Roger Ebert Passes Away at Age 70

Those of you who know me know that video games aren't my first love. Movies are. And there is one man whose words and recommendations guided me through the world of movies, and taught me to love them: Roger Ebert.

Ebert passed away yesterday afternoon at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, one day after announcing that he was undergoing radiation treatment for a recurrence of cancer.

I can't write much about Roger Ebert the man -- I was never lucky enough to meet him -- but I can write volumes about Ebert the critic. In my opinion he is the greatest film critic of his or any generation. And his greatness derives not just from his awards and milestones -- Ebert was the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize, for example, and the first critic to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame -- but also his style, his sense of humor, and his deep, extensive knowledge of cinema. His reviews and essays are brilliantly written; they are cutting, funny, insightful, and poetic. He was a master of his craft. I doubt we will ever again see a film critic as smart and as eloquent as Roger Ebert.

After losing the ability to speak in 2006 after post-surgery complications related to thyroid cancer, Ebert embraced a much larger online presence. He was active on his blog at the Chicago Sun-Times website, and posted often on Facebook and Twitter, where he had over 800,000 followers. I urge all of you to read Ebert's final post, uploaded only two days before his death. The final line is particularly touching.

I want to close with a quotation from Roger Ebert, pulled from the pages of his 2011 memoir Life Itself.

“I believe that if, at the end of it all, 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.”