Ebert on Oprah

Just watched Roger and Chaz Ebert on Oprah this afternoon. Nice profile of the film critic... The show gave a real taste of what everyday life is like for the ailing Ebert.

And Roger got to unveil his new computer voice based on his own now-lost voice... he used the new voice to list his Oscar predictions.

More reaction here to the Esquire profile of Ebert and all the hoopla since.

That's Roger on the right in the photo above of the Siskel and Ebert team on their long-running TV review series. Gene died from a brain tumor in February 1999.

These two guys didn't get along very well off air, but were smart enough to realize that the tension between them was a key element that made for good TV.

This compilation of outtakes is for adults only.

Ebert does Oprah... and talks!

If you didn't read my earlier entry about Roger Ebert's struggle with severe health problems, let me again recommend the Esquire profile of the Pulitzer-winning movie critic. Ebert has had a series of surgeries that have left him without a lower jaw, and without the ability to eat, drink or speak. Until now.

The Esquire article talks about Ebert's effort to speak again using a computer voice fashioned from the hours of his voice recorded for movie commentaries. Now, Ebert is set to unveil the new voice this week on Oprah. The special edition of Oprah previewing the March 7th Academy Awards will air at 4:00 (actually about 3:57) this Tuesday afternoon on KATV 7.

Meanwhile, Ebert continues to review the movies... this weekend the prolific critic reviews five new releases, plus writes a new Great Movies essay on Pink Floyd's The Wall. If you love the movies, and literate, thoughtful discussion of them, bookmark this website and visit frequently.

Roger Ebert faces death at the movies

The only film critic ever to win a Pulitzer Prize, and for my money the best writing today, is Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times.

Ebert continues to write prolifically, but you may have noticed that his long-running TV show is no more, and he doesn't even appear on Leno or The View to discuss the Oscars these days. That's becauase Roger has had a series of serious health problems in recent years.

Today, Ebert cannot eat, drink or talk, but he writes on. There's an excellent profile of Ebert in the latest Esquire magazine. That's a picture of him above.

The man appears to be facing death with grace and wisdom. From the article:

Ebert is dying in increments, and he is aware of it.

"I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear, he writes in a journal entry titled "Go Gently into That Good Night." I hope to be spared as much pain as possible on the approach path. I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state. What I am grateful for is the gift of intelligence, and for life, love, wonder, and laughter. You can't say it wasn't interesting. My lifetime's memories are what I have brought home from the trip. I will require them for eternity no more than that little souvenir of the Eiffel Tower I brought home from Paris. "

There has been no death-row conversion. He has not found God. He has been beaten in some ways. But his other senses have picked up since he lost his sense of taste. He has tuned better into life. Some things aren't as important as they once were; some things are more important than ever. He has built for himself a new kind of universe. Roger Ebert is no mystic, but he knows things we don't know.

"I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn't always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out."

Hear, hear.