Rating: 
Summary: One of the Only Books to go Make you See a Movie
Review: I have been a film fan but never saw the depth of what a film can be. I saw through this book on the joy of films regardless of genre, language, style, and age which i began to express. I began to see movies from the classics on tcm and independent films on ifc. I saw this book not as essay' but a joy in the films. You can notice that Ebert wanted to write more than the five page limit and not these movies are the offically best but his personal view on films he loves. The great thing is that you cant wait for another book about more films that he loves. I began to watch these movies from his book more out of curiosity, not of being a film buff. I loved them and still going on. From appreciating foreign films to the classics this book told me that a film is just a experiance that makes you feel joy. A must have for film enthusiastics who want to explore more in the movies.
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Summary: Truly, the only book about the movies that you must own.
Review: I have discovered countless movies via Ebert's essays. "Aguirre, The Wrath of God." "Broken Blossoms." "The 'Up' Documentaries." "Ali: Fear Eats The Soul." "Night of the Hunter." "Grave of the Fireflies." "Woman in the Dunes." "The Decalogue." "The Grand Illusion." "The Passion of Joan of Arc." "The Bank Dick." In fact, Ebert's essays are responsible for the bulk of what I know about the cinema. The purpose of libraries, they say, is to preserve what needs preserving - well, this book fulfills that function. In this day and age, everything is available fairly easily, but only if you already know about it and wish to expend a bit of effort finding it. All of these old or obscure films are out there, but oftentimes, you'd never hear of them unless you just deliberately decided to extensively research the cinema, and even then you'd probably miss a bunch. This is the book that tells you about what's out there and the book to make you into a serious lover of cinema. There are not enough good things that I can say about it. My favourite aspect of Ebert's Great Movies essays (which are all available on the Sun-Times website) is that they approach the films not from a film-criticism perspective, but from a simply human one. There is no discussion of sexual symbolism, Jungian psychology, feminist theory or any of the snotty artiness that one might expect from film critics. This may be because Ebert was an English major in college, not a film major - this allows him to ground his reviews in reality while writing them with utter stylistic excellence. In these reviews, it is the human appeal in the films that comes through every time. Oh, sure, occasionally he uses a technique that makes you roll your eyes a bit (the "E.T." review comes to mind), but for the most part, it's jolly great reading. Ebert won't tell you everything about the movie; he might not even convey to you why it's great. But it is beyond all doubt that he will infect you with his boundless enthusiasm, and that you will remember his words and see those films at some point, and certainly you won't regret a minute. Ebert also balances out the more obscure films with the well-known mainstays - Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Taxi Driver, and such films all get their place here. Thus, the book keeps a balance between what you know and what you don't, alternately showing you something completely new and telling you something new about something you already know, jumping from country to country and movement to movement. He also recognizes that many kinds of movies can be great - thus, "Pinocchio" is listed along with "Taxi Driver," "Greed" along with "Mr. Hulot's Holiday," the noirs with the comedies, the dramas with the cartoons, the gangster films with the historical epics, the neo-realists with the surrealists, and so on, and so forth. The result is a sweeping, comprehensive portrait of the entirety of cinema. This book explains why the cinema is a fantastic art form, why it is thrilling, exciting and interesting, and why people go to see movies in the first place. Truly, it is the only book about the cinema that you must own.
Rating:
Summary: Needs a sequel
Review: If you love movies you have to get this book. And, I really recommend this book to all those people who think that movies started with Titanic. So many people out there today like movies but they watch all the wrong movies. Then there are those who love movies and can't stand what is out in the mutliplex right now. This book is for both because it showcases 100 great movies. I've seen about 65 of the movies in this book and I love each and every one of them. My two personal favorites are Citizen Kane and Ikiru. Back to the subject. The book is a love letter to great movies because it isn't written by someone who tries to find fault with everything, but rather someone who truly loves movies. In over 100 years there have been literally 1000s of movies made. The true masterpieces stand out because they are not only great, but because they were also made with love... love of story, love of the look and the love of storytelling. If you take anything from this book it should be that there are great movies out there that didn't cost $100 million to make, don't have a 1000 special effects per shot, and don't drive the narrative past you at the speed of light because they fear that you'll get bored. These are the great movies of our time, and we might debate which ones should, or shouldn't be on some arbitrary list made by a committee, but we can't debate that there is something special about each and every one of them. Movies today don't seem to have that love in them anymore. They're made by committees that are more interested in product tie-ins than storytelling. Go, get this book, rent the movies in it and get an education in the art of film... if you truly call yourself a film lover. Get away from the new releases aisle for once and look for movies that are the masterpieces of the artform. If your only used to watching movies like Armageddon or Titanic, or worse yet Pearl Harbor, then your probably not going to like these movies. Why? Because all you know is whoosh bang and not substance. Your film palette is burnt by the Big Mac movies you have consumed over the years. Yet, there is still hope for you. Get this book and get some taste. Get to know the movies that don't leave you as soon as you blink. Get to know movies that inspire you, entertain you, and linger inside your heart.
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Summary: Outstanding! Bring On the Next 100!
Review: It's a real pleasure (and a rare one) to see an individual that gets carried away in his work. You know after reading just a few pages of 'The Great Movies' that Roger Ebert is such a person. Ebert examines what he believes to be not the BEST 100 films of all time, but simply 100 great films. There are certainly more than 100, and I hope Ebert will write about many, many more of them. Read the book with an open mind. After reading Ebert's essays, I was persuaded to at least consider viewing some of the films that I never would have considered before. I imagine that it was somewhat difficult for Ebert to limit himself to a 3-4 page essay per film. You can tell that he could have gone on and on with his comments and still not even scratched the surface of evidence explaining why the film is great. His expertise and enthusiam are obvious and compelling. Of course, people will argue over why Ebert chose this film and not that one, but isn't that half the fun of such a book? I guarantee that if you set this book between any two film lovers and hang around long enough, you're going to experience some great film conversation. I suspect that's one of the reasons Ebert wrote the book - to get people talking/discussing/arguing about great movies. Thanks, Roger, and bring on the next 100. 511 pages
Rating: 
Summary: Book has one major and horrible drawback
Review: It's review of the 1976 film Taxi Driver. That film was the story of a cabdriver who tries to kill a politician. The film inspired the real life attemptd murder of the President United states back in 1981. Nowhere in Mr. Ebert's pages-long revieew of the '76 film does he mention the very important real life event the movie inspired and I am very confused as to why (Ebert was a grown man when this monumental event occurred, doesn't he remember it?). But whatever the reason it undermines much of the value this book is capable of having otherwise.
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Summary: Another great book from the master of film criticism.
Review: Noone comes even close to Roger Ebert at the art of film critique(except for the late Gene Siskel maybe). To top it off his reviews are often hysterical- in particular the bad ones (see his book on movies that he really hates). Roger is a true film scholar. He raises the bar not only for other film critics but for the art of film in general. This book features the great films, many of which you may not have heard of let alone seen. A great exampe would be The Night of the Hunter. A great read and a great resource, use it as a check list for renting dvd's and you will enjoy every one of them. In a world full of Pat Collins types (WWOR - NYC/NJ) who say that every movie that comes out is great just to get their name in quotes or to meet the stars, Roger Ebert is a priceless resource for film lovers everywhere and this book is a gem.
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Summary: This is a great book.
Review: Regarding one reviewer`s criticism; The attempted assassination of Regan has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH TAXI DRIVER AS A FILM. Roger Ebert is a Film Critic and not a Historian or Social Commentator...Get a grip.
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Summary: Populist and Elitist
Review: Roger Ebert has become the common man's movie writer, often putting together compilations that hit home with the everyday casual movie fan as well as the true cinema buff. While the films listed in The Great Movies are always going to be debatable, what's interesting is A) they are not all such clear-cut run of the mill choices, i.e. Citizen Kane or Casablanca, and B) it's apparent that each one of these films holds a special place in Ebert's heart. His writing is fluid and accessible, even if a reading of each essay will reveal certain catch-phrases and repetitions that he uses time and time again. It can also be read on two levels. One is where the reader can skip around to read Ebert's thoughts on films that he or she loves as well, and the other is to read about films of which the reader has no personal experience, and therefore possibly turn themselves on to something new. Roger Ebert may have evolved into a cariacature from his television show, but as a writer and editor he has no peer. It's my belief that he's opened up film theory and criticism to a new audience who might otherwise be put off by pretentious pseudo-intellectual babbling, and unlike many other critics he understands that movies are sometimes supposed to just be fun and not necessarily art. His essays in this book convey that extremely well.
Rating: 
Summary: Unnecessary
Review: Roger Ebert is a great movie reviewer and he is the most famous film critic in The United States, but this book will be an unnecessary waste of money. To find all these review, a film lover just has to go to Ebert's website on the Internet. There, the reader will find all these reviews and many more!
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book!
Review: Roger Ebert's "The Great Movies" (2002) grew out of the like-named page on his Web site at the Chicago Sun-Times. (More likely, the Web page was intended as a proving ground for the book.) At the time the book appeared in print the "The Great Movies" page contained about 165 articles. Besides obviously great films, this Web page also contained some films that seemed more like personal favorites of Dr. Ebert and some that were included in order to be more representational (like "Dr. No" (1964) to represent the James Bond series--Dr. Ebert may disagree with my assessment). Nonetheless, there were no films on the "Great Films" page that were not at least very very good (IMHO). The list was also socially conscious and did not contain, for example, D. W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nature" (1915) because of its insulting racial content and its glorification of the early Ku Klux Klan. Instead, "Broken Blossoms" (1919) replaced it as representative of the Griffith masterpieces, although it cannot compare with "Birth of a Nation," the "Citizen Kane" of the silents. (Happily, Dr. Ebert has since admitted "Birth of a Nation" into his canon.) The book, however, reviews only films that are unquestionably great. Roger Ebert is one of the hardest working (perhaps, THE hardest working) of film critics and the first one to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize. If there is a word which best characterizes his reviews, it is probably "passionate." ("Penetrating" and "incisive" are other appropriate words.) This passion and enthusiasm also shows in the fact the he generally awards more new films four stars each year than either Maltin or Halliwell. To read a Roger Ebert review is often to be transported to a cinema wonderland, where one finds new treasures and fresh looks at old ones. If the gems of the Web page were a bit roughly cut, the articles in the book have been carefully polished and include a still photograph for each film. And the book is not a Mausoleum of great films. Its intent is not to cast these films in bronze but to encourage us to see them, to keep them alive. The book is extremely attractive and makes a nice gift. Are these the 100 greatest films? The answer is almost certainly no, and not just because social consciousness and a desire to be representative will always enter the selection process. There are too many great films and human beings are too variable for the selection to be well defined. Attributions of greatness are also, to some extent, a group process, subject to fashion and experience, and influenced by our taste for the genre and the attractiveness and our comprehension of the cultural milieu of the film. It is not an accident that only about a half-dozen of the 100 films in this book lie outside the Western European tradition. It has been this writer's experience that 100 "greatest" film collections seldom have more than 50 films common to any two. This can be seen by comparing Roger Ebert's book with a similar book "The A List" (2002), prepared by the National Society of Film Critics under the editorship of Jay Carr. (Roger Ebert was a contributor to this volume.) Are all 100 of Roger Ebert's selections great? Almost certainly yes! At this writing Roger Ebert's "The Great Movies" page has close to 200 articles. Perhaps, a year or two from now, the present book will have a sequel. One can only hope.
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