The Balcony is Closed...Sort Of

"At the Movies," the show where Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel formally and passionately argued about movies, has recently been canceled. Siskel and Ebert were American treasures. While there is some merit to accusing the two of lowering the standard of film criticism by simplifying things with "thumbs up" or "thumbs down," the two often admitted that they were not there to offer serious, academic film criticism. They were operating in the television medium, which, for better or worse, required a rapid and succinct review. But what often happened was truly fantastic. It is correct that the two more often than not agreed rather than disagreed, but it was when they disagreed that it was most rewarding.

Roger Ebert became the youngest professional film critic in America when the Chicago Sun-Times hired him in 1968 as their film critic. His primary rival eventually became a younger Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune. According to interviews, the two did not particularly like each other at the start, and even when they became allies and friends they were still ultimately rivals, frequently trying to finish first with an interview or review. Siskel and Ebert formed "Sneak Previews" in 1975, which later became "At the Movies." Siskel and Ebert were remarkably different, not only in appearance--the small, rather large Ebert against the tall and balding Siskel--but in tastes, as Siskel claimed he was more analytical while Ebert favored more of an emotional response to moviewatching (nothing wrong with a bit of both). Siskel preferred to spend time in Chicago with his family, while Ebert relished attending overseas film festivals. (Siskel argued the films would be coming to Chicago anyway.) But they were both funny and admirable.

Thus, there was a method to their sparring, but they did, ultimately, adore each other. Ebert has not hid that he misses the person he has called his soul mate--Siskel died in 1999 of brain cancer complications.

Was Richard Roeper a bad replacement for Siskel? No. One did get the sense that he was not as excited to do his movie-homework as the other two were, and the rapport that Siskel and Ebert had was never matched by Ebert and Roeper, but he is a skilled writer and debater, and he deserves accolades for walking away from Disney when they wanted to make some "changes" to the show. Those changes, incidentally, brought Ben Mankiewicz from Turner Classic Movies and Ben Lyons of E! Entertainment to the arena. I have little, if anything, against Mankiewicz, the grandson of Herman Mankiewicz and the grandnephew of Joseph Mankiewicz, but I was annoyed after reading a comment from him found at eFilmCritic, in which he says that Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky" is "not a feel-good comedy but rather a comedy that literally makes us fell good." So in other words, as the author of eFilmCritic points out, it's a feel-good comedy.

Anyway, that remark pales compared to Ben Lyons. I don't typically try to get on any resentment bandwagon, and there are numerous words devoted to destroying Mr. Lyons, from eFilmCritic, to Stop Ben Lyons!, and even Roger Ebert (the LA Times wrote an article on Lyons called "Dumbing Down The Film Critic"), but sometimes it's simply too hard not to. Case in point, during their review of the wonderful documentary "Every Little Step," Lyons complained that he did not like the film because it often took place in a dark theatre, ignoring, as his co-host pointed out, that a theatre is where auditions take place. Anyway, Mankiewicz and Lyons were both fired and replaced by Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune and A.O. Scott of the New York Times.

The reason, of course, that the "Bens" replaced Ebert and Roeper was because Ebert began to have cancer complications himself. Part of his jaw is gone, as is his wonderful voice, but he blissfully told his friend Leonard Maltin that he still has the written word. 

With all due respect to Philips and Scott, two of America's best critics, the magic of Siskel and Ebert is gone, and probably will not come back. Perhaps there will be another Siskel and Ebert. Regardless, it won't be quite as fun or funny. In many respects, the balcony is closed.