Roger Ebert June 18

Roger Ebert and His Life Just Beyond the Limelight

Of the people who stayed beyond the limelight, Roger Ebert managed to become as famous as the stars and movies he critiqued, lambasted or acclaimed.  He is the first ever film reviewer who was allotted a star in the renowned Hollywood Walk of Fame.  He has an Emmy Awards nomination under his belt and a credible and solid reputation as a film critic.  In fact, his movie reviews, which he began to write for the Chicago Sun Times now has a wide national and international readership on account of it being syndicated by newspapers here and overseas.  His movie reviews were so successful that a television show version of them was produced where he was, of course, the host.

Roger Ebert’s star couldn’t seem to stop rising as he also won a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1975.  He sharpened his quill even more and wrote over fifteen books about the subject dearest to his heart, movies.  Ebert’s celebrity and reputation was such that he was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Colorado.  The American Film Institute and the Art Institute of Chicago granted him the same honor.

Academic and Journalistic Ebert

Roger Joseph Ebert, born on June 18, 1942) is a native of Urbana, Illinois.  Even in high school, he leaned towards journalism.  He was one of the sports writer/reporter of a local paper and the assistant editor of his high school paper.  He also became champion of a state-wide radio broadcast simulation contest for high school students.  With sterling high school credentials, Roger Ebert went on to the University of Illinois where he was a natural for the editorship of The Daily Illini.  He graduated from college then was granted a scholarship to pursue an English graduate program offered by the University of Cape Town.  After his master’s degree and on his way to getting a doctorate degree at the University of Chicago, he was hired on by the Chicago Sun Times as the paper’s film critic.

Ebert’s Stance and Influence

Roger Ebert claims that he tries to rate the film as objectively as possible.  That is, he tries to rate movies according to how these movies will be received by the public (there’s an implied criterion of the public tastes and mass trends) and how the movies contribute to the art of filmmaking (this is the academician Ebert speaking).  Moreover, Ebert tries to be fair by not basing his rating on his opinion about what a movie should have been and done but on the basis of what the movie intended to accomplish.  Thus, you will often see contradictions on the stars and the recommendations he gives some movies.  Of course, fairness and sarcastic are not incompatible so many a moviemaker have known his acerbic wit.

Roger Ebert is also known for his unrelenting and forthright criticism of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).  He condemns its inability to fairly and objectively rate movies especially those pertaining to who are allowed to watch these movies.  Ebert finds MPAA’s censorship arbitrary and not based on any logical system of ratings so movies that are supposed to be PG are given more restrictive ratings while those movies which should have gotten an X got only an R rating.