We’ve told this story before; some of our earliest memories are of staying up late as a teen and watching old B&W movies on late-night TV with Grandma Rose (Dad’s mom). She lived in Brooklyn until her father passed away, then — for a time — came to live with us. To be sure, the time that she was actually with us, was probably far less than I (mis)remember, but to be sure, it truly had a very profound effect on me. Sports never really interested me (probably because we were never really any good at them), but movies, now that was the thing. Truly there was nothing better than late night TV flicks on WOR. It was there that we met all of the classics (and often wondered why there were so many films where in which people would randomly break out in song —so much so we often joke that it is our near-encyclopedic knowledge of such musicals that kept us out of military service).
But we digress.
Once we discovered movies on TV, we soon discovered this truly great movie Preview Show called At the Movies that took a couple of Chicago-based print film critics who would come on once a week and preview films. Those two gents were none other than Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. As much time as we spent watching films on TV we spent easily that much time watching these two guys talk about films. On some level it is probably why we found ourself working as a film reviewer for the past 30some years.
Watching these two guys banter and dissect films truly gave us an appreciation for the art of film-making. We learned that you don’t ever divulge the ending of a film (save that Ebert very famously gave away the ending to The Crying Game which caused Siskel to go sub-orbital on the air). We also recall that when watching these two, that they would often discuss some obscure art or foreign film or documentary, to which we’d always get irritated thinking, “Seriously, who gives a crap about that? Get back to the Hollywood blockbusters.” In fact, when we started reviewing films ourself, we had predetermined that we would only go to see and discuss popular films.
That was 30 years ago. These days, while we still love the big popcorn flicks, we find ourself more and more going to see that obscure art or foreign film or documentary. Why? Well, partially because we love going to the movies, there really is something special about sitting in the dark and focusing on the big screen and watching someone’s story unfold around you. Another reason is that we enjoy being surprised, and as so many of Hollywood films are built on a formula that it is hard to surprise us. (We are always baffled by people who go to the latest installment of some franchise or other (Die Hard, Freddy Kruger, whatever), and come out saying “That was just like all the other films in this series.” Really? What did you think you were going to get, Paddy Chayefsky? On some level that is sort of like going to McDonald’s and being surprised and upset that you can’t get a pizza there. Hey, it is a fast food burger joint; you should have known that going in!
To return to Siskel & Ebert. We watched these guys for years, and while we didn’t always agree with them (or other film reviewers for that matter) we always like watching folks review films, and seeing what they thought of some film or other. Often we see that we like or dislike other things about specific films or genres of films. Sometimes we’ve seen films that are revered by fans and critics alike that have simply failed to move us (we never really liked ET, for instance). Conversely, we have seen films that have been generally reviled or simply ignored by others that we have truly adored (If Ever I See You Again, is seriously one of our favorite films).
In fact, one of the areas where we think that Siskel & Ebert completely missed the boat was on the MPAA Ratings code. While we agreed that film ratings needed tweaking (the “X” rating became a death sentence for films, so in 1990 the Ratings Board finally took their collective heads out of the sand and upgraded the ratings system to eliminate the “X” rating, replacing it with the equally-dreaded “NC-17” which simply became the “New X” ensuring that “NC-17” films weren’t going to be made or seen any more than “X” films had been.
Both Siskel 7 Ebert championed the “NC-17” rating, we never thought that “NC-17” was a realistic solution, and personally felt that an “R-18” would have proved to have been a more effective solution. Just as people realize that “PG-13” is a “PG” film that is intended for older teens, so too would they have come to realize that an “R-18” rating was an “R” film intended for (again) a slightly older (and presumably, more mature) audience.
Still, we were always fans of these two men, and now that they a have finally been reunited in that great big movie theater in the sky, we can imagine them both enjoying their seat on the aisle.
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