"Life Itself" review

What a Wonderful Life

Having eagerly read Roger Ebert’s biography “Life Itself” about a year ago, I was surprised by the many discoveries that lay within its pages.  I didn’t know Ebert had been an alcoholic for years.  I didn’t know his wife, Chaz, is African American.  I didn’t know that Ebert’s formal education focused on English and Journalism rather than film.  Yet Roger Ebert loved the movies, and he was a whiz with the written word.  These traits enabled Ebert to become one of the most iconic film critics in the world, all because his boss at the Chicago Sun-Times gave Ebert the job.

Life is like that.  Sometimes little events will alter the course of existence in ways that are only understood years later.  In Ebert’s case, it led him down a path to great fulfillment and even greater challenges.  I was gravely impressed by the bravery Ebert displayed in publishing the picture of his face after his failed jaw surgery.  My respect and admiration trebled, as I now saw a man with great passion for film, but an even greater passion for life.  This image loudly trumpeted: "I will not give up."  Though he had been through the wringer, Ebert's joie de vivre remained unbounded.  “Life Itself” was directed by Steve James of “Hoop Dreams” fame, and it chronicles Ebert’s last years along with many flashbacks and interviews.

The film starts by immediately showing us Ebert in the hospital, gracefully enduring grueling physical therapy.  It is a perfect way to begin.  Ebert's condition is shocking to see at first, but as the film returns to him repeatedly we begin to see the person and not just the injury.  Ebert's mind and personality are unchanged, it is only the physical aspect that is different.  We are encouraged to look beneath the surface at the unique human being within.  I think Ebert would have liked this, as it is one of the reasons why he chose to marry Chaz.

The various reminiscences from family, friends and celebrities are insightful, poignant and very funny.  I especially enjoyed seeing various clips revealing the contentious friendship Ebert had with Gene Siskel.  Their intense rivalry was equaled only by their mutual passion for film and their absolute belief in the validity of their own opinions.  Yet Siskel and Ebert loved each other.  Siskel’s death from brain cancer affected Ebert deeply.  The bittersweet mixture of the loving families both men had and the heartbreak felt after their passing affected me more than I anticipated.  I wept openly and proudly.

As my wife and I exited the theater, I still had fresh tears running down my face.  I just wanted to go home, have a drink and mourn this wonderful man who had lived a tumultuous yet wonderful life.  I kept hearing a line of dialogue in my head from a movie I couldn’t quite name.  The memory flitted around in my brain like a moth around a candle.  Always coming close, yet always eluding capture.  I felt that it was the perfect summation of Ebert’s life.  At home I finally tracked it down, and it was from Shakespeare, although Steve Martin paraphrased it in “LA Story.”

“Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful and yet again most wonderful.”

We’ll see you at the movies, Roger.