Life Itself

The late Roger Ebert loved movies like few people do, and through his clear and concise writing, I think he made a lot of other people fall in love with the movies as well.  He was able to talk openly and simply about art and indie films just as well as he was about the latest blockbuster hitting the multiplex.  Even if you did not agree with his opinion on a certain film, you always enjoyed reading what he had to say in his newspaper reviews or books, and hearing what he had to say on the syndicated TV show he co-hosted.

In 2011, he wrote a memoir about his life called Life Itself.  It was a heartfelt, honest and daringly open book that talked not just about his life and career, but also the struggle he went through with alcoholism for part of his life.  Now, director Steve James (Hoop Dreams) has made a documentary film about Ebert with the same title, and it just as daringly open as the book was.  It is not only a look back at Ebert's life and accomplishments, but it is also an up-front look at the man during the last few months of his life. (Ebert passed away while the film was being made.) Ebert was a passionate man about many things, not just the movies, as anyone who read the blog he ran on his website knows.  This film beautifully captures just about all the man's passions, especially his love for his wife, Chaz.  This is a funny, sad, emotional and stirring film.  I doubt Ebert would want a movie about his life any other way.

The film opens in late 2012, where a hairline fracture of his hip has landed him back in a rehabilitation center of a hospital.  The break is somewhat of a mystery, as Ebert never fell down.  It just seems to have broken on its own.  It is during these early moments that Steve James shows us just how up close and personal he will be getting to his subject, as he does not shy away from the man in his current state.  At this point, Ebert was talking through a computer or writing things down on a notepad, as his lower jaw was completely gone.  His mouth was basically a hanging flap of skin that we can see right through.  We also witness some of the daily medical procedures the nurses had to perform on him.  These scenes are certainly hard to watch, but they are not exploitive.  They are simply to show Ebert's bravery in the face of everything cancer had taken from him at this point, and also the loyalty and love his wife shared for him.

Ebert would lose his battle to cancer within a few months after this, but of course, nobody in the film knows this at the moment.  But before you get the idea that this is a morbid film about a dying man, the structure of the film reveals itself, as it bounces back and forth between Ebert's life and accomplishments, and the brave struggle that made up the last few years.  We witness interviews with former colleagues, who remember him as a college newspaper editor who ran the paper and wrote like a hardened veteran.  We also witness people within the film industry, such as Martin Scorsese (who was a friend of Ebert's, and executive produced this film), and the impact he had on films in general.  We learn of how he became the film critic for the Chicago Sun Times in 1967 without even applying for the job, we meet many of his friends who share personal stories, we learn about his struggle with drinking, and we also learn how he met his future wife, Chaz, at an AA meeting. (A fact never revealed before this film.)

A good part of the film is also obviously devoted to the complex relationship he shared with his TV co-host and rival film critic, Gene Siskel.  Through bloopers that are already famous on Youtube, archival TV footage, and personal anecdotes from Sikel's widow, we learn of the mutual respect they shared for one another, while at the same time battling with each other for the spotlight and the attention.  We learn some particularly interesting information about Siskel, and how he was a friend of Hugh Hefner, and made frequent visits to the Playboy Mansion.  We also learn the pranks that Siskel would occasionally play on Ebert, such as a story his wife shares about an incident when the two were on the same airplane.  As someone who grew up watching the pair sharing their passionate opinions about movies every week, this "peek behind the curtain" is one of the more revealing and entertaining moments of the film.

But mainly, Life Itself focuses on Ebert's private life - His friends, his loves, and how he cared about his passions with every fiber of his being.  We get to see the relationships he built over his life, as in one touching moment when he gets his photo taken with a young girl, who grows up to be a filmmaker herself, and the two strike up a small bond.  We also get to see how even after Ebert lost the ability to talk due to cancer, his writing became stronger than ever as he started blogging about his opinions, memories, and thoughts about subjects outside of the movies.  It was when he started blogging, I think, that Ebert truly opened himself to the world.  Before, the public saw him as a man who loved the movies like nobody else.  But during his final years, he let his readers into his private thoughts and recollections, which became the basis for the memoir, and now this wonderful film.

Given its subject matter of the best known film critic ever, it is fitting that Life Itself is one of the great films of the year.  Through the film, we learn that Ebert was far from perfect, but he had a love for life as strong as his love for great movies.  When he saw a truly great film, he could praise it in a way that made you want to immediately see it.  When he panned a bomb, it was often hilarious.  But most importantly, as this film depicts, he was a loving and passionate man to the very end.

See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

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