Ebert On King

The famous movie reviewer Roger Ebert died Thursday.  I first became acquainted with him when I was a kid and he offered movie commentary with Gene Siskel on Siskel and Ebert.  I would watch them on Sunday afternoon between morning church and evening church.  Strangely, the review I remember is Back to the Beach -- which both of them liked.  Seems Disney was really hesitant to let them review the film, thinking it would get bad publicity right from the start.  But it got two thumbs up.

In his review of Dreamcatcher, Ebert revealed that he is also a King reader, saying, "The movie is based on a novel by Stephen King, unread by me, apparently much altered for the screen version, especially in the appalling closing sequences. I have just finished the audiobook of King's From a Buick 8 , was a fan of his Hearts in Atlantis , and like the way his heart tugs him away from horror ingredients and into the human element in his stories."

In his review of Secret Window, Ebert offered this about King's book On Writing, "A lot of people were outraged that he was honored at the National Book Awards, as if a popular writer could not be taken seriously. But after finding that his book On Writing had more useful and observant things to say about the craft than any book since Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, I have gotten over my own snobbery."

Here are some of his reviews of Stephen King movies:

CARRIE (rogerebert.suntimes.com)

The scariest horror stories -- the ones by M.R. James, Edgar Allan Poe, and Oliver Onions -- are like this. They develop their horrors out of the people they observe. That happens here, too. Does it ever.                                        

THE DEAD ZONE (rogerebert.suntimes.com)

No other King novel has been better filmed (certainly not the recent, dreadful "Cujo"), and Cronenberg, who knows how to handle terror, now also knows how to create three-dimensional, fascinating characters. (writing circa 1983)

MISERY (rogerebert.suntimes.com)

The material in "Misery" is so much Stephen King's own that it's a little surprising that a director like Rob Reiner would have been interested in making the film.  . . .What he does with "Misery" is essentially simply respectful - he "brings the story to the screen," as the saying goes.

THE MIST (rogerebert.suntimes.com)

THE GREEN MILE (rogerebert.suntimes.com)

By the end, when he is asked to forgive them for sending him to the electric chair, the story has so well prepared us that the key scenes play like drama, not metaphor, and that is not an easy thing to achieve.

And I think this is a very important quote, since he links King to Dickens.  This is something I've  been doing for a while.  (Stephen King A Mordern Charles Dickens)

Stephen King, sometimes dismissed as merely a best-seller, has in his best novels some of the power of Dickens, who created worlds that enveloped us and populated them with colorful, peculiar, sharply seen characters. King in his strongest work is a storyteller likely to survive as Dickens has, despite the sniffs of the litcrit establishment.

SILVER BULLET (rogerebert.suntimes.com)  I like the opening line:

Stephen King's "Silver Bullet" is either the worst movie ever made from a Stephen King story, or the funniest. It is either simply bad, or it is an inspired parody of his whole formula, in which quiet American towns are invaded by unspeakable horrors. It's a close call, but I think the movie is intentionally funny.

 DREAMCATCHER (rogerebert.suntimes.com)

"Dreamcatcher" begins as the intriguing story of friends who share a telepathic gift, and ends as a monster movie of stunning awfulness. What went wrong? How could director Lawrence Kasdan and writer William Goldman be responsible for a film that goes so awesomely wrong?

SECRET WINDOW (rogerebert.suntimes.com)

CAT'S EYE (rogerebert.suntimes.com)

 The crazy unreality of the situation has a "Twilight Zone" sort of appeal, and indeed "Cat's Eye" is a superior Twilight-style anthology of three stories that are held together by the adventures of the cat. It's a small, scrappy tabby that survives not only electric shock (actually only special effects, so don't call the ASPCA), but also city traffic, falls from high buildings, one-way tickets to the pound, and a duel to the death with a gremlin who lives behind a little girl's bedroom wall.

APT PUPIL (rogerebert.suntimes.com)

HEARTS IN ATLANTIS (rogerebert.suntimes.com)

Rarely does a movie make you feel so warm and so uneasy at the same time, as Stephen King's story evokes the mystery of adolescence, when everything seems to be happening for the very first time.

NEEDFUL THINGS (rogerebert.suntimes.com)

"Needful Things" is yet another one of those films based on a Stephen King story that inspires you to wonder why his stories don't make better films. (INDEED!)

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (rogerebert.suntimes.com)

The word "redemption" is in the title for a reason. The movie is based on a story, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, by Stephen King, which is quite unlike most of King's work. The horror here is not of the supernatural kind, but of the sort that flows from the realization than 10, 20, 30 years of a man's life have unreeled in the same unchanging daily prison routine.

BAG OF BONES (www.suntimes.com/entertainment)

‘Stephen King’s Bag of Bones” is a bag of something, and it ain’t bones. Based on King’s 1998 thriller (which I trust is better than the two-part miniseries starting Sunday on A&E), “Bag of Bones” boils down to a hokey horror story that relies on cheap tricks — nightmares! sudden bursts of loud music! animal in the attic! — to deliver most of its chills. Worse yet, some of the characters are so cartoonish, they’re more “Scooby-Doo” than Cujo.  (OUCH!!!)

CHILDREN OF THE CORN (rogerebert.suntimes.com)  -- this one is great!

By the end of “Children of the Corn,” the only thing moving behind the rows is the audience, fleeing to the exits. (well said, sir)