Roger Ebert interview on his Favorite Movies (2000)

no name no name is more synonymous with film criticism than Roger Ebert's he has been reviewing movies for his hometown paper the Chicago sun-times since 1967 in 1975 he became the first winner of the Pulitzer Prize in film criticism but it has been his work on television co-hosting a show with Gene Siskel that has made him a household name last year Gene Siskel his longtime friend and collaborator died and Roger Ebert made the difficult decision to continue the show after more than a year rotating co-host she has chosen fellow sun-times come Richard Roeper to sit across the aisle his latest book a collection of critical reviews is called I hated hated hated this movie I'm pleased to welcome Roger Ebert back to this table to talk about many things including movies he likes and hates nice to see you good to see you be let's talk about movies you like in summer movies okay yeah I love the perfect stool the perfect storm it's about a small boat and big waves it's very simple it's kind of like Jaws about a small boat in a big shark yes and because it's so elemental it's not really about a plot driven kind of situation what the characters will do the characters will do whatever they can do to stay alive and that's why it's so fascinating it doesn't it's out of their hands and the detail the way that it works the way that it looks on the screen we hear a lot about computer animation these days and when it works you shouldn't stop to think that it's animation or the special effects that wave at the end of the film apparently is about twice as high as a wave can possibly be in the real world and yet it looked so real and as he's trying and willing that boat to go up that wave how did you feel well the same way you did yeah yeah I mean I thought now that is what a film can do so this is really a this is the star of this film with Wolfgang Petersen yes and his special-effects people and then the actors are good too I think George Clooney is a good actor I did I loved him in three kings yeah I liked him there - he's what is it he has as an actor he has what a lot of the great durable stars have and that is and I know that he's a lot of people think he's very handsome and so forth he's kind of smooth he's like Harrison Ford or Gary Cooper he doesn't have a lot of edges for you to catch on he just kind of they're very dependable likeable you can identify with him Jimmy Stewart yeah his personality doesn't get in the way of who the character is supposed to be it just augments it the way that that movie got us identified with those characters in the beginning and what it said to me about fishing all made it more compelling as a film they get out there and you know exactly why they've gone out too late and why they've gone out too far - explains the really ice box breaks down now what are they going to do I mean I know what I would do but they're kind of and they don't have all the information they need Mary Elizabeth mastrantonio was trying to get to them with information about this storm and she can't and I gather I haven't read the book but you've probably talked about it yes um he just kind of figured out what would have happened right yes they have a certain amount of a trickle evidence and then they just kind of use their imagination and that's why I like that movie so much doesn't there was some they didn't go to a test audience that said Oh we'd like it better if it had enough be tending you know they just went with the story and that's why it's so successful Sebastian Junger did a very interesting thing he went to the director Wolfgang Petersen and he said listen just promise me promise me that if you somehow and it's your right you bought the rights to this book you can do what you want to with it but promise me if you allow one of these people to survive then you will change all the names because that would do grave injustice to them did you hear about this movie called messenger the story of Joan of Arc it came out earlier this year oh yeah I had never saw it but I heard that well it could qualify for this book you know that they showed it to test audiences who came out and marked the cards and said things like does she have to burn at the stake well I mean I think we have too many test audiences in this country and not enough directors who say this is the film I want to make it's finished here it is instead of people go I didn't like it that it ended that way and I want it to end happily and they should be together at the end or Joan shouldn't die or exactly or he has to have a love interest yeah otherwise it won't be our making every movie the same and of Cour if you ask an audience did you like the ending and somebody dies go say no because that was a nice person they didn't want them to die that doesn't mean it would be a better movie if they didn't die though I think that they're just taking it to one level or not looking into it a little more deeply I'm going to see a scene here just a moment from the perfect film in case you have not seen it while they set that scene up tell me what else you like most of in the summer movies you know I like this new Eddie Murphy movie Nutty Professor two of the clumps I don't think Eddie Murphy gets enough credit we take him for granted really plays six scenes there play six characters in the movie plus himself think about that there's a scene in this movie but there are five different people on screen and they're all being played by Eddie Murphy all in makeup combined with computer animation and what's amazing is they're all convincing they're all funny and we believe they're all around that table together I mean he really created a lot of original stuff with a lot of hard work in this movie and it's funny which is the only reason to go if doesn't make you laugh there's no reason to go but I don't know if Eddie Murphy really gets credit for that I think we take him for granted just like we take a lot of Jim Carrey's work for granted we don't take comedian seriously enough he's created a whole new career for himself you think in terms of versatility of his acting rather than simply being a stand-up comedian who's essentially doing stand-up he is an actor he was in this movie Steve Martin made last summer called Bowfinger where he plays a superstar and then he plays the super superstars goofy double who turns out to be his brother the double is a funnier character than the superstar he's just so a bass you want me to be in a movie oh I can't believe it he would do this kid would do anything to be in the movie including walking in traffic and the fact that he creates these two different characters you never think it's a stunt and everything Getty Murphy is you know just kind of doing it in order to get his name in the credits twice you believe there are two different people there on the screen when you review a movie how many times do you see it before you do the television program or you write your call usually only have a chance to see it once because they show it for the critics like a week or two in advance and then your deadline comes up and you write it for the sun-times and you do it on the TV show if I see a movie at a Film Festival I will almost always ask to see it again closer to the release date because you know since memory doesn't stay you know ideological memory when you get an idea you can keep it but if you are thrilled by a movie and 10 months go past you have to almost have that feeling again in order to be fresh to write the review do you take notes during gastly I always do I write in the dark I can't always read the notes but I take them alright take a look at this a scene from one of my favorite movies perfect storm and one of Rogers as well take a look all right thanks doc we're coming out alright let me talk about too much this summer they want to cover the book a scary movie a big box our thought it worked as a comedy and I thought that it functioned on that level what I was little startled by was the fact that it was really a raunchy raunchy movie it was a really hard R and a lot of parents I think were kind of surprised when they got their kids in there and I mean you know theoretically with an r-rated movie you're not supposed to take kids in uh and there were genitals and other stuff in there I mean people some of the little six year olds were kind of startled by some of the stuff they were like mommy what's that that's an example the MPAA will not come through with a genuine a rating for adults only and so we have more and more of this stuff being put into the art category and that's not fair to parents I don't roll tape I'm not sure we're gonna see on this tape but roll it scary movie big box office success Oh where's the foot we have to call the police no way I ain't going to jail okay I'm trying we'll get rid of the body oh come on hurry up the next movie I want to talk about it I also liked a lot gladiator do you like it no why not bad special effects made the gladiators look like they were members of the World Wrestling Federation well that's I never really believed the Colosseum was there I mean it's this shadowy indistinct thing in the background with today's special effects you could make it into a real Colosseum if you wanted to and I mean the dialogue was so you know like it was like it was like a bunch of wrestling Melissa take me away for a couple hours here I was escapist and I liked it well what had the heat of performances Pro is very good yes he's good something yes and maybe an Oscar performance no because it came out too early in the year we have a show about that coming up on our on our TV program yeah Oscar season starts at the Toronto Film Festival the second week in September right and probably 99% of all of the major Pictures nominated for now to be there probably all right so we wanted to go back into the year and look at some of the pictures but I think some of the pictures made this year that deserve to be nominated would include for example high fidelity did you see that oh I didn't everybody I know loves it that's a really uncommon yes yes that's a good movie so it seems like the Academy has no attention span and that if it hasn't open like today for October November December or the studio's want to promote movies that are still out there and still have some box office life in them whether the movies that have already gone to video that could have something to do with it too okay staying well then staying with this idea what did you think of Patriot I like Patriot I think that the British are right to be angry about it you know the British didn't commit atrocities like that the biggest atrocity in that movie was borrowed from the Nazis you know who put all the people in a French village into a church and burned it down the British never did that and in earlier you know when you 451 or you 541 whatever it was we captured the Enigma machine well the British captured the Enigma machine from the Nazis not us so they're sitting over there thinking we're rewriting all 20th century history and 19th century and 18th century in our favor it's not fair ah there's another but Mel Gibson was good in that movie I mean he's a very good actor and it was basically a very effective and a good story yes it was yeah and you knew what was that that was one of those movies where you just knew what was going to happen I mean I don't want to give it away but near the end you knew who was going to be killed and who was not going to be but you know Charlie spike Lee got a lot of flack for attacking that movie and what Spike Lee said was simply the truth I mean where were the people who are picking the cotton and where were the blacks and where were the slave slavery had lots more time to go at the time of the Revolutionary War and the one slave who you know he keeps if he'll if he'll serve his time then he gets to be a free man you know so he just comes on screen every 10 minutes to talk about well I'm going to be free soon and when he gets to be free what does he want to do he wants to help Mel Gibson build a house why does he want to build his own house why does it Mel Gibson help him I mean it was very condescending and Spike is right about that and people said oh there goes spike again but you know spike usually just makes pretty good sense yeah sure and that movie really kind of left out the whole foundation of the emerging American nation which was slavery so far this year what do you think is the best movie academy-award wise the best movie I've seen so far this year is high fidelity you'd vote for it Oh yes yes it's a very good movie and I would also put way up at the top of my list wonder boys haven't seen with Michael Douglas now it's interesting because that movie opened it closed in February and paramount is going to bring it out again this fall because they took a good look at it too and they said hey wait a minute this is Michael Douglas's best performance this is a smart intelligent so why did it why did it not do well at the time I don't think at the time audiences were given a chance to even discover it you know you have this Friday night syndrome if it doesn't open strong on Friday night by Monday they're already trying to figure out what else to bring into that theater and Wonder Boys which is about this kind of broken down writer who's a college professor long week yes yes so and a young kid comes in as like an intern and they have relationship well he really thinks this kid can write in a good writer and other people there's a literary conference on the campus and without going into the whole story Douglas who usually is this real slick Wall Street kind of corporate boardroom grater ladies man here walks around half the movie wearing a bathrobe you know it needs a haircut and hungover and he's a pothead and yet at the same time he's a sweet guy who wants to do the right thing and cares about people but his life is a complete mess and it's a really good movie so I hope the Wonder Boys and a high-fidelity are not forgotten simply because they were early spring releases late winter releases so who do you think is the best actor so far do you think it's Michael or do you think it's Cusack or do you think it's the best actor so far oh I wouldn't see I don't know I I want them both to be nominated how's that okay all right there's a movie called croupier which I haven't seen do you like it yes I do and if there's an interest interesting story about it because this company named the shooting gallery and took six films and booked them for two weeks apiece in 23 cities as a shooting gallery series you go on Monday night and get a film critic to talk to you about it and you can see the movie and so forth and these are the kinds of movies that didn't get national releases generally speaking because takes so much money to open a movie in this country well croupier kind of crossed over and was able then to get into regular theaters and that was the whole idea of the series because there were a lot of good movies that we see at film festivals that the public never gets a chance to because it cost so much in terms of advertising to open them do you think you have the power to put people in the theater I wish I did people say to film critics have too much power we don't have nearly well the power can be negative you can keep people out but can you put them in the theater can keep us out and we can we can help a movie we can help a movie by sharing our enthusiasm we can't necessarily hurt a movie that is destined to be a big hit anyway nothing the critics said pro or con probably influenced x-men by $1 true it did just fine thank you very much all right here's a scene from coop you take a look at this and we'll come back and talk about this book I hated hated hated this movie in five change never converse with the punters slows things down money down speed is volume volume is profit for the casino aim of 40 spins an hour all right I hate it hate it hate why'd you write this book I like the writing in this book I like to write I am a basically in newspaper man I spend 80% of my time in print and 20% on television probably and when I get a really bad movie it sometimes inspires me to write a fairly funny piece about it and for the most part these pieces are not so much angry as they are I hope funny David some of these movies are what's is their common denominator to all bad movies for example it's more often not the script than it is the acting I you know I tend to go easy on actors because it's not their fault right I mean if an actor is good it had to be because of something he did or she did because you can't make something out of nothing but if the actor is bad frequently you just don't know what went wrong it could be they never belonged in that movie the script was no good the director didn't know what he was doing so many things could go wrong it's amazing a good movie ever gets made you want to know about some of the choices you have here Lake Placid this is the kind of movie that actors discussing long said talked with their age it's a message in a bottle to saddle costs Costner Penn & Newman with such a goofy melodrama he's like hiring Fred Astaire and strapping fracture on his back Paul Newman very good in epic I don't know what is his father yeah and chemica star is a good actor I just I looked at the script and I thought come on I mean how often so it's Robin running yeah yes Oh Robin Wright's been in some terrific pictures but this movie was just really soppy melodrama yeah it was soap opera yeah all right The Jackal strikes me as a kind of overachiever who was signed to kill a mosquito with purchase contraband insecticides from Iraq and brain of the United States by hot air balloons distilling the drinking water from clouds and shooting birds for food just about what that movie is about Bruce Willis wants to get from Canada into the United States and in order to sneak in he enters the Mackinaw to Chicago race and crosses the finish line is there a less bleak way to enter the United States from Canada can we think of one the border is 3,000 miles long there must be another way to get into the United States is there one that represents the very worst in moviemaking for you worst movie I've seen is called I Spit on Your Grave a little-known fact about that its original title was the year of the woman my god when was this movie made about 1973 I think do you do you like do you like do you get a special sort of itch in you when you see a bad movie can't waiting to certain to certain kinds of movies you're taking notes a corner is turn you realize it's bad another corner is turn you realize it's hilariously bad jaws the revenge which was the fourth jaws movie the shark eats the plane the seaplane that has Michael Caine in it everybody on the yacht is in mourning Michael Caine is dead then what do you know he was able to swim over to the yacht he climbs on board his shirt is dry he's not wet meanwhile you're trying to think about trying to reason from the plot why does this jaws why does this shark want revenge because in Jaws 3 they killed it well anybody would want revenge if you killed it but the question is why is the shark still alive if it was dead in Jaws 3 I mean there are certain complications like this that are inexplicable and they kind of inspire you when you're writing this is what Dave Barry says one of life's great pleasures is watching a really good critic tee off on a really bad movie this book is wonderfully entertaining Rajee but makes some of the movies sound so awful that I now want to see them ah but I don't recommend that I don't think you should see any of the movies in this don't encourage him to make more bad movies right it's like the woman who said she never voted because you didn't want encourage them you have chosen a new partner Richard Roeper why did you choose Richard Roeper other than the fact he said in Chicago well that wasn't we would have chosen him if he hadn't been in Chicago and he works for the sun-times the same paper I work for but actually we didn't even invite him on the show for the first year because I said oh we can't have two people from the sun-times and finally my wife said well why not and she was right you know because he's really very good he's not many people tested for this uh they didn't really tell we had a lot of objective that words we had a lot of guest hosts who came on we were so shocked by the loss of gene we didn't have any feeling at all that we wanted to replace him in any hurry at all we can't replace gene but the show I think is worth doing in the show needs to be done and it's good to do we had about 25 people and they were all really very good in different ways and when Richard came on the set it just seemed to feel right he's very good he's a good writer he's very smart he's very funny he's very quick he's been writing about the movies once a week for the last ten years for the sun-times he does a Sunday column that's almost always about the movies so while he isn't a film critic because I'm the film critic he has written thousands and thousands of words about the movies and seen lots of movies and I think he's good you didn't know gene was dying until the theory was that he was on the mend we had our own thoughts about that because we could see that he was in pain but we respected his privacy he said I'm on the men yeah his last show he said I'm taking some time off to recover it was any ever communicating any different do you know he never did it was his way of dealing with the situation and I respect that you know when we get into a situation like this whoever we are we have to deal with it in whatever way we have to deal with it I mean it's up to us I respect the privacy of people to make that decision brain have brains brain cancer the word cancer was never used I do not know for sure exactly what the cause of his death was because it's never been announced and that's the way it is what was the chemistry between the two of you we were very close because we work together as partners for 24 years on this show we were in good times and bad times we shared some amazing experiences together we fought we made up we laughed he was a philosophy major we talked a lot about life and death and things like that one of the things I regret is that we never really had a talk about his illness because I have a feeling that he would have had some very wise things to share but he just wanted to keep it private did you ever try to bridge that did you ever try to speak out a way that I care so much about you I want you to know that I'm hoping to talk about or anything like that Charlie it was made unmistakably clear that that was the decision he had made and that he wasn't going to talk about it he didn't talk about it with anyone outside of the immediate members of his family including old friends I was an old friend you began its competitors yeah he was at the Trib and you were at the sun-times right he was cargo tribune sun-times and then you put together on public television whose idea it was the idea of the producers at public television yeah and you were there for how long uh we were there from about 1976 about 1980 then we went into commercial syndication you know first for Tribune and then currently for for the last 15 years for Buena Vista and we're you was the chemistry there from the beginning it was it was there because we hated each other and we hated each other without any reason because we had never really at a time because the show had any conversation of any length he was at the Tribune I was at the sun-times we were on the elevator we would look at the buttons over the door to see the lights when you go up to the studio something like we we were competitors when did it change we were we were in the same boat together it's kind of like these guys in the perfect storm each other but the guy would go in the water after the other guy you know when he falls in his in him he goes in after him because you can't let your friend your fellow sailor drown Jean and I were on the same boat for 23 years and we and we went through some things that were life experiences and we had an opportunity it was a great opportunity in our lives I mean we were Chicago newspaper men and now we're on a national television show how did that happen the most popular film critics probably in the world how did that happen I mean that should have happened to somebody from New York or Los Angeles I mean how did it happen the two guys from Chicago I think Jean might be a little tickle that our new co-host is also from Chicago Chicago a newspaper man and Jean liked Richard the only thing that would have made it better for Jean if he was a die-hard Chicago Bulls fan he was no I said if his successor was a Chicago - I have to talk to him did work at the Tribune if he'd least as a bull fan yeah well I'm sure that we were all Bulls fans then but now there are night behind both to be fans of I guess they're rebuilding right who's the best director working today Scorsese no question yeah Roger Ebert yeah I know it's it's hard to imagine even but even though you look at his last movie when the case didn't do well well so what it didn't do well because it was - was it good was it that good I thought it was very good I think that people these days are looking more for ironing and he's not an ironist I talked about this with Paul Schrader who has written three or four movies for Marty and he said we come out of an age of of existentialism and we're now living in an age of irony where audiences instead of seeing a real horror film they want to go see scary movie they want to have the edge they want to be sarcastic they want to see the the joke and in a scarce AZ movie it's pretty serious it's pretty serious I bet you he would say maybe maybe he would say a Raging Bull was his best oh maybe but I would bet you in the top three he would say Last Temptation of Christ I think he likes it very much now and then of course taxi driver is in there Goodfellas my love about Marty is it is his love of movies and I had the opportunity recently to sit next to his new wife and he he is he so loved movies you know that he just infuses you with that law he knows I've been talking about it and watch the movie in the unit I mean it's just I reviewed his first film for the sun-times in 1967 we'd known each other that long and he's on a show we did a show together the best films of the 90s it's great yeah and it's going to repeat right right before Labor Day or maybe it is Labor Day weekend is coming up in two or three weeks this book is called I hated hated hated this movie by Roger he but film critic for the Chicago sun-times and also co-host of what's it called it's now called well it will soon be called Ebert and Roeper in the movie between Roper used to be deeper than Cisco at the movies it's always a pleasure to see you thank you for coming thanks charlie

Channel: Manufacturing Intellect

Views: 497,543

Keywords:

Id: FfHwCevk3F4

Length: 26min 0sec (1560 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 04 2016