Directed by: Steve James.
In
the five years since I started the blog, I have never been secretive about the
influence that Roger Ebert has had on me – as someone who writes movie reviews,
and even as someone who loves movies. He was the first – and for many years,
pretty much the only – movie critic I read. As an aspiring cinephile, Roger
Ebert’s reviews – in the form of his Video Yearbooks – were a massive influence
– and I rented so many of the movies that made me fall in love with the art
form because of Roger Ebert. I hardly ever get that upset when famous people
die – but Ebert’s death in 2013 affected me greatly for weeks on end after I
found out. I finally decided to pick up his wonderful book – Life Itself –
about his life and career. It is a wonderful book – about movies, yes, but also
about, well, life. Steve James’ documentary covers much of – although not all
of – the same material – but also different stuff as well – namely the end of
Ebert’s life. They started filming just a few months before Ebert’s death – and
the result is a heartbreaking, inspiring, funny, sad, brilliant documentary.\
The
film jumps around in time a little bit – mixing a standard film biography, full
of well-chosen archival footage and interviews with Ebert’s friends and family
– with scenes of Ebert in the late stages of his life – mostly in the hospital.
He seems in good spirits – as does his wife Chaz – as both seem optimistic that
this latest treatment will work, and Ebert, who had already lost his ability to
speak, eat and drink – will survive for a little bit longer. He is determined
to keep working – he loves attending movies, loves writing about movies, and
loves his blog – and his readers. He’s already had a long career, and no one
would have blamed him for retiring – but for Ebert his work, and his wife, were
the reason he kept going. He doesn’t fear death, but as long as he’s alive, he
was going to keep working.
The
movie is an excellent portrait of Ebert’s life and career. Everything you could
want is covered here – not much about his childhood, but a lot about his early
years, as the editor of the student paper in university, to how he became a
film a critic, a lot about his partnership and friendship with Gene Siskel (and
nothing about Richard Roeper), his years as an alcoholic, he
recovery, his late marriage to Chaz – who became his whole world – and finally
his illness and death. All of it is covered with intelligence, humor and charm.
I’m not going to argue that the film is innovative cinematically – James sticks
to the standard documentary forum – but it’s a wholly entertaining package –
and provides enough information not covered in Ebert’s book that you’ll learn
some new things about the man.
But none of this explains why I think Life Itself is a
brilliant, even somewhat profound movie. That is harder to explain – but let me
try anyway. The film is a reminder of why we go to the movies, why we love them
– and why they matter. Ebert loved movies – and he never lost that love. With
many critics, eventually you sense that they’ve lost that love that got them
into the business in the first place – that they’ve grown cynical and dismiss
everything. Ebert never got to that point. Right up until the end, he clearly
loved movies – was clearly moved by them – and clearly poured that passion into
his reviews. Watching the film, that love comes through, and is infectious. Few
movies have the power to transport me back to the time that I fell in love with
the movie – but this is one of them. For much of the movie, I had a smile
plastered on my face.
The parts I didn’t have a smile on my face, I was on
the verge of tears. As Ebert was in the final months of his life, his relationship
with Chaz, his attempts at rehab, and mostly his attitude towards death and
dying was inspiring. I was reminded of one of my favorite movies – and the
movie Ebert said would be the first one he would watch if he was told he was
dying – Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru – where a bureaucrat is determined to do one
worthwhile thing before he dies. Both films are about death, but not in a
depressing way, but in an inspiring one,
Even if that still sounds depressing, let me assure
you that Life Itself is a treasure trove of entertaining moments – from some of
the great clips from Siskel & Ebert – and interviews with filmmakers who
inspired Ebert – and were in turn inspired by him – Martin Scorsese, who
credits a tribute at TIFF from Siskel &
Ebert for getting him through a tough time in his life, to Errol Morris
who credits their love of Gates of Heaven – and their undying support of it for
his entire career, to Werner Herzog who calls him a soldier of cinema to
relative newcomer Ramin Bahrani, who Ebert supported tirelessly. Steve James
himself is another director on that list – Siskel & Ebert`s love of Hoop
Dreams helped his career immensely.
Life Itself is a funny, sad, entertaining documentary
about a lot things from cinema to death to, of course, life. It is a great
documentary – even if you didn’t love Roger Ebert. But if you love movies, how
the hell could you not love Roger Ebert.
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