OPPOSABLE THUMBS: HOW SISKEL & EBERT CHANGED MOVIES FOREVER, by Matt Singer, is a nostalgic look back at Gene Siskel, Roger Ebert, and their three TV shows: SNEAK PREVIEWS on PBS, AT THE MOVIES with Tribune Broadcasting, and SISKEL & EBERT with Disney. Both men were newspaper film critics for their entire careers, but on TV they became pop-culture figures. Siskel & Ebert gave a lot of people their first introduction to film criticism, especially in the 1970s in smaller cities that didn't get indie or foreign films. Their spiritual descendants today are on countless podcasts and Youtube channels.

Singer also suggests that their two-person arguments were the start of confrontational panel discussions on television. PBS station WTTW first produced the show in 1975, and it was followed by political-chat shows like "The McLaughlin Group" and eventually the endless hours of talking heads that now fill hours on the 24-hour news channels.

As part of writing the book, he screened the archives of the show and noted various times where they really called it; for example, Siskel & Ebert noticed Alfonso Cuaron's first English-language film, "A Little Princess", or Denzel Washington's early appearance in a movie called "The Mighty Quinn". The latter comes from a great appendix titled "Buried Treasures" that lists a number of movies that got Two Thumbs Up but have since fallen into obscurity. (It makes a good Letterboxd list: <https://letterboxd.com/ksen/list/opposable-thumbs-by-matt-singer-appendix/>.)

#books #bookstodon #film #MattSinger #SiskelAndEbert

Movie Wars: How Hollywood and the Media Limit What Films We Can See - Jonathan Rosenbaum

> Ebert reviews a good many film books, and to my knowledge Siskel never did; if he ever read any books about film on his own, it would have surprised me.

#films #movies #siskelandebert #JonathanRosenbaum

#OlisQuoteFile

"Both of us were obsessed with our newspaper jobs. That was our identity. TV was part-time." — Roger Ebert

Gene Siskel (1946-1999) would have been 79 today.

#FilmMastodon #GeneSiskel #SiskelAndEbert

"Both of us were obsessed with our newspaper jobs. That was our identity. TV was part-time." - Roger Ebert

Gene Siskel (1946-1999) would have been 78 today.

#GeneSiskel #SiskelAndEbert

Tonight in 1996 — THE SISKEL & EBERT INTERVIEWS aired on CBS.

Gene and Roger celebrated 20 years on TV w/ this primetime special.

#RogerEbert #GeneSiskel #SiskelAndEbert

Some of you remember these two guys. I find their thoughts in this clip refreshing; some real wisdom here. It feels like it's from another era, and it is. I also can't help but think of how the role of movie critic has been under fire for years now and many have left the business. I so wish there was a movie review show today like theirs was then, and updated for our times.

https://youtu.be/__L9DzZIkwI

#SiskelandEbert #criticism #writing #PoliticalCorrectness #MovieReviews #WritingAdvice #wisdom