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Title details for Opposable Thumbs by Matt Singer - Available

Opposable Thumbs

How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever

by Matt Singer
Matt Singer
Audiobook
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Once upon a time, if you wanted to know if a movie was worth seeing, you didn’t check out Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB.
You asked whether Siskel & Ebert had given it “two thumbs up.”
On a cold Saturday afternoon in 1975, two men (who had known each other for eight years before they’d ever exchanged a word) met for lunch in a Chicago pub. Gene Siskel was the film critic for the Chicago Tribune. Roger Ebert had recently won the Pulitzer Prize—the first ever awarded to a film critic—for his work at the Chicago Sun-Times. To say they despised each other was an understatement.
When they reluctantly agreed to collaborate on a new movie review show with PBS, there was at least as much sparring off-camera as on. No decision—from which films to cover to who would read the lead review to how to pronounce foreign titles—was made without conflict, but their often-antagonistic partnership (which later transformed into genuine friendship) made for great television. In the years that followed, their signature “Two thumbs up!” would become the most trusted critical brand in Hollywood.
In Opposable Thumbs, award-winning editor and film critic Matt Singer eavesdrops on their iconic balcony set, detailing their rise from making a few hundred dollars a week on local Chicago PBS to securing multimillion-dollar contracts for a syndicated series (a move that convinced a young local host named Oprah Winfrey to do the same). Their partnership was cut short when Gene Siskel passed away in February of 1999 after a battle with brain cancer that he’d kept secret from everyone outside his immediate family—including Roger Ebert, who never got to say goodbye to his longtime partner. But their influence on in the way we talk about (and think about) movies continues to this day.
Photographer/© ABC/Getty Images.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 24, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593787533
      • File size: 276458 KB
      • Duration: 09:35:57

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 14, 2023
      In this studious history, film critic Singer (Marvel’s Spider-Man) examines the ingenuity and influence of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert’s TV show At the Movies and its various iterations. Crediting the duo with originating the adversarial debate format that saturates modern cable news, Singer argues that Siskel and Ebert democratized film criticism by turning “an art form that had previously only existed as a series of monologues into an ongoing dialogue.” The author profiles both critics, presenting Ebert as precocious and a superior writer (he started his own neighborhood newspaper while in grade school) and Siskel as ambitious and competitive (he insisted that his name appear first in the title of their 1982 syndicated show, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert). Anecdotes illuminate the pair’s at times contentious behind-the-scenes dynamic (one volatile exchange ended with Ebert vomiting on set and Siskel quipping, “You really didn’t like that one, did you, Roger?”), and interviews with colleagues and loved ones offer insight into the critics’ psychologies (Siskel & Ebert executive producer Stuart Cleland shares his belief that the death of Siskel’s parents before he was 10 left him “guarded and wary”). This deserves two thumbs up.

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from January 1, 2024

      For the first six years of their professional rivalry, Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert (1942-2013) and Chicago Tribune film critic Gene Siskel (1946-99) avoided talking to each other, maintaining their distance as each worked on his celebrated column. Then, in 1975, PBS station WTTW invited both to do a pilot for a half-hour film-review show titled Opening Soon...at a Theater Near You. Over the next 24 years, the show (retitled Siskel & Ebert) became a pop culture cornerstone for film criticism. Film critic Singer (Marvel's Spider-Man) gamely narrates the rise and sudden end of Siskel and Ebert's program and their partnership and excitedly recounts behind-the-scenes spats, as told by former staff. Singer also playfully relates the many times Ebert and Siskel disagreed on movie reviews and adds dry humor to Siskel's rebuttals. What began as a story about two diametrically opposed foes becomes an account of two film critics, neither of whom liked the other's reviews, but respected each other as people. VERDICT A must-listen for all nonfiction collections. Singer's reverence for Ebert and Siskel is heard throughout.--Anjelica Rufus-Barnes

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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