Whether you agreed with Roger Ebert or his ideas in his last days of life, you have to agree after watching “Life Itself” that he followed the age old adage. He stood up to live to before he sat down to write. Folks that wrote off Roger Ebert as a rotund movie geek will be surprised to find out that beyond film, he was obsessed with living life. And though he was in some ways egomaniacal, he was also filled with humility, and used the power of the written word to boost the lives of people like Martin Scorsese.
Director Steve James lends Mr. Ebert a wonderful service with “Life Itself,” a sobering and often affectionate documentary that explores Roger Ebert and the legacy he left behind after his death in 2013. To boost, director James also explores the often fascinating relationship and conflicts he had with fellow film critic Gene Siskel, a total opposite in stature and life education who eventually formed a love for his co-host on their iconic movie series. There’s some wonderful anecdotes to be mined here, from Gene Siskel’s insistence on hushing Roger Ebert about his Pulitzer win, to how Gene seemed to be one of the few people capable of silencing Ebert during an argument about film.
First and foremost though, “Life Itself” explores how Roger Ebert formed a love for social circles and the intellectual elite through his home town of Chicago and how Ebert used that to charge his fierce passion for film. Director James thankfully never shies away from the pitfalls and flaws of Ebert’s entire career, including the criticism thrown his and Gene Siskel’s way for their show’s format, and how Ebert was prone to bragging about his Pulitzer quite often. Though the documentary is warts and all, it’s quite charming and heartbreaking in its examination of how Roger Ebert was infectious to all and changed his environment.
Including that of his wife Chaz. The chemistry between Chaz and Roger is quite possibly the most memorable aspect of the documentary, as Chaz expresses her deep love for Roger, and even has to toughen her exterior for an often stubborn Roger. At one point a now barely able to walk Roger has to be scolded in to climbing the steps for his wife, who protests his capability behind him. Chaz is obviously a woman of deep loyalty who makes Roger Ebert’s final chapters seem worth it if only for the immense amount of love and laughs he’d garnered from his wife and her family until his final hours. “Life Itself” is a wonderful documentary about a man who affected everyone in his path, and it’s a bittersweet, very human love letter to a genuine man that will give even his most hard core fans new insight.