I did not like his taste in movies, or his Liberal attitude. I think that in some way, he did for movies what Simon Cowell did to modern pop music — he promoted dreck and convinced a lot of people that quality was not going to sell as well as crap.
Who was a good film critic then? At his best he gave wide mainstream exposure to great films and filmmakers. How many people found out about Ikiry, the films of Dreyer and Tati because of him...
i remember watching Siskel and Ebert once, and during a disagreement, Siskel made a remark about Ebert being fat... he even used the word, “fat.” it is the only time i ever felt anything for Ebert... i felt bad for him—hough i could not stand him...