'At the Movies'

'At the Movies'
By Vincent Snavely

There I was as a young kid getting up to change the channel on my television when I noticed a clip of a certain movie being shown on PBS. So I watched it of course because I was obsessed with movies. Then I saw these two men sitting down and they started talking about the clip they saw. I sort of laughed when I saw these two because one was a little overweight and the other one was skinny. I sat down and actually was glued to the screen as they argued about this particular movie. I wish I had someone I could talk to about movies with that same passion. The show was called "Opening Soon" which then became "At The Movies with Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel". That was the start of a new and beautiful friendship with these two passionate men. Gene Siskel was the film critic for the Chicago Tribune and Roger Ebert was the film critic for the Chicago Sun Times. I am going back to this wonderful new beginning because "At the Movies" had it's last show recently. I started to watch these two discuss movies religiously every week and never stopped until Gene Siskel's death. I then still watched because Roger Ebert continued in the same spirit with guest hosts and that was okay. Ebert finally found a worthy new replacement in Richard Roeper. No one would ever replace Gene Siskel. Gene Siskel and John Belushi are the only celebrities that I still have not gotten over losing so soon. Every time I see a movie I wonder what Gene would have thought about it. Yes, I considered Gene Siskel as a celebrity for when I saw him getting out of an elevator at the Water Tower shopping center in Chicago when I was younger I was so excited.

The power of the show was simple. It was just two men sitting on two chairs showing clips of a movie and then discussing them and arguing about them. The show then became syndicated and was bought by Buena Vista entertainment. The show then became a phenomenon as the whole country started to watch. They also copyrighted a signature thumbs up, thumbs down that caught on and became legendary. There was nothing better then an angry, passionate argument between Siskel and Ebert. They also championed movies that could have slipped through the cracks but didn't and they could then have a chance to reach me. Without them I wouldn't have discovered what is now one of my favorite movies of all time. I was working at a movie theatre in 1992 in Chicago and there was a little, independent movie opening with someone named Billy Bob Thornton. I thought the movie would be this horrible, low budget joke. The movie was called "One False Move" and as the movie opened I watched Siskel and Ebert that weekend and they actually raved about this movie up and down. They urged people to go check it out and that weekend every show and I mean every show of "One False Move" sold out. That would not have happened if the movie wasn't promoted by those two. It is now in my top 100 favorite movies of all time. There were other movies like "Hoop Dreams" and countless others they helped get promoted. They were sometimes the only ones that could get a movie noticed even over the studio publicity teams. I still don't get why they championed what they considered a great movie in "My Dinner With Andre" for I hated that movie. That was the thing though with those two, even when you loved a movie they hated or vice versa you still could be swayed to reconsider your opinion.

I remember in college when my best friend Joe Norred and I went to three or four movies in one day and we would argue sometimes just like Siskel and Ebert did. We would come back to the dorm and our friends would ask us what we saw and if we liked it, we were even called Siskel and Ebert. That passion that Joe and I had was greatly influenced by our mutual love for Siskel and Ebert. Even when Siskel hated a movie I loved I would forgive him the next week. I usually agreed with Ebert more than Siskel but sometimes Siskel would love a movie that Ebert didn't get so there was a nice balance sometimes. Even though I mostly sided with Roger I still can't forgive him for panning "Full Metal Jacket", "The Natural" or "The Untouchables". I love those movies but I still couldn't stay mad at him.

The show was just a pure thrill and joy to watch for me because being a movie lover I appreciated their passion. They both loved Chicago and their shows opening credits showed shots of the city. I actually learned to love the city partly from them. I remember when "The Blues Brothers" came out in the summer of 1980 and received a lot of bad reviews for some reason. Gene Siskel loved it more than anyone and gave it four stars. I immediately watched the show that weekend and they reviewed it. They loved how the city of Chicago was used in that movie and they always mentioned their love of the city with movies filmed there. There are a lot of movies I love that got panned by others but that Siskel and Ebert liked and I always loved them for being a little more open minded than other critics. Movies like "Grease", "Nighthawks", "Neighbors", "Continental Divide" and movies that no one else loved but that I did were very well liked by those two. They were open minded in that they just loved movies and they could see things in some offbeat movies that no one else saw. Another movie that became my favorite horror movie of all time in "Halloween" was given a full show devoted to it. I still have it on my DVD copy of the movie and it was a great show devoted to one movie and no one would do that at that time. Without their love of that movie I would have maybe never seen what is one of my favorites. "At the Movies" was also a very enjoyable show and Siskel and Ebert made it exciting, charming, funny and worthy.

There were so many copy cat shows that tried to match that charm and excitement and the co hosts were joyless bores. I am talking about critics like Rex Reed, Michael Medved, Jeffrey Lyons, Phil Harris and the insufferable Dixie Whatley (Ugh!). I thought the show would go on forever but in 1998 my hero Gene Siskel passed away and I took it hard. The show couldn't go on without Gene because other than Roger who cared what some other hack would think. Roger continued despite Gene passing away with guest hosts and he made it work very well. Roger is the best writer when it comes to movie reviews and he still carried on that greatness on the show. Ebert would then find a partner that I was cold to at the start in Richard Roeper. How dare he take Gene's place?! Still because of the good sense and brilliance of Roger he had picked someone that I grew to love and respect. I religiously read Richard Roeper's Sun Times article and I am now a huge fan. Richard became a very good replacement and Roger and him had great chemistry. The arguments aren't as fun as the ones Siskel had with Ebert but they worked well together. Then a series of health set backs were happening to Roger Ebert and sadly he could not continue with the show. Now a show that I planned to watch forever lost the other great half of it and my world was ending! Now that Roger has lost his ability to speak we are still blessed with his written word and he is the best at writing about movies.

"At the Movies" then survived with Roeper taking on guest hosts and Roger's spirit was still there but the magic was fading a little. In the past few years as the show was announced as finishing up it's run, the producers found some pretty good replacements and they tweaked the show. Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune and A.O. Scott of the New York Times took over as co hosts and the show was different but they were pretty good. I was still watching the show and enjoying it. Now that the show has ended it has become an emotional experience for me. Their last few shows gave us priceless clips of arguments and passionate discussions between Siskel and Ebert. Phillips and Scott did a tremendous job with their closing thoughts and their tribute to the two founders of the show was powerful. Movies are a very powerful force and art and when you have two people who are so passionate about movies talking about them it can be special. Roger and Gene started this passionate discussion as it went to influence others. My life now and my writing and reviews would have never happened and been shaped without Siskel and Ebert and the show they started. Whenever I was down the thought of watching their show on the weekend made me feel a lot better. The reviews you read from me are greatly influenced by the show. Hopefully another new type of movie review show will pop up and continue the magic and I wouldn't mind being a part of that. Thank you Roger and Gene for this great gift and so long "At the Movies"!