His career as a film critic spanned more than four decades and was the first in his line of work to have won a Pulitzer Prize.
Roger Ebert, regarded by many as the most influential, the most popular and the most interesting film critic in America who also flourished as a screenwriter, author and journalist during his 46 years in the media industry, died on Thursday, April 4, at the age of 70.
Ebert who lent a compelling voice to the film industry’s avid patrons – the audience - through his non-sugarcoated, succinct and thorough film critique, gave his stamp of approval through his film ratings (with 4 stars as the highest), thereby starkly - sometimes philosophically - setting apart the brilliant from the mediocre and those in between.
A legendary writer who began and ended his much-celebrated career at the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert has reviewed countless films in his lifetime including many of our Gen X favorites.
He chose the Spielberg classic “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” as one of the best films in 1982. Likewise, he favored “Sophie’s Choice”, “Platoon”, “The Color Purple” and “Amadeus” as some of the best films of the 80’s era. As for the 90’s, notable films “Fargo”, “Malcolm X”, “Schindler’s List”, “JFK”, “Goodfellas”, “Leaving Las Vegas” and “Being John Malkovich” made it to his list.
There were many films that came out in the 80’s and the 90’s that did not necessarily make it to the critically acclaimed list of excellently produced films but they were awesome in our book. Some of them even became cult favorites that somehow depicted the whims, the dreams, the sentiments and the struggles of our young, oftentimes clueless, detached and complicated generation.
Here is a list of memorable – or not – Gen X films that may have once consumed and entertained our generation - perhaps revealing and even possibly shaping our youthful aspirations back then – and what Mr. Ebert had to say about them.
Say “Thumbs Up” if you agree.
“The Breakfast Club” (February 1985) 3 stars
“Nothing that happens in "The Breakfast Club" is all that surprising. The truths that are exchanged are more or less predictable, and the kids have fairly standard hang-ups … But "The Breakfast Club" doesn't need earthshaking revelations; it's about kids who grow willing to talk to one another, and it has a surprisingly good ear for the way they speak … The performances are wonderful, but then this is an all-star cast … The film is certainly appropriate for thoughtful teenagers. “
“Pretty in Pink” (February 1986) 3 stars
“ … my favorite moments were the quietest ones, in which nothing was being said … To be able to listen to such a silence is to understand the central dilemma of adolescence, which is that one's dreams are so much larger than one's confidence. "Pretty in Pink" is a movie that pays attention to such things. And although it is not a great movie, it contains some moments when the audience is likely to think, yes, being 16 was exactly like that.”
“Some Kind of Wonderful” (February 1987) 3 stars
"Some Kind of Wonderful" is yet another film in which Hughes and his team show a special ability to make an entertaining movie about teenagers, which is also about life, about insecurity, about rejection, about learning to grow. I sometimes have the peculiar feeling that the kids in Hughes's movies are more grown up than the adults in most of the other ones.”
“Singles” (September 1992) 3 stars
“Singles is not a great cutting-edge movie, and parts of it may be too whimsical and disorganized for audiences raised on cause-and-effect plots. But I found myself smiling a lot during the movie, sometimes with amusement, sometimes with recognition. It's easy to like these characters, and care about them.”
“Dazed and Confused” (September 1993) 3 stars
“The film's real inspiration, I think, is to depict some high school kids from the 1970s with such unblinking attention that we will realize how romanticized most movie teenagers are. A lot of these kids are asking, with Peggy Lee, "Is that all there is?" … This is a good film, but it would not cheer people up much at a high school reunion.”
“Reality Bites” (February 1994) 2 stars
“What interested me about the film … is how blind it is to its own realities ... What strange force locks filmmakers into clichés and conventions? What unwritten law prevented the makers of "Reality Bites" from observing that their heroine can't shoot video worth a damn, that their hero is a jerk, and that their villain is the most interesting person in the movie? The problem, I think, is that movies like this aren't made up from scratch; they're fabricated out of other movies, and out of old and shopworn conventions.”
“Forrest Gump” (July 1994) 4 stars
“I've never met anyone like Forrest Gump in a movie before, and for that matter I've never seen a movie quite like "Forrest Gump." Any attempt to describe him will risk making the movie seem more conventional than it is, but let me try. It's a comedy, I guess. Or maybe a drama. Or a dream … What a magical movie.”
“Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles” (November 1994) 3 stars
“ … the movie never makes vampirism look like anything but an endless sadness. That is its greatest strength … My complaint about the film is that not very much happens, in the plot sense. The movie is more about the history and reality of vampirism than about specific events, although some action does center around the fate(s) of Lestat. A stronger plot engine might have drawn us more quickly to the end, but on a scene by scene basis, "Interview with the Vampire" is a skillful exercise in macabre imagination.”
“Empire Records” (September 1995) 1 ½ stars
“Empire Records" is a microcosm movie, one of those films where in a single day, in a single music store, every conceivable thing happens to every conceivable character, and at the end of the day, they are all a lot wiser, as the endless list of music credits scrolls up the screen ... If the movie is a lost cause, it may at least showcase actors who have better things ahead of them. Cochrane, who was in "Dazed and Confused," and Tyler, from "Silent Fall," have unmistakable screen presence.”
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