Siskel and Ebert's reviewing style has been described as a form of midwestern populist criticism rather than the one formed through essays which other critics including
Pauline Kael felt undermined and undervalued the profession of
film criticism. They were criticized for their ability to sensationalize film criticism in an easygoing, relatable way. Together, they are credited with forming contemporary film criticism.
The New York Times described Ebert's reviews as a "critic for the common man". The pair were also known for their intense debate, often drawing sharp criticisms at each other. After Siskel's death, Ebert reminisced about their close relationship saying: Siskel and Ebert's professional rivalry was noted in Matt Singer's 2023 book
Opposable Thumbs. According to a
Tribune editor quoted in the book, when Siskel would scoop his rival in print, he'd exult: "Take that, Tubby, I got him again." In 1983, the two critics defended the
Star Wars films against critic
John Simon in an episode of
ABC News Nightline. The film
Return of the Jedi (1983) had hit theaters that summer and Simon was criticizing the film for "making children dumber than they need to be". Ebert responded saying:
Siskel's critical style Gene Siskel had an abrasive review style, and claimed his film criticism was an individual exercise that should not be swayed by public taste. In an interview for the Academy of Television and Radio, his TV co-host Roger Ebert said of him, "I think Gene felt that he had to like the whole picture to give it a thumbs up." In particular, he often gave negative reviews to films that became box office champs and went on to be considered mainstream classics:
Poltergeist,
Scarface,
Beverly Hills Cop,
The Terminator,
Aliens,
Predator,
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,
Thelma & Louise, and
Independence Day. This even extended to several films that went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture:
The Silence of the Lambs and
Unforgiven. Ebert also noted in a memoriam episode of
Siskel & Ebert that when Siskel found a movie that he truly treasured, he embraced it as something special. Directly addressing his late colleague, Ebert said: "I know for sure that seeing a truly great movie made you so happy that you'd tell me a week later your spirits were still high." Some of Siskel's most treasured movies included
My Dinner with Andre (1981),
Shoah (1985),
Fargo (1996), and the documentary
Hoop Dreams (1994).
Ebert's critical style as an influence. Ebert cited
Andrew Sarris and
Pauline Kael as influences, and often quoted
Robert Warshow, who said: "A man goes to the movies. A critic must be honest enough to admit he is that man." His own credo was: "Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions never lie to you." He awarded four stars to films of the highest quality, and generally a half star to those of the lowest, unless he considered the film to be "artistically inept and morally repugnant", in which case it received no stars, as with
Death Wish II. He explained that his star ratings had little meaning outside the context of the review: Although Ebert rarely wrote outright scathing reviews, he had a reputation for writing memorable ones for the films he really hated, such as
North. Of that film, he wrote "I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie. Hated it. Hated every simpering stupid vacant audience-insulting moment of it. Hated the sensibility that thought anyone would like it. Hated the implied insult to the audience by its belief that anyone would be entertained by it." He wrote that
Mad Dog Time "is the first movie I have seen that does not improve on the sight of a blank screen viewed for the same length of time. Oh, I've seen bad movies before. But they usually made me
care about how bad they were. Watching
Mad Dog Time is like waiting for the bus in a city where you're not sure they have a bus line" and concluded that the film "should be cut up to provide free ukulele picks for the poor." Of
Caligula, he wrote "It is not good art, it is not good cinema, and it is not good porn" and approvingly quoted the woman in front of him at the drinking fountain, who called it "the worst piece of shit I have ever seen." Ebert's reviews were also characterized by "dry wit." He often wrote in a deadpan style when discussing a movie's flaws; in his review of
Jaws: The Revenge, he wrote that Mrs. Brody's "friends pooh-pooh the notion that a shark could identify, follow or even care about one individual human being, but I am willing to grant the point, for the benefit of the plot. I believe that the shark wants revenge against Mrs. Brody. I do. I really do believe it. After all, her husband was one of the men who hunted this shark and killed it, blowing it to bits. And what shark wouldn't want revenge against the survivors of the men who killed it? Here are some things, however, that I do not believe", going on to list the other ways the film strained credulity. He wrote "
Pearl Harbor is a two-hour movie squeezed into three hours, about how on Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese staged a surprise attack on an American love triangle. Its centerpiece is 40 minutes of redundant special effects, surrounded by a love story of stunning banality. The film has been directed without grace, vision, or originality, and although you may walk out quoting lines of dialog, it will not be because you admire them." Ebert often included personal anecdotes in his reviews; reviewing
The Last Picture Show, he recalls his early days as a moviegoer: "For five or six years of my life (the years between when I was old enough to go alone, and when TV came to town) Saturday afternoon at the Princess was a descent into a dark magical cave that smelled of Jujubes, melted Dreamsicles and Crisco in the popcorn machine. It was probably on one of those Saturday afternoons that I formed my first critical opinion, deciding vaguely that there was something about
John Wayne that set him apart from ordinary cowboys." Reviewing
Star Wars, he wrote: "Every once in a while I have what I think of as an out-of-the-body experience at a movie. When the ESP people use a phrase like that, they're referring to the sensation of the mind actually leaving the body and spiriting itself off to China or Peoria or a galaxy far, far away. When I use the phrase, I simply mean that my imagination has forgotten it is actually present in a movie theater and thinks it's up there on the screen. In a curious sense, the events in the movie seem real, and I seem to be a part of them...My list of other out-of-the-body films is a short and odd one, ranging from the artistry of
Bonnie and Clyde or
Cries and Whispers to the slick commercialism of
Jaws and the brutal strength of
Taxi Driver. On whatever level (sometimes I'm not at all sure) they engage me so immediately and powerfully that I lose my detachment, my analytical reserve. The movie's
happening, and it's happening to me." He sometimes wrote reviews in the forms of stories, poems, songs, scripts, open letters, or imagined conversations.
Alex Ross, music critic for
The New Yorker, wrote of how Ebert had influenced his writing: "I noticed how much Ebert could put across in a limited space. He didn't waste time clearing his throat. 'They meet for the first time when she is in her front yard practicing baton-twirling,' begins his review of
Badlands. Often, he managed to smuggle the basics of the plot into a larger thesis about the movie, so that you don't notice the exposition taking place: '
Broadcast News is as knowledgeable about the TV news-gathering process as any movie ever made, but it also has insights into the more personal matter of how people use high-pressure jobs as a way of avoiding time alone with themselves.' The reviews start off in all different ways, sometimes with personal confessions, sometimes with sweeping statements. One way or another, he pulls you in. When he feels strongly, he can bang his fist in an impressive way. His review of
Apocalypse Now ends thus: 'The whole huge grand mystery of the world, so terrible, so beautiful, seems to hang in the balance.'" In his introduction to
The Great Movies III, he wrote: In the first
Great Movies, he wrote: ==Preferences==