Free Republic

Unless we find an angel, our television program will go off the air at the end of its current season. There. I've said it. Usually in television, people use evasive language. Not me. We'll be gone. I want to be honest about why this is. We can't afford to finance it any longer. Before I go into details, let me say that by any fair measure, "Ebert Presents At The Movies" has been a great success. The program has a coverage of more than 90% of the country, and all of the top 50 markets. Our ratings place us among...

There are vertical prayers and horizontal prayers. Vertical prayers are directed heavenward. Horizontal prayers are directed sideways at others. It fills me with misgivings when a possible Presidential candidate warms up by running a "prayer rally" in a Texas sports stadium. A prayer "rally?" I can think of words like gathering and meeting that might more perfectly evoke the spirit. Prayer rallies make me think of pep rallies. Their purpose is to jack up the spirits of the home team and alarm the other side. Of course the other side has its own pep rallies, presumably leaving it to God...

All I know is just what I read in the papers. -- Will Rogers Me too. Or hear on TV, or see on the net. That's all most of us knows. I'm sure the President and Senators and government officials know more, but we elect them, they don't elect us. And I'm sure the CEOs of powerful corporations know more, although the Murdoch testimony indicates he didn't know as much as he could have read in the papers. What I read,and hear is that the Republican Party is abandoning its hopes of speaking for a majority of Americans. It will...

Film critic Roger Ebert says admitted was 'probably too quick to tweet' when he posted a message about Jackass star Ryan Dunn, who died in a fiery car crash yesterday morning. The 69-year-old wrote that 'friends don't let jackasses drink and drive' shortly after the star's death prompting fury from Dunn's friends, including co-star Bam Magera. Taking to his blog today, the 69-year-old, who has won a Pulitzer Prize for criticism, offered his condolences to Dunn's family and agreed his brazen statement were untimely. 'To begin with, I offer my sympathy to Ryan Dunn's family and friends, and to those...

Andrew O'Hehir of Salon is a critic I admire, but he has nevertheless written a review of "Secretariat" so bizarre I cannot allow it to pass unnoticed. I don't find anywhere in "Secretariat" the ideology he discovers there. In its reasoning, his review resembles a fevered conspiracy theory. In this example , we do not find proof that Obama is a Muslim Communist born in Kenya. No, the news is worse than that. It involves Secretariat, a horse who up until now we innocently thought of as merely very fast. We learn the horse is a carrier not merely of...

When you think of crimes against America, crimes so dangerous they strike out against the very existence of the country, what comes to mind? Espionage, terrorism, and treason perhaps top the list. But what about not publicly declaring that Barack Obama is in fact not a Muslim? (Snip) Limbaugh in particular must cease his innuendos and say, flat out, whether he believes the President is a Muslim or not. Yes or no. Does he have evidence, or does he have none? Yes or no. To do anything less at this troubled time in our history would be a crime against

We already know the numbers. Pew finds that 18% of Americans believe President Obama is a Muslim. A new Newsweek poll, taken after the controversy over the New York mosque, places that figure at 24%. Even if he's not a Muslim, Newsweek finds, 31 percent think it's "definitely or probably" true that Obama "sympathizes with the goals of Islamic fundamentalists who want to impose Islamic law around the world."

Here at The Concession Stand, NRB’s pop culture division, we are sustained by a steady stream of boneheaded remarks from celebrities grand and small. One of the gifts that keeps on giving is Chicago-Sun Times film critic turned political pseudo-blogger Roger Ebert. Ebert was recognized by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists as one of the best bloggers of 2010 for his “clarity and depth.” Such an accolade is laughable when you objectively consider an average Ebert post. Far from deep or clear, a typical Ebert rant is a long piece of well crafted gibberish. In his most recent post,...

I had heard a great deal about Saul Alinsky's book Rules for Radicals, but had never read them. The Right has demonized Alinsky, linking him to Obama. Curious to know more, I went to Wikipedia and found the Rules themselves. As I read them, it occurred to me that these Rules are strategic, not ideological. Alinsky was of the Left, but the Rules have no party. As I look around America in 2010, it occurs to me that the group currently using these Rules most effectively is the Tea Party.

Film critic Roger Ebert is never shy with his opinions, be they about movies or otherwise. But after criticizing five California teens who chose to wear clothing bearing the American flag to their high school on Cinco de Mayo, Ebert has faced a particularly angry backlash. On his Twitter account, Ebert, whose battle with thyroid cancer has disfigured his appearance and taken his voice, wrote the following: @ebertchicago Kids who wear American Flag T-shirts on 5 May should have to share a lunchroom table with those who wear a hammer and sickle on 4 July. Ebert's words set off a...

My guess is that the only pause Ebert gave this Tweet was to worry about whether it was insulting to the Commies to equate the American flag with theirs.

3-D is a waste of a perfectly good dimension. Hollywood's current crazy stampede toward it is suicidal. It adds nothing essential to the moviegoing experience. For some, it is an annoying distraction. For others, it creates nausea and headaches. It is driven largely to sell expensive projection equipment and add a $5 to $7.50 surcharge on already expensive movie tickets. Its image is noticeably darker than standard 2-D. It is unsuitable for grown-up films of any seriousness. It limits the freedom of directors to make films as they choose. For moviegoers in the PG-13 and R ranges, it only rarely...

The balcony is closed. This is the last season of "At the Movies," the long-running syndicated review show made into a hit in the 1980s by dueling Chicago critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. The show's roots go back to 1975's "Sneak Previews." Here's a statement from distributor Disney-ABC Domestic TV: After 24 seasons with us in national syndication, the highly regarded movie review show "At the Movies" (formerly known as "Siskel & Ebert" and "Ebert & Roeper") will air its last original broadcast the weekend of August 14, 2010. This was a very difficult decision, especially considering the program's...

Sometimes in the noise of the news there will be a single item that pops out with clarity. That happened when I heard about Tracy, California, which is charging $300 every time the fire department answers an emergency call that doesn't involve a fire. That summons up not only the prospect of little Susie's kitten being left to die up in the tree, but also of her dad who has just collapsed with an asthma attack. One citizen said if her husband had a heart attack, she'd set her kitchen table on fire to dodge the fee. To be sure,...

It has been nearly four years since Roger Ebert lost his lower jaw and his ability to speak. Now television's most famous movie critic is rarely seen and never heard, but his words have never stopped. ....................................................... Seven years ago, he recovered quickly from the surgery to cut out his cancerous thyroid and was soon back writing reviews for the Chicago Sun-Times and appearing with Richard Roeper on At the Movies. A year later, in 2003, he returned to work after his salivary glands were partially removed, too, although that and a series of aggressive radiation treatments opened the first...

NEW YORK (AP) — Film critic Roger Ebert lost his ability to speak nearly four years ago, when he underwent a tracheostomy, a procedure that opens an airway through an incision in the windpipe, after surgery for cancer in his jaw. In an interview in the new issue of Esquire magazine, the 67-year-old film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times uses pen and paper and text-to-speech computer software to communicate. He's developed a kind of rudimentary sign language, and he sometimes draws letters with his finger on the palm of his hand.

Apparently, Roger Ebert has decided that he will finally cease using the term “teabaggers” and will now focus his seething liberal rage on Sarah Palin. If you’ve not been following this increasingly nasty hissy fit the Pulitzer-winning film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times has been throwing, you’ve missed one of the stranger liberal rhetorical meltdowns in at least 12 minutes. It started at his Twitter feed, grew to include Big Hollywood and Big Journalism, and now that Sarah Palin’s on his radar, I thought a few words from a long-time Ebert fan and strong supporter of Sarah Palin were in...

Sometimes two films set up an uncanny resonance with one another. I saw two documentaries back to back. One filled me with hope and the other washed me in despair. They were both about the education of primary school children. "A Small Act" centers on the life story of Chris Mburu, who as a small boy living in a mud house in a Kenyan village had his primary and secondary education paid for by a Swedish woman. This cost her $15 a month. They had never met. He went on to the University of Nairobi, graduated from Harvard Law School,...

Roger Ebert Twitters: 'Massachusetts to Teddy: "F--k you."'

Film Critic Roger Ebert, although outspoken about his anti-torture views, is not particularly consistent in his pacifist rhetoric. In his review of the movie “Taxi to the Dark Side,” Ebert criticized Dick Cheney for the torture that is ascribed to the Bush administration in the film. At the same time, though, Ebert called for talk radio host Rush Limbaugh to be horsewhipped for questioning President Obama’s push of the White House government Web site as the way for a caring public to make donations to help Haiti. Ebert penned an open letter to Limbaugh in the Chicago Sun Times, writing...

You should be horse-whipped for the insult you have paid to the highest office of our nation. Having followed President Obama's suggestion and donated money to the Red Cross for relief in Haiti, I was offended to hear you suggest the President might be a thief capable of stealing money intended for the earthquake victims. Here is a transcript from your program on Thursday: Justin of Raleigh, North Carolina: "Why does Obama say if you want to donate some money, you could go to whitehouse.gov to direct you how to do so? If I wanted to donate to the Red...

In a demonstration of Hollywood's quintessentially intolerant hatred of conservatives, film critic Roger Ebert took to the Twitterverse on Saturday to mock Rush Limbaugh and his sudden trip to a Hawaii hospital (h/t Big Hollywood headlines). Ebert was hardly alone in rejoicing Limbaugh's hospital visit--and distressed when he was given a clean bill of health.

Have no doubt about it: Film critic Roger Ebert is no fan of Rush Limbaugh. The unabashed liberal reeled off a series of one-liners on Twitter against the radio talk show host over the weekend, in the wake of Limbaugh's hospital visit due to chest pains. A sampling: "Rush: Hawaii is the only country where the Hawaiian shirts come in S, M, L, XL, Rush, and Sumo." "Rush: Nurse at snack time: 'You have nuts?' 'No!' 'You have dates?' 'Hey, if I had nuts, I'd have dates!' Ah...Har! Har! Har!" "Rush: Stuck in this hospital room watching TV, I really...

Ebert: Blue States have fewer murders; this is even more true in densely-populated areas. Red states have significantly more rapes. Blue states, led by Massachusetts, have a lower divorce rate than do red states. Blue states are much safer places to drive - the difference is stunning. Blue states have substantially less infant mortality - however, there are a few surprises, such as Utah. Blue state infant mortality rates are similar to those found in the rest of the developed world. Folks in blue states live longer than folks in red states. The states with the least poverty are blue,...

Watching "Avatar," I felt sort of the same as when I saw "Star Wars" in 1977. That was another movie I walked into with uncertain expectations. James Cameron's film has been the subject of relentlessly dubious advance buzz, just as his "Titanic" was. Once again, he has silenced the doubters by simply delivering an extraordinary film. There is still at least one man in Hollywood who knows how to spend $250 million, or was it $300 million, wisely. "Avatar" is not simply a sensational entertainment, although it is that. It's a technical breakthrough. It has a flat-out Green and anti-war...

I've had these thoughts for some time, but have been reluctant to express them. Now so many others have voiced them that it's pointless to remain silent. I am frightened by the climate of insane anti-Obama hatred in this country. I'm not referring to traditional conservatives or Republicans. They're part of the process. I'm speaking of the lunatic fringe, the frothers, the extremist rabble who are sweeping up the ignorant and credulous into a bewildering and fearsome tide of reckless rhetoric.

In August 1979, I took my last drink. It was about four o'clock on a Saturday afternoon, the hot sun streaming through the windows of my little carriage house on Dickens. I put a glass of scotch and soda down on the living room table, went to bed, and pulled the blankets over my head. I couldn't take it any more. On Monday I went to visit wise old Dr. Jakob Schlichter. I had been seeing him for a year, telling him I thought I might be drinking too much. He agreed, and advised me to go to "A.A.A," which...

Having read through some 600 comments about universal health care, I now realize I took the wrong approach in my previous blog entry. I discussed the Obama health plan in political, literal, logical terms. Most of my readers replied in the same vein. The comments, as always, have been helpful, informative and for the most part civil. My mistake was writing from the pragmatic side. I should have followed my heart and gone with a more emotional approach. I believe universal health care is, quite simply, right.

As the mighty tide swept the land on Tuesday night, I was transfixed. As the pundits pondered red states and blue states, projections and exit polls, I was swept with emotion. Not because America was "electing its first Black president." That comes a little late in the day. It was because America was electing the right President. Our long national nightmare is ending. America will not soon again start a war based on lies and propaganda. We will not torture. We will restore the rights of freedom of speech, freedom of privacy, and habeas corpus. We will enter at last...

Why do corporations tend to be greedy? I suspect it's because their executives are paid millions and millions to maximize profits, minimize salaries and slash benefits that cut into the bottom line. Sometimes this can be taken to comic-opera extremes, as when the (now) convicted thief David Radler was stealing millions from the Sun-Times and actually turned off the escalators to save on electricity. I guess that helps explain why the Ford Motor Co., followed by Chrysler, stole the secret of the intermittent windshield wiper from a little guy named Robert Kearns. Why bother? Why not just pay the guy...

Five years ago, I wrote an essay trashing Roger Ebert for the shrill one-note predictability of his political commentary. I went for the jugular, comparing Ebert to his idol, Pauline Kael: It's worth comparing Ebert's reflexive right-bashing with the approach of Pauline Kael, the legendary New Yorker writer who was considered the nation's most influential film critic in her heyday. The contrast does not flatter her successor.

The American Idol candidate September 10, 2008 By Roger Ebert I think I might be able to explain some of Sara Palin's appeal. She's the "American Idol" candidate. Consider. What defines an "American Idol" finalist? They're good-looking, work well on television, have a sunny personality, are fierce competitors, and so talented, why, they're darned near the real thing. There's a reason "American Idol" gets such high ratings. People identify with the contestants. They think, Hey, that could almost be me up there on that show! My feeling is, I don't want to be up there. I want a vice president...

I watched Sarah Palin's interview with Charles Gibson, and felt uneasiness stirring in my stomach. The feeling did not involve politics. Somehow it was personal. Gradually, memories churned to the surface...

CHICAGO — Film critic Roger Ebert on Thursday confirmed that a fellow critic yelled at him and whacked him on the knee with a program during a movie screening at the Toronto Film Festival last weekend, but said incident was "blown out of proportion." "It has been blown out of proportion. It is of little interest," Ebert said in a column posted Thursday on the Web site of the Chicago Sun-Times, where he has been a critic since 1967. Ebert, who has battled cancer in recent years and was left unable to speak, did not name the other critic involved...

-snip- I would also want someone who didn't make a teeny little sneer when referring to "people who go to the Ivy League." When I was a teen I dreamed of going to Harvard, but my dad, an electrician, told me, "Boy, we don't have the money. Thank your lucky stars you were born in Urbana and can go to the University of Illinois right here in town." So I did, very happily. Although Palin gets laughs when she mentions the "elite" Ivy League, she sure did attend the heck out of college. Five schools in six years. What was...

The tragic story of Roman Polanski, his life, his suffering and his crimes, has been told and retold until it assumes the status of legend. After the loss of his parents in the Holocaust, after raising himself on the streets of Nazi-controlled Poland, after moving to America to acclaim as the director of "Chinatown," after the murder by the Manson family of his wife and unborn child ... what then? He was arrested and tried for unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13- year-old girl, one of several charges including supplying her with drink and drugs. Then he fled the country...

As Judith Europa described how the father of her children shot and killed three people in a Woodbridge house, she clung to one positive: She and others were alive yesterday because two men were as intent on protecting those they loved as the gunman was on destroying them. Europa said she was lying with four children on the floor of her sister's bedroom Sunday when Anastacio Sanchez-Miranda, 39, slipped into the Grandview Avenue house unnoticed, his jealousy seething. She and the children watched as her sister, Rosario Europa, 24, and brother-in-law, Juan Manuel Guevara, 28, were gunned down. Guevara had...

Q. I have long been a dedicated reader of your reviews. You were responsible for directing me toward the works of Bresson, Bunuel, Bergman, Tarkovsky and Herzog (particularly Bresson) and thus inspiring my love for the movies. I will forever be indebted to you for having changed my life in this regard. I am also a proud American who enlisted voluntarily in the United States Marines Corps. I served for one year and a half in Iraq . I saw more of the destructive impact of war on the lives of the Iraqi people and those of the men around...

July 17, 2006 The Honorable Condoleezza Rice Secretary of State of the United States of America U.S. Department of State 2201 C Street NW Washington, DC 20520 Dear Madam: We, the undersigned, are the citizens of Vietnam who, on April 8, 2006, have proclaimed the Manifesto 2006 which calls for democracy and freedom in Vietnam. We call ourselves Group 8406. According to the information that we received from Vietnam’s Ministry of External Affairs and the U.S. Department of States, we understand that you’ll be visiting Vietnam by the end of this month. We will be happy to welcome you here...

FMA Posted by ro @ 8:59 pm in Uncategorized I am sure the troops in Iraq, the forgotten victims of Katrina, the people being gauged at the gas pumps are grateful that President Bush is focusing on the central issue facing our nation: how to bar gay Americans from someday maybe getting the right to obtain a civil marriage license. Bush first announced Federal Marriage Amendment in feb 2004 – since that day 1,943 American soldiers were killed in Iraq. Total dead - 2476 Total wounded - 15,271 Fool me once… ------------------- fonda Posted by ro @ 11:57 pm in...

One of the most recognizable women of our time, Jane Fonda—actress, activist, feminist, workout guru, entrepreneur, and philanthropist—examines her “life so far”. As Fonda relates her story, what emerges is a full portrait that transcends the many labels that have been used to define her as well as a cultural history of our nation’s last forty years as her life has woven through our times. “Coming to see my various individual struggles within a broader societal context enabled me to understand that much of my journey was a universal one for women. …. I’m proof that you teach what you...

The sponsor of an effort to honor Jane Fonda in the Georgia state Senate withdrew her resolution Thursday, after a rocky reception from some colleagues and a phone call from the actress' office. Sen. Steen Miles, D-Decatur, said a representative for Fonda, who is out of the country, asked that she avoid the controversy the effort had stirred. "This, ladies and gentlemen, should not be occupying our time," said Miles. The resolution cites the Atlanta resident's work as founder of the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, donations to Atlanta-area universities and charities and role as goodwill ambassador with the...

Chicago Sun-Times movie critic Roger Ebert was in serious condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital Sunday following an emergency operation to repair complications from an earlier cancer surgery. Ebert's vital signs appeared to be good after the hours-long operation, said Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper, co-host of the "Ebert & Roeper" movie review show. On June 16, Ebert underwent surgery to remove a cancerous growth on his salivary gland. Around 8 p.m. Saturday, a blood vessel burst near the site of the operation. Ebert, 64, has had four cancer surgeries, including two on his salivary gland in 2003. Prior to the June...

Sir! No Sir! Just saying no Release Date: 2006 Ebert Rating: *** BY ROGER EBERT / Jun 9, 2006 Quick question: When Jane Fonda was on her "FTA" concert tour during the Vietnam era, who was in her audience? The quick answer from most people would probably be, "anti-war hippies, left-wingers and draft-dodgers." The correct answer would be: American troops on active duty, many of them in uniform. "Sir! No Sir!" is a documentary that about an almost-forgotten fact of the Vietnam era: Anti-war sentiment among U.S. troops grew into a problem for the Pentagon. The film claims bombing was...

CHICAGO - Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert, who has battled cancer in recent years, will undergo cancer surgery again, according to a published report. In Thursday's Chicago Sun-Times, where Ebert has been the movie critic for nearly 40 years, columnist Robert Feder reported that Ebert will have surgery June 16 to remove a cancerous growth on his salivary gland. "It's not life threatening, and I expect to make a full recovery," the 63-year-old critic and host of the nationally syndicated movie review show, "Ebert & Roeper," told Feder. "I'll continue to function as a film critic during this time."...

When there is a new outrage, I have to download some of my existing outrages, to make room. -- Al Gore CANNES, France -- What he wants you to know is that he has not made a political film. Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" tries to move outside politics and focus on the facts of global warming. Gore says those facts are established, the returns are in, there is almost unanimous scientific agreement about them, and we may have about 10 years before the earth reaches a tipping point from which it cannot recover. He has been traveling the world...

They say The Da Vinci Code has sold more copies than any book since the Bible. Good thing it has a different ending. Dan Brown's novel is utterly preposterous; Ron Howard's movie is preposterously entertaining. Both contain accusations against the Catholic Church and its order of Opus Dei that would be scandalous if anyone of sound mind could possibly entertain them. I know there are people who believe Brown's fantasies about the Holy Grail, the descendants of Jesus, the Knights Templar, Opus Dei and the true story of Mary Magdalene. This has the advantage of distracting them from the theory...

It is not too soon for "United 93," because it is not a film that knows any time has passed since 9/11. The entire story, every detail, is told in the present tense. We know what they know when they know it, and nothing else. Nothing about Al Qaeda, nothing about Osama bin Laden, nothing about Afghanistan or Iraq, only events as they unfold. This is a masterful and heartbreaking film, and it does honor to the memory of the victims. The director, Paul Greengrass, makes a deliberate effort to stay away from recognizable actors, and there is no attempt...

If there is any justice, and there rarely is, United 93 should explode one of the more outrageous myths of 9/11. It's the one perpetrated by guerrilla filmmaker Michael Moore that purports to show U.S. President George W. Bush asleep at the switch when the terror attacks were occurring in New York and Washington, D.C. You'll recall the famous scene from Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, the most inflammatory piece of agit-prop since Reefer Madness. Bush continues reading a book titled The Pet Goat to a classroom of Florida kindergarten students, despite having been told by an aide that jets have slammed...

American Gun BY ROGER EBERT / April 7, 2006 "American Gun" tells three stories that are small, even quiet. The stories are not strident but sad, and one of them is open-ended. They are about people who find that guns in the hands of others have made their own lives almost impossible to live. The first story involves a mother named Janet, played by Marcia Gay Harden, whose son shot and killed other students at his Oregon high school three years ago, and then was shot dead. She carries on with her remaining son, David (Chris Marquette), who attends a...