Cloth: 978-0-226-18200-1 | Paper: 978-0-226-18201-8 | Electronic: 978-0-226-18206-3
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226182063.001.0001
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This title is no longer available from this publisher at this time. To let the publisher know you are interested in the title, please email bv-help@uchicago.edu.ABOUT THIS BOOK
Roger Ebert has been writing film reviews for the Chicago Sun-Times for nearly forty years. And during those four decades, his wide knowledge, keen judgment, prodigious energy, and sharp sense of humor have made him America’s most celebrated film critic. He was the first such critic to win a Pulitzer Prize—one of just three film critics ever to receive that honor—and the only one to have a star dedicated to him on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His groundbreaking hit TV show, At the Movies, meanwhile, has made “two thumbs up” one of the most coveted hallmarks in the entire industry.
No critic alive has reviewed more movies than Roger Ebert, and yet his essential writings have never been collected in a single volume—until now. With Awake in the Dark, both fans and film buffs can finally bask in the best of Ebert’s work. The reviews, interviews, and essays collected here present a picture of this indispensable critic’s numerous contributions to the cinema and cinephilia. From The Godfather to GoodFellas, from Cries and Whispers to Crash, the reviews in Awake in the Dark span some of the most exceptional periods in film history, from the dramatic rise of rebel Hollywood and the heyday of the auteur, to the triumph of blockbuster films such as Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark, to the indie revolution that is still with us today.
The extraordinary interviews gathered in Awake in the Dark capture Ebert engaging not only some of the most influential directors of our time—Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Werner Herzog, and Ingmar Bergman—but also some of the silver screen’s most respected and dynamic personalities, including actors as diverse as Robert Mitchum, James Stewart, Warren Beatty, and Meryl Streep. Ebert’s remarkable essays play a significant part in Awake in the Dark as well. The book contains some of Ebert’s most admired pieces, among them a moving appreciation of John Cassavetes and a loving tribute to the virtues of black-and-white films.
If Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris were godmother and godfather to the movie generation, then Ebert is its voice from within—a writer whose exceptional intelligence and daily bursts of insight and enthusiasm have shaped the way we think about the movies. Awake in the Dark, therefore, will be a treasure trove not just for fans of this seminal critic, but for anyone desiring a fascinating and compulsively readable chronicle of film since the late 1960s.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
REVIEWS
“Roger Ebert understands how to pop the hood of a movie and tell us how it runs, while still enjoying the ride with his box of popcorn or, in some cases, a bottle of aspirin. Awake in the Dark captures both those sides of Ebert and shows him to be a serious friend of film, someone who loves the movies as much as he understands them.”
“[Ebert's] writing is top-notch. In Awake in the Dark, Ebert has produced his most personal collection of reviews, essays, and interviews, providing insights into the man as much as the movies he loves. . . . This volume contains some of Ebert's most exciting writing.”
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword
Introduction
Prologue: Death of a Dream Palace
Introduction
Warren Beatty
James Stewart
Robert Mitchum
Mitch and Jimmy: Some Thoughts
Lee Marvin
Ingmar Bergman
Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader
Robert Altman
Werner Herzog
Meryl Streep
Woody Allen
Spike Lee
Tom Hanks
Errol Morris
Steven Spielberg
Introduction
1967: Bonnie and Clyde
1968: The Battle of Algiers
1969: Z
1970: Five Easy Pieces
1971: The Last Picture Show
1972: The Godfather
1973: Cries and Whispers
1974: Scenes from a Marriage
1975: Nashville
1976: Small Change
1977: 3 Women
1978: An Unmarried Woman
1979: Apocalypse Now
1980: The Black Stallion
1981: My Dinner with Andre
1982: Sophie’s Choice
1983: The Right Stuff
1984: Amadeus
1985: The Color Purple
1986: Platoon
1987: House of Games
1988: Mississippi Burning
1989: Do the Right Thing
1990: GoodFellas
1991: JFK
1992: Malcolm X
1993: Schindler’s List
1994: Hoop Dreams
1995: Leaving Las Vegas
1996: Fargo
1997: Eve’s Bayou
1998: Dark City
1999: Being John Malkovich
2000: Almost Famous
2001: Monster’s Ball
2002: Minority Report
2003: Monster
2004: Million Dollar Baby
2005: Crash
Introduction
Tokyo Story
The Music Room
Au Hasard Balthazar
Belle de Jour
The Wild Child
Claire’s Knee
Last Tango in Paris
Fellini’s Roma
Stroszek
The Marriage of Maria Braun
Wings of Desire
Raise the Red Lantern
The Scent of Green Papaya
Spirited Away
City of God
Introduction
Woodstock
Harlan County, U. S. A.
Gates of Heaven
Say Amen, Somebody
28 Up
35 Up
42 Up
Shoah
Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam
Crumb
Heidi Fleiss, Hollywood Madam
Microcosmos
Part 5: Overlooked and Underrated
Thieves Like Us
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
Saint Jack
El Norte
To Live and Die in L. A.
Trouble in Mind
Housekeeping
The Rapture
A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries
The Saddest Music in the World
Introduction
That’s the Way It Is: The Color Purple and the Oscars
Legacy of Star Wars
John Cassavetes: An Appreciation
Why I Love Black and White
The Case for an A Rating
Well, Are Movies Better Than Ever?
A Pulitzer for the Movies
Celluloid vs. Digital: The War for the Soul of the Cinema
The Most Influential Films of the Century
In Memoriam: Pauline Kael
Introduction
Twenty-five Years in the Dark
Symposium from Film Comment: All Thumbs, or, Is There a Future for Film Criticism?
All Stars, or, Is There a Cure for Criticism of Film Criticism?
Then Again
Auteurism is Alive and Well and Living in Argentina
A Memo to Myself and Certain Other Film Critics
Epilogue: Thoughts on the Centennial of Cinema
Coda: On the Meaning of Life . . . and Movies
Appendix: Ten Best Lists, 1967–2005
Index