If you haven’t yet read the Esquire profile of Roger Ebert by Chris Jones, please do. Ebert himself has been pretty open about his struggles as he writes on his blog, but coming at the subject from an outsider’s point of view lends a whole new dimension to one’s appreciation of the situation, of the man Roger Ebert is, and of the tiny miracles of life. I was never a big fan of Ebert in his heyday, but, like a lot of people, have been won over by the more personal writing that he shares with the world now. He even offers his own inside scoop on Jones’ piece in today’s blog post. In his blog post, he takes a little issue with the leitmotif of mortality that imbues the article, but he can’t go too far down the road of denial. In the Esquire piece, what stands out is his determination to be up-front and honest, continuing to engage with his public role where others might have locked themselves away; Gene Siskel joked that Ebert’s middle name should be “Full Disclosure”, and the interview as well as the blog post give credit to Siskel’s jibe.
Thanks for linking the story as I hadn’t spotted it yet myself. I am a semi-regular reader of Ebert’s blog, and have similarly been struck by his more intimate writing there. I used to enjoy the TV show, but wasn’t a fan of his writing in the old days (although I often appreciated the content of his written reviews anyway). I do give him a lot of credit for honesty and for his willingness to let another writer have his way for the Esquire piece. As for his own writing, I think Ebert is more even-handed and fair, as well as thoughtful, in his writing now, and I rather like the fact that he turns out to be just as passionate about his words as he comes across on the “page.”
It got a lot of attention, and I usually don’t like making “me-too” posts, but I was really drawn in by the article. I appreciate Ebert feeling that he needed to make an “I’m not dead!” post of his own, but even Ebert’s own writing has had more than a little sense of finality to it over the last year. I was really touched by the moment where he “screams” about the video clips of his Siskel tribute being pulled from YouTube, because you can tell he is mourning for himself as well.