MovieChat Forums > Life Itself (2014) Discussion > Should Siskel get a film?

Should Siskel get a film?


I'm one of those people who didn't know about or become a fan of Ebert until after he died. And even now I know him mostly from his website. I don't know much about Gene Siskel but I would be interested in seeing something on his life story.

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Siskel has less of a impact on film criticism as ebert. That being said he does deserve a documentary because he is often overlooked.

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I always liked Gene better. I agreed more with his reviews than Roger's. Roger always seemed to like a lot more films that I thought were average at best. Plus I loved Gene's biting sarcasm.

I wonder why Roger's last partner, I can't remember his name, didn't appear in the documentary?

Ladies and gentlemen, here he is Mr. Warmth himself, the one, the only - Mr. Don Rickles!

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I personally like how Ebert managed to seem down-to-earth and snobby at the same time, but I do agree that he seemed to "round up" his ratings a lot. For example, always seemed very grateful to be living in an age where technology allowed him and others to see stuff that could barely be imagined while he was a child, and this gratitude, while admirable, led him to give outstanding reviews to films that were average at best, such as The Phantom Menace and Avatar. Even his review and rating of the first Transformers movie seems generous. Meanwhile, Gene may have been more snobby and contributed less to the film criticism culture, but I doubt a documentary about someone who spent his childhood hanging out with Playmates would be boring, at least not if they just made sure to keep it short enough (a common criticism of Ebert's film is that they didn't).

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It would be interesting if they did a movie on Sickle's life but he didn't really write a book for them to base off a film on, and plus it has been quite a let of years since Siskel died. He died in 1999 and now it is 2016 as I am writing this. So you are looking at 17 years since he died.

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I had no idea he lived that kind of cool 70's lifestyle! I used to watch the pair in the early (but no earliest) days of their show and figured he was a bland guy who just wrote a column and shot the breeze with Roger about it.

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