What the Internet owes to Roger Ebert

CNN ^ | 4/4/2013 | Gene Seymour

[Borges]

Roger Ebert's death, coming so soon after he announced he was curtailing his movie-reviewing schedule because of recurring cancer, is being greeted—especially across the Internet--with widespread shock, and the kind of grief one feels when one loses a longtime neighbor, a trusted friend, a beloved teacher whose lessons may not have had an immediate impact but became more meaningful with time.

***

In fact, it's only natural the blogosphere should feel the pain of Ebert's leaving. One could say that blogs of all shapes, sizes and subjects owe their existence in part to the examples set by Siskel and Ebert.

[RummyChick]

Anyone know how much he made off that early Google investment?

[AllAmericanGirl44]

Yea, ok, got it.

whatever

[Prospero]

Siskell and Ebert were a weekly feature in my life throughout the seventies and half way through the eighties, and this outpouring of worship for this person is the only thing "shocking" about his death.

Add to this his unashamed hateful attitude toward middle America and American conservatives, and my first reaction is...

To express the thought that Ebert, especially, did a lot of damage to Cinema, in general, serving the interests of the purveyors of hype and the "star-making machinery" he really only pretended to criticize.

As an adult, finally becoming exposed to the vast sea of great films available to us now, I think I realize Ebert - had be been around - would certainly have jumped on the bandwagon of everyone who expressed their hatred for Von Stroheim's "Greed," for example... or Lon Cheney's "The Unknown."

Well... Bye....

[higgmeister]

Bump for Gene Siskel. The other guy never told me anything I wanted to hear.

[avenir]

I agree, The man was a good writor in his chosen field. His film reviews are entertaining and intelligent. I was A little surprised at his more radical later statements because that never seemed to be there in his writings.

[higgmeister]

I always went with Siskel’s thumb. He was a Lib too, but he could really call movies correctly

Because Siskel's was the male opinion.....

[Borges]

Try again. Ebert introduced many people to the likes of Ozu, Dreyer and Murnau. NO ONE in the MSM talked about them.