Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Life Itself (2014)

This is topic Life Itself (2014) in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=002056

Posted by Mark Ogden (Member # 43) on 07-06-2014, 08:23 PM:

A documentary look at the life, career and death of film critic Roger Ebert. At the Film Society of Lincoln Center Elinor Munroe Theatre, New York City.

*****

This is half of a good movie, and half a not-very-good one. The good half deals with Roger Ebert’s early years at the University of Illinois, his beginnings and growth as a film critic, his problems with alcohol, and the start of his television career alongside notorious playboy Gene Siskel, a man who he had a difficult and stormy relationship with (as revealed by some hilariously vicious out-takes from their TV show). There are many amusing anecdotes and remembrances from various newspaper and film types, Martin Scorsese gives a moving tribute at the verge of tears. This is a warts-and-all film; it’s plain that Ebert, while a great writer, was also something of an egocentric dick at times (“He was a great guy, but not THAT great,” recalls a friend of his).

But there’s not enough interesting stuff to pad out the unnecessarily long two-hour running time, so the other half of the film deals with Ebert’s late-in-life medical care. We get to see him intubated, suctioned, poked and prodded, with his adoring wife hovering over him as the struggles to speak with a synthetic voice program, and it goes on forever. It’s great that Ebert faced his demise courageously, but it’s pretty hard to look at and an awfully tedious thing for a moviegoer to sit through at such length.

The book “Life Itself” is very interesting and contains a lot of material not seen in the film. Seek that out if your interested in his life, because the movie version is not that compelling.