.

93
00:07:17,687 --> 00:07:20,230
As editor,
I was a case study:

94
00:07:20,398 --> 00:07:24,359
tactless, egotistical,
merciless, and a showboat.

95
00:07:24,527 --> 00:07:26,194
And he was.

96
00:07:26,362 --> 00:07:28,947
But it worked
because he could back it up.

97
00:07:29,115 --> 00:07:32,159
It was intimidating
to the members of the staff

98
00:07:32,327 --> 00:07:36,496
because he was like
a mature writer at that time.

99
00:07:38,333 --> 00:07:41,835
Now here, when those
four children were killed

100
00:07:42,003 --> 00:07:43,712
in the church bombing
in Birmingham,

101
00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:45,922
there was a huge protest
around the country.

102
00:07:46,090 --> 00:07:48,634
Four hundred students gathered
on the university quadrangle

103
00:07:48,801 --> 00:07:51,219
to protest the bombing
of an Alabama Sunday school.

104
00:07:51,387 --> 00:07:55,140
And Roger was the voice
of outrage on this campus.

105
00:07:55,308 --> 00:07:59,019
He started off his column by quoting
Dr. Martin Luther King,

106
00:07:59,187 --> 00:08:01,063
who said to George Wallace,

107
00:08:01,230 --> 00:08:04,775
"The blood of these innocent children
is on your hands."

108
00:08:04,942 --> 00:08:06,443
That ended the quote.

109
00:08:06,611 --> 00:08:09,237
Then Roger began his column
by saying,

110
00:08:09,405 --> 00:08:12,282
"That is not entirely the truth.

111
00:08:19,248 --> 00:08:21,249
And it is not new blood.

112
00:08:21,417 --> 00:08:24,503
It is old, very old.

113
00:08:24,671 --> 00:08:27,214
And as Lady Macbeth discovered,

114
00:08:27,382 --> 00:08:30,342
it will not ever wash away."

115
00:08:30,510 --> 00:08:34,179
That began a column written
by a 21 -year-old guy,

116
00:08:34,347 --> 00:08:38,183
and he said it better
than anybody said it all week.

117
00:08:38,351 --> 00:08:43,605
Roger was editor
on November 22nd, 1963,

118
00:08:43,773 --> 00:08:46,149
when John F. Kennedy was shot.

119
00:08:46,317 --> 00:08:50,362
At around two o'clock
in the morning, the presses rolled,

120
00:08:50,530 --> 00:08:52,614
gigantic presses,
two stories high,

121
00:08:52,782 --> 00:08:54,199
chug and chug,

122
00:08:54,367 --> 00:08:56,451
and Ebert was doing
what editors do

123
00:08:56,619 --> 00:08:58,912
at the end of the day:
check out the pages.

124
00:08:59,080 --> 00:09:03,875
And he opens it up and there's
a picture of John F. Kennedy,

125
00:09:04,043 --> 00:09:07,462
and an ad of a pilgrim
with a musket

126
00:09:07,630 --> 00:09:09,881
pointed at Kennedy's head.

127
00:09:10,049 --> 00:09:13,844
Ebert said,
"We gotta switch this."

128
00:09:14,011 --> 00:09:18,056
The pressman said like,
"Hear that sound, Roger?

129
00:09:18,224 --> 00:09:21,643
That's the sound
of newspapers being printed."

130
00:09:21,811 --> 00:09:25,814
Unlike in movies,
you didn't stop the presses.

131
00:09:25,982 --> 00:09:30,277
And Ebert said,
"We're not gonna print that tomorrow.

132
00:09:30,445 --> 00:09:31,903
We gotta stop the presses."

133
00:09:33,322 --> 00:09:35,657
Ebert became famous
to us for that,

134
00:09:35,825 --> 00:09:38,452
because, you know,
here was a kid

135
00:09:38,619 --> 00:09:41,830
taking control
of an adult situation

136
00:09:41,998 --> 00:09:45,167
and making a news judgment,
an important one.

137
00:09:50,006 --> 00:09:53,133
Chicago was the great city
over the horizon.

138
00:09:53,301 --> 00:09:55,218
We read Chicago's newspapers

139
00:09:55,386 --> 00:09:57,637
and listened to its powerful
AM radio stations.

140
00:09:57,764 --> 00:09:59,222
Good evening,
ladies and gentlemen,

141
00:09:59,307 --> 00:10:00,849
it's midnight here in Chicago.

142
00:10:00,975 --> 00:10:02,392
Long after midnight,

143
00:10:02,560 --> 00:10:04,478
I listened to Jack Egan
broadcasting live.

144
00:10:04,645 --> 00:10:07,814
Chez Lounge and
the world famous Chez Paree.

145
00:10:07,982 --> 00:10:11,818
Chatting with Martin and
Lewis, or Rosemary Clooney.

146
00:10:11,986 --> 00:10:14,988
I'd been accepted
as a PhD candidate in English

147
00:10:15,156 --> 00:10:19,075
by the University of Chicago,
but I needed a job.

148
00:10:21,245 --> 00:10:23,288
I got a part time job
at the Sun-Times,

149
00:10:23,456 --> 00:10:24,998
and then five months later,

150
00:10:25,166 --> 00:10:27,250
the film critic retired
and they gave me the job.

151
00:10:27,418 --> 00:10:29,002
I did not apply for it.

152
00:10:29,170 --> 00:10:32,088
Newspaper film critics
had been interchangeable.

153
00:10:32,256 --> 00:10:35,509
Some papers had by-lines
that different people wrote under.

154
00:10:35,676 --> 00:10:37,803
For example,
the Tribune had Mae Tinee,

155
00:10:37,970 --> 00:10:40,222
and that could be whoever
went to the movies that day.

156
00:10:40,389 --> 00:10:43,141
Because Mae Tinee really
spelled out "matinee."

157
00:10:43,309 --> 00:10:46,812
I was at that time the youngest
daily film critic in America.

158
00:10:46,979 --> 00:10:49,481
And it was a real good time
to be a movie critic.

159
00:10:49,649 --> 00:10:51,775
Armed robbery.

160
00:11:06,707 --> 00:11:10,001
Bet you wouldn't have the gumption
to use it.

161
00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:14,506
Now, come here.

162
00:11:14,674 --> 00:11:15,549
It is also

163
00:11:21,055 --> 00:11:24,391
- Hey! What's your name, anyhow?
- Clyde Barrow.

164
00:11:25,059 --> 00:11:26,768
Hi, I'm Bonnie Parker.

165
00:11:26,936 --> 00:11:28,645
Pleased to meet you.

166
00:11:30,690 --> 00:11:32,274
"The fact that the story

167
00:11:32,441 --> 00:11:35,277
is set 35 years ago
doesn't mean a thing.

168
00:11:35,444 --> 00:11:37,070
It had to be set sometime,

169
00:11:42,535 --> 00:11:45,328
Roger was the most facile writer
I ever came across.

170
00:11:45,496 --> 00:11:47,747
Anybody that has ever seen him work.

171
00:11:47,915 --> 00:11:49,499
He could, he could knock out

172
00:11:49,667 --> 00:11:54,337
a full thought out movie review
in 30 minutes.

173
00:11:54,505 --> 00:11:57,007
Fast and furious.

174
00:11:57,174 --> 00:11:59,175
There were so many reporters
that formed

175
00:11:59,343 --> 00:12:02,387
easy quick friendships
because they were smart,

176
00:12:02,555 --> 00:12:05,223
they were good writers,
they were literate,

177
00:12:05,391 --> 00:12:07,517
and they could tell
a good story in a saloon.

178
00:12:09,228 --> 00:12:10,812
O'Rourke's was our stage,

179
00:12:11,314 --> 00:12:13,815
and we displayed
our personas there nightly.

180
00:12:13,983 --> 00:12:18,403
It was a shabby street corner tavern
on a dicey stretch of North Avenue,

181
00:12:18,571 --> 00:12:22,449
a block after Chicago's Old Town
stopped being a tourist haven.

182
00:12:23,743 --> 00:12:25,702
When a roomer
who lived upstairs died,

183
00:12:25,870 --> 00:12:29,998
his body was discovered when maggots
started to drop through the ceiling.

184
00:12:30,166 --> 00:12:31,875
For many years, I drank there

185
00:12:32,043 --> 00:12:34,419
more or less every night
when I was in town.

186
00:12:34,587 --> 00:12:36,588
So did a lot of people.

187
00:12:36,756 --> 00:12:38,298
We all sat at the same place.

188
00:12:38,466 --> 00:12:40,216
The newspaper guys here,

189
00:12:40,384 --> 00:12:42,093
the druggies in the middle,

190
00:12:42,261 --> 00:12:45,472
the surly staff
at the very end of the bar.

191
00:12:45,640 --> 00:12:50,977
Roger has always been attracted
to weird types.

192
00:12:51,145 --> 00:12:53,355
I mean, you should see
some of the women

193
00:12:53,522 --> 00:12:56,650
that he's hauled in
to O'Rourke's over the years.

194
00:12:56,817 --> 00:12:58,318
Back in the old days,

195
00:12:58,486 --> 00:13:00,695
Roger had, probably
the worst taste in women

196
00:13:00,863 --> 00:13:02,155
of any man I've ever known.

197
00:13:02,323 --> 00:13:05,158
They were either gold diggers,

198
00:13:05,326 --> 00:13:07,619
opportunists, or psychos.

199
00:13:07,787 --> 00:13:10,330
Yeah, I met Roger one time
with a woman

200
00:13:10,498 --> 00:13:13,208
that looked like
a young Linda Ronstadt,

201
00:13:13,376 --> 00:13:15,627
and when she was gone
from the table briefly,

202
00:13:15,795 --> 00:13:17,212
I said, "Who is that?"

203
00:13:17,380 --> 00:13:21,007
And he said,
"She's a hired lady."

204
00:13:21,175 --> 00:13:24,886
And I said, "A hooker?"

205
00:13:25,012 --> 00:13:28,181
And he said, "Now you
take care of her when I leave."

206
00:13:28,349 --> 00:13:31,434
And he left town.
And anyway...

207
00:13:33,771 --> 00:13:37,732
Roger, he used to hang from
the lamppost at the end of the bar.

208
00:13:37,900 --> 00:13:39,484
When he got going,

209
00:13:39,652 --> 00:13:41,987
Roger was one of
the finest storytellers

210
00:13:42,154 --> 00:13:44,155
that I have ever come across.

211
00:13:44,323 --> 00:13:45,824
He would hold court,

212
00:13:45,992 --> 00:13:48,952
and it's not like everyone
was invited to join in

213
00:13:49,120 --> 00:13:51,496
and have a colloquy with him.

214
00:13:51,664 --> 00:13:53,373
Since he bought drinks
for everybody

215
00:13:53,541 --> 00:13:57,085
when he had the money,
who's not to listen?

216
00:13:57,253 --> 00:14:00,213
His great friend
was John McHugh.

217
00:14:00,381 --> 00:14:02,882
And I remember
a famous argument

218
00:14:03,050 --> 00:14:07,220
over who was the more cosmopolitan
of the two.

219
00:14:07,388 --> 00:14:11,558
And Ebert was saying,
"John, I travel the world.

220
00:14:11,726 --> 00:14:13,727
I go to every country in Europe.

221
00:14:13,894 --> 00:14:15,437
I go to Cannes.

222
00:14:15,604 --> 00:14:18,356
I'm a cosmopolitan person."

223
00:14:18,524 --> 00:14:24,154
John said, "Ebert, you don't
even speak a foreign language."

224
00:14:24,321 --> 00:14:27,532
And Ebert said,
"I speak enough to be able

225
00:14:27,700 --> 00:14:31,703
to order two Johnny Walker Blacks
anywhere in the world."

226
00:14:31,871 --> 00:14:35,790
Any sober human being
looking at the two of them

227
00:14:35,958 --> 00:14:39,961
would have decided neither was
actually a cosmopolitan figure.

228
00:14:45,342 --> 00:14:47,385
I discovered there was
nothing like drinking

229
00:14:47,553 --> 00:14:49,429
with a crowd
to make you a member.

230
00:14:49,597 --> 00:14:52,891
I copied the idealism
and cynicism of the reporters.

231
00:14:53,059 --> 00:14:54,476
I spoke like they did.

232
00:14:54,643 --> 00:14:56,061
Laughed at the same things.

233
00:14:56,228 --> 00:14:57,979
Felt that I belonged.

234
00:15:01,108 --> 00:15:02,484
Studs wasn't a Chicagoan.

235
00:15:02,651 --> 00:15:04,319
Nelson Algren wasn't born here.

236
00:15:04,487 --> 00:15:06,488
Saul Bellow wasn't born here.

237
00:15:06,655 --> 00:15:09,240
But there's a certain kind
of Chicago character

238
00:15:09,408 --> 00:15:12,702
that Roger really came
to believe that he was.

239
00:15:15,873 --> 00:15:18,583
Roger was not just
the chief character

240
00:15:18,751 --> 00:15:21,336
and star of the movie
that was his life.

241
00:15:21,504 --> 00:15:25,757
He was also the director,
and he brought in the cast,

242
00:15:25,925 --> 00:15:29,969
and the scenario,
and he orchestrated it.

243
00:15:30,137 --> 00:15:31,763
He loved it!

244
00:15:31,931 --> 00:15:35,266
Those characters, what they did.

245
00:15:35,434 --> 00:15:38,061
John the garbage man.
Hank the communist.

246
00:15:38,229 --> 00:15:43,066
I remember the night that Jim Touley
punched J. Robert Nash,

247
00:15:43,234 --> 00:15:45,735
knocked him down
to the bar room floor,

248
00:15:45,903 --> 00:15:48,446
and Nash looked up and he said,
"Nice punch, Jimmy!"

249
00:15:51,408 --> 00:15:53,785
When O'Rourke's closed he would
go down to the Ale House,

250
00:15:53,953 --> 00:15:55,745
because that was a four o'clock bar.

251
00:15:57,581 --> 00:16:00,333
The mood got
rougher and rougher

252
00:16:00,501 --> 00:16:02,418
as people got
drunker and drunker.

253
00:16:04,505 --> 00:16:07,841
Roger was good at dishing,
but he also could take it.

254
00:16:08,008 --> 00:16:11,094
"I'm a fat guy, I'm gonna have to
learn how to take fat stuff."

255
00:16:11,262 --> 00:16:13,179
Roger could hold his own
with all of them.

256
00:16:14,807 --> 00:16:18,977
Everybody kind of says that
deep down he's a nice guy.

257
00:16:19,145 --> 00:16:21,604
He is a nice guy,
but he's not that nice.

258
00:16:23,274 --> 00:16:24,566
He's not that nice.

259
00:16:32,950 --> 00:16:34,993
The last week
he was drinking,

260
00:16:35,161 --> 00:16:38,872
I even realized that there was
a serious problem going on.

261
00:16:39,039 --> 00:16:41,332
Watching him
when he pulled out that night

262
00:16:41,500 --> 00:16:44,085
in front of O'Rourke's,
and almost, you know,

263
00:16:44,253 --> 00:16:45,795
ran into the North Avenue bus.

264
00:16:45,963 --> 00:16:47,714
I remember being in the drug store

265
00:16:47,882 --> 00:16:50,133
that was on the corner there
one morning,

266
00:16:50,301 --> 00:16:53,303
and Roger came in, and he
looked like absolute hell.

267
00:16:53,470 --> 00:16:55,513
And I'm like, "Are you okay?
What's the matter?"

268
00:16:55,681 --> 00:16:59,893
"I'm on a bender.
Can you come have a drink with me?"

269
00:17:00,102 --> 00:17:01,603
He said to me one time,

270
00:17:01,729 --> 00:17:03,771
and I don't think
he'll regard this as a betrayal,

271
00:17:03,939 --> 00:17:07,108
that he would walk home
late at night,

272
00:17:07,276 --> 00:17:09,110
after O'Rourke's had closed,

273
00:17:09,445 --> 00:17:11,154
and he would wish
he was dead.

274
00:17:13,365 --> 00:17:16,075
I found it almost impossible
once I started,

275
00:17:16,243 --> 00:17:20,705
to stop after one or two.
I paid a price in hangovers.

276
00:17:20,873 --> 00:17:22,290
Without hangovers,
it's possible

277
00:17:22,458 --> 00:17:24,375
that I would still be drinking.

278
00:17:24,543 --> 00:17:29,505
I would also be unemployed,
unmarried, and probably dead.

279
00:17:29,673 --> 00:17:33,718
In August 1979,
I took my last drink.

280
00:17:33,886 --> 00:17:37,347
It was about four o'clock
on a Saturday afternoon.

281
00:17:37,514 --> 00:17:39,933
The hot sun streaming
through the windows.

282
00:17:40,100 --> 00:17:43,728
I put a glass of scotch and soda
down on the living room table,

283
00:17:43,896 --> 00:17:47,315
went to bed, and pulled
the blankets over my head.

284
00:17:47,483 --> 00:17:49,484
I couldn't take it anymore.

285
00:17:49,652 --> 00:17:51,527
He says, "I quit."

286
00:17:51,695 --> 00:17:55,031
And then I realized
it's time for me to quit, too.

287
00:17:55,199 --> 00:17:58,159
The next time I saw Roger Ebert,
he was in AA.

288
00:17:58,327 --> 00:18:01,329
I was drinking very heavily.

289
00:18:01,497 --> 00:18:05,083
When I decided to out myself
as a recovering alcoholic,

290
00:18:05,251 --> 00:18:07,710
I hadn't taken a drink
for 31 years.

291
00:18:07,878 --> 00:18:09,963
And since my first AA meeting
I attended,

292
00:18:10,130 --> 00:18:12,257
I've never wanted to.

293
00:18:12,424 --> 00:18:15,260
Since surgery in July of 2006,

294
00:18:15,427 --> 00:18:19,305
I haven't been able to drink
at all, or eat or speak.

295
00:18:19,473 --> 00:18:23,017
Unless I go insane and start
pouring booze into my g-tube,

296
00:18:23,185 --> 00:18:25,770
I believe I'm reasonably safe.

297
00:18:52,756 --> 00:18:54,340
That's it.

298
00:18:54,508 --> 00:18:56,050
By the time I got home
from this shoot,

299
00:18:56,218 --> 00:18:58,177
there was an email waiting for me.

300
00:19:00,389 --> 00:19:02,056
Did we get it?

301
00:19:05,144 --> 00:19:06,936
I hope so, too.

302
00:19:12,318 --> 00:19:13,776
When I mentioned in my blog

303
00:19:13,944 --> 00:19:16,654
that I could no longer
eat, drink, or speak,

304
00:19:16,822 --> 00:19:19,657
a reader wrote,
"Do you miss it?"

305
00:19:21,327 --> 00:19:25,163
Not so much, really.
I lived in a world of words

306
00:19:25,289 --> 00:19:27,999
long before I was aware of it.

307
00:19:28,167 --> 00:19:30,877
The new reality took shape slowly.

308
00:19:31,045 --> 00:19:35,340
My blog became my voice,
my outlet.

309
00:19:35,507 --> 00:19:38,134
It let loose
the flood of memories.

310
00:19:39,762 --> 00:19:42,930
They came pouring forth
in a flood of relief.

311
00:19:45,476 --> 00:19:48,061
One day in the spring of 1967,

312
00:19:48,228 --> 00:19:50,772
I noticed
Faster, Pussycat! Kill Kill!

313
00:19:50,939 --> 00:19:53,608
playing at the Biograph
on Lincoln Avenue.

314
00:20:00,366 --> 00:20:02,992
The posters displayed
improbably buxom women,

315
00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:06,079
and I was inside in a flash.

316
00:20:06,246 --> 00:20:08,373
That was when it first registered

317
00:20:08,540 --> 00:20:10,958
that there was a filmmaker
named Russ Meyer.

318
00:20:14,421 --> 00:20:18,216
In 1969, the 20th Century Fox
studio invited Meyer

319
00:20:18,384 --> 00:20:19,801
to the lot for an interview.

320
00:20:19,968 --> 00:20:21,719
They owned the rights
to the title

321
00:20:21,887 --> 00:20:23,846
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls,

322
00:20:24,014 --> 00:20:26,766
and offered him the title
unattached to any story.

323
00:20:26,934 --> 00:20:29,394
Meyer offered me
the screenwriting job,

324
00:20:29,561 --> 00:20:32,397
and I fell into
a delirious adventure.

325
00:20:32,564 --> 00:20:35,858
The most impossible question
for me to answer is,

326
00:20:36,026 --> 00:20:38,778
"How on earth
did Roger Ebert write

327
00:20:39,029 --> 00:20:40,863
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls?"

328
00:20:44,493 --> 00:20:48,287
Or be interested
in writing such a script?

329
00:20:48,455 --> 00:20:51,582
Or be involved with Russ Meyer?

330
00:20:58,882 --> 00:21:01,384
I have no answer.

331
00:21:01,552 --> 00:21:05,012
What did he love
about Russ' films do you think?

332
00:21:06,223 --> 00:21:07,682
Boobs.

333
00:21:07,850 --> 00:21:10,810
The fact that there were
large breasted women involved

334
00:21:10,978 --> 00:21:12,770
probably was a plus.

335
00:21:15,023 --> 00:21:18,860
You know, we can talk a lot
about the art of cinema,

336
00:21:19,027 --> 00:21:21,779
and what we find in it,

337
00:21:21,947 --> 00:21:24,282
and the sort of the magic

338
00:21:24,450 --> 00:21:26,826
and the dreams
and the glory of it,

339
00:21:26,994 --> 00:21:29,370
but there are also other,
kind of, earthier appeals.

340
00:21:29,538 --> 00:21:31,247
You wanna make love?

341
00:21:31,415 --> 00:21:33,166
Then let's make love.

342
00:21:33,333 --> 00:21:34,667
Here?

343
00:21:34,835 --> 00:21:38,504
- No, in L.A.
- L.A?

344
00:21:38,672 --> 00:21:40,256
- Where is that?
- We'd get crushed.

345
00:21:40,424 --> 00:21:42,175
Meyer wanted everything
in the screenplay

346
00:21:42,342 --> 00:21:44,677
except the kitchen sink.
The movie, he explained,

347
00:21:44,845 --> 00:21:47,054
would simultaneously
be a satire,

348
00:21:47,222 --> 00:21:48,389
a serious melodrama,

349
00:21:48,557 --> 00:21:51,184
a rock musical, a comedy,

350
00:21:51,351 --> 00:21:52,810
a violent exploitation picture,

351
00:21:52,978 --> 00:21:56,314
a skin flick,
and a moralistic exposé

352
00:21:56,482 --> 00:21:59,150
of the oft-times nightmarish world
of show business.

353
00:21:59,276 --> 00:22:00,818
- It's a no talent town.
- Don't put it down.

354
00:22:00,986 --> 00:22:04,155
I had to review
for the Chicago Sun-Times,

355
00:22:04,323 --> 00:22:07,658
and I think I gave it three stars,
because Roger was my friend.

356
00:22:07,826 --> 00:22:09,285
And somewhere deep in the piece said,

357
00:22:09,453 --> 00:22:11,496
"This is a new rating system,
ten stars,

358
00:22:11,663 --> 00:22:13,039
so this gets three out of ten."

359
00:22:14,082 --> 00:22:16,167
This is my happening
and it freaks me out!

360
00:22:16,335 --> 00:22:19,003
I reviewed the film
in National Review.

361
00:22:19,171 --> 00:22:23,090
And listed it as one of
the 10 great films of the 1960s.

362
00:22:23,258 --> 00:22:27,512
It was funny, it had
a pulse that raced past

363
00:22:27,679 --> 00:22:30,348
Howard Hawk's film
from the '40s.

364
00:22:30,516 --> 00:22:33,351
But with the wild
who-gives-a-shit air,

365
00:22:33,519 --> 00:22:35,186
it was perfect for the late '60s.

366
00:22:35,354 --> 00:22:36,896
You're a groovy boy.

367
00:22:37,064 --> 00:22:40,024
I'd like to strap you on sometime.

368
00:22:40,192 --> 00:22:41,984
Beyond the Valley.

369
00:22:42,152 --> 00:22:44,654
It's beyond it.

370
00:22:44,821 --> 00:22:48,908
You know, this is a title,
because you're gonna go beyond it.

371
00:22:49,076 --> 00:22:51,285
It went over my head.

372
00:22:51,453 --> 00:22:52,912
That doesn't mean
I didn't enjoy it.

373
00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:56,249
I did like her
having sex in the Bentley.

374
00:22:59,711 --> 00:23:02,046
It's my first time in a Rolls.

375
00:23:02,214 --> 00:23:04,298
Because of the way
he cut to the grill.

376
00:23:04,466 --> 00:23:07,260
There's nothing like a Rolls.

377
00:23:07,427 --> 00:23:09,220
Not even a Bentley.

378
00:23:09,388 --> 00:23:12,098
Not even a Bentley.

379
00:23:12,266 --> 00:23:14,350
Bentley! Rolls!

380
00:23:14,518 --> 00:23:16,852
A Rolls. A Rolls!

381
00:23:17,938 --> 00:23:20,231
But I did like that editing
in the Bentley.

382
00:23:21,942 --> 00:23:24,277
I don't really have
any new confessions.

383
00:23:26,947 --> 00:23:29,198
It is true that the first 10 years
I came to the conference,

384
00:23:29,366 --> 00:23:31,909
I came primarily hoping to get laid.

385
00:23:35,080 --> 00:23:37,540
That didn't work out.

386
00:23:39,710 --> 00:23:43,129
I lived more than nine months
of my life in Boulder, Colorado,

387
00:23:43,338 --> 00:23:45,047
one week at a time.

388
00:23:45,215 --> 00:23:47,717
It all happened
at the sleep-inducingly named,

389
00:23:47,884 --> 00:23:50,386
"Conference on World Affairs."

390
00:23:50,554 --> 00:23:54,307
It's a conference that comes
together once a year at Boulder.

391
00:23:54,474 --> 00:23:57,518
Astrophysicists, sociologists,
experts of the Middle East.

392
00:23:57,686 --> 00:24:00,396
Free wheeling...
and engaging.

393
00:24:01,356 --> 00:24:03,399
Roger was an absolute star.

394
00:24:03,567 --> 00:24:08,529
He was the longest running panelist
in history of the CWA.

395
00:24:08,697 --> 00:24:11,574
I was in my 20s when I first
came to the conference.

396
00:24:11,742 --> 00:24:14,160
There, I was on a panel
about the Establishment

397
00:24:14,328 --> 00:24:16,495
with Henry Fairly,
who coined the term.

398
00:24:16,663 --> 00:24:18,122
I discussed masturbation

399
00:24:18,290 --> 00:24:20,541
with the Greek Ambassador
to the United Nations.

400
00:24:20,709 --> 00:24:22,168
There I asked Ted Turner

401
00:24:22,336 --> 00:24:26,130
how he got so much right
and colorization wrong.

402
00:24:26,298 --> 00:24:28,966
He would hold what was called
Cinema Interruptus.

403
00:24:29,134 --> 00:24:33,220
On Monday of World Affairs week,
Roger would show a film.

404
00:24:33,388 --> 00:24:35,848
Tuesday through Friday
he would conduct

405
00:24:36,016 --> 00:24:38,893
a shot by shot
discussion of the film.

406
00:24:39,061 --> 00:24:42,188
To listen to Roger talk
for upwards of five hours

407
00:24:42,356 --> 00:24:44,106
about In Cold Blood,
or The Third Man,

408
00:24:44,274 --> 00:24:46,776
or Vertigo, or Citizen Kane,

409
00:24:46,943 --> 00:24:50,196
he was enlightening
with every new frame.

410
00:24:50,364 --> 00:24:53,115
It was a theatrical experience
of the highest order.

411
00:24:56,286 --> 00:24:59,288
And anybody who wanted to,
at any moment,

412
00:24:59,456 --> 00:25:00,831
could yell out, "Stop,"

413
00:25:00,999 --> 00:25:03,959
to ask a question
or make a statement.

414
00:25:04,127 --> 00:25:05,127
Stop!

415
00:25:05,295 --> 00:25:06,837
Look at that.

416
00:25:07,005 --> 00:25:09,965
Every year we find
something absolutely amazing,

417
00:25:10,133 --> 00:25:12,009
totally amazing in the films.

418
00:25:12,177 --> 00:25:13,761
It's not there, but we find it.

419
00:25:15,722 --> 00:25:20,184
There was a limit to Roger's
democratizing of film criticism.

420
00:25:20,352 --> 00:25:22,895
A student asked,
"Who do you think you are

421
00:25:23,063 --> 00:25:25,106
that you get to have
all these opinions?

422
00:25:25,273 --> 00:25:27,900
I saw Porky's
and I think Porky's is great,

423
00:25:28,068 --> 00:25:30,069
so why don't I get to talk about it?"

424
00:25:30,237 --> 00:25:32,905
And Roger said,
"I have two things to say.

425
00:25:33,073 --> 00:25:36,617
First, Marshall Field,
who owns the Chicago Sun-Times,

426
00:25:36,785 --> 00:25:39,453
appointed me film critic...
that's who I am."

427
00:25:39,621 --> 00:25:41,914
And he said,
"My other thing is a question.

428
00:25:42,082 --> 00:25:44,125
Would you wanna listen to you?"

429
00:25:48,714 --> 00:25:51,632
After the year that Roger came

430
00:25:51,800 --> 00:25:54,844
and worked with a voice synthesizer,

431
00:25:55,011 --> 00:25:58,097
he decided not to come again.

432
00:25:58,265 --> 00:26:00,182
He said it was too hard.

433
00:26:01,935 --> 00:26:04,103
I won't return
to the conference.

434
00:26:04,271 --> 00:26:07,898
It is fueled by speech,
and I am out of gas.

435
00:26:08,066 --> 00:26:10,860
But I went there
for my adult lifetime,

436
00:26:11,027 --> 00:26:12,945
and had a hell of a good time.

437
00:26:19,619 --> 00:26:20,953
The move is taking place,

438
00:26:21,121 --> 00:26:23,497
and they are loading up
the medical car

439
00:26:23,665 --> 00:26:26,041
to take us over to RIC.

440
00:26:26,209 --> 00:26:28,252
Will you send an email
for me, please?

441
00:26:28,420 --> 00:26:29,837
Come in.

442
00:26:30,005 --> 00:26:34,049
Is there a special back elevator
that we go down here or?

443
00:26:34,217 --> 00:26:35,843
Well, actually, yeah.

444
00:26:36,011 --> 00:26:38,637
Because the last time
we took him from this hospital,

445
00:26:38,805 --> 00:26:41,932
we had to push the chair
past the morgue.

446
00:26:42,100 --> 00:26:44,643
Everything.
And we got lost down there.

447
00:26:46,605 --> 00:26:50,524
He's excited because he gets
to see a movie he wants to see.

448
00:26:50,692 --> 00:26:54,111
It should be coming over
later today.

449
00:26:54,279 --> 00:26:56,238
So he's happy about that.

450
00:27:00,827 --> 00:27:02,661
I'm glad we don't have
to go under that...

451
00:27:02,829 --> 00:27:05,080
the underground anymore.

452
00:27:06,750 --> 00:27:09,001
Past the morgue.

453
00:27:14,090 --> 00:27:15,716
We're not ready for it!

454
00:27:18,804 --> 00:27:21,430
You've been working away, huh?

455
00:27:21,598 --> 00:27:24,141
You have a lot of writing to do.

456
00:27:24,309 --> 00:27:25,726
I was hoping you could see

457
00:27:25,894 --> 00:27:28,687
at least one of them
on a big screen.

458
00:27:28,855 --> 00:27:31,440
When he was
in the hospital before,

459
00:27:31,608 --> 00:27:35,486
we took a semi-not sanctioned
trip out of the hospital.

460
00:27:35,654 --> 00:27:37,363
Bundled him up
and took him to the movies.

461
00:27:38,490 --> 00:27:42,243
But I don't know if... I don't think
the doctor will let you out.

462
00:27:44,079 --> 00:27:45,621
Oops.

463
00:27:50,836 --> 00:27:54,713
Chaz is a strong woman.
I never met anyone like her.

464
00:27:54,881 --> 00:27:56,257
I think it'll be easier.
You can...

465
00:27:56,424 --> 00:27:58,008
She is the love of my life.

466
00:27:58,176 --> 00:27:59,969
Just wanna make sure
that you don't get cold.

467
00:28:00,136 --> 00:28:03,806
She saved me from the fate
of living out my life alone,

468
00:28:03,974 --> 00:28:06,225
which is where
I seemed to be heading.

469
00:28:08,436 --> 00:28:12,690
The first time he actually
saw me was at an AA meeting.

470
00:28:12,858 --> 00:28:16,527
And it's the first time
I've ever said it publicly.

471
00:28:18,154 --> 00:28:22,199
Roger became very public about his...

472
00:28:22,367 --> 00:28:26,245
but I felt that it was,
you know, more private for me.

473
00:28:27,998 --> 00:28:30,124
If it doesn't fit,
you must acquit.

474
00:28:32,043 --> 00:28:37,256
Roger weighed 300 pounds
when we first started dating.

475
00:28:37,424 --> 00:28:40,342
He didn't care that he was fat.

476
00:28:40,510 --> 00:28:43,012
He thought he was great.

477
00:28:43,179 --> 00:28:45,431
And that was so sexy.

478
00:28:46,641 --> 00:28:49,018
I take it this is not yours.

479
00:28:50,729 --> 00:28:54,648
If my cancer had come,
and Chaz had not been there with me,

480
00:28:54,816 --> 00:28:58,944
I can imagine a descent
into lonely decrepitude.

481
00:28:59,112 --> 00:29:01,822
That I am still active,
going places,

482
00:29:01,990 --> 00:29:04,158
moving,
is directly because of her.

483
00:29:06,119 --> 00:29:08,913
My instinct was to guard myself.

484
00:29:09,080 --> 00:29:12,833
I could never again be
on television as I once was.

485
00:29:13,001 --> 00:29:15,753
She said, "Yes, but people
are interested

486
00:29:15,921 --> 00:29:19,131
in what you have to say,
not in how you say it."

487
00:29:22,177 --> 00:29:23,677
With Roger now headed

488
00:29:23,845 --> 00:29:25,804
for at least
a couple of weeks of rehab,

489
00:29:25,972 --> 00:29:28,307
he suggested I email him
questions in advance

490
00:29:28,475 --> 00:29:30,726
of our major interview
when he gets back home.

491
00:29:32,687 --> 00:29:36,607
I sent him the first third
of nine pages of questions.

492
00:29:36,775 --> 00:29:38,359
He emailed me back.

493
00:29:38,526 --> 00:29:39,860
- Hello.
- Hi, how are you?

494
00:29:40,028 --> 00:29:45,157
Welcome to RIC. My name's Jackie
and we're going to go in this room.

495
00:29:45,325 --> 00:29:47,618
- Okay.
- How are you?

496
00:30:06,972 --> 00:30:09,348
I am politically my father's child,

497
00:30:09,516 --> 00:30:12,226
and emotionally more my mother's.

498
00:30:12,394 --> 00:30:16,522
My mother supported me as if
I was the local sports team.

499
00:30:16,690 --> 00:30:19,233
But she was fatalistic.

500
00:30:19,401 --> 00:30:22,403
She was permanently scarred
by the Depression,

501
00:30:22,570 --> 00:30:27,157
and constantly predicted she would
end up in the county poor home.

502
00:30:27,325 --> 00:30:31,537
My parents so strongly
encouraged my schoolwork.

503
00:30:31,705 --> 00:30:34,164
We even took
a third paper at home,

504
00:30:34,332 --> 00:30:37,334
the Chicago Daily News,
for me to read.

505
00:30:37,502 --> 00:30:39,545
When I stood
in the kitchen door,

506
00:30:39,713 --> 00:30:41,839
and used a sentence
with a new word in it,

507
00:30:42,007 --> 00:30:44,550
they would look up
from their coffee and cigarettes

508
00:30:44,718 --> 00:30:46,885
and actually applaud me.

509
00:30:51,558 --> 00:30:54,393
This is the memorable occasion

510
00:30:54,561 --> 00:30:58,272
that Roger was given
the Pulitzer Prize.

511
00:30:58,440 --> 00:31:00,899
Usually, when somebody
won a Pulitzer Prize,

512
00:31:01,067 --> 00:31:03,110
it was, "Who is he to win
a Pulitzer?", you know.

513
00:31:03,278 --> 00:31:05,571
"Yeah, I'll go
congratulate him, yeah."

514
00:31:05,739 --> 00:31:09,283
But for Roger,
there was real joy.

515
00:31:09,451 --> 00:31:12,036
You know, it was our Roger.

516
00:31:12,203 --> 00:31:13,912
One of us.

517
00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:16,498
The only Pulitzer Prize,
for years and years,

518
00:31:16,666 --> 00:31:19,960
ever given to a movie critic.

519
00:31:20,128 --> 00:31:22,129
Roger wrote his movie reviews

520
00:31:22,297 --> 00:31:24,923
as if he were sitting
in the 15th row,

521
00:31:25,091 --> 00:31:27,968
taking notes with one hand
and eating popcorn with the other.

522
00:31:28,136 --> 00:31:31,638
But he didn't simplify things.

523
00:31:41,149 --> 00:31:44,735
It envelops us in a red membrane
of passion and fear.

524
00:31:44,903 --> 00:31:47,321
And in some way that
I do not fully understand,

525
00:31:47,489 --> 00:31:51,325
it employs taboos and ancient
superstitions to make its effect.

526
00:31:57,457 --> 00:31:59,750
I think the way
that he writes,

527
00:31:59,918 --> 00:32:03,670
that sort of clear, plain,
Midwestern newspaper style,

528
00:32:03,838 --> 00:32:06,340
conveys enormous intelligence,

529
00:32:06,508 --> 00:32:08,008
encyclopedic learning,

530
00:32:08,176 --> 00:32:11,428
but doesn't condescend,
doesn't pander.

531
00:32:11,596 --> 00:32:15,474
Roger would become the definitive
mainstream film critic

532
00:32:15,642 --> 00:32:17,267
in American letters.

533
00:32:17,435 --> 00:32:20,562
He made it possible
for a bigger audience,

534
00:32:20,730 --> 00:32:24,233
a wider audience to appreciate
cinema as an art form.

535
00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:26,485
Because he really loved it.

536
00:32:26,653 --> 00:32:28,737
Really, really loved films,

537
00:32:28,905 --> 00:32:31,281
and he did not get caught up

538
00:32:31,449 --> 00:32:36,036
in certain ideologies
about what cinema should be.

539
00:32:36,204 --> 00:32:37,746
After he won the Pulitzer,

540
00:32:37,914 --> 00:32:39,706
if he had a mind
to go to The New York Times,

541
00:32:39,874 --> 00:32:41,416
he could've done that,
The Boston Globe,

542
00:32:41,584 --> 00:32:43,335
The LA Times, no problem.

543
00:32:43,503 --> 00:32:46,797
Ben Bradley, editor
of The Washington Post,

544
00:32:46,965 --> 00:32:50,134
of Watergate fame,
went after Roger hard.

545
00:32:50,301 --> 00:32:52,845
Offered him the sun and the moon.

546
00:32:53,012 --> 00:32:55,055
Ebert just kept saying no.

547
00:32:55,223 --> 00:32:57,850
He said, "I'm not gonna
learn new streets..."

548
00:33:00,645 --> 00:33:03,147
...which is very Ebert-like.

549
00:33:05,525 --> 00:33:08,193
The Sun-Times
went through rough times.

550
00:33:08,361 --> 00:33:11,029
So many regimes.

551
00:33:11,197 --> 00:33:14,074
The Murdoch era
which had crashed the paper.

552
00:33:16,077 --> 00:33:18,537
So many people left.

553
00:33:18,705 --> 00:33:21,331
And Roger remained steadfast.

554
00:33:21,499 --> 00:33:23,292
I remember Roger saying,
"I'm not gonna run away."

555
00:33:23,459 --> 00:33:25,043
- Right.
- These are my colleagues

556
00:33:25,211 --> 00:33:26,628
and not everybody
can get another job.

557
00:33:26,796 --> 00:33:29,548
If someone went across the street
for a job, they were selling out.

558
00:33:29,716 --> 00:33:31,341
You didn't even say
the Tribune.

559
00:33:31,509 --> 00:33:34,052
You'd just say
went across the street.

560
00:33:34,220 --> 00:33:37,181
It was a huge clash
in political difference

561
00:33:37,348 --> 00:33:40,267
between the Sun-Times
and the Tribune.

562
00:33:40,435 --> 00:33:43,353
We were a working class paper.

563
00:33:43,521 --> 00:33:46,982
And we reached
the black community.

564
00:33:47,150 --> 00:33:50,652
The Tribune was
a very wealthy paper.

565
00:33:50,820 --> 00:33:53,113
I mean, look at the Tribune tower.

566
00:33:53,281 --> 00:33:58,452
This huge gothic structure
studded at its base

567
00:33:58,620 --> 00:34:00,954
with all the great art works
of the world.

568
00:34:01,122 --> 00:34:03,957
You know, here is part
of the pyramid of Giza.

569
00:34:04,125 --> 00:34:05,542
And you're thinking, what?

570
00:34:05,710 --> 00:34:08,462
Did the Tribune guy go out with
a chisel and steal this thing?

571
00:34:10,548 --> 00:34:12,716
From the day
the Chicago Tribune

572
00:34:12,884 --> 00:34:14,509
made Gene Siskel
its film critic,

573
00:34:14,677 --> 00:34:16,595
we were professional enemies.

574
00:34:16,763 --> 00:34:18,931
For the first five years
we knew one another,

575
00:34:19,098 --> 00:34:21,350
Siskel and I hardly spoke.

576
00:34:25,104 --> 00:34:28,899
When Gene and I were asked
to work together on a TV show,

577
00:34:29,067 --> 00:34:32,402
we both said we'd
rather do it with someone else.

578
00:34:32,570 --> 00:34:34,071
Anyone else.

579
00:34:36,324 --> 00:34:39,243
The name of our show is Opening
Soon at a Theatre Near You,

580
00:34:39,410 --> 00:34:40,994
two film critics
talking about the movies.

581
00:34:41,162 --> 00:34:43,080
And this is Roger Ebert
from the Chicago Sun-Times.

582
00:34:43,248 --> 00:34:44,581
And right over here
is Gene Siskel

583
00:34:44,749 --> 00:34:46,458
from the Chicago Tribune
and Channel 2 news.

584
00:34:46,626 --> 00:34:49,461
Gene and Roger
were sitting kind of pinioned,

585
00:34:49,629 --> 00:34:51,088
in director's chairs,

586
00:34:51,256 --> 00:34:53,924
looking into the camera
very seriously,

587
00:34:54,092 --> 00:34:56,301
talking about the movie.

588
00:34:56,469 --> 00:34:58,929
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
just had the audience

589
00:34:59,097 --> 00:35:00,639
tearing up the seats with joy.

590
00:35:00,807 --> 00:35:03,392
Yeah, and also, tearing up a little
my enjoyment of the film.

591
00:35:03,559 --> 00:35:05,519
They were applauding
even during the credits...

592
00:35:05,687 --> 00:35:09,982
It was stiff, and wooden.

593
00:35:10,149 --> 00:35:13,485
But when Foreman backs up and tries
to make his big points

594
00:35:13,653 --> 00:35:15,445
about the establishment
and authority...

595
00:35:15,613 --> 00:35:17,906
But there was
something there.

596
00:35:18,074 --> 00:35:20,492
It was interesting
to hear two people

597
00:35:20,660 --> 00:35:23,495
who knew what they were talking
about, talk about a movie.

598
00:35:23,663 --> 00:35:26,248
Bremen Freedom
by Rainer Werner Fassbinder,

599
00:35:26,416 --> 00:35:28,500
one of the new generation
of West German directors...

600
00:35:28,668 --> 00:35:31,169
Roger loved the idea of
being on public television.

601
00:35:31,337 --> 00:35:33,088
He had been on it before

602
00:35:33,256 --> 00:35:36,883
on a show where he introduced
films by Ingmar Bergman.

603
00:35:37,051 --> 00:35:38,677
It was awful.

604
00:35:38,845 --> 00:35:40,679
And in this movie
his name is Spegel,

605
00:35:40,847 --> 00:35:42,222
which is Swedish for "mirror."

606
00:35:42,390 --> 00:35:44,182
It was a deer caught
in the headlights.

607
00:35:44,350 --> 00:35:46,059
What is real
and what is illusion,

608
00:35:46,227 --> 00:35:48,186
and who's being fooled
by the art?

609
00:35:48,354 --> 00:35:50,605
Is it the artist,
or his audience, or both?

610
00:35:57,989 --> 00:35:59,448
And the movie's ending,
a confrontation

611
00:35:59,615 --> 00:36:01,533
with the heavyweight champion
of the world...

612
00:36:01,701 --> 00:36:04,161
Roger needed to learn
how to write for television.

613
00:36:04,329 --> 00:36:06,413
...emotionally fulfilling scenes
I've seen in a long time.

614
00:36:06,581 --> 00:36:08,582
To keep sentences short.

615
00:36:08,750 --> 00:36:10,459
He would get irritated
and he would say,

616
00:36:10,626 --> 00:36:13,086
"Thea, I have a Pulitzer Prize."

617
00:36:13,254 --> 00:36:15,297
And I would say to him,
"Roger, I know that,

618
00:36:15,465 --> 00:36:17,215
but that doesn't mean you know
how to write for television."

619
00:36:17,383 --> 00:36:20,260
And right through that last scene
I was really loving Taxi Driver,

620
00:36:20,428 --> 00:36:22,971
because up until that point,
the relationship between

621
00:36:23,139 --> 00:36:24,765
De Niro and Cybill Shepherd
has been electric...

622
00:36:24,932 --> 00:36:26,641
Gene was a natural.

623
00:36:26,809 --> 00:36:29,519
He was one of these people,
he could talk to the camera.

624
00:36:29,687 --> 00:36:32,689
He had a huge
handlebar mustache.

625
00:36:32,857 --> 00:36:34,149
And so I just said,

626
00:36:34,317 --> 00:36:37,527
"That is a funny looking thing
on your face, get rid of it."

627
00:36:37,695 --> 00:36:40,155
I thought, these two guys

628
00:36:40,323 --> 00:36:42,949
would never be on television.

629
00:36:43,117 --> 00:36:45,577
These are unusual,
odd-looking characters

630
00:36:45,745 --> 00:36:48,413
for the medium, TV,
that's all beautifully quaffed,

631
00:36:48,581 --> 00:36:51,333
and beautiful teeth,
and everything's fine.

632
00:36:51,501 --> 00:36:54,336
And they dressed
like a couple of clowns

633
00:36:54,504 --> 00:36:57,005
if they wore
these outfits today.

634
00:36:57,173 --> 00:37:02,594
You couldn't make Siskel and Ebert
if you were Dr. Frankenstein.

635
00:37:02,762 --> 00:37:06,348
I think in the beginning
it was very difficult.

636
00:37:06,516 --> 00:37:09,643
Gene sat in the back row,
Roger had his favorite seat.

637
00:37:09,811 --> 00:37:13,647
They left without saying
a word to one another.

638
00:37:15,691 --> 00:37:16,983
We both thought of ourselves

639
00:37:17,151 --> 00:37:19,611
as full service,
one-stop film critics.

640
00:37:19,779 --> 00:37:22,614
We didn't see why
the other one was necessary.

641
00:37:22,782 --> 00:37:24,616
Alone together in an elevator,

642
00:37:24,784 --> 00:37:29,079
we would study the numbers
changing above the door.

643
00:37:29,247 --> 00:37:31,540
Their lifestyles couldn't have
been more different.

644
00:37:31,707 --> 00:37:33,500
Roger was single.

645
00:37:33,668 --> 00:37:35,335
He was an only child.

646
00:37:35,503 --> 00:37:38,672
Gene, in childhood,
lost both his parents,

647
00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:40,507
one after the other.

648
00:37:40,675 --> 00:37:44,636
He was a philosophy major
at Yale.

649
00:37:44,804 --> 00:37:46,513
While Roger was, you know,

650
00:37:46,681 --> 00:37:49,891
one of the good old boy
news reporters.

651
00:37:50,059 --> 00:37:53,353
Gene just was more of a...

652
00:37:53,521 --> 00:37:56,940
for lack of a better word,
elegant character.

653
00:37:57,108 --> 00:37:59,109
He caught the eye of Hugh Hefner,

654
00:37:59,277 --> 00:38:04,656
and he was adopted
by the clan at the mansion.

655
00:38:04,824 --> 00:38:10,120
And he traveled with Hefner
in the Bunny Jet.

656
00:38:10,288 --> 00:38:14,332
Even though Roger wrote
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls,

657
00:38:14,500 --> 00:38:18,462
I think Gene lived the life
for a while.

658
00:38:25,219 --> 00:38:28,763
The perfect matching
of opposites, Siskel and Ebert,

659
00:38:28,931 --> 00:38:32,017
Laurel and Hardy,
Oscar and Felix,

660
00:38:32,185 --> 00:38:34,352
really made Sneak Previews

661
00:38:34,520 --> 00:38:37,898
a sitcom about two guys
who lived in a movie theater.

662
00:38:38,065 --> 00:38:40,692
And how Roger and I go to the movies
as critics is the subject

663
00:38:40,860 --> 00:38:42,903
of this special take two program
on Sneak Previews.

664
00:38:43,070 --> 00:38:45,030
- Hi, Gene.
- Hi, Roger.

665
00:38:45,198 --> 00:38:47,073
In every theater I have
a favorite seat I like to sit in.

666
00:38:47,241 --> 00:38:48,909
In the last row,
sort of off to the side.

667
00:38:49,076 --> 00:38:51,953
Not just kind of reading
or speaking criticism,

668
00:38:52,121 --> 00:38:53,747
but acting out these roles.

669
00:38:53,915 --> 00:38:56,416
I always choose a seat
that's twice as far back

670
00:38:56,584 --> 00:38:58,835
from the screen
as the screen is wide.

671
00:39:00,213 --> 00:39:03,256
Then you must make
a friend of horror.

672
00:39:04,175 --> 00:39:07,677
Horror and moral terror.

673
00:39:07,845 --> 00:39:10,013
I think we can
save ourselves a lot of time

674
00:39:10,181 --> 00:39:11,598
if I admit to you right now

675
00:39:11,766 --> 00:39:13,725
that although I think
the last half hour works,

676
00:39:13,893 --> 00:39:15,852
I doubt if I can ever
convince you of that,

677
00:39:16,020 --> 00:39:17,521
and that the first
two hours of the film

678
00:39:17,688 --> 00:39:21,483
consist of some of the most
beautiful, heartbreaking, tragic,

679
00:39:21,651 --> 00:39:24,152
memorable footage of war
that I've ever seen.

680
00:39:24,320 --> 00:39:27,572
I think that you can show almost
anything to do with Vietnam,

681
00:39:27,740 --> 00:39:29,991
and people feel,
"Oh, my God, the human waste."

682
00:39:30,159 --> 00:39:31,743
That may be true,
but this movie is made

683
00:39:31,911 --> 00:39:33,161
on such an epic scale.

684
00:39:33,329 --> 00:39:36,748
And because
they could get agitated,

685
00:39:36,916 --> 00:39:40,126
that raised the temperature of
the movies they were discussing.

686
00:39:44,465 --> 00:39:45,799
Tremendously boring,

687
00:39:45,967 --> 00:39:47,634
boring from the beginning
of the movie.

688
00:39:47,802 --> 00:39:50,720
- I just wanna compare this film...
- Oh, no. Wait a minute.

689
00:39:50,888 --> 00:39:53,306
- Now he's not boring at all.
- Oh, yes. Fabulously boring.

690
00:39:53,474 --> 00:39:55,725
- He is fabulously boring?
- I would pass...

691
00:39:55,893 --> 00:39:58,520
There was something almost
transgressive and exciting

692
00:39:58,688 --> 00:40:03,275
about seeing on TV
somebody say about a movie,

693
00:40:03,442 --> 00:40:05,485
you know what you might always
want to say to your friend,

694
00:40:05,653 --> 00:40:07,862
or your girlfriend
or your mother or your sister,

695
00:40:08,030 --> 00:40:10,240
"No, you're wrong.
It's not a good movie."

696
00:40:10,408 --> 00:40:12,534
That's the way
people do relate to films,

697
00:40:12,702 --> 00:40:14,369
is in that argumentative
sort of way,

698
00:40:14,537 --> 00:40:17,205
in which if you're right nobody
can tell you that you're wrong.

699
00:40:17,373 --> 00:40:19,874
I sit at the desk next to our
music critic at the Sun-Times.

700
00:40:20,042 --> 00:40:21,793
People are very worshipful of him.

701
00:40:21,961 --> 00:40:24,921
"Oh, what did you think about
Shulty's conducting last night?"

702
00:40:25,089 --> 00:40:27,215
And then he will say, and they
will nod like this and go away.

703
00:40:27,383 --> 00:40:29,134
And then they'll turn around
and come up to me and say,

704
00:40:29,302 --> 00:40:31,136
"I totally disagree with your review
in this morning's paper."

705
00:40:35,725 --> 00:40:37,517
The success of the show
was undeniable,

706
00:40:37,685 --> 00:40:40,228
except we were not on
in two major markets:

707
00:40:40,396 --> 00:40:42,480
New York and Los Angeles.

708
00:40:42,648 --> 00:40:44,316
Here I am
at the little popcorn shop

709
00:40:44,483 --> 00:40:47,110
a half a block from the screening
room where I see all the movies.

710
00:40:47,278 --> 00:40:48,903
This is the Chicago Theater
on State Street.

711
00:40:49,071 --> 00:40:52,324
Their position was,
if there's gonna be a movie show,

712
00:40:52,491 --> 00:40:54,284
it's not gonna be
two guys from Chicago.

713
00:40:54,452 --> 00:40:59,122
We're gonna have New York critics,
or we're Hollywood.

714
00:40:59,290 --> 00:41:00,665
Who are these guys, right?

715
00:41:00,833 --> 00:41:02,917
This is not Andrew Sarris,
and Pauline Kael.

716
00:41:03,085 --> 00:41:05,670
And it's also not
the kind of, the wised up players

717
00:41:05,838 --> 00:41:07,255
who might be in Los Angeles.

718
00:41:07,423 --> 00:41:08,715
What do these people
have to tell us about movies?

719
00:41:15,890 --> 00:41:20,518
The arrival of Pauline Kael
on the scene shook everything up.

720
00:41:20,686 --> 00:41:22,270
The New Yorker recognized that

721
00:41:22,438 --> 00:41:25,273
maybe this was the time for
a new kind of movie criticism.

722
00:41:25,441 --> 00:41:29,402
Suddenly movie critics
become new players in the game.

723
00:41:29,570 --> 00:41:31,780
You weren't crazy
about Prince of the City.

724
00:41:31,947 --> 00:41:33,907
No. Prince of the City.

725
00:41:34,075 --> 00:41:37,410
I thought, it really,
as a piece of narrative,

726
00:41:37,578 --> 00:41:40,455
it's almost a case study
in confusion.

727
00:41:41,624 --> 00:41:45,085
Kael's influence shaped
how critics looked at movies...

728
00:41:45,252 --> 00:41:47,379
...and how people read them.

729
00:41:47,546 --> 00:41:51,299
Film was taken seriously
and so were film critics.

730
00:41:51,467 --> 00:41:53,968
Andrew Sarris was promoting

731
00:41:54,136 --> 00:41:57,389
the idea of the director
as the maker of the film,

732
00:41:57,556 --> 00:42:01,851
and Pauline Kael,
elevating film writing,

733
00:42:02,019 --> 00:42:04,145
film criticism as an art.

734
00:42:04,313 --> 00:42:07,649
But these were
towering figures, clashing.

735
00:42:07,817 --> 00:42:09,401
Rather like Siskel and Ebert,

736
00:42:09,568 --> 00:42:11,945
but with more intellectual heft.

737
00:42:13,030 --> 00:42:14,739
Uh-oh, Gene.
This bowser in the balcony

738
00:42:14,907 --> 00:42:16,282
means it's time
for Dog Of The Week.

739
00:42:16,450 --> 00:42:19,285
A regular feature where each of us
picks the week's worst movie.

740
00:42:19,453 --> 00:42:21,413
Well, Roger, you and Spot
may not believe this,

741
00:42:21,580 --> 00:42:23,915
but I have just seen
my first nudie karate film.

742
00:42:24,083 --> 00:42:25,291
- You're kidding.
- No.

743
00:42:25,459 --> 00:42:28,670
Roger once said,
"Do you think Pauline Kael

744
00:42:28,838 --> 00:42:31,881
would be working with a dog?"

745
00:42:32,049 --> 00:42:34,634
I don't know Pauline Kael,
I never knew Pauline Kael.

746
00:42:34,802 --> 00:42:37,512
But fuck Pauline Kael.

747
00:42:37,680 --> 00:42:39,514
Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel

748
00:42:39,682 --> 00:42:42,142
were the most powerful critics
of all time.

749
00:42:42,309 --> 00:42:43,977
In any realm.

750
00:42:44,145 --> 00:42:47,147
Finally, they had to cave in

751
00:42:47,314 --> 00:42:50,024
and run the show
in New York and L.A.

752
00:42:50,192 --> 00:42:53,361
It was a victory we relished,
I have to tell you.

753
00:42:55,531 --> 00:42:58,324
Here to help us sort
the blockbusters from the bombs

754
00:42:58,492 --> 00:43:02,620
are the team At the Movies,
Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert.

755
00:43:04,331 --> 00:43:06,750
You guys live in Chicago still,
down there in Oprah-land?

756
00:43:06,917 --> 00:43:08,460
What I'd like to do
is come to Chicago one night

757
00:43:08,627 --> 00:43:11,045
and we'll just go nuts.
We'll just get stinking drunk.

758
00:43:11,213 --> 00:43:12,714
We'll go out
and eat steaks all night.

759
00:43:12,882 --> 00:43:14,799
My next two guests are
regarded as the most popular

760
00:43:14,967 --> 00:43:16,593
and most important film critics
in the country.

761
00:43:19,221 --> 00:43:21,848
They are the two most influential
movie critics in the country.

762
00:43:24,143 --> 00:43:26,394
Is there anybody more popular?
We'll find out and ask them.

763
00:43:29,607 --> 00:43:31,191
And ultimately,

764
00:43:31,358 --> 00:43:32,984
I think they were
on the Johnny Carson Show

765
00:43:33,152 --> 00:43:35,361
more than just about anybody.

766
00:43:36,155 --> 00:43:38,114
Is there something out there
that is really so bad?

767
00:43:40,075 --> 00:43:41,075
Roger?

768
00:43:41,243 --> 00:43:43,661
I can't really recommend
Three Amigos.

769
00:43:46,582 --> 00:43:48,708
It's the Christmas picture
I like the least.

770
00:43:51,170 --> 00:43:53,546
- This is the happy hour.
- Yes.

771
00:43:53,714 --> 00:43:55,590
I don't think I'd ask you if
I knew you were gonna say that.

772
00:43:55,758 --> 00:43:57,342
Chevy Chase has made
a lot of good movies,

773
00:43:57,510 --> 00:44:00,386
and God willing, he will make a lot
more good movies in the future.

774
00:44:00,554 --> 00:44:02,263
- With your help.
- Yes, well, I...

775
00:44:02,431 --> 00:44:04,891
Yes, with your help.

776
00:44:05,059 --> 00:44:07,519
There is a tendency
for somebody...

777
00:44:09,772 --> 00:44:12,941
...who is naturally funny,

778
00:44:13,108 --> 00:44:18,613
as Chevy is,
to try to get laughs

779
00:44:18,781 --> 00:44:21,324
by standing there
and ad-libbing

780
00:44:21,492 --> 00:44:22,867
when somebody else
is trying to talk.

781
00:44:23,035 --> 00:44:24,828
That's right.

782
00:44:24,995 --> 00:44:28,039
The movie studios
went from helping us...

783
00:44:28,791 --> 00:44:31,584
to hating us, to fearing us.

784
00:44:31,752 --> 00:44:33,920
The circulations of all
of the newspaper critics,

785
00:44:34,088 --> 00:44:35,839
and all of the magazines,
could not match

786
00:44:36,006 --> 00:44:38,258
the reach of the show
at its height.

787
00:44:38,425 --> 00:44:40,885
It became quite clear
very often

788
00:44:41,053 --> 00:44:44,722
that the film companies cared a lot
about Roger and Gene seeing it,

789
00:44:44,890 --> 00:44:47,183
but not so much
about the rest of us.

790
00:44:47,351 --> 00:44:51,145
Two thumbs up became
everything for a Hollywood movie.

791
00:44:51,313 --> 00:44:52,897
Back when moviemakers
still thought

792
00:44:53,065 --> 00:44:55,692
critics' enthusiasm
could sell a movie.

793
00:44:55,860 --> 00:44:58,194
In 1991,
Richard Corliss published

794
00:44:58,362 --> 00:45:02,991
a piece in Film Comment
about how the show

795
00:45:03,158 --> 00:45:07,912
was ruining and vulgarizing
film criticism.

796
00:45:09,623 --> 00:45:11,416
"Will anyone
read this story?

797
00:45:11,584 --> 00:45:15,378
It has too many words
and not enough pictures.

798
00:45:15,546 --> 00:45:18,131
Does anyone read this magazine?

799
00:45:18,299 --> 00:45:22,010
Every article in it wants
to be a meal, not a McNugget.

800
00:45:22,177 --> 00:45:24,345
Is anyone reading film criticism?

801
00:45:24,513 --> 00:45:27,181
It lacks punch,
the clips, the thumbs.

802
00:45:27,349 --> 00:45:30,768
I simply don't want people to think
that what they have to do on TV

803
00:45:30,936 --> 00:45:32,520
is what I am supposed
to do in print.

804
00:45:33,522 --> 00:45:36,107
I don't want junk food to be
the only cuisine at the banquet."

805
00:45:36,275 --> 00:45:39,068
Yeah, etcetera.

806
00:45:41,488 --> 00:45:44,032
Uh... I really did sound angry there,

807
00:45:44,199 --> 00:45:48,119
but it seemed to me that
the Siskel-Ebert effect

808
00:45:48,287 --> 00:45:51,623
was that a film
was either good or bad

809
00:45:51,790 --> 00:45:54,334
and the rest
didn't matter so much.

810
00:45:56,045 --> 00:45:57,879
I am the first
to agree with Corliss

811
00:45:58,005 --> 00:45:59,589
that the Siskel and Ebert program

812
00:45:59,715 --> 00:46:01,799
is not in depth film criticism.

813
00:46:01,967 --> 00:46:05,178
As indeed, how could it be,
given our time constraints.

814
00:46:10,392 --> 00:46:12,685
But we would have to do it
for our own amusement

815
00:46:12,853 --> 00:46:14,812
because nobody would play it
on television.

816
00:46:16,482 --> 00:46:18,232
The program's purpose
is to provide

817
00:46:18,400 --> 00:46:20,652
exactly what Corliss
says it provides:

818
00:46:20,819 --> 00:46:24,113
information on what's new
at the movies, who's in it,

819
00:46:24,281 --> 00:46:26,866
and whether the critic thinks
it's any good or not.

820
00:46:27,034 --> 00:46:29,869
If you're talking about
film criticism in a serious way,

821
00:46:30,037 --> 00:46:33,331
consumer advice is not
the same thing as criticism.

822
00:46:33,499 --> 00:46:36,000
To assume that something
is good for everybody,

823
00:46:36,168 --> 00:46:40,213
or bad for everybody
is insulting to everybody.

824
00:46:42,049 --> 00:46:44,842
The subject of Crash
left me feeling empty.

825
00:46:45,052 --> 00:46:47,261
Crash has some
beautiful bodies on view,

826
00:46:47,429 --> 00:46:49,555
but also some ugly ideas.

827
00:46:49,723 --> 00:46:54,352
The car crash is a fertilizing
rather than a destructive event.

828
00:46:54,520 --> 00:46:56,813
When we have
an opinion about a movie,

829
00:46:56,981 --> 00:46:59,232
that opinion may light
a bulb over the head

830
00:46:59,400 --> 00:47:01,651
of an ambitious youth
who then understands

831
00:47:01,819 --> 00:47:04,445
that people can make up
their own minds about the movies.

832
00:47:04,613 --> 00:47:06,864
I think I liked the movie
a lot more than you did.

833
00:47:07,032 --> 00:47:08,449
I'd like to make it clear
that most people are probably

834
00:47:08,617 --> 00:47:10,743
going to hate it, be repelled
by it or walk out of it,

835
00:47:10,911 --> 00:47:12,203
just as they did at
the Cannes Film Festival.

836
00:47:12,371 --> 00:47:14,539
- Why is that?
- Because it's too tough to take.

837
00:47:14,707 --> 00:47:17,959
The reason Roger loved
being on television

838
00:47:18,127 --> 00:47:20,169
is that at his heart,

839
00:47:20,337 --> 00:47:23,423
he really is a populist.

840
00:47:23,590 --> 00:47:27,427
Roger believes that everybody
ought to be able to get a movie.

841
00:47:27,594 --> 00:47:31,180
I think they were conscientious
about trying to

842
00:47:31,348 --> 00:47:33,808
do what they were doing
as well as they could,

843
00:47:33,976 --> 00:47:35,935
and as seriously as they could.

844
00:47:36,103 --> 00:47:39,605
But invariably, a show
like Gene and Roger's show

845
00:47:39,773 --> 00:47:41,941
becomes a part of
that mainstream system.

846
00:47:42,109 --> 00:47:43,860
This week,
Siskel and Ebert review

847
00:47:44,028 --> 00:47:46,362
Arnold Schwarzenegger
in Last Action Hero.

848
00:47:46,530 --> 00:47:50,116
And by and large,
the purpose of mainstream reviewing

849
00:47:50,284 --> 00:47:52,118
is not just to valorize films

850
00:47:52,286 --> 00:47:54,454
that get multi-million dollar
ad campaigns.

851
00:47:54,621 --> 00:47:56,581
... Jurassic Park.

852
00:47:56,749 --> 00:47:58,708
But to eliminate everything else.

853
00:47:58,876 --> 00:48:03,546
I think what Gene and Roger did
was the opposite of that.

854
00:48:03,714 --> 00:48:06,382
Roger went out and he looked
for people like Michael Moore.

855
00:48:06,550 --> 00:48:08,634
He looked for people like me.

856
00:48:21,106 --> 00:48:23,024
As a film critic,
he was somebody

857
00:48:23,192 --> 00:48:26,527
who gave life to new voices,
gave life to new visions,

858
00:48:26,695 --> 00:48:29,697
that reflected all the diversity
of this nation.

859
00:48:29,865 --> 00:48:32,116
Different classes,
points of view,

860
00:48:32,284 --> 00:48:34,243
he wanted it all out there.

861
00:48:36,872 --> 00:48:38,456
My assurance to the pet owner

862
00:48:39,249 --> 00:48:42,043
that they will be
reunited with their pet.

863
00:48:42,211 --> 00:48:44,712
My first film, Gates of Heaven.

864
00:48:44,880 --> 00:48:46,380
There was a newspaper strike.

865
00:48:46,548 --> 00:48:49,967
And so the movie wasn't reviewed

866
00:48:50,135 --> 00:48:54,013
by any of the New York newspapers,
which is a disaster.

867
00:48:54,181 --> 00:48:56,224
I miss that little black kitten
so much.

868
00:48:56,391 --> 00:48:59,894
I just thought, that's it,
the movie's just going to vanish.

869
00:49:00,062 --> 00:49:01,896
Both of them wanted
to review it.

870
00:49:02,064 --> 00:49:05,441
I was troubled
because the number of theaters

871
00:49:05,609 --> 00:49:07,860
in which it was playing
was extremely small,

872
00:49:08,028 --> 00:49:09,362
and here you have a show
that's being shown

873
00:49:09,530 --> 00:49:11,989
on 300 some-odd public television
stations around the country.

874
00:49:12,157 --> 00:49:13,616
How are people gonna get to see it?

875
00:49:13,784 --> 00:49:15,409
Let's move on to a movie now

876
00:49:15,577 --> 00:49:18,121
that I think is one of the most
brilliant, weird, and unusual

877
00:49:18,288 --> 00:49:20,873
American documentary films
I've seen in a long time.

878
00:49:21,041 --> 00:49:22,917
And then
really out of nowhere,

879
00:49:23,085 --> 00:49:26,087
those guys started reviewing
Gates of Heaven.

880
00:49:26,255 --> 00:49:29,090
Well, I agree with you completely.
I think it's a superb film.

881
00:49:29,258 --> 00:49:31,634
Then they found an excuse
to review it again.

882
00:49:31,802 --> 00:49:34,345
There are films that
we call "Buried Treasures."

883
00:49:34,513 --> 00:49:35,638
And a third time.

884
00:49:35,806 --> 00:49:38,057
I don't think anyone who's seen
this film can ever forget it.

885
00:49:38,225 --> 00:49:39,809
I believe that I would not

886
00:49:39,977 --> 00:49:43,229
really have a career
if not for those guys.

887
00:49:47,109 --> 00:49:49,443
I made my first film.
I kind of made it alone.

888
00:49:49,611 --> 00:49:51,654
I didn't know anyone
in the industry.

889
00:49:51,822 --> 00:49:53,948
I don't even know
how I got Roger's email,

890
00:49:54,116 --> 00:49:56,033
but I emailed, assuming
no one would answer.

891
00:49:56,201 --> 00:49:59,245
And he answered. And he said,
"If your film gets into Sundance,"

892
00:49:59,413 --> 00:50:01,080
tell me and I would
watch it there."

893
00:50:01,248 --> 00:50:02,665
So then later,
the film did go to Sundance,

894
00:50:02,833 --> 00:50:04,792
and I emailed him again,
and he said,

895
00:50:04,960 --> 00:50:07,420
"Yes, I'll come to see it." I said,
"Here are the three times."

896
00:50:07,588 --> 00:50:09,338
He didn't come
to the first screening,

897
00:50:09,506 --> 00:50:11,048
he didn't come
to the second screening,

898
00:50:11,216 --> 00:50:13,176
and the last screening
was a Sunday morning, I think,

899
00:50:13,343 --> 00:50:16,345
8:00 a.m., on the last day
of the festival.

900
00:50:16,513 --> 00:50:18,931
I said he's
probably not even here.

901
00:50:19,099 --> 00:50:21,517
In fact, he was one of
the first people there.

902
00:50:21,685 --> 00:50:23,603
And I was there
with my actor, and he said,

903
00:50:23,770 --> 00:50:25,188
"Do you mind
if I take some pictures

904
00:50:25,355 --> 00:50:27,982
with you and your actor,
just in case I like the film?

905
00:50:28,150 --> 00:50:30,401
If I don't like it, don't worry,
I'll never use them."

906
00:50:38,202 --> 00:50:41,162
I was, I think, I was maybe
eight or nine or something,

907
00:50:41,330 --> 00:50:45,041
and my Aunt Denise,
who was a massive film geek,

908
00:50:45,209 --> 00:50:48,002
who passed
her film geekdom onto me,

909
00:50:48,170 --> 00:50:50,922
found out about
these rehearsals for the Oscars,

910
00:50:51,089 --> 00:50:53,799
and one day
he walked through.

911
00:50:53,967 --> 00:50:56,302
And I remember saying,
"Thumbs up! Thumbs up!"

912
00:50:56,470 --> 00:50:58,846
screaming, screaming,
and he came over.

913
00:50:59,014 --> 00:51:00,932
I grew up.

914
00:51:01,099 --> 00:51:03,309
I made this film
when I was 34 years old.

915
00:51:03,477 --> 00:51:05,186
It was the first film
I ever made.

916
00:51:05,354 --> 00:51:07,313
You're second generation.

917
00:51:09,691 --> 00:51:11,859
Joshua Tree generation.

918
00:51:12,027 --> 00:51:14,820
The film
was about my aunt,

919
00:51:14,988 --> 00:51:17,198
my aunt who took me
to the Oscar's that day.

920
00:51:17,366 --> 00:51:18,866
Nothing wrong with that.

921
00:51:19,034 --> 00:51:21,118
And about
losing someone that you love.

922
00:51:21,286 --> 00:51:24,956
And it was Ebert's review
that really got to the heart

923
00:51:25,123 --> 00:51:27,124
of what I was trying
to articulate.

924
00:51:27,292 --> 00:51:30,127
And just touched me so much,

925
00:51:30,295 --> 00:51:33,673
that I sent him
the picture from the Oscar's.

926
00:51:41,306 --> 00:51:44,934
His reply was,
"We were both younger then."

927
00:51:48,605 --> 00:51:51,065
The next day,
a blog post turned up

928
00:51:51,233 --> 00:51:52,817
where he wrote,

929
00:51:52,985 --> 00:51:55,319
in a very heartfelt way,
about his own aunt

930
00:51:55,487 --> 00:51:59,448
who kind of gave him the gift
of art and film as well.

931
00:51:59,616 --> 00:52:03,369
You know, I broke down crying,
and it was a mess.

932
00:52:04,371 --> 00:52:08,207
It's dangerous as a black woman
to give something that you've made

933
00:52:08,375 --> 00:52:09,917
from your point of view,

934
00:52:10,085 --> 00:52:11,794
very steeped in your identity
and your personhood

935
00:52:11,962 --> 00:52:15,172
to a white man whose gaze
is usually the exact opposite,

936
00:52:15,340 --> 00:52:18,551
and to say, you are the carrier
of this film to the public.

937
00:52:18,719 --> 00:52:22,179
You're the one that's gonna
dictate whether it has value.

938
00:52:22,347 --> 00:52:26,684
And you had a lot less fears
around that with Roger.

939
00:52:26,852 --> 00:52:30,104
Because you knew it was someone
who was gonna take it seriously,

940
00:52:30,272 --> 00:52:31,772
gonna come with
some historical context,

941
00:52:31,940 --> 00:52:34,817
some cultural nuance.

942
00:52:34,985 --> 00:52:36,902
I mean, everybody knows
Roger had a black wife.

943
00:52:37,070 --> 00:52:38,863
You know what I mean?
You know.

944
00:52:39,031 --> 00:52:40,489
He's like an honorary brother.

945
00:52:40,657 --> 00:52:42,950
I mean, you live with a sister.

946
00:52:43,118 --> 00:52:46,120
That's a whole different
understanding of black women, right?

947
00:52:46,288 --> 00:52:47,830
So maybe you watch
my film differently.

948
00:52:48,957 --> 00:52:52,001
Every time I see him, I'll walk away
with something new, you know.

949
00:52:52,169 --> 00:52:56,547
And every time I sit down
at the table to do the work,

950
00:52:56,715 --> 00:52:58,341
I think about him,

951
00:52:58,508 --> 00:53:01,218
because what if something happens
and I don't get to see him again.

952
00:53:02,304 --> 00:53:05,139
It was just a few days
before Christmas.

953
00:53:05,307 --> 00:53:08,017
I said, "Well, Chaz,
can I come there?"

954
00:53:09,728 --> 00:53:12,063
- So...
- Merry Christmas.

955
00:53:13,774 --> 00:53:16,233
Come on over and say hi.

956
00:53:17,444 --> 00:53:18,986
How are you?
Good to see you.

957
00:53:19,154 --> 00:53:20,613
What are you doing in here?

958
00:53:22,157 --> 00:53:23,991
Chaz is missing you at home,
you gotta get out.

959
00:53:24,159 --> 00:53:27,912
Oh, I like the glasses.
Get off the road...

960
00:53:28,080 --> 00:53:30,956
It was nice to see him
interacting with his grandkids.

961
00:53:31,124 --> 00:53:32,666
Grandpa Roger, do you think...

962
00:53:32,834 --> 00:53:35,002
I know that he must be
in pain physically,

963
00:53:35,170 --> 00:53:38,047
but he ends up being
the happiest guy around.

964
00:53:38,215 --> 00:53:41,133
- From the Christmas stocking.
- From Santa.

965
00:53:41,301 --> 00:53:42,593
From Santa.

966
00:53:48,433 --> 00:53:50,976
I just remember being so young,

967
00:53:51,144 --> 00:53:54,605
and watching for the first time
so many movies

968
00:53:54,773 --> 00:53:56,732
and him sort of explaining
to me, you know,

969
00:53:56,900 --> 00:54:00,152
what's important about this one,
or this is a really great movie.

970
00:54:00,904 --> 00:54:03,489
Ever heard of this film?

971
00:54:03,657 --> 00:54:06,117
This movie begins
with seven children

972
00:54:06,284 --> 00:54:08,244
who are seven,
and check in on them

973
00:54:08,412 --> 00:54:10,830
every seven years
of their lives.

974
00:54:12,541 --> 00:54:15,501
Are they 56 now? Really?

975
00:54:15,669 --> 00:54:17,336
Oh, my gosh, wow.

976
00:54:17,504 --> 00:54:21,132
All the great conversations
and things that he taught me

977
00:54:21,299 --> 00:54:24,927
about movies and life
and family and books,

978
00:54:25,095 --> 00:54:27,680
and you know,
all this stuff, I just...

979
00:54:29,641 --> 00:54:33,644
Those experiences
mean a lot to me.

980
00:54:33,812 --> 00:54:37,064
There's another
chocolate bar, chocolate bars.

981
00:54:37,232 --> 00:54:39,650
So I spoke to Werner,
I said I was coming to see you,

982
00:54:39,818 --> 00:54:41,193
and he sends his regards,

983
00:54:41,361 --> 00:54:43,154
and he says
you have to keep writing

984
00:54:43,321 --> 00:54:45,990
because he's very worried
about cinema.

985
00:54:46,158 --> 00:54:48,659
Can you say it the way
Werner would say it?

986
00:54:48,827 --> 00:54:50,578
Oh, gosh. No.

987
00:54:50,745 --> 00:54:52,788
- Roger...
- Roger you must get better.

988
00:54:52,956 --> 00:54:55,458
You must soldier on, Roger.

989
00:54:55,625 --> 00:54:57,084
Really bad shape.

990
00:54:57,252 --> 00:54:59,670
He's the soldier of cinema.

991
00:55:00,964 --> 00:55:02,882
He's a wounded comrade

992
00:55:03,049 --> 00:55:06,051
who cannot even speak anymore,
and he plows on,

993
00:55:06,219 --> 00:55:08,220
and that touches my heart
very deeply.

994
00:55:12,893 --> 00:55:15,436
I never dedicate films
to anyone.

995
00:55:20,442 --> 00:55:23,486
I dedicated a film to him
where I ventured out

996
00:55:23,653 --> 00:55:26,447
to the last corner
of this planet...

997
00:55:27,282 --> 00:55:29,617
to Antarctica,

998
00:55:29,784 --> 00:55:31,327
to the ice.

999
00:55:33,121 --> 00:55:36,499
And from there I bow my head
in his direction.

1000
00:55:40,003 --> 00:55:43,088
He reinforces my courage.

1001
00:55:49,262 --> 00:55:51,931
One time,
I went to see Roger.

1002
00:55:52,098 --> 00:55:55,809
He was kind of eager and
bouncing to give me something.

1003
00:55:55,977 --> 00:56:00,147
He gave me this letter,
actually from Laura Dern.

1004
00:56:00,315 --> 00:56:02,024
"Dear Roger,
I want you to know

1005
00:56:02,192 --> 00:56:05,194
that your generosity
and expertise

1006
00:56:05,362 --> 00:56:07,613
at the Sundance Tribute
meant the world to me.

1007
00:56:07,781 --> 00:56:10,950
I've tried to come up with
an appropriate way to thank you.

1008
00:56:11,117 --> 00:56:14,912
This box and its contents,
a jigsaw puzzle,

1009
00:56:15,080 --> 00:56:16,872
I have treasured for some time.

1010
00:56:17,040 --> 00:56:19,833
It was given to me
by the Strasberg family

1011
00:56:20,001 --> 00:56:22,920
when Lee Strasberg
passed away.

1012
00:56:23,088 --> 00:56:26,799
It was Marilyn Monroe's,
who collected puzzles,

1013
00:56:26,967 --> 00:56:29,885
and it had been given to her
by Alfred Hitchcock.

1014
00:56:30,053 --> 00:56:32,972
That night at Sundance
you inspired me

1015
00:56:33,139 --> 00:56:37,184
about film and contribution
and I wanted to pass along

1016
00:56:37,352 --> 00:56:40,646
film and connection in some way.
Thank you again.

1017
00:56:40,814 --> 00:56:43,107
Love to you and Chaz.
Laura."

1018
00:56:43,275 --> 00:56:46,277
And then Roger gave me this gift,
which I refused.

1019
00:56:46,444 --> 00:56:47,778
I said, "You cannot
give me this gift.

1020
00:56:47,946 --> 00:56:49,613
I cannot accept this gift."

1021
00:56:49,781 --> 00:56:51,949
And then he said,
"You're going to accept the gift,

1022
00:56:52,117 --> 00:56:53,784
because you have to one day
give this

1023
00:56:53,952 --> 00:56:56,495
to somebody else
who deserves it."

1024
00:57:03,128 --> 00:57:05,045
What's it a jigsaw puzzle of?

1025
00:57:05,213 --> 00:57:07,798
I've always
been terrified to make it.

1026
00:57:10,385 --> 00:57:14,388
I mean, this is
the jigsaw puzzle

1027
00:57:14,556 --> 00:57:18,142
that Alfred Hitchcock
gave Marilyn Monroe.

1028
00:57:29,321 --> 00:57:31,363
In the autumn of 1967,

1029
00:57:31,906 --> 00:57:34,325
I saw a movie named I Call First,

1030
00:57:34,492 --> 00:57:38,078
later to be retitled,
Who's That Knocking at My Door.

1031
00:57:40,123 --> 00:57:42,499
The energy of the cutting grabbed me.

1032
00:57:42,667 --> 00:57:46,003
It was the work
of a natural director.

1033
00:57:46,171 --> 00:57:48,422
I wrote a review
suggesting in 10 years

1034
00:57:48,590 --> 00:57:51,842
he would become
the American Fellini.

1035
00:57:52,010 --> 00:57:54,553
I said, "You think it's gonna take
that long?", and I was serious.

1036
00:57:54,721 --> 00:57:57,514
I'm just like, it's over here.
What are you talking about?

1037
00:57:58,224 --> 00:58:01,435
It was the first
real strong encouragement.

1038
00:58:01,603 --> 00:58:03,604
Yes, there are defects
in the movie.

1039
00:58:03,772 --> 00:58:07,733
But he saw something special
and that had to be nourished.

1040
00:58:07,901 --> 00:58:09,652
As you know, I carried your review
around with me

1041
00:58:09,819 --> 00:58:13,197
when I was in Europe in 1968.
It made me...

1042
00:58:13,365 --> 00:58:15,741
I kept reading. Is that really
about me? You know, wow.

1043
00:58:19,120 --> 00:58:22,247
So refreshing to find
a director and an actor

1044
00:58:22,415 --> 00:58:24,917
working right
at the top of their form.

1045
00:58:25,710 --> 00:58:28,253
I think Raging Bull is one of the
great American pictures of the year.

1046
00:58:28,421 --> 00:58:32,591
His greatest film is
an act of self-redemption.

1047
00:58:32,759 --> 00:58:36,053
In the period before it,
he'd become addicted to cocaine

1048
00:58:36,221 --> 00:58:39,223
and told me that after an overdose,
he was pronounced dead

1049
00:58:39,391 --> 00:58:42,351
in an emergency room
and resuscitated.

1050
00:58:44,062 --> 00:58:47,564
During the '80s was extremely...
I was gone, basically.

1051
00:58:47,732 --> 00:58:51,485
Broke, and I'd gone through
some bad, bad periods.

1052
00:58:51,653 --> 00:58:54,113
My third marriage had broken up,

1053
00:58:54,280 --> 00:58:56,198
and I was basically alone.

1054
00:58:56,366 --> 00:58:58,409
The only thing that saved me

1055
00:58:58,576 --> 00:59:00,327
or made me want to...

1056
00:59:02,831 --> 00:59:06,500
continue just like living,
in a way, was my agent called

1057
00:59:06,668 --> 00:59:08,627
and said, "You know, there's
this festival up in Toronto."

1058
00:59:08,795 --> 00:59:10,254
I said, "Yeah."

1059
00:59:10,422 --> 00:59:12,339
"Roger Ebert, Gene Siskel,

1060
00:59:12,507 --> 00:59:14,508
they wanna give you this tribute."

1061
00:59:16,136 --> 00:59:17,928
I was kind of scared.

1062
00:59:18,096 --> 00:59:21,056
Could I walk down
this theater aisle

1063
00:59:21,224 --> 00:59:24,435
and go up on a stage,
knowing who I am?

1064
00:59:26,229 --> 00:59:28,063
But I knew
that they believed in me,

1065
00:59:28,231 --> 00:59:29,815
and I have that in my house now,

1066
00:59:29,983 --> 00:59:32,192
in a special place
where only I can see it,

1067
00:59:32,360 --> 00:59:37,489
that I pass by every maybe,
five to six minutes, I see it.

1068
00:59:37,657 --> 00:59:41,201
But that night changed it.

1069
00:59:41,369 --> 00:59:44,538
And I started
my life again, you know.

1070
00:59:47,417 --> 00:59:49,710
It was...

1071
00:59:53,673 --> 00:59:58,177
I didn't feel inhibited with Roger.

1072
00:59:58,344 --> 01:00:00,179
He was that close.

1073
01:00:01,347 --> 01:00:05,184
Roger has, unlike just about
any of the rest of us,

1074
01:00:05,351 --> 01:00:08,020
arrived at this point
where he is

1075
01:00:08,188 --> 01:00:09,646
kind of the peer of the people,

1076
01:00:09,814 --> 01:00:11,857
of some of the people
that he writes about.

1077
01:00:12,025 --> 01:00:14,860
It's very complicated,
I think, when you have

1078
01:00:15,028 --> 01:00:17,321
personal relationships and
friendships with these people,

1079
01:00:17,489 --> 01:00:20,532
because it cannot
but cloud your judgment.

1080
01:00:20,700 --> 01:00:22,326
I am infinitely corruptible.

1081
01:00:22,494 --> 01:00:25,579
I do not want to get to know
these people as people.

1082
01:00:25,747 --> 01:00:27,998
I want to think of them
as fictional characters.

1083
01:00:28,166 --> 01:00:29,917
I mean,
my obligation is to write

1084
01:00:30,084 --> 01:00:31,835
what I think about a movie,

1085
01:00:32,003 --> 01:00:34,713
and not to worry
about someone I know

1086
01:00:34,881 --> 01:00:37,341
perching on my shoulder saying,
"No, I wouldn't say that."

1087
01:00:37,509 --> 01:00:39,384
When you look
at the nineteenth century

1088
01:00:39,552 --> 01:00:41,053
and the great critics in music,

1089
01:00:41,221 --> 01:00:45,098
they hung together,
critics and artists.

1090
01:00:45,266 --> 01:00:47,142
They were in the same circles.

1091
01:00:47,310 --> 01:00:50,312
And that helped the critics
and it helped the composers.

1092
01:00:50,480 --> 01:00:54,650
Roger brought back that concept
and he was criticized for it.

1093
01:01:00,031 --> 01:01:02,074
That was real
distracting for me there,

1094
01:01:02,242 --> 01:01:04,159
the way all those pool balls
bounced around like that,

1095
01:01:04,327 --> 01:01:05,869
and the scene gets
even worse as it goes on.

1096
01:01:06,037 --> 01:01:07,663
And it's all the more disappointing

1097
01:01:07,831 --> 01:01:10,666
because The Color of Money
was directed by Martin Scorsese,

1098
01:01:10,834 --> 01:01:13,418
who is one of the two or three
best movie directors around today.

1099
01:01:14,462 --> 01:01:16,713
Devastating.

1100
01:01:16,881 --> 01:01:19,675
It doesn't have the interior energy,
and the drive,

1101
01:01:19,843 --> 01:01:21,927
and the obsession of most
of the best Scorsese films.

1102
01:01:22,095 --> 01:01:24,137
- The script isn't good.
- It's just a standard,

1103
01:01:24,305 --> 01:01:25,556
sort of predictable narrative.

1104
01:01:26,432 --> 01:01:30,435
I said, I know, but beautiful...
Michael Ballhouse, Paul Newman.

1105
01:01:30,603 --> 01:01:32,813
But you know,
they wouldn't accept it.

1106
01:01:32,981 --> 01:01:36,692
That was a way
of condemning and helping.

1107
01:01:36,860 --> 01:01:39,319
In other words,
you've done this now, once,

1108
01:01:39,487 --> 01:01:41,780
you may have done it twice,
but watch yourself.

1109
01:01:41,948 --> 01:01:46,910
As opposed to
toxic, poisonous, unkind,

1110
01:01:47,078 --> 01:01:51,582
ungenerous, lack of charity,
on so many others.

1111
01:01:51,749 --> 01:01:55,627
I think he was a tougher critic
when he was younger.

1112
01:01:55,795 --> 01:01:59,131
He could be really cutting,
and relentless,

1113
01:01:59,299 --> 01:02:01,925
and ruthless, and sarcastic.

1114
01:02:04,721 --> 01:02:06,763
You motherfucker!

1115
01:02:12,645 --> 01:02:14,521
Not a bad movie,
but it's not original,

1116
01:02:14,689 --> 01:02:16,523
- and it's not a masterpiece.
- I think it's very original

1117
01:02:16,691 --> 01:02:17,983
and very close
to being a masterpiece.

1118
01:02:18,151 --> 01:02:21,904
I have never felt a kill
in a movie quite like that.

1119
01:02:22,071 --> 01:02:23,947
Not in Apocalypse Now,
not in The Deer Hunter?

1120
01:02:24,115 --> 01:02:26,074
No, not like that.
Not like that.

1121
01:02:26,242 --> 01:02:27,534
In that case, you're
gonna love the late show

1122
01:02:27,702 --> 01:02:29,202
because they have kills
like that every night

1123
01:02:29,370 --> 01:02:31,079
in black and white
starring John Wayne.

1124
01:02:31,247 --> 01:02:33,582
They would get
into their cross talk.

1125
01:02:33,750 --> 01:02:36,793
The camera would stop,
they would still be at it.

1126
01:02:36,961 --> 01:02:38,629
And I disagree particularly
about the part that you like.

1127
01:02:38,796 --> 01:02:41,423
They truly felt it
in their soul.

1128
01:02:41,591 --> 01:02:44,343
They could still show them
the error of their ways,

1129
01:02:44,510 --> 01:02:45,928
the folly of their thinking.

1130
01:02:46,095 --> 01:02:48,138
Benji the Hunted exhausted me.

1131
01:02:48,306 --> 01:02:50,390
This is the first time
I wanted to tell a dog

1132
01:02:50,558 --> 01:02:52,768
to slow down and stop
to smell the flowers.

1133
01:02:52,936 --> 01:02:56,104
I don't know, Gene.
Your review is the typical sort of

1134
01:02:56,272 --> 01:02:58,732
blasé, sophisticated,
cynical review...

1135
01:02:58,900 --> 01:03:00,317
I'll take the word "sophisticated."

1136
01:03:00,485 --> 01:03:01,860
...I would expect from an adult.

1137
01:03:02,028 --> 01:03:03,904
You're wrapping yourself
in the flag of children.

1138
01:03:04,072 --> 01:03:06,657
You're wrapping yourself in the flag
of the sophisticated film critic.

1139
01:03:06,824 --> 01:03:08,367
- No, boredom.
- You've seen it all.

1140
01:03:08,534 --> 01:03:09,826
Boredom with Benji running.

1141
01:03:09,994 --> 01:03:11,828
I don't think that any child
is gonna be bored by this movie.

1142
01:03:11,996 --> 01:03:14,164
It was not you know,
gentlemanly, it was not,

1143
01:03:14,332 --> 01:03:15,624
"Well, I see
you have a good point."

1144
01:03:15,792 --> 01:03:17,459
It was I'm gonna crush you.

1145
01:03:17,627 --> 01:03:19,670
And this is the show where
you give Benji The Hunted

1146
01:03:19,837 --> 01:03:21,713
a positive review
and not Kubrick's film?

1147
01:03:21,881 --> 01:03:23,256
Now, Gene, that's totally unfair,

1148
01:03:23,424 --> 01:03:26,176
because you realize that
these reviews are relative.

1149
01:03:26,344 --> 01:03:28,053
Benji the Hunted is not
one-tenth the film...

1150
01:03:28,221 --> 01:03:29,972
- Roger...
...that the Kubrick film is

1151
01:03:30,139 --> 01:03:31,765
but you know that you
review films within context.

1152
01:03:31,933 --> 01:03:33,767
And you know it, and you
should be ashamed of yourself.

1153
01:03:33,935 --> 01:03:35,602
- No, I'm not.
- Now let's take another look...

1154
01:03:35,770 --> 01:03:39,898
They almost didn't care what
anyone else thought about anything,

1155
01:03:40,066 --> 01:03:42,234
as long as they could try
to persuade the other.

1156
01:03:42,402 --> 01:03:44,653
And I'm not talking about just,
about movie reviews.

1157
01:03:44,821 --> 01:03:46,863
I'm talking about anything in life,

1158
01:03:47,031 --> 01:03:49,658
the tie you're wearing,
what you think of that person,

1159
01:03:49,826 --> 01:03:51,785
a book, a restaurant.

1160
01:03:51,953 --> 01:03:55,872
When there was, and when
wasn't there disagreement,

1161
01:03:56,040 --> 01:03:58,125
the coin of the realm
was the quarter.

1162
01:03:58,292 --> 01:03:59,751
It's hard to think of anything

1163
01:03:59,919 --> 01:04:02,504
that wasn't decided
by a coin toss.

1164
01:04:02,672 --> 01:04:05,882
Were we going to get tuna fish
sandwiches for lunch?

1165
01:04:06,050 --> 01:04:08,969
Who would get one movie,
who would get another movie.

1166
01:04:09,137 --> 01:04:11,471
Who got to sit next
to Johnny Carson on the couch.

1167
01:04:14,308 --> 01:04:15,809
They actually wanted us

1168
01:04:15,893 --> 01:04:18,729
to change the opening
of the show every week

1169
01:04:18,896 --> 01:04:20,480
so that Roger
would be first one week

1170
01:04:20,648 --> 01:04:23,108
and Gene would be first
the next week, and we said no.

1171
01:04:23,276 --> 01:04:25,902
Why is the show
Siskel and Ebert?

1172
01:04:26,070 --> 01:04:28,071
And by the way will it ever be
Ebert and Siskel?

1173
01:04:28,239 --> 01:04:29,823
No.

1174
01:04:29,991 --> 01:04:31,408
You've signed on
to Siskel and...

1175
01:04:31,576 --> 01:04:33,160
There's a long story about that.

1176
01:04:33,327 --> 01:04:35,412
A long story.
You know, I'm older,

1177
01:04:35,580 --> 01:04:37,122
I've been a movie critic longer,

1178
01:04:37,290 --> 01:04:39,124
E comes before S
in the alphabet,

1179
01:04:39,292 --> 01:04:41,251
I've got the Pulitzer Prize,

1180
01:04:41,419 --> 01:04:43,587
and yet it's called
Siskel and Ebert.

1181
01:04:43,755 --> 01:04:46,048
And if you wanna know why
that is, you can ask Siskel.

1182
01:04:46,215 --> 01:04:47,424
A flip of the coin.

1183
01:04:49,010 --> 01:04:51,720
Gene Siskel was among
the most competitive people

1184
01:04:51,888 --> 01:04:53,764
on the face of this planet.

1185
01:04:53,931 --> 01:04:56,183
But Roger always
could lord it over Gene

1186
01:04:56,350 --> 01:04:58,518
that he had a Pulitzer Prize.

1187
01:04:58,686 --> 01:05:01,438
Roger was a bit of a braggadocio.

1188
01:05:01,606 --> 01:05:03,940
He was a great raconteur.

1189
01:05:04,108 --> 01:05:06,693
But frankly,
he was full of himself.

1190
01:05:06,861 --> 01:05:09,488
Roger was a bit
of a control freak.

1191
01:05:09,655 --> 01:05:11,948
He could not direct Gene Siskel.

1192
01:05:12,116 --> 01:05:15,994
He was a rogue planet
in Roger's solar system.

1193
01:05:16,162 --> 01:05:19,956
Gene was a source
of madness in Roger's life.

1194
01:05:20,124 --> 01:05:22,334
Roger is an only child.

1195
01:05:22,502 --> 01:05:25,712
He was used to getting his way.
Absolutely.

1196
01:05:25,880 --> 01:05:29,091
And he could be a real big baby

1197
01:05:29,258 --> 01:05:31,176
when he didn't get
what he wanted.

1198
01:05:31,344 --> 01:05:34,346
Gene, on the other hand,
would just go in there

1199
01:05:34,514 --> 01:05:37,057
and pummel you
until you agree with him,

1200
01:05:37,225 --> 01:05:39,434
until you just say,
"All right, Gene!

1201
01:05:39,602 --> 01:05:41,269
Okay, you're right.
Got it."

1202
01:05:41,437 --> 01:05:43,188
It wasn't a game with him.

1203
01:05:43,356 --> 01:05:45,273
He saw something,
he wanted it to happen.

1204
01:05:45,441 --> 01:05:47,150
He made it happen.

1205
01:05:47,318 --> 01:05:48,443
Gene was very good

1206
01:05:48,569 --> 01:05:51,238
at reading Roger's date book
upside down.

1207
01:05:51,405 --> 01:05:55,158
As soon as he saw L.A.
and the date,

1208
01:05:55,326 --> 01:05:57,202
he knew what films
were coming out.

1209
01:05:57,370 --> 01:05:58,662
He knew what big star

1210
01:05:58,830 --> 01:06:01,039
that Roger would be
going out to interview.

1211
01:06:01,207 --> 01:06:05,544
And that's all it took
for him to make sure

1212
01:06:05,711 --> 01:06:08,380
that he got the interview
before Roger got it.

1213
01:06:08,548 --> 01:06:11,925
Fumes you could almost see coming
out of Roger's head, you know.

1214
01:06:12,093 --> 01:06:16,096
Gene had done him in again,
that wascally wabbit.

1215
01:06:16,264 --> 01:06:18,557
Roger,
who was the picture

1216
01:06:18,724 --> 01:06:21,226
of equanimity
for most of his life,

1217
01:06:21,394 --> 01:06:25,772
did all of a sudden, produce a
petulance that I hadn't seen before.

1218
01:06:26,065 --> 01:06:28,316
I thought this movie was awful.

1219
01:06:28,484 --> 01:06:30,652
- Oh, no, Roger.
- Dreadful, terrible,

1220
01:06:30,820 --> 01:06:32,404
stupid, idiotic...

1221
01:06:32,572 --> 01:06:34,114
- No, no.
...unfunny, labored...

1222
01:06:34,282 --> 01:06:37,576
...forced, painful, bad.
- Oh, Roger, Roger.

1223
01:06:37,743 --> 01:06:39,077
What happened
to your sense of humor?

1224
01:06:39,245 --> 01:06:42,455
I don't think Roger was,
by nature, a fighter.

1225
01:06:42,623 --> 01:06:45,375
But it's like,
if you have a brother

1226
01:06:45,543 --> 01:06:50,088
who likes to fight all the time,
so then you learn how to fight.

1227
01:06:51,757 --> 01:06:53,508
And Gene had his number.

1228
01:06:53,676 --> 01:06:56,011
Gene knew the buttons
to push and everything else.

1229
01:06:57,555 --> 01:07:00,432
They're in
a first class cabin,

1230
01:07:00,600 --> 01:07:02,684
Gene's in one of the front rows.

1231
01:07:02,852 --> 01:07:05,979
Roger's behind him,
and Gene hears

1232
01:07:06,147 --> 01:07:09,649
the same old stories that
he's heard over and over again.

1233
01:07:09,817 --> 01:07:12,027
And he's just annoyed.

1234
01:07:12,195 --> 01:07:13,695
He writes a little note

1235
01:07:13,863 --> 01:07:16,281
and he gives it
to the flight attendant.

1236
01:07:16,449 --> 01:07:19,618
Said, "Would you pass this
to Mr. Ebert?"

1237
01:07:19,785 --> 01:07:23,371
So Roger gets the note,
and it says, "Dear Mr. Ebert,

1238
01:07:23,539 --> 01:07:27,584
we in the cockpit have noticed
that you are on our flight.

1239
01:07:28,794 --> 01:07:32,839
Frankly, we both agree more
with you than your partner,

1240
01:07:33,007 --> 01:07:36,426
and we would be so honored
if you would join us

1241
01:07:36,594 --> 01:07:39,721
in the cockpit
for a bit of the flight."

1242
01:07:39,889 --> 01:07:44,100
I mean, Gene knows
that Roger was really excited.

1243
01:07:44,268 --> 01:07:46,937
He gets into the aisle,
and Roger was a big guy then,

1244
01:07:47,104 --> 01:07:49,648
he just kind of
bounds down the aisle,

1245
01:07:49,815 --> 01:07:53,693
and gets ready to knock
on the door of the cabin.

1246
01:07:53,861 --> 01:07:55,779
And you know,
the flight attendants

1247
01:07:55,947 --> 01:07:59,032
and people are horrified,
and Gene says,

1248
01:07:59,200 --> 01:08:03,286
"Dear Mr. Ebert,
we in the cockpit."

1249
01:08:07,708 --> 01:08:09,000
Gotcha.

1250
01:08:09,168 --> 01:08:12,337
And he finally tells Gene Siskel,
you know, "You just hate me.

1251
01:08:12,505 --> 01:08:14,089
You just don't like me,"
you know.

1252
01:08:14,382 --> 01:08:18,885
I mean, that relationship
was absolutely radioactive.

1253
01:08:19,053 --> 01:08:21,596
Two thrillers this week
on Siskel and Ebert.

1254
01:08:21,764 --> 01:08:24,099
First, we'll review Michael Caine
and Pierce Brosnan

1255
01:08:24,267 --> 01:08:27,394
- in The Fourth Protocol.
- And then, Gene Hackman

1256
01:08:27,561 --> 01:08:29,062
and Kevin Costner
star in No Way Out,

1257
01:08:29,230 --> 01:08:31,106
and we have a third thriller, too
if you're interested.

1258
01:08:31,274 --> 01:08:32,857
What do you mean,
two thrillers?

1259
01:08:33,025 --> 01:08:35,443
How about something like this:
It's thriller week

1260
01:08:35,611 --> 01:08:37,654
on Siskel and Ebert
and we've got three big ones.

1261
01:08:37,822 --> 01:08:40,782
Okay. Ready?

1262
01:08:40,950 --> 01:08:43,535
- I guess you're gonna do it.
- We have to rewrite it, don't we?

1263
01:08:43,703 --> 01:08:46,246
- No. Let's...
- You can't ad lib, Gene.

1264
01:08:46,414 --> 01:08:48,748
Can we for the last week,
and next week we'll do it?

1265
01:08:48,916 --> 01:08:50,166
No, every week counts.

1266
01:08:50,334 --> 01:08:52,210
You read it then,
you ad-lib it.

1267
01:08:52,378 --> 01:08:54,379
I'll do nothing.
Let him do whatever he wants.

1268
01:08:54,547 --> 01:08:57,132
It's thriller week
on Siskel and Ebert and the Movies,

1269
01:08:57,300 --> 01:08:58,967
and we've got three new ones.

1270
01:08:59,135 --> 01:09:02,178
Gotta have energy up
and the movie's out.

1271
01:09:02,346 --> 01:09:04,848
- Why don't you read both parts?
- I'd like to.

1272
01:09:05,016 --> 01:09:07,058
- I know that.
- Please get your energy up.

1273
01:09:08,060 --> 01:09:10,353
It's thriller week
on Siskel and Ebert and the Movies,

1274
01:09:10,521 --> 01:09:11,938
and we've got three new ones.

1275
01:09:12,106 --> 01:09:13,523
Dennis Quaid in The Big Easy,

1276
01:09:13,691 --> 01:09:15,358
Michael Caine
in The Fourth Protocol,

1277
01:09:15,526 --> 01:09:18,737
and Kevin Costner and Gene Hackman
in No Way Out.

1278
01:09:18,904 --> 01:09:22,532
- Sound a little excited, Gene.
- Sound less excited, Roger.

1279
01:09:22,700 --> 01:09:24,826
That's why we're re-doing it
because of what you did.

1280
01:09:26,620 --> 01:09:28,997
It's thriller week on
Siskel and Ebert At The Movies.

1281
01:09:29,165 --> 01:09:30,206
And we've got three new ones...

1282
01:09:30,374 --> 01:09:32,792
It's called And The Movies,
not At The Movies.

1283
01:09:34,337 --> 01:09:36,212
And that's why we're
re-doing it this time.

1284
01:09:38,716 --> 01:09:40,842
It's thriller week
on Siskel and Ebert and the Movies.

1285
01:09:41,010 --> 01:09:42,385
And we've got three new ones.

1286
01:09:42,553 --> 01:09:44,346
Dennis Quaid in The Big Easy,

1287
01:09:44,513 --> 01:09:46,973
Michael Caine
in The Fourth Protocol,

1288
01:09:47,141 --> 01:09:50,268
and Kevin Costner and Gene Hackman
in No Way Out.

1289
01:09:50,436 --> 01:09:54,105
That's this week
on Siskel, and Ebert,

1290
01:09:54,273 --> 01:09:56,858
And the Movies,
and the asshole.

1291
01:09:57,026 --> 01:09:58,651
Great.

1292
01:09:58,819 --> 01:10:03,323
They were still,
in their hearts,

1293
01:10:03,491 --> 01:10:07,452
little boys fighting it out
on the playground

1294
01:10:07,620 --> 01:10:10,205
and both of them
expecting to win.

1295
01:10:23,219 --> 01:10:25,845
I've been in here
a little more than a month.

1296
01:10:26,013 --> 01:10:27,555
Can we stand?

1297
01:10:27,723 --> 01:10:30,725
I came in expecting
to repair my walking ability

1298
01:10:30,893 --> 01:10:34,145
after the hairline fracture,
but have discovered

1299
01:10:34,313 --> 01:10:35,397
that it wasn't that simple.

1300
01:10:35,564 --> 01:10:37,816
...two, three, push up.

1301
01:10:43,322 --> 01:10:46,032
Bigger step
with that right foot.

1302
01:10:46,200 --> 01:10:48,952
Bigger step, Roger.

1303
01:10:49,120 --> 01:10:52,831
I can no longer
take good health for granted.

1304
01:10:54,041 --> 01:10:56,334
I hate that.

1305
01:10:56,502 --> 01:10:58,336
Big step.

1306
01:11:02,258 --> 01:11:06,636
- Pardon?
- He's saying no.

1307
01:11:06,804 --> 01:11:08,638
Are you okay?

1308
01:11:08,806 --> 01:11:11,641
Do you want me to stop?
Okay.

1309
01:11:13,060 --> 01:11:14,436
- That was good.
- That was good.

1310
01:11:14,603 --> 01:11:16,563
That was good.
That was good.

1311
01:11:18,274 --> 01:11:20,150
Relax.

1312
01:11:23,279 --> 01:11:27,031
I never thought he'd
have to be here again.

1313
01:11:27,199 --> 01:11:30,910
He's at the best place...

1314
01:11:31,078 --> 01:11:33,037
but it's just overwhelming

1315
01:11:33,205 --> 01:11:36,124
to think that
he's been here five times.

1316
01:11:41,088 --> 01:11:44,382
If he gave up, then
it would be very difficult.

1317
01:11:53,100 --> 01:11:56,186
Do you want
your speakers plugged in?

1318
01:11:56,353 --> 01:11:58,688
You know what,
let her suction you first.

1319
01:11:58,856 --> 01:12:01,274
Please, Roger.

1320
01:12:01,442 --> 01:12:04,777
Can you let
the nurse do that first?

1321
01:12:07,198 --> 01:12:11,701
Roger, can we set
this up after?

1322
01:12:11,869 --> 01:12:13,995
Roger.

1323
01:12:21,754 --> 01:12:24,088
He loves his music.

1324
01:12:26,967 --> 01:12:28,468
Ready?

1325
01:12:41,690 --> 01:12:43,316
Sounds good.

1326
01:12:48,322 --> 01:12:50,240
Sometimes,
I just stare at him

1327
01:12:50,407 --> 01:12:54,619
and say where did
this determination come from?

1328
01:12:59,708 --> 01:13:04,254
Roger had an inner core
that was made of steel.

1329
01:13:18,310 --> 01:13:21,354
How have you
kept your spirits up?

1330
01:13:23,190 --> 01:13:25,733
I've zeroed in on my work.

1331
01:13:25,901 --> 01:13:28,861
When I'm seeing a movie,
or writing the review,

1332
01:13:29,029 --> 01:13:31,030
that makes me feel good.

1333
01:13:31,198 --> 01:13:34,617
You know how they talk
about being in the zone?

1334
01:13:34,785 --> 01:13:37,161
When you're doing something
you're good at,

1335
01:13:37,329 --> 01:13:39,122
you get in the zone.

1336
01:13:39,290 --> 01:13:43,293
It sort of pushes your troubles
to the back of your mind.

1337
01:13:45,087 --> 01:13:47,589
You have this
tremendous body of work.

1338
01:13:47,756 --> 01:13:52,385
He's been writing for half
of the history of feature films.

1339
01:13:52,553 --> 01:13:56,764
And that's just
one slice of the cake.

1340
01:13:56,932 --> 01:14:00,059
A novel in weekly installments.

1341
01:14:00,227 --> 01:14:03,479
Just like Dickens.
Not quite of that level.

1342
01:14:04,523 --> 01:14:09,319
He wrote a book about how
to keep your computer bug-free.

1343
01:14:09,486 --> 01:14:11,863
Strolls through London.

1344
01:14:12,031 --> 01:14:14,907
A book about
the Cannes Film Festival.

1345
01:14:15,075 --> 01:14:17,744
The Cannes Film Festival
is one of those events

1346
01:14:17,911 --> 01:14:21,331
like the Super Bowl, Wimbledon,
or the Kentucky Derby

1347
01:14:21,498 --> 01:14:24,125
that comes cloaked
in its own legend.

1348
01:14:24,293 --> 01:14:26,878
This is Cannes
on the French Riviera,

1349
01:14:27,046 --> 01:14:29,088
a fishing village
since Roman times.

1350
01:14:29,256 --> 01:14:30,923
And every year
in the month of May,

1351
01:14:31,091 --> 01:14:33,509
the population grows
by forty thousand

1352
01:14:33,677 --> 01:14:35,970
for the world's
most famous film festival.

1353
01:14:38,766 --> 01:14:41,768
It's been called
the world's biggest party.

1354
01:14:41,935 --> 01:14:44,187
The town of Cannes
is bursting to the seams

1355
01:14:44,355 --> 01:14:46,606
with directors, producers, and stars.

1356
01:14:46,774 --> 01:14:47,732
Hi.

1357
01:14:47,816 --> 01:14:49,025
It wouldn't be
a Cannes Film Festival

1358
01:14:49,151 --> 01:14:52,445
without a beautiful blonde here
on the terrace of the Carlton Hotel.

1359
01:14:52,613 --> 01:14:55,073
Here was this kid
from Southern Illinois

1360
01:14:55,240 --> 01:14:58,701
hobnobbing with all of
the international movie stars.

1361
01:14:58,869 --> 01:15:00,995
That's me with Robert De Niro.

1362
01:15:01,163 --> 01:15:02,955
Yes, your faithful correspondent

1363
01:15:03,123 --> 01:15:04,916
is getting
an exclusive interview.

1364
01:15:05,084 --> 01:15:07,669
And De Niro was telling me
he's just happy to be here.

1365
01:15:07,836 --> 01:15:10,588
He loved that.
He did, and they loved him.

1366
01:15:10,756 --> 01:15:13,466
Roger! Roger Ebert!

1367
01:15:14,927 --> 01:15:18,346
I always wake up very early
in the morning after I arrive.

1368
01:15:18,847 --> 01:15:22,600
I walk down the Rue Félix Faure,
passing the flower sellers,

1369
01:15:22,768 --> 01:15:25,561
the fishmongers
unloading iced oysters,

1370
01:15:25,729 --> 01:15:28,856
and at particular cafe,
at a particular table,

1371
01:15:29,024 --> 01:15:31,484
I order,
in shameful French,

1372
01:15:31,652 --> 01:15:35,405
a cafe au lait,
a Perrier, and a croissant.

1373
01:15:35,572 --> 01:15:39,200
Such returns are
an important ritual to me.

1374
01:15:39,368 --> 01:15:42,036
He stayed at the same frickin'
little hotel in Cannes,

1375
01:15:42,204 --> 01:15:45,832
the Splendid, which is a dump.
But he loved it.

1376
01:15:45,999 --> 01:15:48,084
I'd go over and see him
at the Splendid,

1377
01:15:48,252 --> 01:15:50,920
and he'd say,
"Tomorrow, be here at ten."

1378
01:15:51,088 --> 01:15:55,258
And so we go over to the Swedish
Film Institute's hotel suite,

1379
01:15:55,426 --> 01:15:58,970
and there's Erland Josephson
the actor lying on the bed,

1380
01:15:59,138 --> 01:16:01,514
and he and I talk about
Ingmar Bergman for an hour.

1381
01:16:01,682 --> 01:16:04,392
You know, no interview,
no formality.

1382
01:16:04,560 --> 01:16:06,352
Just yacking.

1383
01:16:06,854 --> 01:16:08,438
If I am lucky,

1384
01:16:08,605 --> 01:16:11,774
something extraordinary will
happen to me during this festival.

1385
01:16:11,942 --> 01:16:15,903
I will see a film that will make
my spine tingle with its greatness.

1386
01:16:16,071 --> 01:16:18,698
And I will
leave the theatre speechless.

1387
01:16:20,784 --> 01:16:22,952
It was at Cannes
that I saw Bresson's

1388
01:16:23,120 --> 01:16:25,830
precise, unforgiving L'Argent.

1389
01:16:25,998 --> 01:16:27,623
L'Argent.

1390
01:16:27,791 --> 01:16:29,000
A film that was

1391
01:16:31,462 --> 01:16:34,505
so cold on its surface,

1392
01:16:34,673 --> 01:16:37,383
that I finally realized
that no man could make

1393
01:16:37,551 --> 01:16:40,344
such distant and austere films

1394
01:16:46,643 --> 01:16:49,604
There are Dantean levels
to this festival.

1395
01:16:49,772 --> 01:16:52,774
At the top level
is the official selection,

1396
01:16:52,941 --> 01:16:55,610
films chosen
from all over the world.

1397
01:16:55,778 --> 01:16:57,695
But down, down, down, down here

1398
01:16:57,863 --> 01:17:00,740
in the basement of the Palais,
this is the movie supermarket.

1399
01:17:00,908 --> 01:17:03,576
This is where they sell
porno and exploitation

1400
01:17:03,744 --> 01:17:05,495
and horror and action
and violence.

1401
01:17:05,662 --> 01:17:08,748
You take out ads in Variety
saying we will buy movies

1402
01:17:08,916 --> 01:17:10,124
- sight unseen.
- Right.

1403
01:17:10,292 --> 01:17:13,419
- Last year, 350 movies.
- How do you sell them?

1404
01:17:13,587 --> 01:17:15,755
By the title,
by the foot, by the inch?

1405
01:17:15,923 --> 01:17:16,964
By the pound.

1406
01:17:17,132 --> 01:17:19,300
Most of us
were writing our stories

1407
01:17:19,468 --> 01:17:21,469
after the festival was over.

1408
01:17:21,637 --> 01:17:23,888
Roger, anticipating the Internet,

1409
01:17:24,056 --> 01:17:25,848
or recalling daily journalism,

1410
01:17:26,016 --> 01:17:28,100
was filing stories
all through the festival.

1411
01:17:28,268 --> 01:17:31,896
For best film, Kagemusha,
which is the Akira Kurosawa film.

1412
01:17:33,190 --> 01:17:35,024
While photographers
are trying to get

1413
01:17:35,192 --> 01:17:37,318
pictures of stars at the festival,

1414
01:17:37,486 --> 01:17:39,779
would-be stars and hopefuls
are trying to get their pictures

1415
01:17:39,947 --> 01:17:42,031
taken by photographers.

1416
01:17:42,199 --> 01:17:44,033
In the dreams of the starlet,

1417
01:17:44,201 --> 01:17:47,286
there's always that scene where
the cigar-chomping producer

1418
01:17:47,454 --> 01:17:50,039
spots a lovely young woman
on the Carlton terrace

1419
01:17:50,207 --> 01:17:52,583
and shouts,
"Who is that girl?

1420
01:17:52,751 --> 01:17:55,711
I must have her
for my next picture."

1421
01:17:55,879 --> 01:17:59,715
So much of what we did
was not me as the producer

1422
01:17:59,883 --> 01:18:01,551
saying do this, do that,
do that, was Roger.

1423
01:18:01,718 --> 01:18:03,177
He had fabulous ideas.

1424
01:18:03,345 --> 01:18:05,638
...topless beaches,
starlets, interviews.

1425
01:18:05,806 --> 01:18:09,016
Whenever we were
doing something on the show

1426
01:18:09,184 --> 01:18:11,435
that required some creativity...

1427
01:18:11,603 --> 01:18:13,729
I don't know why you keep...
that isn't the issue.

1428
01:18:13,897 --> 01:18:16,983
It was Gene who
would usually win out that argument,

1429
01:18:17,150 --> 01:18:20,403
and Roger would say,
"Well... fine."

1430
01:18:22,823 --> 01:18:25,700
The Cannes
Film Festival was only Roger.

1431
01:18:25,868 --> 01:18:30,246
He loved that he didn't have
to convince someone else.

1432
01:18:32,124 --> 01:18:34,375
Roger had
everything he needed.

1433
01:18:34,543 --> 01:18:37,503
Gene was just afraid
that at some point

1434
01:18:37,671 --> 01:18:41,090
Roger would go it alone
and quit.

1435
01:18:41,258 --> 01:18:43,593
And this
literally haunted Gene.

1436
01:18:43,760 --> 01:18:45,052
When the next contract
would come up,

1437
01:18:45,220 --> 01:18:47,722
would Roger not be there?

1438
01:18:47,890 --> 01:18:52,018
Joe Antelo just sat down
and did the math.

1439
01:18:52,185 --> 01:18:55,479
In syndication, we can put
commercials around it.

1440
01:18:55,647 --> 01:18:59,650
So he offered Gene and Roger
a tremendous amount of money.

1441
01:18:59,818 --> 01:19:03,154
Roger didn't go out
and buy a new car or anything.

1442
01:19:03,322 --> 01:19:06,198
He moved out of that
garage apartment he had.

1443
01:19:08,035 --> 01:19:11,662
I know that I would hear them
sometimes talk about money,

1444
01:19:11,830 --> 01:19:15,041
like "Hey, big boy, did you get
that check in the mail?"

1445
01:19:15,208 --> 01:19:19,337
These guys were Siamese twins
joined at the rear end.

1446
01:19:20,380 --> 01:19:22,798
And they were gonna make
this thing work.

1447
01:19:22,966 --> 01:19:25,217
Gene would say,
and this is as they became

1448
01:19:25,385 --> 01:19:27,470
more and more of a team,

1449
01:19:27,638 --> 01:19:29,722
"He's an asshole.

1450
01:19:29,890 --> 01:19:31,807
But he's my asshole."

1451
01:19:31,975 --> 01:19:34,101
This week on
Siskel and Ebert and the Movies,

1452
01:19:34,269 --> 01:19:36,812
the science fiction adventure,
Robocop.

1453
01:19:36,980 --> 01:19:39,023
Why don't we do that again?

1454
01:19:39,191 --> 01:19:41,651
Did you know that for Gene,
speech is a second language?

1455
01:19:43,320 --> 01:19:46,155
Roger's first language is,

1456
01:19:46,323 --> 01:19:48,240
"Yes, I'll have apple pie
with my order."

1457
01:19:48,408 --> 01:19:50,159
He asks the McDonald's girl

1458
01:19:50,327 --> 01:19:52,453
if he can have apple pie
with the order,

1459
01:19:52,621 --> 01:19:54,288
before they ask him.

1460
01:19:54,456 --> 01:19:56,832
And you know what Gene says
when he goes into McDonald's?

1461
01:19:57,000 --> 01:19:59,627
Can I have a apple
with thei... with their order?

1462
01:20:02,798 --> 01:20:04,924
Okay, ready?

1463
01:20:05,092 --> 01:20:08,803
You know they don't get enough shit
basically raw. They don't.

1464
01:20:08,971 --> 01:20:10,554
They don't.
They're called yuppies now.

1465
01:20:10,722 --> 01:20:13,766
They run the goddamn country,
and all of us, all of our...

1466
01:20:13,934 --> 01:20:16,352
I'm speaking to everyone
who's eavesdropping right now.

1467
01:20:16,520 --> 01:20:19,146
Come on, band together, people,
let's overthrow the country.

1468
01:20:19,314 --> 01:20:21,315
Protestants, people
who sort of want a religion.

1469
01:20:21,483 --> 01:20:22,650
- Let's stick together.
- I know...

1470
01:20:22,818 --> 01:20:24,026
The Catholics
and the fucking Jews,

1471
01:20:24,194 --> 01:20:25,361
we go back a few years together.

1472
01:20:25,529 --> 01:20:27,154
Come on, we're real.

1473
01:20:27,322 --> 01:20:29,031
We're real.
We get down and get dirty.

1474
01:20:29,199 --> 01:20:30,825
- I'll take it.
- We were burning each other

1475
01:20:30,993 --> 01:20:33,285
when Martin Luther was only
a gleam in his mother's eye.

1476
01:20:33,453 --> 01:20:35,246
I'll take a Bap...
I'll take a Baptist.

1477
01:20:35,414 --> 01:20:37,039
I go back 6,000 years.

1478
01:20:37,207 --> 01:20:40,126
I mean Ba... Somebody that
has some goddamn passion,

1479
01:20:40,293 --> 01:20:41,711
some blood coursing
through their veins.

1480
01:20:41,878 --> 01:20:43,170
- Case closed.
- Anything.

1481
01:20:43,338 --> 01:20:44,213
Right.

1482
01:20:44,381 --> 01:20:47,008
Steve Martin's new comedy,
Roxanne.

1483
01:20:47,175 --> 01:20:49,218
This week on
Siskel and Ebert and the Movies.

1484
01:20:49,386 --> 01:20:50,886
You said it a little too fast.

1485
01:20:51,054 --> 01:20:55,182
The greatest day for Gene
was when Roger came in

1486
01:20:55,350 --> 01:20:58,102
to say that
he was going to get married.

1487
01:20:58,270 --> 01:21:00,354
I remember Gene saying to me,

1488
01:21:00,522 --> 01:21:02,898
"Can you believe
this is happening?"

1489
01:21:03,066 --> 01:21:05,067
He's gonna have a mortgage.

1490
01:21:05,235 --> 01:21:06,986
He's gonna have
to buy furniture.

1491
01:21:07,154 --> 01:21:08,654
He's gonna have
all the same things

1492
01:21:08,822 --> 01:21:10,322
that we do
to have to deal with.

1493
01:21:10,490 --> 01:21:12,491
He's gonna need the show.

1494
01:21:12,659 --> 01:21:14,285
He'll never leave now.

1495
01:21:16,121 --> 01:21:18,664
Chaz was probably
more life-altering

1496
01:21:18,790 --> 01:21:21,083
for him than his TV show.

1497
01:21:21,251 --> 01:21:24,253
She really, really liked him

1498
01:21:24,421 --> 01:21:27,548
for what he was
and not who he was.

1499
01:21:27,716 --> 01:21:32,053
She changed
his life immeasurably.

1500
01:21:32,220 --> 01:21:34,472
She changed his personality.

1501
01:21:34,639 --> 01:21:37,183
Hey, I was eight months pregnant
and Roger

1502
01:21:37,350 --> 01:21:40,186
grabbed the cab
in front of me in New York.

1503
01:21:40,353 --> 01:21:43,230
It's not that kind of guy now.

1504
01:21:44,649 --> 01:21:46,692
I think Gene was so happy

1505
01:21:46,860 --> 01:21:50,821
that Roger found his mate.

1506
01:21:50,989 --> 01:21:55,284
He was 50 years old
when we got married.

1507
01:21:55,452 --> 01:21:57,286
He used to tell me,

1508
01:21:57,454 --> 01:22:01,957
"I waited just about
all my life to find you.

1509
01:22:02,125 --> 01:22:03,959
And I'm glad I did.

1510
01:22:04,127 --> 01:22:05,878
And I'm never
gonna let you go."

1511
01:22:06,046 --> 01:22:07,671
I mean...

1512
01:22:14,596 --> 01:22:18,390
Our wedding
was like a fairytale.

1513
01:22:18,558 --> 01:22:21,435
Gene Siskel's
daughters Kate and Kali,

1514
01:22:21,603 --> 01:22:24,980
they were our beautiful
little flower girls.

1515
01:22:25,148 --> 01:22:29,610
And Roger's idea of a wedding
was like Father of the Bride,

1516
01:22:29,778 --> 01:22:31,737
where the father says,

1517
01:22:31,905 --> 01:22:34,073
"Can't you just have the wedding
in the backyard

1518
01:22:34,241 --> 01:22:36,700
and put some brats on the grill?"

1519
01:22:42,833 --> 01:22:46,794
People who knew me then
would be very surprised

1520
01:22:46,962 --> 01:22:49,338
that I would marry
a white man...

1521
01:22:50,507 --> 01:22:53,717
because I felt that
African-American men had gotten

1522
01:22:53,885 --> 01:22:56,971
such a raw deal
in this society.

1523
01:22:57,139 --> 01:23:01,475
In college, I was the head
of the black student union.

1524
01:23:01,643 --> 01:23:05,062
I marched with Martin Luther King.

1525
01:23:05,230 --> 01:23:07,189
I talked to my mother about it.

1526
01:23:07,357 --> 01:23:09,984
"Mom, what do you think
people would say,"

1527
01:23:10,152 --> 01:23:12,611
and she said,
"Doesn't matter, doesn't matter.

1528
01:23:12,779 --> 01:23:16,198
What do you say?
What does your heart say?"

1529
01:23:16,366 --> 01:23:19,076
Chaz and Roger,
you have come together

1530
01:23:19,244 --> 01:23:21,162
according to God's wonderful plan...

1531
01:23:21,329 --> 01:23:23,873
And as sophisticated
as Roger was,

1532
01:23:24,040 --> 01:23:27,751
he didn't know
how his family would take this.

1533
01:23:27,919 --> 01:23:29,545
He used to say,

1534
01:23:29,713 --> 01:23:34,508
"You know, maybe my Uncle Bill, um...

1535
01:23:34,676 --> 01:23:38,262
or my Aunt Mary, you know,
because you're not Catholic."

1536
01:23:38,430 --> 01:23:40,890
I said, "Roger, come on,

1537
01:23:41,057 --> 01:23:44,059
if we're gonna have this
relationship, we have to be serious.

1538
01:23:44,227 --> 01:23:47,521
Not Catholic, or not white?"

1539
01:23:47,689 --> 01:23:50,274
He said, "Yeah, probably
some of that too."

1540
01:23:57,157 --> 01:23:58,949
After a while though,

1541
01:23:59,117 --> 01:24:02,161
his family accepted me
with open arms.

1542
01:24:04,080 --> 01:24:07,958
He was on
a lifelong quest for love.

1543
01:24:08,126 --> 01:24:10,169
He found romantic love
with Chaz.

1544
01:24:10,337 --> 01:24:12,630
Hey, I'm just
about to beat up...

1545
01:24:12,797 --> 01:24:16,383
And he loved that family,
her kids and her grandkids.

1546
01:24:16,551 --> 01:24:18,427
Hey, you better not
drool on me.

1547
01:24:18,595 --> 01:24:21,180
Oh, he fit right in,
I mean, perfectly.

1548
01:24:21,348 --> 01:24:25,184
Grandpa Roger.
Grandpa Roger.

1549
01:24:25,352 --> 01:24:27,311
Oh, I forgot
what I was gonna say.

1550
01:24:27,562 --> 01:24:29,313
There were no strangers
in her family.

1551
01:24:29,481 --> 01:24:32,358
- Howdy, cowboy!
- I love and am loved.

1552
01:24:32,525 --> 01:24:33,776
Okay, try to get that pole.

1553
01:24:33,944 --> 01:24:35,527
And as a member
of another race,

1554
01:24:35,695 --> 01:24:38,989
I have, without exception,
been accepted and embraced.

1555
01:24:39,991 --> 01:24:42,243
The greatest pleasure
came from annual trips

1556
01:24:42,410 --> 01:24:45,371
we made with our grandchildren,
Raven, Emile, and Taylor,

1557
01:24:45,538 --> 01:24:47,498
and their parents,
Sonya and Mark,

1558
01:24:47,666 --> 01:24:50,084
where we made our way
from Budapest to Prague,

1559
01:24:50,252 --> 01:24:52,878
Vienna,
Hawai'i, Los Angeles,

1560
01:24:53,046 --> 01:24:56,924
London, Paris,
Venice twice, and Stockholm.

1561
01:24:57,092 --> 01:25:00,219
What do you have
to say about the trip?

1562
01:25:00,387 --> 01:25:01,887
We are having
a wonderful time,

1563
01:25:02,055 --> 01:25:04,306
and right now we're
about to take the garden walk,

1564
01:25:04,474 --> 01:25:07,184
which is a great tradition
of all of our vacations

1565
01:25:07,352 --> 01:25:09,270
when we go on nature walks.

1566
01:25:09,437 --> 01:25:11,146
Emile announced that, for him,

1567
01:25:11,314 --> 01:25:13,732
there was no such thing
as getting up too early.

1568
01:25:13,900 --> 01:25:16,986
And every morning, the two of us
would meet in the hotel lobby

1569
01:25:17,153 --> 01:25:18,862
and go out
for long walks together.

1570
01:25:19,030 --> 01:25:20,656
And there are some flowers.

1571
01:25:20,824 --> 01:25:23,659
One morning in Budapest,
he asked me to take a photo

1572
01:25:23,827 --> 01:25:26,537
of two people walking
ahead of us and holding hands.

1573
01:25:26,705 --> 01:25:28,580
"Why?"

1574
01:25:28,748 --> 01:25:30,666
"Because they look happy."

1575
01:25:35,547 --> 01:25:37,506
Those times seem more precious

1576
01:25:37,674 --> 01:25:40,426
now that they're in the past.

1577
01:25:40,593 --> 01:25:43,304
I don't walk easily anymore.

1578
01:25:55,358 --> 01:25:57,359
Nice job, Roger.

1579
01:26:00,530 --> 01:26:02,156
Beautiful.

1580
01:26:04,909 --> 01:26:06,618
One more step.

1581
01:26:16,379 --> 01:26:20,132
I walked everyday in the years
before my troubles,

1582
01:26:20,300 --> 01:26:23,344
aiming for 10,000 steps
with a pedometer.

1583
01:26:24,679 --> 01:26:28,182
The Caldwell Lily pond
had a special serenity.

1584
01:26:29,559 --> 01:26:32,436
I usually had it to myself.

1585
01:26:33,521 --> 01:26:35,564
I chose it
as the perfect location

1586
01:26:35,732 --> 01:26:38,609
to make a little film
featuring my friend Bill Nack

1587
01:26:38,777 --> 01:26:42,488
reciting the last page
of The Great Gatsby,

1588
01:26:42,655 --> 01:26:45,491
which he has recited to me
several times annually

1589
01:26:45,658 --> 01:26:48,952
since we first met
in the 1960s.

1590
01:26:49,120 --> 01:26:50,579
"It's vanished trees,

1591
01:26:50,747 --> 01:26:52,998
the trees that had made way
for Gatsby's house,

1592
01:26:53,166 --> 01:26:54,541
had once pandered in whispers

1593
01:26:54,709 --> 01:26:57,503
to the last and greatest
of all human dreams..."

1594
01:26:57,712 --> 01:26:58,837
Every time I see Bill,

1595
01:26:59,297 --> 01:27:01,465
I ask him to recite for me,
from memory,

1596
01:27:01,591 --> 01:27:04,802
the closing words of Gatsby.
And every time, he does.

1597
01:27:04,969 --> 01:27:06,929
"Compelled into
an aesthetic contemplation...

1598
01:27:07,097 --> 01:27:09,640
...he neither understood
nor desired.

1599
01:27:09,808 --> 01:27:12,309
Face to face
for the last time in history,

1600
01:27:12,477 --> 01:27:16,146
with something commensurate
to his capacity for wonder..."

1601
01:27:16,314 --> 01:27:18,732
We're both conscious
of the passage of time,

1602
01:27:18,900 --> 01:27:21,527
of its flow,
slipping through our fingers,

1603
01:27:21,694 --> 01:27:23,862
like a long silk scarf.

1604
01:27:24,030 --> 01:27:27,282
I think this was Roger's favorite
passage from all of literature.

1605
01:27:28,410 --> 01:27:31,620
It was really a passage
about the American Dream.

1606
01:27:31,788 --> 01:27:33,956
You can be anything you want.

1607
01:27:34,124 --> 01:27:37,668
You know, Roger went from this
small town kid in Urbana

1608
01:27:37,836 --> 01:27:40,003
to this huge national celebrity.

1609
01:27:40,171 --> 01:27:43,340
His father was an electrician.
His mother was a housewife.

1610
01:27:45,009 --> 01:27:49,596
But I think The Great Gatsby
was also, for Roger, about death.

1611
01:27:49,764 --> 01:27:52,433
Death might have
obsessed him a bit.

1612
01:27:52,600 --> 01:27:55,602
You know, his father died
fairly young.

1613
01:27:55,770 --> 01:27:57,855
I knew he adored him.

1614
01:28:09,742 --> 01:28:12,953
There's an inescapable
parallel between us.

1615
01:28:13,121 --> 01:28:16,081
Both my father and I have cancer.

1616
01:28:16,249 --> 01:28:18,083
My disease may have been started

1617
01:28:18,251 --> 01:28:21,753
by childhood radiation treatments
for an ear infection.

1618
01:28:21,921 --> 01:28:24,715
I got those
because they loved me.

1619
01:28:24,883 --> 01:28:27,801
In my case,
recently discovered tumors

1620
01:28:27,969 --> 01:28:30,679
of the spine have metastasized.

1621
01:28:32,682 --> 01:28:34,558
The doctor said
it was these tumors

1622
01:28:34,726 --> 01:28:36,351
that caused the hip fracture.

1623
01:28:36,519 --> 01:28:38,395
Roger emailed me
that sharing the news

1624
01:28:38,563 --> 01:28:41,857
of the cancer's return
could anger Chaz.

1625
01:28:58,875 --> 01:29:01,084
We don't know.

1626
01:29:01,252 --> 01:29:04,671
We haven't really
fully discussed this.

1627
01:29:04,839 --> 01:29:08,675
It's so new that we,
we really don't know,

1628
01:29:08,843 --> 01:29:11,762
and I'm uncomfortable
talking about it.

1629
01:29:11,930 --> 01:29:13,847
Just sort of
taking it a day at a time,

1630
01:29:14,015 --> 01:29:16,058
like I do everything else.

1631
01:29:16,226 --> 01:29:19,728
So, what do the doctors say?

1632
01:29:19,896 --> 01:29:22,105
Six to sixteen months.

1633
01:29:23,733 --> 01:29:27,653
It is likely I will have passed
when the film is ready.

1634
01:29:30,865 --> 01:29:32,407
We'll see.

1635
01:29:32,575 --> 01:29:35,035
The radiation
could do its job so well

1636
01:29:35,203 --> 01:29:38,956
that he's around a lot longer.

1637
01:29:44,337 --> 01:29:50,133
So we'll have the radiation,
and we'll hope for the best.

1638
01:29:51,678 --> 01:29:55,097
I mean, here he is in 2013,

1639
01:29:55,265 --> 01:29:58,600
and in 2006,
there were times when they said

1640
01:29:58,768 --> 01:30:01,436
he wouldn't be here
the next day, so...

1641
01:30:02,939 --> 01:30:05,482
I have no fear of death.

1642
01:30:05,650 --> 01:30:07,776
We all die.

1643
01:30:07,944 --> 01:30:11,822
I consider my remaining days
to be like money in the bank.

1644
01:30:11,990 --> 01:30:15,325
When it is all gone,
I will be repossessed.

1645
01:30:16,869 --> 01:30:19,246
When the pain gets
to be unbearable,

1646
01:30:19,414 --> 01:30:22,040
I may not be so jolly.

1647
01:30:22,208 --> 01:30:24,626
My senior English teacher asked me,

1648
01:30:24,794 --> 01:30:28,171
"Ebert, why are you always
writing about death?"

1649
01:30:28,339 --> 01:30:31,633
I think it began
in Catholic grade school

1650
01:30:31,801 --> 01:30:35,345
where they place so much attention
on mortal sin and dying.

1651
01:30:35,513 --> 01:30:38,807
I found it kind of exciting.

1652
01:30:38,975 --> 01:30:41,560
I would have been infuriated
if I missed this

1653
01:30:41,728 --> 01:30:44,771
because of an accident,
or sudden death.

1654
01:30:44,939 --> 01:30:48,442
This is the third act
and it is an experience.

1655
01:30:50,987 --> 01:30:54,281
So you see, little Ebert
has always been a macabre sort.

1656
01:30:54,449 --> 01:30:57,367
Most people probably
don't know that about him.

1657
01:30:57,535 --> 01:31:01,496
Maybe that's why he's jolly,
maybe it's just like, "Okay!"

1658
01:31:06,002 --> 01:31:07,878
It makes for a better story.

1659
01:31:25,313 --> 01:31:27,814
"Gatsby believed
in the green light

1660
01:31:27,982 --> 01:31:31,276
and the orgiastic future that
year by year recedes before us.

1661
01:31:31,444 --> 01:31:33,570
It eluded us then,
but that's no matter...

1662
01:31:33,738 --> 01:31:36,531
tomorrow,
tomorrow we will run faster,

1663
01:31:36,699 --> 01:31:38,325
stretch out our arms farther,

1664
01:31:38,493 --> 01:31:42,204
and one fine morning
so we beat on.

1665
01:31:42,372 --> 01:31:43,955
Boats against the current,

1666
01:31:44,123 --> 01:31:47,751
borne back ceaselessly
into the past."

1667
01:31:58,137 --> 01:32:02,474
On April 30th, 1998,

1668
01:32:02,642 --> 01:32:05,686
Gene was asked to throw out
the first ball of the season

1669
01:32:05,853 --> 01:32:07,854
at the White Sox game.

1670
01:32:08,022 --> 01:32:12,567
And he had had a headache
for some weeks.

1671
01:32:12,735 --> 01:32:16,780
May 8th, he was diagnosed,

1672
01:32:16,948 --> 01:32:19,991
terminal brain cancer.

1673
01:32:20,159 --> 01:32:23,995
And, um, pretty much...

1674
01:32:25,540 --> 01:32:27,624
you don't live more than a year.

1675
01:32:27,792 --> 01:32:32,254
But on April 30th,
he threw out a damn good pitch.

1676
01:32:34,382 --> 01:32:37,217
He didn't really want
the folks at Disney

1677
01:32:37,385 --> 01:32:40,679
to know how sick he was.

1678
01:32:40,847 --> 01:32:45,100
He was afraid that if they heard
the words "brain tumor,"

1679
01:32:45,268 --> 01:32:48,770
they would put in
a substitute for him,

1680
01:32:48,938 --> 01:32:50,772
and that would be the end.

1681
01:32:50,940 --> 01:32:52,983
Our mothers knew,

1682
01:32:53,151 --> 01:32:54,693
and Gene's siblings,

1683
01:32:54,861 --> 01:32:56,945
and my two sisters knew.

1684
01:32:57,113 --> 01:32:58,488
That's it.

1685
01:32:58,656 --> 01:33:00,949
And Roger didn't know.

1686
01:33:01,117 --> 01:33:04,703
And that really wounded Roger.

1687
01:33:04,871 --> 01:33:07,831
I don't think it's that he
didn't trust Roger personally.

1688
01:33:07,999 --> 01:33:09,708
Nonetheless, when something
like that happens,

1689
01:33:09,876 --> 01:33:12,461
you take it personally, how else
is there to take it, you know.

1690
01:33:13,588 --> 01:33:17,090
Even though he may have been
a few years older than Gene,

1691
01:33:17,258 --> 01:33:21,470
Gene was like
the older brother he never had.

1692
01:33:21,637 --> 01:33:25,015
And I was so sad for Roger for not...

1693
01:33:25,183 --> 01:33:28,560
Really, for not being able
to tell his brother goodbye.

1694
01:33:28,728 --> 01:33:31,605
Gene didn't want to be seen
as a victim.

1695
01:33:31,773 --> 01:33:34,900
But more importantly,
he didn't want

1696
01:33:35,067 --> 01:33:39,946
to watch the effect
of his dying on his children.

1697
01:33:40,114 --> 01:33:43,992
And my children celebrated
many things that year,

1698
01:33:44,160 --> 01:33:47,829
and had a happy year,

1699
01:33:47,997 --> 01:33:50,248
instead of watching the clock,

1700
01:33:50,416 --> 01:33:52,417
which they would've done.

1701
01:33:53,878 --> 01:33:56,004
He wanted to do
just what he was doing.

1702
01:33:56,172 --> 01:33:58,298
He wanted to be with his family,

1703
01:33:58,466 --> 01:34:00,467
and go back to work.

1704
01:34:00,635 --> 01:34:02,010
Our next film
is Meet the Deedles.

1705
01:34:02,178 --> 01:34:05,013
And boy, is this
an annoying experience.

1706
01:34:05,181 --> 01:34:07,474
To the point that from now on,
for the rest of my life,

1707
01:34:07,642 --> 01:34:10,268
I may have a negative physical
reaction to hearing the word...

1708
01:34:10,436 --> 01:34:12,270
Well, it's the title word
in the film.

1709
01:34:12,438 --> 01:34:14,481
- Deedles?
- Oh. Roger, don't.

1710
01:34:14,649 --> 01:34:18,568
Toward the end, I said,
"We should go see him."

1711
01:34:18,736 --> 01:34:23,240
And we were gonna go
and visit him that Monday,

1712
01:34:23,407 --> 01:34:26,368
but he passed away
that Saturday.

1713
01:34:28,663 --> 01:34:32,541
It was a friendship
that he cherished,

1714
01:34:32,708 --> 01:34:35,502
and it was a horrible pain for him.

1715
01:34:37,964 --> 01:34:39,881
This year
on Gene's birthday,

1716
01:34:40,049 --> 01:34:44,344
Roger tweeted
every hour on the hour

1717
01:34:44,512 --> 01:34:48,306
with links to memories high and low.

1718
01:34:48,474 --> 01:34:52,686
I was really touched,
and I wrote him a thank you,

1719
01:34:52,854 --> 01:34:55,981
and he sent me this response.

1720
01:34:56,148 --> 01:34:59,109
"Dear Marlene,
I'm sick and old

1721
01:34:59,277 --> 01:35:02,279
and find myself thinking
about Gene more than ever.

1722
01:35:02,446 --> 01:35:07,117
My stupid ego and maybe his,
complicated the fact

1723
01:35:07,285 --> 01:35:11,079
that I have never met
a smarter or funnier man.

1724
01:35:11,247 --> 01:35:13,748
We fought like cats and dogs.

1725
01:35:13,916 --> 01:35:16,710
But there were times
often unobserved,

1726
01:35:16,878 --> 01:35:20,922
like after a long hotel dinner
we had once in Boston,

1727
01:35:21,090 --> 01:35:23,967
when I've never felt closer
to a man."

1728
01:35:26,178 --> 01:35:29,973
I think
their relationship evolved.

1729
01:35:30,141 --> 01:35:33,143
They grew to respect each other.

1730
01:35:33,311 --> 01:35:36,062
And I do believe
they did love each other.

1731
01:35:39,317 --> 01:35:43,236
After Gene's funeral,
Roger vowed

1732
01:35:43,404 --> 01:35:46,239
that he was never gonna keep
any secrets about his health.

1733
01:35:46,407 --> 01:35:50,201
He said, "If anything like this
ever happens to me,

1734
01:35:50,369 --> 01:35:52,245
I don't want to hide it,

1735
01:35:52,413 --> 01:35:56,833
especially from the people
who mean something to us."

1736
01:35:57,001 --> 01:35:59,628
I've been coming
to this conference for 35 years,

1737
01:35:59,795 --> 01:36:04,466
and this morning I confessed
that I am a sick person.

1738
01:36:04,634 --> 01:36:07,510
About two and a half
or three years ago,

1739
01:36:07,678 --> 01:36:10,096
I found a lump under my chin,
and I went to the doctor,

1740
01:36:10,264 --> 01:36:13,016
and it turned out to be
associated with thyroid cancer.

1741
01:36:13,184 --> 01:36:17,729
He was in the hospital
maybe two days at the most,

1742
01:36:17,897 --> 01:36:19,397
ready to get out.

1743
01:36:19,565 --> 01:36:22,275
Went back to the show.
He's such an optimist.

1744
01:36:22,443 --> 01:36:26,696
And he thought, this was
probably the end of it.

1745
01:36:26,864 --> 01:36:29,532
We didn't know that was
just the warm up act.

1746
01:36:30,910 --> 01:36:33,912
A few years later,
I went in for a routine scan

1747
01:36:34,080 --> 01:36:36,039
to check for any new problems.

1748
01:36:36,207 --> 01:36:38,124
The news was not good.

1749
01:36:38,292 --> 01:36:41,461
Cancer had been seen
in my right lower jawbone.

1750
01:36:41,629 --> 01:36:44,089
Again he had surgery.

1751
01:36:44,256 --> 01:36:46,257
We were going home.

1752
01:36:46,425 --> 01:36:51,554
We were all packed up and ready
to go home just like today.

1753
01:36:51,722 --> 01:36:54,140
Chaz and I
had a Leonard Cohen song

1754
01:36:54,308 --> 01:36:57,560
we both really liked
called I'm Your Man.

1755
01:36:57,728 --> 01:37:01,940
It's sort of long but I wanted
to play it one last time.

1756
01:37:21,794 --> 01:37:23,169
As it was playing,

1757
01:37:23,337 --> 01:37:26,214
I had a sudden hemorrhage
of an artery.

1758
01:37:26,382 --> 01:37:29,509
The doctors rushed me
into the operating room.

1759
01:37:29,677 --> 01:37:31,970
The whole thing had burst.

1760
01:37:32,138 --> 01:37:36,099
His neck,
it just was gushing blood.

1761
01:37:36,267 --> 01:37:38,852
There was about 15 doctors
standing there.

1762
01:37:39,020 --> 01:37:42,856
They were grabbing towels, squeezing
to get the blood stopped, and...

1763
01:37:44,316 --> 01:37:47,235
If he hadn't been
playing that song,

1764
01:37:47,403 --> 01:37:49,738
we would've been out
of the hospital already.

1765
01:37:49,905 --> 01:37:52,240
If that song
had been shorter

1766
01:37:52,408 --> 01:37:55,410
and I had left,
I would be dead.

1767
01:38:04,962 --> 01:38:06,421
Bye-bye.

1768
01:38:15,473 --> 01:38:17,724
"Probable. Workable."

1769
01:38:41,791 --> 01:38:46,086
We are told the next surgery
will not be life threatening.

1770
01:38:46,253 --> 01:38:48,004
The perfect ending would be

1771
01:38:48,172 --> 01:38:51,091
that I regain
the ability to speak well,

1772
01:38:51,258 --> 01:38:53,593
eat and drink,
but I would settle

1773
01:38:53,761 --> 01:38:57,305
for drinking coffee
and having milkshakes.

1774
01:38:57,473 --> 01:39:00,308
There were
a series of surgeries,

1775
01:39:00,476 --> 01:39:03,728
and his plan
was to return to the show,

1776
01:39:03,896 --> 01:39:06,022
to return to broadcasting.

1777
01:39:06,190 --> 01:39:08,316
It is a major surgery.

1778
01:39:08,484 --> 01:39:09,984
Yes, it is.

1779
01:39:10,152 --> 01:39:12,445
Is it worth it?

1780
01:39:19,328 --> 01:39:20,787
Excuse me.

1781
01:39:27,461 --> 01:39:30,964
He's very brave about it,
but I'm not.

1782
01:39:31,132 --> 01:39:33,341
I think it's going to be successful

1783
01:39:33,509 --> 01:39:36,094
and everything's
gonna turn out fine.

1784
01:39:38,139 --> 01:39:41,975
And the first day or two
he looked in the mirror...

1785
01:39:44,395 --> 01:39:46,896
he was very pleased
with what he saw.

1786
01:39:48,774 --> 01:39:51,192
But just like
all the other surgeries,

1787
01:39:51,360 --> 01:39:54,863
there was an infection
and they had to undo everything.

1788
01:39:56,824 --> 01:40:00,326
That left him
more debilitated than ever,

1789
01:40:00,494 --> 01:40:03,663
and he just decided
no more surgeries.

1790
01:40:03,831 --> 01:40:05,623
No more.

1791
01:40:07,543 --> 01:40:09,836
Roger's not one
to look back and say,

1792
01:40:10,004 --> 01:40:13,006
"Oh, coulda, woulda, shoulda."

1793
01:40:13,174 --> 01:40:17,135
But there were times
when he wrote a note that said,

1794
01:40:17,303 --> 01:40:19,387
"Kill me."

1795
01:40:19,555 --> 01:40:22,056
I mean, I have that note.

1796
01:40:22,224 --> 01:40:24,225
"Kill me."

1797
01:40:24,393 --> 01:40:28,021
And I said, "No. No."

1798
01:40:31,317 --> 01:40:34,652
I told him
that was not an option.

1799
01:40:46,290 --> 01:40:49,209
Oh, you want to walk
until there, or you wanna?

1800
01:40:49,376 --> 01:40:50,418
Okay.

1801
01:40:50,586 --> 01:40:53,838
But you know, getting
over there, over that bump...

1802
01:40:57,509 --> 01:41:00,762
Okay, who's gonna help him stand
to go up to the stairs?

1803
01:41:00,930 --> 01:41:02,889
I know he wants
to write instructions.

1804
01:41:03,057 --> 01:41:04,766
Do you want the walker?

1805
01:41:04,934 --> 01:41:06,601
Yes or no,
do you want the walker? No.

1806
01:41:06,769 --> 01:41:09,062
Okay, then let's get...

1807
01:41:10,231 --> 01:41:12,315
Yeah, but we have
to get up and get going.

1808
01:41:14,151 --> 01:41:16,444
People would say,
"Don't you get tired?"

1809
01:41:17,112 --> 01:41:18,821
You have to trust us.

1810
01:41:18,989 --> 01:41:21,366
You have to trust that
we know what we're doing.

1811
01:41:21,533 --> 01:41:23,117
Yeah, I get tired sometimes.

1812
01:41:23,285 --> 01:41:25,912
"Move this chair
so it faces stairs."

1813
01:41:26,080 --> 01:41:29,165
You know, no, no, guess what,
it's a few steps.

1814
01:41:29,333 --> 01:41:32,418
You can get out of the chair
and you can walk up the stairs.

1815
01:41:32,586 --> 01:41:34,545
That's what you've
been practicing every day.

1816
01:41:34,713 --> 01:41:36,339
You can do this.

1817
01:41:36,507 --> 01:41:38,633
But I never got so tired

1818
01:41:38,801 --> 01:41:40,176
that I wanted to give up.

1819
01:41:40,344 --> 01:41:42,053
Come on, Uncle Roger.

1820
01:41:42,221 --> 01:41:45,181
No, he's not gonna do that.
Let me handle it, please.

1821
01:41:45,349 --> 01:41:47,684
I'm gonna pull
the chair out of the way.

1822
01:41:47,851 --> 01:41:50,019
There's so many people
out there

1823
01:41:50,187 --> 01:41:53,481
taking care of people
who are sick or disabled.

1824
01:41:53,649 --> 01:41:57,485
We all go through
the whole gamut of emotions.

1825
01:41:57,653 --> 01:42:00,655
Two, three, up...

1826
01:42:00,823 --> 01:42:02,031
Okay, now hold.

1827
01:42:02,199 --> 01:42:03,616
You know,
it's been a long road.

1828
01:42:03,784 --> 01:42:05,868
- I think it's hard.
- All right.

1829
01:42:06,036 --> 01:42:08,788
It's always been hard,
but it's even harder now.

1830
01:42:11,667 --> 01:42:15,336
He calls her "my angel."
And he means it.

1831
01:42:15,504 --> 01:42:18,298
Valentine's Day wreath
I got for you.

1832
01:42:24,930 --> 01:42:26,889
This woman
never lost her love.

1833
01:42:27,057 --> 01:42:28,599
Now do you want to go upstairs?

1834
01:42:28,767 --> 01:42:31,519
She was always there
believing I could do it.

1835
01:42:31,687 --> 01:42:35,690
And her love was like a wind
pushing me back from the grave.

1836
01:42:35,858 --> 01:42:39,610
And I told him
if you promise me

1837
01:42:39,778 --> 01:42:42,071
that you will give it your all,

1838
01:42:42,239 --> 01:42:45,825
I promise you
that I will try to make life

1839
01:42:45,993 --> 01:42:47,827
as interesting for you as possible...

1840
01:42:49,496 --> 01:42:51,164
so that every day,

1841
01:42:51,332 --> 01:42:55,043
you have something
to look forward to.

1842
01:42:56,795 --> 01:42:59,839
How does it feel
to be back in your own chair?

1843
01:43:01,467 --> 01:43:02,717
Okay.

1844
01:43:02,885 --> 01:43:04,344
Today is a big day,

1845
01:43:04,511 --> 01:43:08,514
coming home after two months
is very difficult.

1846
01:43:08,682 --> 01:43:10,391
It's a joy,

1847
01:43:10,559 --> 01:43:13,186
but it's also very stressful.

1848
01:43:15,856 --> 01:43:18,399
"Especially for you."

1849
01:43:19,693 --> 01:43:21,652
Is that... Are you trying
to be a smart alec?

1850
01:43:21,820 --> 01:43:23,988
Are you trying
to be a smart alec?

1851
01:43:27,242 --> 01:43:29,243
We have a saying
in the Latino community,

1852
01:43:29,411 --> 01:43:30,912
"Make your heart your face."

1853
01:43:31,080 --> 01:43:34,123
Oh, now. Aw, okay.

1854
01:43:34,291 --> 01:43:36,542
More than anybody
I have ever known,

1855
01:43:36,710 --> 01:43:39,379
his heart is his face.

1856
01:43:39,546 --> 01:43:42,673
That photograph that was on the cover
of Esquire says it all.

1857
01:43:43,759 --> 01:43:46,135
This is me. Right?

1858
01:43:46,303 --> 01:43:49,097
And I want you to know

1859
01:43:49,264 --> 01:43:52,266
who I am
and what I'm going through.

1860
01:43:52,434 --> 01:43:55,228
I may have things
to be depressed about,

1861
01:43:55,396 --> 01:43:57,605
but I am not depressed.

1862
01:43:57,773 --> 01:44:00,024
My life seems full again.

1863
01:44:00,734 --> 01:44:02,485
Here we are full screen.

1864
01:44:02,653 --> 01:44:04,445
As we start
to bring the screen size down,

1865
01:44:04,613 --> 01:44:07,365
eventually getting
towards iPhone size,

1866
01:44:07,533 --> 01:44:10,326
it's gonna drop,
it's gonna break.

1867
01:44:10,494 --> 01:44:11,494
And now, look at this...

1868
01:44:11,662 --> 01:44:14,247
My attention is focused
on my new website,

1869
01:44:14,415 --> 01:44:17,208
which will provide a home
for my life's work

1870
01:44:17,376 --> 01:44:19,377
and has an enduring life
of its own.

1871
01:44:21,797 --> 01:44:24,132
"Josh, this is beyond
my wildest dreams."

1872
01:44:24,299 --> 01:44:26,926
Well, I'm glad.
I like to make you happy.

1873
01:44:27,094 --> 01:44:29,512
Roger has been
ahead of the curve,

1874
01:44:29,680 --> 01:44:32,974
becoming an early and massive
adopter of social media.

1875
01:44:33,142 --> 01:44:35,977
He has almost
800,000 followers on Twitter

1876
01:44:36,145 --> 01:44:37,645
and 100,000 followers
on Facebook.

1877
01:44:37,813 --> 01:44:40,523
"Nice links to IMDB
and Wikipedia."

1878
01:44:40,983 --> 01:44:42,692
If you look at
the other people who have

1879
01:44:42,860 --> 01:44:46,821
like 850,000 Twitter followers,
it's like Kardashians.

1880
01:44:46,989 --> 01:44:49,198
Beyond the search widget...

1881
01:44:49,366 --> 01:44:52,785
Right now, there's
an argument about the Internet.

1882
01:44:52,953 --> 01:44:56,247
Some people say
film criticism is at the end,

1883
01:44:56,415 --> 01:44:58,666
the art of cinema
is at the end.

1884
01:44:58,834 --> 01:45:01,335
Roger sees it
in a much more positive way.

1885
01:45:01,503 --> 01:45:03,171
It's a renaissance.

1886
01:45:03,338 --> 01:45:06,757
It's a renaissance in film
appreciation and film criticism.

1887
01:45:06,925 --> 01:45:09,343
The roving reporters
that he uses,

1888
01:45:09,511 --> 01:45:11,721
like on his blog,
for example,

1889
01:45:11,889 --> 01:45:15,850
is giving a critical birth
to lots of other points of view.

1890
01:45:16,018 --> 01:45:19,562
The passionate fan culture,
or movie geek culture,

1891
01:45:19,730 --> 01:45:22,106
that exists on the Internet,
when people are really,

1892
01:45:22,274 --> 01:45:23,524
get really, really worked up,

1893
01:45:23,692 --> 01:45:28,821
is something that the Siskel
and Ebert show helped to seed.

1894
01:45:28,989 --> 01:45:32,200
It follows from Roger's
understanding of criticism,

1895
01:45:32,367 --> 01:45:33,951
which is it's
a mode of conversation.

1896
01:45:34,119 --> 01:45:35,703
It's the public square.

1897
01:45:35,871 --> 01:45:37,788
This is allowing
your fans to access

1898
01:45:37,956 --> 01:45:40,750
this database of your reviews
going back to 1967

1899
01:45:40,918 --> 01:45:43,920
that has never been available
in this form before.

1900
01:45:45,422 --> 01:45:49,592
When I am writing, I am
the same person I always was.

1901
01:45:52,095 --> 01:45:55,932
In April 2008, I wrote
my first blog entry,

1902
01:45:56,099 --> 01:46:00,019
and began this current, and probably
final stage of my life.

1903
01:46:00,187 --> 01:46:03,314
My blog became my voice,
my outlet,

1904
01:46:03,482 --> 01:46:06,817
my social media in a way
I couldn't have dreamed of.

1905
01:46:06,985 --> 01:46:11,405
Into it, I poured my regrets,
desires and memories.

1906
01:46:11,573 --> 01:46:15,868
Most people choose to write a blog.
I needed to.

1907
01:46:16,036 --> 01:46:18,871
Racism was ingrained
in daily life.

1908
01:46:19,039 --> 01:46:21,582
It wasn't the overt racism
of the South,

1909
01:46:21,750 --> 01:46:23,501
but more like
the pervading background

1910
01:46:23,669 --> 01:46:25,962
against which we lived.
We were here...

1911
01:46:26,129 --> 01:46:28,839
I've never held a handgun in my life.

1912
01:46:29,007 --> 01:46:31,801
The theory is that
gun ownership makes us safer.

1913
01:46:31,969 --> 01:46:34,929
That doesn't seem
to be working out for us.

1914
01:46:35,097 --> 01:46:37,890
The body count rises.

1915
01:46:38,058 --> 01:46:41,394
He took all of that energy
he put into television,

1916
01:46:41,562 --> 01:46:43,896
and he transferred it
to his blog,

1917
01:46:44,064 --> 01:46:46,274
and the Internet,
and to his movie reviews,

1918
01:46:46,441 --> 01:46:49,360
and wrote better
than he ever had in his life.

1919
01:46:52,239 --> 01:46:53,739
Bless these boys.

1920
01:46:59,621 --> 01:47:03,082
I don't know when a film
has connected more immediately

1921
01:47:03,250 --> 01:47:05,334
with my own personal experience.

1922
01:47:05,502 --> 01:47:07,253
That's how you grow up.

1923
01:47:10,257 --> 01:47:14,343
Surrounded by the realms
of unimaginable time and space.

1924
01:47:16,054 --> 01:47:18,097
We are now seeing
the polymathic genius

1925
01:47:18,265 --> 01:47:21,809
that those of us
who knew Roger always saw.

1926
01:47:22,978 --> 01:47:25,354
His voice was stilled,

1927
01:47:25,522 --> 01:47:27,898
but of course
he's talking more than ever.

1928
01:47:30,986 --> 01:47:33,946
In the past 25 years,
I have probably seen

1929
01:47:34,114 --> 01:47:37,199
ten thousand movies, and
reviewed six thousand of them.

1930
01:47:37,367 --> 01:47:40,077
- She threw them there.
- I understand, but why?

1931
01:47:40,245 --> 01:47:43,497
I have forgotten
most of them, I hope.

1932
01:47:48,462 --> 01:47:51,589
But I remember
those worth remembering.

1933
01:47:53,342 --> 01:47:56,260
And they are on the same shelf
in my mind.

1934
01:47:57,095 --> 01:47:59,013
Look at a movie
that a lot of people love...

1935
01:47:59,181 --> 01:48:00,723
Match me, Sydney.

1936
01:48:00,891 --> 01:48:02,767
and you'll find
something profound...

1937
01:48:04,519 --> 01:48:06,687
no matter how silly
the film may seem.

1938
01:48:10,192 --> 01:48:13,736
Sing!

1939
01:48:13,945 --> 01:48:16,614
What I miss though,
is the wonder.

1940
01:48:16,782 --> 01:48:18,699
Open the pod bay doors, Hal.

1941
01:48:18,867 --> 01:48:21,619
People my age can remember
walking into a movie palace...

1942
01:48:21,787 --> 01:48:23,162
I'm sorry, Dave.

1943
01:48:23,330 --> 01:48:24,705
when the ceiling
was far overhead...

1944
01:48:24,873 --> 01:48:26,290
I'm afraid I can't do that.

1945
01:48:26,458 --> 01:48:28,959
balconies reached
way into the shadows.

1946
01:48:29,127 --> 01:48:31,128
We remember the sound
of a thousand people

1947
01:48:31,296 --> 01:48:33,047
laughing all at once,

1948
01:48:33,215 --> 01:48:35,216
and screens
the size of billboards,

1949
01:48:35,384 --> 01:48:38,761
so every seat in the house
was a good seat.

1950
01:48:38,929 --> 01:48:42,390
"I lost it at the movies,"
Pauline Kael said,

1951
01:48:42,557 --> 01:48:45,685
and we all knew
just what she meant.

1952
01:48:45,852 --> 01:48:47,520
Charles Foster Kane.

1953
01:48:53,068 --> 01:48:55,695
Only two days
after he'd returned home,

1954
01:48:55,862 --> 01:48:59,323
Roger was readmitted
to the hospital with pneumonia.

1955
01:48:59,491 --> 01:49:02,743
Chaz thought this was a brief
if frustrating setback,

1956
01:49:02,911 --> 01:49:05,329
and so Roger and I resumed
our email interview

1957
01:49:05,497 --> 01:49:09,208
with the plan to film him as soon
as he returned home again.

1958
01:49:09,376 --> 01:49:12,044
Roger was energetic
and answered questions

1959
01:49:12,212 --> 01:49:13,838
about a variety of subjects.

1960
01:49:15,882 --> 01:49:18,718
My favorite places in the city
are the used bookstores.

1961
01:49:18,885 --> 01:49:21,429
You can't get me out of one.

1962
01:49:24,599 --> 01:49:27,393
Those standard places
with standard menus

1963
01:49:27,561 --> 01:49:30,646
and breakfast 24 hours a day.

1964
01:49:33,483 --> 01:49:36,318
I asked him about one of
his most controversial reviews

1965
01:49:36,486 --> 01:49:38,738
for Blue Velvet,
and his moral indignation

1966
01:49:38,905 --> 01:49:40,322
at director David Lynch.

1967
01:49:40,490 --> 01:49:42,658
But he asked Isabella Rossellini
in this movie

1968
01:49:42,826 --> 01:49:44,994
to be undressed
and humiliated on the screen...

1969
01:49:58,467 --> 01:50:00,342
Drama holds a mirror up to life,

1970
01:50:00,510 --> 01:50:03,179
but needn't reproduce it.

1971
01:50:03,346 --> 01:50:07,516
Attempts to film Roger in
rehab were rebuffed by doctors.

1972
01:50:09,436 --> 01:50:13,773
Then suddenly one day his email
output slowed to a trickle.

1973
01:50:17,194 --> 01:50:19,987
I'm trying to figure out what
questions would engage you most fully.

1974
01:50:33,794 --> 01:50:38,506
Fearing the worst, I called
Chaz. She dissolved into tears.

1975
01:50:38,673 --> 01:50:41,217
Roger seemed determined
to give up.

1976
01:50:52,521 --> 01:50:57,066
He said he was beginning
to feel trapped inside.

1977
01:50:57,234 --> 01:51:01,570
And he said, "You know,
I don't wanna fight this time.

1978
01:51:01,738 --> 01:51:04,532
I don't wanna... I don't...
I don't wanna fight cancer."

1979
01:51:04,699 --> 01:51:06,283
He said, "I am ready to go.

1980
01:51:06,451 --> 01:51:11,413
I've had a beautiful life
and death is a part of life.

1981
01:51:11,581 --> 01:51:13,040
And I'm ready to go,

1982
01:51:13,208 --> 01:51:16,126
and you must let me go,
you must let me go."

1983
01:51:22,342 --> 01:51:25,970
He had signed a DNR,

1984
01:51:26,137 --> 01:51:28,681
a do not resuscitate order.

1985
01:51:30,976 --> 01:51:33,561
He signed it...

1986
01:51:33,728 --> 01:51:37,064
while I wasn't there one day.

1987
01:51:37,232 --> 01:51:40,192
And usually we make those kind
of decisions together.

1988
01:51:40,360 --> 01:51:44,071
But I think he knew...

1989
01:51:44,239 --> 01:51:46,907
that that wouldn't have been
my choice.

1990
01:51:49,369 --> 01:51:50,953
And so...

1991
01:51:52,539 --> 01:51:56,542
when we realized
that he was leaving

1992
01:51:56,710 --> 01:52:00,212
I wanted them to use
the defibrillator.

1993
01:52:00,380 --> 01:52:02,047
And they said no.

1994
01:52:11,725 --> 01:52:13,100
And short of going over

1995
01:52:13,268 --> 01:52:16,562
and taking it
and doing it myself, you know...

1996
01:52:23,153 --> 01:52:24,612
And I could've screamed

1997
01:52:24,779 --> 01:52:28,699
and made a fuss
and forced them to do it.

1998
01:52:28,867 --> 01:52:33,621
But you know what,
something came over me.

1999
01:52:33,788 --> 01:52:37,082
Roger calls it a wind of peace

2000
01:52:37,250 --> 01:52:39,418
just kind of flowed over me,

2001
01:52:39,586 --> 01:52:42,254
and I knew
it was time to accept it.

2002
01:52:43,840 --> 01:52:46,091
And accept that he was leaving.

2003
01:52:49,971 --> 01:52:51,555
And so...

2004
01:52:54,184 --> 01:52:59,104
I put on Dave Brubeck music
in the room.

2005
01:52:59,272 --> 01:53:01,106
And I had everyone
just settle down.

2006
01:53:04,027 --> 01:53:07,404
I was sitting next to his bed,

2007
01:53:07,572 --> 01:53:10,950
holding his left hand,

2008
01:53:11,117 --> 01:53:12,993
and other people
held my hand,

2009
01:53:13,161 --> 01:53:16,163
and gathered and formed a circle
around and held hands.

2010
01:53:18,917 --> 01:53:21,043
Until the doctor...

2011
01:53:23,129 --> 01:53:27,174
said that he was going
to call it,

2012
01:53:27,342 --> 01:53:30,761
1:40 p.m.
as the time of death.

2013
01:53:37,352 --> 01:53:41,730
I have never seen anything
so beautiful

2014
01:53:41,898 --> 01:53:44,274
and so serene.

2015
01:53:44,442 --> 01:53:47,528
It became... It was
so peaceful in that room.

2016
01:53:47,696 --> 01:53:50,197
And he... everything just...

2017
01:53:50,365 --> 01:53:52,574
everything just relaxed.

2018
01:53:52,742 --> 01:53:56,578
He looked young,
he looked happy,

2019
01:53:56,746 --> 01:54:00,165
and those warm hands,
and, you know...

2020
01:54:19,269 --> 01:54:21,687
What in the world
is a Leave of Presence?

2021
01:54:21,855 --> 01:54:25,858
It means I am not going away.

2022
01:54:26,067 --> 01:54:28,777
Forty-six years ago,
I became the film critic

2023
01:54:28,945 --> 01:54:31,363
for the Chicago Sun-Times.

2024
01:54:32,741 --> 01:54:36,076
However you came to know me,
I'm glad you did,

2025
01:54:36,244 --> 01:54:37,953
and thank you
for being the best readers

2026
01:54:38,121 --> 01:54:40,289
any film critic could ask for.

2027
01:54:47,130 --> 01:54:49,256
He had a heart big enough

2028
01:54:49,424 --> 01:54:51,717
to accept and love all.

2029
01:54:52,886 --> 01:54:55,763
I have to keep...
He loved this hat,

2030
01:54:55,930 --> 01:54:58,057
that's why I wore it today.

2031
01:55:00,852 --> 01:55:03,395
I felt that
as long as Roger was alive,

2032
01:55:03,563 --> 01:55:05,647
a little bit of Gene was too.

2033
01:55:05,815 --> 01:55:07,274
He was the first person I met

2034
01:55:07,442 --> 01:55:09,610
who actually walked out
of the television.

2035
01:55:19,329 --> 01:55:21,288
Famous people
have died before in Chicago.

2036
01:55:21,456 --> 01:55:23,082
Famous writers have died.

2037
01:55:24,542 --> 01:55:28,504
But what I thought
marked the stories about Roger

2038
01:55:28,671 --> 01:55:31,340
was a genuine affection.

2039
01:55:31,508 --> 01:55:33,842
I mean, thousands of people came out

2040
01:55:34,010 --> 01:55:37,096
and thousands more
wrote tributes on the Internet,

2041
01:55:37,263 --> 01:55:38,889
which are still continuing.

2042
01:55:55,240 --> 01:55:58,784
I like to walk down
on Hollywood Boulevard

2043
01:55:58,952 --> 01:56:02,079
because I know
it's his star coming.

2044
01:56:02,247 --> 01:56:04,414
I set my gaze straight,

2045
01:56:04,582 --> 01:56:07,793
I don't look down at the star.
I know it's coming.

2046
01:56:07,961 --> 01:56:12,631
Looking straight
at the horizon into the future.

2047
01:56:19,556 --> 01:56:22,933
So on this day of reflection,

2048
01:56:23,726 --> 01:56:27,396
I say thank you for going on
this journey with me.

2049
01:56:30,900 --> 01:56:33,318
I'll see you at the movies.