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Tear Jerker / Siskel & Ebert

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  • Crossed with Heartwarming: At the end of the Freejack review, Roger jokes about how it would be amazing to wake up in 20 years and still be sitting across from Gene. Gene retorts that just waking up and it being 20 years later would be amazing too. By the time 20 years passed from that weekend, Gene was gone for over 13 years and Roger had less than a year left.
  • Siskel's failing health during the post-May 1998 episodes. If you've been watching the duo for years, it's honestly kind of hard to watch the once energetic critic suddenly talk slower, have a less expressive face, and have less energy to debate with Ebert.
  • Ebert's closing speech in his Gene Siskel tribute episode. Overlaps with heartwarming:
    Ebert: Whenever he interviewed someone for his newspaper or for television, Gene Siskel always liked to end with the same final question: "What do you know for sure?" Okay, Gene, what do I know for sure about you? Well, you were one of the smartest, funniest, quickest men I've ever known, and one of the best reporters. It was almost impossible to tell you anything you didn't already know. Your friend, Bob Green, wrote in the paper that sometimes you seemed like a wise old man, and on other days, you seemed eleven years old. And I know for sure that seeing a truly great movie made you so happy that you'd tell me a week later your spirits were still high. I know you are a man who loved your family deeply and fiercely, your wife, Marleen, your teenage daughters, and your young son. When we were honored last April by the Museum of Broadcast Communications, only a month before your surgery, I remember that you had a special message for your girls:
    (cue clip)
    Siskel: I want you girls to know that the one thing that hasn't been mentioned is... that we found a job that we love. And I hope that the work that you do, the work that you choose, that you will take a very quick inventory of it and decide: I love this, can I love this? And I don't mean like a lot, I mean, passionately love. That you would hate to have it taken away from you. That's a very good test, and in a few years, I hope you'll remember this and tell your younger brother what I said. I'd appreciate that very much.
    (...)
    Ebert: And, let's see, what else do I know for sure about Gene? Well, people always asked if we really hated each other. And one thing I know for sure is that we didn't.
    (cue clip from The Tonight Show show)
    Ebert: (to Siskel) This is gonna come as an enormous surprise to my wife, and to everyone else who knows us, but y'know, big guy, I love ya.
  • Ebert and Roeper's morose sadness when discussing Wolf Creek. It's rare to see the two so downbeat when discussing a film.
    Ebert: (sounding downbeat) Our next movie filled me with sadness and loathing.
  • They got oddly depressed seeing the Tony Danza film She's Out of Control. The movie was so bad they sincerely talked about quitting film criticism. Luckily they saw Say Anything... the same day and had their faith restored, but it's one of the rare moments where they get philosophical about sitting through bad movies.
    Ebert: I sat there watching this thinking "Life is precious! Life is short!" And the idiots who made this film are robbing me of two hours of my life and giving me LESS than nothing! This movie is a crime, robbing life from people by giving them such a terrible experience.
    Siskel: Tell me Roger; when you're watching in a bad movie in a theater with other people, aren't you surprised people stay?
  • In hindsight: When they reviewed Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, both liked the film and Siskel wanted to see more films from this same production team. Well, aside from Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero, the vast majority of these films came out after Siskel's death, so he never got to experience them.
    • Similarly, in the At the Movies (1982) episode "Movies That Changed the Movies", Roger said "See you in twenty years" when arguing that Matt Dillon would be a big star. While Roger made it to 2004, Gene did not.


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