Friday, November 21, 2008

Siskel & Ebert on ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’

I remember when Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert used to be on public television and their show was called “Sneak Previews.” Watched it every week.

For more than 30 years now, Ebert’s opinion has mattered to me. But as a TV personality, he was never quite the same after Siskel died. He was Hardy without Laurel.

On Fridays, I’ll be posting a golden oldie from the Siskel & Ebert archives. Here’s one from 1992:

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ebert is my favorite hero. With two chins, or without.

Elwood said...

I miss Siskel.

Anonymous said...

You ought to check out this recent blog entry of his. Among other things, it features a nice collection of insults Siskel heaved at him over the years.

http://tinyurl.com/6gygqa

Undercover Black Man said...

I miss Siskel.

Me too, Elwood. Just look at his boyish enthusiasm in this clip.

When I lived on the Near North Side of Chicago in the early '80s, I saw him once in a playground near my apartment... presumably with his kid(s).

DeAngelo Starnes said...

Great film and clip to launch this. I'm often impressed with your taste and selection.

I wanna watch the movie again.

Love Siskel and Ebert together. My favorite Siskel memory is when they did a special about guilty pleasures. Siskel's guilty pleasure was Superfly. At the time I hadn't seen it since I was a kid and all those blaxploitation guys were like Luke Cage Hero for Hire superheroes to me. But after listening to Siskel discuss why he liked the movie, I rented it. A little side fling and some cheeba made it an interesting night, but I re-watched on more cheeba by myself the next morning. Got it! Re-watched a few more times. Really got into Ron O'Neal's performance, which I think Siskel dug into. O'Neal was an underused actor with chops who would put this hip hoppers jumping into film with no training to shame.

Good pick, Dave. How was the b-day?

Undercover Black Man said...

^ Thanks, DeAng. The B-day was work, work, work. But that's all right...

My favorite Siskel memory is when they did a special about guilty pleasures. Siskel's guilty pleasure was Superfly.

I remember that!

justjudith said...

great post. i used to love them too. i remember they believed that voiceovers in movies meant that the writer just didn't have the skills to address it in the screenplay. i don't know if i agree with that or not but it stuck in my mind.