Thursday, February 25, 1999
Thumbs up for movie critic Siskel’s legacy of dissent
FILM: Reviewer’s untimely death causes time for reflection,
influences moviegoers worldwide
By Lonnie Harris
Daily Bruin Staff
Needless to say, I often disagreed with Gene Siskel. In fact, I
disagreed with him much more often than I agreed with him. Most
recently, I was dismayed at his choice for best film of 1998. I
thought it was "Rushmore." Siskel said it was "Babe: A Pig In the
City."
Now that Siskel has given his final review, however, and the
film community begins to examine his lifetime commitment to the art
form, I find that my dislike of his attitude is slowly transforming
into a bittersweet nostalgia. The film critic, who died of brain
tumor complications last week, remains one of the central figures
in film criticism of all times. Whatever you say about Gene
Siskel’s opinions, he loved the movies, and he brought that love
and enthusiasm to the television every Sunday at 6:30 p.m.
Any random glance around the TV channels brings up images of
talking heads, reporting the week’s gossip and mindlessly droning
on about what celebrity is dating who and what celebrity is wearing
what. This pretty much makes up the entire lineup for the E!
Network.
But Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert somehow rise above this level.
Not quite fluff, but still not really journalism. At least they are
not Sam Rubin – praising a movie because the star happens to be on
his show that afternoon.
I read a book last year that placed both Gene Siskel and Roger
Ebert among the 50 most influential people in the history of
Hollywood. This fact alone is really astounding. That someone who
never made a movie in his entire life, who stopped writing about
movies in newspapers when his health began to deteriorate, and who
was still able to influence people by talking about movies to sway
the profits of major studios by millions of dollars is amazing.
A great example is 1997’s "The Full Monty." It was a small
British movie made for very little money and picked up for American
distribution relatively cheaply by the independent wing of a
Hollywood studio, obviously intending to release it for two weeks
and maybe make its investment back. Siskel called it one of the
best films of that year, and almost instantly the lines started
forming. "The Full Monty" went on to become one of the most
profitable films of that year. That would be a pretty good epitaph
for any film critic: despite the years of negative reviews of
mediocre movies that people will pay money for anyway, at least
there was one film out there that Gene Siskel believed in, and the
people listened.
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