The Great Movies IV

by Roger Ebert, Chaz Ebert (Introduction), Matt Zoller Seitz (Foreword by)

Overview

No film critic has ever been as influential—or as beloved— as Roger Ebert. Over more than four decades, he built a reputation writing reviews for the Chicago Sun-Times and, later, arguing onscreen with rival Chicago Tribune critic Gene Siskel and later Richard Roeper about the movies they loved and loathed. But Ebert went well beyond a mere “thumbs up” or “thumbs down.” Readers could always sense the man behind the words, a man with interests beyond film and a lifetime’s distilled wisdom about the larger world. Although the world lost one of its most important critics far too early, Ebert lives on in the minds of moviegoers today, who continually find themselves debating what he might have thought about a current movie.

The Great Movies IV is the fourth—and final—collection of Roger Ebert’s essays, comprising sixty-two reviews of films ranging from the silent era to the recent past. From films like The Cabinet of Caligari and Viridiana that have been considered canonical for decades to movies only recently recognized as masterpieces to Superman, The Big Lebowski, and Pink Floyd: The Wall, the pieces gathered here demonstrate the critical acumen seen in Ebert’s daily reviews and the more reflective and wide-ranging considerations that the longer format allowed him to offer. Ebert’s essays are joined here by an insightful foreword by film critic Matt Zoller Seitz, the current editor-in-chief of the official Roger Ebert website, and a touching introduction by Chaz Ebert.

A fitting capstone to a truly remarkable career, The Great Movies IV will introduce newcomers to some of the most exceptional movies ever made, while revealing new insights to connoisseurs as well.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226403984
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	09/28/2016
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	704,115
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Roger Ebert (1942-2013) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times. In 1975, he teamed up with Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune to host the popular Sneak Peaks movie review program on PBS, which he continued for more than thirty-five years, including at Tribune Entertainment and Disney/Buena Vista Television. He is the author of numerous books, including Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert; the Great Movies collections; and a memoir, Life Itself.
 

Table of Contents

Foreword Matt Zoller Seitz ix

Introduction Chaz Ebert xvii

Selections from the Introductions to the Previous Volumes xxi

25th Hour 3

A. I. Artificial Intelligence 7

An Autumn Afternoon 12

Badlands 16

The Ballad of Narayama 20

Barry Lyndon 23

The Big Lebowski 27

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari 31

Caché 35

La Ceremonie 39

The Circus 43

La Collectionneuse 47

Come and See 51

Contact 55

Day for Night 59

Departures 62

Diary of a Country Priest 66

Diary of a Lost Girl 70

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 74

French Cancan 78

The Grey Zone 82

The Hairdresser's Husband 86

Harakiri 90

Heart of Glass 94

In a Lonely Place 98

Ivan the Terrible, Parts I and II 102

The Killing 106

Leon Morin, Priest 110

Lost in Translation 114

Make Way for Tomorrow 118

A Man Escaped 122

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 126

Man with a Movie Camera 130

The Match Factory Girl 134

Mon oncle d'Amerique 138

Monsieur Hire 142

Mulholland Dr 146

Mystery Train 150

Night Moves 154

Nosferatu the Vampyre 158

The Only Son 162

Pale Flower 166

Pink Floyd: The Wall 170

The Pledge 174

Red Beard 178

Richard III 182

Rio Bravo 186

Senso 190

Seven 194

Shadow of a Doubt 198

Shoah 202

Smiles of a Summer Night 208

Souls for Sale 212

The Spirit of the Beehive 216

Spirited Away 219

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter … and Spring 223

Stagecoach 227

Superman 232

Tender Mercies 236

Veronika Voss 240

Viridiana 244

Yellow Submarine 248

Editorial Reviews

Ebert’s take-no-prisoners essays packed with insidery insights will send movie lovers back to the sofa for a second look at old favorites like Cool Hand Luke and My Fair Lady while introducing more offbeat picks like Sansho the Bailiff and Pixote.

on the Great Movies collections Parade

Ebert offers informed critical appraisals, as well as background on the movies’ making and significance, that make these pieces rewarding for film buffs and ideal introductions for first-time viewers.

on the Great Movies collection Booklist

No one has done as much as Ebert to connect the creators of movies with their consumers. He has immense power, and he’s used it for good, as an apostle of the cinema.

Richard Corliss