Rating: 
Summary: One of the Best from One of the Best
Review: Roger Ebert's commentaries on the dozens of movies discussed in this book make me want to retire from life and do nothing but watch movies! If I were younger, it might have inspired me to become a filmmaker myself. Ebert proves himself to be more than just a TV movie critic for the masses, but an incredibly informed, observant and sensitive scholar of movies and movie history. Thanks Roger, for all the recommendations; there are many I intend to be seeing over the next few months. Each four-page essay is an absolute gem!
Rating: 
Summary: Book fine, binding defective
Review: The book's content is fine, but the binding broke after 2 weeks of medium use.
Rating:
Summary: Movie Buffs: Here's a gift!
Review: This book is fascinating. Ebert, as the critically aclaimed film critic/journalist, writes about movies that he finds to be "out there". Wonderful essays that disect the movie into actors emotions and directorial hopes combined with unforgettable film stills. A new look on movies is created. In the introduction Ebert writes," Francois Truffaut said that for a director it was an inspiring sight to walk to the front of a movie theater, turn around, and look back at the faces of the audience, turned up to the light from the screen. If the film is any good, those faces reflect an out-of-the-body experience; the audience for a brief time is somewhere else,sometime else,concerned with lives that are not its own" he goes on to write about the impact movies have on our daily lives. Now I know I have had that "out of body" look on my face dozens of times and i'm sure you have too. This book takes that experience from the screen presence to something you read over & over. Learn more about that great movie you just watched the other day. A good book that should be on every movie freak's bookshelf.
Rating:
Summary: Movie Buffs: Here's a gift!
Review: This book is fascinating. Ebert, as the critically aclaimed film critic/journalist, writes about movies that he finds to be "out there". Wonderful essays that disect the movie into actors emotions and directorial hopes combined with unforgettable film stills. A new look on movies is created. In the introduction Ebert writes," Francois Truffaut said that for a director it was an inspiring sight to walk to the front of a movie theater, turn around, and look back at the faces of the audience, turned up to the light from the screen. If the film is any good, those faces reflect an out-of-the-body experience; the audience for a brief time is somewhere else,sometime else,concerned with lives that are not its own" he goes on to write about the impact movies have on our daily lives. Now I know I have had that "out of body" look on my face dozens of times and i'm sure you have too. This book takes that experience from the screen presence to something you read over & over. Learn more about that great movie you just watched the other day. A good book that should be on every movie freak's bookshelf.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Read
Review: This is a great read . . . What I appreciate about this text is the fact that it is not introduced as the definitive source of all great films and does not exclude non-American films from the discussion. It is simply his opnion on films that he has a high regard for aesthetic, artistic or cultural reasons. One prime example is the inclusion of "Written on the Wind." I recently viewed this film on DVD and was not overly taken by the movie. Basically, I did not really see why some film scholars regarded it so highly. But after reading Ebert's essay on the film, I realized that the film represented something more in terms of its impact (READ soapy melodrama) on popular culture. Overall, this book is a great companion for every film lover.
Rating:
Summary: Let the debate begin!
Review: This new book, by prominent movie critic Roger Ebert, is likely to ignite discussion and debate over his 100 selections. The debate shouldn't be over whether or not these are the 100 greatest movies ever, since the author establishes in the introduction that these are simply 100 great movies, and not necessarily what he considers the best. The debate, then, will likely be over why he considers some of the films to be great. Some of the choices will brook little argument: "Casablanca," "Citizen Kane," "Gone With the Wind," "Battleship Potemkin," "The Godfather," and many others profiled are often at or near the top of most "great movies" lists. Even some of the more "obscure" entries, such as "Woman in the Dunes" and "Gates of Heaven" are generally known to most film buffs and accepted by critics as fine filmmaking. Ebert's intent, it seems, is to make people aware of WHY "The Godfather" and other well-known films are so imbued into our consciousness, and to raise awareness of other, often forgotten classics. Terrence Malick's often overlooked "Days of Heaven" is just begging to be rediscovered, as is Fassbinder's haunting "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul," Powell's frightening "Peeping Tom," and Lang's wrenching "M." Ebert gives each film a two or three page review, explaining many things of interest, including casting problems (Orson Welles over Noel Coward in "The Third Man", for example), production difficulties, and sometimes, each film's immediate or long-term impact (such as how "It's A Wonderful Life" rose from obscurity to become a holiday classic, or the resurrection of "The Shawshank Redemption" on home video). In addition, there are discussions of symbolism, controversies, directorial styles and quirks, and much more. This is a very informative book, great for film buffs like me (who became more aware of some wonderful films) and for the casual moviegoer. The writing is engaging, witty, and never technical. Ebert's love for film is present on every page. As I looked over the list, I realized that I had few arguments with Ebert's choices--virtually everything listed qualifies as a great movie. I did wonder why he chose some films from certain genres and not others. "Red River" is a great Western, but why not "Stagecoach," which invented the modern Western, or "The Searchers," which perfected it? What about the iconoclastic "Shane"? Silent films seemed to come up a bit short; one could ask why not Chaplin's "Modern Times," Griffith's controversial "Birth of a Nation," or one of the last great silents, Sjostrom's "The Wind," starring Lillian Gish? Certainly, "Modern Times" and "Birth of a Nation" have been profiled dozens of times over the years, but it would have been nice to see Ebert's opinion of them. Also, what about Richard Rush's brilliantly subversive "The Stunt Man," starring Peter O'Toole? "A Hard Day's Night," over "Yellow Submarine?" (Granted, his explanation about why "Night" was selected made prefect sense). And, it seems that some directors received more attention than others (Hitchcock, for example, though I am a fan). ONE David Lean? What about Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky? Chinese director Zhang Yimou? Preston Sturges' brilliant satire "Sullivan's Travels?" Welles in "Touch of Evil?" But I'm quibbling. When a prominent critic like Ebert publishes a book like this, the end results can only be positive. For one, it will start debate and discussion among critics, film buffs, and casual fans, and second, it will raise awareness of great films so often forgotten by our society in the wake of the endless clones churned out by the modern Hollywood machine. I have made it my goal to see every film on the list (I had seen a number of them before it came out) and have managed to take in five of them just in the past two weeks, with another two or three on the way. (Home video is great!!). But, sadly, I have been unable to locate a few of the more obscure ones, especially the foreign classics. Video stores have ten or twenty copies of the latest release (forgotten in a year, if not sooner), but almost no classics and virtually no foreign films. (A hint: If you have access to a large university or public library, try there). This is not only a profile of good films, but also a look into the times, places, cultures, and individuals that produced them. Excellent work.
Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful, but may seem obvious choices to some
Review: Unquestionably these essays are intelligent and thoughtful (not to mention readable-- Ebert knows about as well as anyone alive how to talk on a high plane to an average joe audience), on movies whose worth few could argue with. I have only two modest quibbles which will affect how vital this book seems to you. One is that, since the purpose of the book is to introduce past great movies to the vast audience of Blockbuster customers whose idea of an ancient classic is Terms of Endearment, the more you know about movies the less you will necessarily need this book to tell you that, say, there is such a movie as Grand Illusion and you ought to see it. In fact, since this is a collection of some of the best-known movies from his column of the same title, the few idiosyncratic choices that have popped up there from time to time (say, the anime classic Grave of the Fireflies) are even less likely to have made this cut. (Some may find Peter Bogdanovich's Movie of the Week, for instance, a more interesting read because it contains genuine surprises-- try to guess which book contains the Martin & Lewis/Frank Tashlin comedy Artists & Models, for instance.) The other is that the book is called, after all, "The Great Movies," not "My Favorite Movies," and it tends thus to favor self-proclaimed serious art over great entertainment-- as if Pauline Kael, who waged a war for 50 years against that very distinction, had never happened. (Ebert's recent piece on King Kong was almost an apology for liking it, which is hardly necessary.) But minor quibbles, to be sure. There is a perfect audience for this book, I know, because I was it once and I suspect Ebert was too: the 13-year-old kid in Iowa or Utah whose practical ability to see French films of the 30s, even in the video age, trails far behind his ability to read about them. Ebert read Agee and Arthur Mayer on films he couldn't yet see, I'm sure, and I (a few years later) read another book called "The Great Movies" by one William Bayer, and similar books by Bosley Crowther and David Zinman. I don't agree with all their choices now, and some are films I neither need to see or read about again-- but at the time it was exactly the book I wanted.
Rating:
Summary: Movie-lovers Heaven!
Review: Very interesting for lovers of movies of all ages. Read about your favorites or movies you haven't seen yet, very intersting
Rating:
Summary: Movie-lovers Heaven!
Review: Very interesting for lovers of movies of all ages. Read about your favorites or movies you haven't seen yet, very intersting
Rating:
Summary: Must have for film buffs.
Review: While obviously any list of 100 great movie are open to debate this definitly a great place to start.Not a comprensive guide like Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide (Also a must have by the way.)but an in depth analyisis of what Roger believes to be some of the most important films of all time.A wide diverse collection of films are explored in these pages from art films classics such as Wim Wenders "Wings of desires", Warner Herzog's "Aguirre,the wrath of god" to mainstream classics such as "ET", Disney's "Pinocchio" and everyone's favorite "The Godfather".All movies are devoted anywhere from 2-5 pages of in depth decription.This is a book to be owned,the pleasure I found in reading this book is not from cover to cover but to be read like a reference guide.It allows you to sink in what a masterpiece these films are really are in their own way.
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