Life Itself Movie Review

“Most people choose to write a blog. I needed to.”

These words are written by Roger Ebert in the latter stages of his life when cancer has robbed him of the ability to speak. His outlet to his legions of readers and admirers comes in the form of his extensive blog. Ebert, unlike many of his old school critic colleagues, was quick to embrace the Internet and how it could reach so many people.

And indeed – Steve James’s powerful new documentary Life Itself, based loosely on Roger’s memoir, shows how many people Roger reached through a career that spanned nearly half a century. It is impossible for me to write a proper “review” of this doc without admitting the profound effect that Roger Ebert has had on me personally. As a kid when I first realized how much movies meant to me and how much I loved watching them and talking about them and writing about them, it was Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert’s TV program that assisted in serving as that catalyst. As a teen, I would pour over Ebert’s yearly edition of his film reviews that came out every year and read them cover to cover. This would, of course, become a weekly occurrence after the Internet became an everyday fact of life for most of us. When I began penning movie reviews weekly for my hometown newspaper in Northwest Ohio, I was trying to write like Roger Ebert and probably failing. I’ll be damned if I didn’t love doing it though.

Life Itself goes well beyond documenting Roger’s considerable talents when it came to film criticism, but it thankfully spends a decent portion of its running time celebrating it. When the Siskel and Ebert program became a phenomenon, there were fellow critics (especially on the coasts) that believed the duo had somehow bastardized the art form with their “Thumbs Up” rating and brief reviews on the show. You don’t hear that often anymore because, well, it’s  a ridiculous and high-minded notion that misses the central point. Roger Ebert’s style of writing was conversational and made you feel like you were hearing a very intelligent discussion on whatever feature he was opining about. When one reads a film review and you feel like the critic is talking down to the reader, that’s a failure of writing. Ebert and Siskel understood that. Most importantly, Roger Ebert loved movies. And he went out of his way to celebrate and promote filmmakers who he believed in. By way of his reviews and TV program, this helped promote Scorsese and Spike Lee and Gregory Nava and Errol Morris and Werner Herzog and countless others. It exposed audiences to movies and movie makers who they might not otherwise have known about.

One such person that Ebert unquestionably exposed to a much bigger audience was Steve James, whose 1994 documentary Hoop Dreams was named by Siskel and Ebert as their favorite picture in a year when Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption were also released. James does an amazing job returning the favor with Life Itself.

When James and Ebert sought out to make this documentary, they didn’t know that its subject would soon pass away. The cancer that Ebert suffered ravaged his face, his voice, and body. The picture doesn’t hold back from showing some uncomfortable scenes of Ebert at the hospital undergoing treatments you wouldn’t wish on anyone. Yet we also see the unwavering dedication of his wife of twenty years, Chaz. Life Itself is as much a love story as anything else and theirs is a strong one that truly shows “the sickness and in health” portion of their vows.

James does an incredible job of jamming a lot of information about Ebert’s life into two hours. We hear of his childhood, his alcoholism, Chicago newspaper politics, the national celebrity that he and Gene gained, his Pulitzer prize, his writing of the screenplay to the 1960s Russ Meyer sex flick Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. There’s much about the complicated and often extremely antagonistic relationship between Siskel and Ebert. Life Itself is able to show all these aspects of Ebert in a fast-paced, always fascinating way. And it doesn’t hold its subject up as a saint by any means. Especially in the early portions of his rise to prominence, Ebert could be difficult and arrogant and the picture doesn’t shy away from that.

We are witnesses to Ebert’s last months in this world and it’s not always easy going, but his bravery and Chaz’s when facing these times are emotional and inspirational. Ebert makes it clear that besides his beloved family, it’s his work that gets him through these horrendously difficult times. It is that work of Ebert that inspired not only so many writers, but even the people he was writing about. There is a lovely passage in the doc where Martin Scorsese explains how Roger assisted him in getting back on his game after a rough patch in his life.

Even if you don’t have the distant connection through similar interests that I have with Ebert, Life Itself is worth seeking out. It’s a masterfully done documentary that is worthy of the man it covers. For me – it provided a final and often funny and often touching and uplifting last chance to see a person who, in many ways, is the reason I’m typing these words right now.

**** (out of four)