What a strange profession it is to write about movies. You're depending upon the creativity of others, slouching through an endless quagmire of mediocrity that was made with desire and passion and in the end you are supposed to give an opinion about someone else's blood, sweat and tears.
And still, there is more to it all than just that.
Life it could be said, is a bombardment of opinions about your decisions, your passions, your failures and your victories, that'll never end until the lights go out.
Steve James' documentary about Roger Ebert seems to know this. The movies are our life, and we are the movies. Not to mention the books and songs, the poems and paintings, the photographs and dinners we read, see, hear and eat.
Life Itself" is not a celebrity portrait, but the story of a famous person who shared in all the aspects of what makes up being human. Mr. Ebert's love for life, for the movies, for the people who made movies, even those he hated, stemmed from a deep recognition that in the end, we as a species need each other. As mainstream as this basic philosophical realization is, it is ultimately unavoidable.
In a stark and unflinching way, without ever becoming trashy, has Mr. James fashioned not the story of an icon or a spokesperson but of a human being with an insane amount of passion.
Mr. Ebert's dependence on the heart and passion of others came full circle by giving back as much as he could. Which meant trying to let everyone know which movies were worthy, necessary and longing for our attention.
Life Itself" is not just about a gentlemen from the mid-western part of the United States. It is if anything about a citizen of the world, who tried and sometimes succeeded in showing us that to be human was a noble endeavor, if we chose it to be that.
And he summed it up once, as profound as anything I've ever read, in the last paragraph of his review about Searching for Bobby Fisher". Which was directed, incidentally, by Steven Zaillian who co-produced this documentary.
He wrote:
At the end, it all comes down to that choice faced by the young player that A. S. Byatt writes about: the choice between truth and beauty. What makes us men is that we can think logically. What makes us human is that we sometimes choose not to."
And I believe, life is ultimately made up of choices, not opinions.
And still, there is more to it all than just that.
Life it could be said, is a bombardment of opinions about your decisions, your passions, your failures and your victories, that'll never end until the lights go out.
Steve James' documentary about Roger Ebert seems to know this. The movies are our life, and we are the movies. Not to mention the books and songs, the poems and paintings, the photographs and dinners we read, see, hear and eat.
Life Itself" is not a celebrity portrait, but the story of a famous person who shared in all the aspects of what makes up being human. Mr. Ebert's love for life, for the movies, for the people who made movies, even those he hated, stemmed from a deep recognition that in the end, we as a species need each other. As mainstream as this basic philosophical realization is, it is ultimately unavoidable.
In a stark and unflinching way, without ever becoming trashy, has Mr. James fashioned not the story of an icon or a spokesperson but of a human being with an insane amount of passion.
Mr. Ebert's dependence on the heart and passion of others came full circle by giving back as much as he could. Which meant trying to let everyone know which movies were worthy, necessary and longing for our attention.
Life Itself" is not just about a gentlemen from the mid-western part of the United States. It is if anything about a citizen of the world, who tried and sometimes succeeded in showing us that to be human was a noble endeavor, if we chose it to be that.
And he summed it up once, as profound as anything I've ever read, in the last paragraph of his review about Searching for Bobby Fisher". Which was directed, incidentally, by Steven Zaillian who co-produced this documentary.
He wrote:
At the end, it all comes down to that choice faced by the young player that A. S. Byatt writes about: the choice between truth and beauty. What makes us men is that we can think logically. What makes us human is that we sometimes choose not to."
And I believe, life is ultimately made up of choices, not opinions.