I recommend you watch as many of these movies and read as many of these 364 essays as you can.Įspecially the ones you think you’d be least likely to enjoy. Wonderfully enhanced by stills selected by Mary Corliss. The Cubs fan sees inevitable tragedy unfolding.” The Great Movies collects 100 of Roger Eberts essays on some of the greatest films. The ‘innocent’ crowd member sees a bunch of guys running after a little ball while wearing funny costumes. He answered, “The more movies you see and write about, the more you know about them.

Someone recently asked Ebert if technical knowledge of movies is distracting. Years of studying jazz at Berklee School of Music opened up that world to me.Īrt is so much deeper when you get the contexts and references.Įbert single-handedly did that for me for movies. We’d watch one or two a week, not reading his essay until afterwards.Ī hidden world opens up to you when you dive deep into an art form. Movie The Great Movies The Great Movies II Your Movie Sucks Roger Ebert's. Years after his initial review, he’d go back and watch it at least once more, then write a deeper essay about it.Ī few years ago, I subscribed to Netflix and put all 300-or-so of “The Great Movies” in my queue. Other Books by Roger Ebert An Illini Century: One Hundred Years of Campus Life. “The Great Movies” was his collection of films he felt were the best. My girlfriend would joke, after the credits rolled, “OK, now go find out what Ebert said about it. This is going to be a hard habit to break.Įvery time we’d watch a movie, I’d go back and read Ebert’s essay on it, to get a different perspective. I feel like I’ve been in his part-time film school class for the last 19 years. The Great Movies IV by Roger Ebert, Chaz Ebert (Introduction), Matt Zoller Seitz (Foreword by) Hardcover (New Edition) 27.50 Hardcover 27.50 eBook 2. I was also a massive James Brown fan, but I wasn’t as affected when he died, because it’s not like I was tuning in weekly to hear what new music he was making.Įvery Friday since 1994 - yes 1994 - I’d go to to read his new in-depth film reviews. I went home and my girlfriend immediately said, “Babe. A friend I hadn’t heard from in years called me out of the blue yesterday, and just said, “Dude.

The Great Movies by Roger Ebert