Book report: Life Itself, by Roger Ebert


Book report: Life Itself, by Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert, the famous movie critic, can no longer eat, drink, or speak, because of successful surgery for cancer and unsuccessful surgery to reconstruct his face afterwards. His only voice now is his writing: reviews, essays, blogs, and, now, his autobiography.

I’ve always enjoyed reading Ebert’s writing. He is often insightful and often funny. Some of his most entertaining reviews are of the most terrible movies. He has a colossal knowledge of science fiction, and is often impatient with the illogic of movie situations.

His memoir starts with a description of his parents and his childhood that I found fascinating, even though his life was utterly ordinary. His unfortunate medical recoveries have given him plenty of time to recall the past, and the details he gives to his early days are impressive. Most of the book is like this: rich in detail and meaning.

I did hit a few bumps. The chapters on some of his personal friends I found uninteresting, so I skipped them. Similarly, he spends some time describing his favorite places throughout the world – and he’s traveled a lot – including special hotels, restaurants, and even meals. These might interest some readers, but it wasn’t for me.

On the other hand, his profiles of various actors and directors he has come to know are super, including John Wayne, Lee Marvin, Robert Mitchum, Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, and Ingmar Bergman. I especially liked the one about Mitchum: I could just picture the man from what Ebert quoted him as saying.

He’s a very frank memoirist, and presents us with matter-of-fact information about his love life, medical difficulties, and battle with alcoholism. His description of his loving relationship with his wife and her extended family seems to counterbalance the problems he has faced.

I did feel that there was a major omission. He talks very little about his work, which surprises me. I thought I would learn all about what it’s like to view and review 5 or more movies a week, a job you couldn’t pay me to do. How does he approach each movie mentally? How does he choose what aspects to write about? Does he feel dread at each screening? Or joy? Does he find his tastes in movies changing as his career progresses? What is it like to acquire a deeper sophistication about movies? And, given that he must know many of the actors and directors in the movies he watches, how does he separate the characters from the people he knows? As someone whose kids and wife were perfect in every performance I ever witnessed, I would find it difficult to be objective about people I know performing.

Despite these objections, I enjoyed the book. If you like Ebert’s writing, you’ll probably like getting this view of the man behind it all.

Recommended.

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