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Siskel lives (with Ebert) online - video clips
Those of us who fondly remember the days of Siskel and Ebert’s movie review program just received a terrific (and very large) gift.
Buena Vista Television, which has backed the show since 1986, has just placed an enormous video archive online, consisting of every episode in the Buena Vista library. You can search the archive by movie title, actor or director, and watch the reviews of thousands of movies.
Lots of great material is here, from their infamous tussle over Cop and a Half, which Ebert actually recommended, to their loud debate over Blue Velvet, which Ebert actually did not recommend. (Siskel, God rest his soul, had his flubs too - he recommended Armageddon.)
Sadly, much of the duo’s early work, including their breakout run on PBS’ Sneak Previews, is not available, because, as Ebert explains, most of those tapes were thrown out. If the archive has their special shows (best-ofs, Oscar picks, etc.) I can’t find them through a search yet, except for the one where Ebert and Martin Scorsese picked the best films of the 1990s. (That’s TONS of fun, BTW). Still, there’s so much to see here, one could spend hours looking through it, like I did last night.
The archives reminded me that Siskel and Ebert agreed much more often than not. It was just that when they disagreed, it was especially memorable. Sometimes, even when they did agree about a particular movie, like Steven Spielberg’s Always (the one film of his that completely missed the mark), they ended up arguing about some aspect of it, and those lively debates were always fun to watch.
I also noticed how much longer the reviews used to be, even as recently as the mid-90s. Siskel and Ebert used to spend several minutes discussing each title in depth. Nowadays, the reviews zip by in much less time. Proof of shorter attention spans? I think so.
I was also reminded of how much I miss Siskel, who died in 1999. Since his passing, the show simply hasn’t been the same. Siskel and Ebert were equals, and no one Ebert has partnered with has produced the same spark. It was rather like the dynamic between Lennon and McCartney. Once the great partnership dissolved, the output since then has never matched what the team did at its height. (Interesting trivia: Ebert and McCartney share the exact same birthday: June 18, 1942).
Siskel’s replacement, Richard Roeper, is an eminently decent guy and a strong writer, and he has improved since he started on the program, but he’s always been the junior partner to Ebert’s senior partner, and that’s not nearly as interesting as what Ebert had with Siskel.
Over the past year, Roeper’s been stuck in the unenviable position of having to carry on without Ebert, who almost died from the after-effects of cancer surgery. As of now, Ebert has blessedly begun writing reviews full time again, but since his jaw bone was removed, he is unable to speak. He hopes to have surgery to restore his speech, which will facilitate his return to the show.
Until he does, this archive provides us with some great reminders of how entertaining a good movie review can be.
PS: Good old YouTube does have some Siskel and Ebert clips that aren’t in the archive, including this priceless Sesame Street appearance.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Other critics
Comments
By Cali
August 4, 2007 1:18 AM | Link to this
Oh, thanks for posting this! That’s really interesting to know. You never know when those archives will come in handy!By Allie D.
August 2, 2007 3:00 PM | Link to this
Thank you for posting this! What a great idea to have these all available. I agree with everything you said about the spark that Siskel and Ebert had. I do enjoy Roeper’s writing. Not so much his movie reviews (which are decent) but his column, which is humorous and very well-written. But he is definitely not Ebert’s equal. I do see the role he plays though. He’s kind of like the “everyman.” I’ve found myself agreeing with him about as often as I disagree.