… But He Sure Was a Fine Movie Critic

Still, I’ll never forget the disarming and unexpected tenderness toward Jesus Christ that glowed in his favorable review of 1988’s scandalous (many would assert blasphemous) The Last Temptation of Christ. I found that movie not only offensive, but unsatisfyingly rendered — yet Ebert’s sweetly heart-felt comments about its (divine) Central Figure genuinely moved me. Curiously, my mother-in-law, hardly a film fanatic, caught Ebert’s Last Temptation segment as well and had the same fascinated reaction as I.

Neither was the Chicago Sun-Times fixture one to knee-jerk it when it came to recommending — or discommending — releases. He famously snarled at David Lynch’s artsy, much-raved-about but depraved Blue Velvet (1986). Of the savagely violent, super-arch  Kick Ass (2010) he wrote, “Will I seem hopelessly square if I find Kick-Ass morally reprehensible?”

My most notable beef with Mr. Ebert involves his panning my personal favorite film, Ridley Scott’s Gladiator . In one memorable installment, he and WBZ’s Joyce Kulhawik spiritedly sparred over the 2000 Best-Picture champ: she hailed Gladiator a success “on every level“,  her stock rising in my book; he differed, befuddling me.

I was good-naturedly able to get past Ebert’s downturned thumb in that, his greatest critical lapse: but, alas, as his political inclinations — generally tired, conventional progressivism — increasingly have unfurled, they’ve sure gotten under my skin. 

So, he and I often saw eye to eye on cinematic matters. Even when we disagreed, I usually found his ruminations piquant, yeasty. And all this despite my diametric dissension from him in the public policy arena. It’s an advantage, really, to be able to cherish the admirable and beneficial qualities even in someone with whom you share core disagreements. 

Admittedly, I remain troubled that this man who added an appreciated dose of color to my life, who was an obviously talented writer and critic, by all accounts a loving husband, doting grandfather and kind friend and colleague, apparently has gone ill-prepared into eternity; literally rejecting the very existence of the One to Whom “every one of us shall give account” (Romans 14:12).

“I know it [death] is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear,” he opined in a September 2011 Salon.com essay. 

Ebert has now migrated to that “other side”, the lifelong reviewer of others’ celluloid creations facing a celestial review of his own; one who made his bread and butter judging local cineplex fare meeting the Judge of all things.  

We’ll all face that moment; and the passing of any person, no less one who has impacted our life directly, ought to italicize its certainty for each of us, giving pause: that same place, someday, someway; “the other side”. 

Are we ready for that irrefragable reckoning? Responsibly stewarding the time, opportunities, talents, blessings the Creator has entrusted to us? 

Where are we with Jesus?

Thumbs up? Thumbs down? A final one or the other awaits every man — and not from Roger Ebert.

Top Image: Roget Ebert (June 18, 1942 — April 4, 2013)

Lower Image: Theatrical Release poster; The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)