Life Itself (2014) - Only The Great Will.

★★★☆☆

I don’t think I’d be interested in writing about films here if I didn’t happen to read Roger Ebert’s film reviews that are indeed sagacious, informative, insightful and I don’t know, kind of touching, especially those written when he was ill. Aside the fact that he’s the one and only Pulitzer winning film critic that was something he usually bragged about in fact, he was a cancer fighter, an optimist, a guide on how to look at films, an inspiration for those taking films as part of their lives.

As a documentary about Roger Ebert, the most influential film critic of all, ‘Life Itself’ is not that gripping and poignant after all, but it does offer us a glimpse of how he got started to be a film critic; how he got along with himself, family and friends, and later on his cancer. He wasn’t born a film critic but was destined to be one, a great one undoubtedly. I don’t love films like he does. That’s why I can’t be great as he is. The truth is, if you want to be great at something, you got to be mad keen on it for life. Roger never walked away from movies, not even when he had lost his chin, weakening and fading in the battle against his cancer. Most people can’t spend their whole life accomplishing just one thing. Only the great will.

Roger likes Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’, particularly the closing lines essentially about the American dream and also death itself. He talked about death a lot. He was open to it. He accepted and welcomed it as part of life, unlike most of us who are supposed to do the same but not really.

Last but not least, some of Roger’s last words that I find moving and helpful to keep in mind: ‘kindness’ covers all of my political beliefs. No need to spell them out. I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn't always know this and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.