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I always enjoyed there bantering for sure when it got heated up. It was fun a part of my life, for a half hour on a Saturday night, in between doing things.They made many fine points and although like everyone else I surely didn't always agree with there viewpoints, they were cool. I miss them in a way. As one guy said when I see a movie now I think what does 2 guys would have thought about it. The new Godzilla movie. GENE SISKEL DIED TRAGICALLY YOUNG.
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Posted: |
Jul 2, 2014 - 8:51 AM
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By: |
jackfu
(Member)
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Before men became so "Metrosexual", we used to relentlessly rip on each other, like one big Howard Hawks or John Sturges or Sam Peckinpah film. That is all Gene and Roger were doing, I'm sure.
Jim, thanks, that is truly inspired; I’m serious! I don’t know your age, I’m LIX and grew up in a time when if two guys were talking it could be cordial and even gratifying, yet let another guy walk up and suddenly it becomes just what you’ve stated. The verbal knives would come out; not necessarily outright hostility, but oneupsmanship, putdowns, etc., and general macho displays.
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Posted: |
Jul 2, 2014 - 10:51 AM
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By: |
Jim Phelps
(Member)
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The fact that this is a Siskel & Ebert thread reminds me of something that happened over thirty years ago (and no, this story is NOT about me):
When I was a kid, around ten or so, the elder brother (five years older than me) of a close friend of mine, named Robert, who had a severe stutter and suffered from taunts from many a rotten kid in those days; I think the stutter came from being abused by his father who had long since left the family. Anyway, he absolutely loved movies and never missed an episode of "S&E" every Saturday night on PBS. He used to clip the movie ads from the "Lifestyle" section of the newspaper and put them in a scrapbook he made for each year. He also took the time to write down the date, film, and Gene and Roger's Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down of each movie. This kid adored S&E and he was always excited about the movies and would do his own reviews. This kid, named Robert, really found his true love with this budding movie critic interest.
Just as Robert started high school I was over at their house to visit, my friend told me that his mother told Robert he had to throw his movie scrapbooks in the trash because now that he was starting high school, he had to let go of his "childish" interests. Robert was devastated. Just destroyed. The strange thing is at the time I wasn't affected by this except that I never forgot it. Now, whenever I think about Siskel & Ebert, I remember Robert and it upsets me deeply how parents, seemingly doing the "right" thing for their kids, end up being the destroyers of their hopes and dreams.
Robert obviously never became a film critic or anything else really. The last I heard he was working as a bus boy in a restaurant. I haven't spoken to him in decades but the last time I did he was enthusiastic about the then-upcoming Harrison Ford film, Regarding Henry, so he still loved and was excited about movies. 
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