Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever

Spoiler alert: Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert did not like each other; this book makes that perfectly clear. Yet their broadcasts of unrehearsed confrontations over newly released films, characterized by verbal roughhousing and ribbing, occasionally produced consensus. Film critic Singer (Marvel’s Spider-Man: From Amazing to Spectacular) recounts the relationship between the two, who for decades thrived on their TV series Sneak Previews and At the Movies and as comedic guests on talk shows. Remembered for their trademarked “thumbs up” to indicate approval, Siskel (1946–99), film critic for the Chicago Tribune, and Ebert (1943–2013), his counterpart at the Chicago Sun-Times, prove that professional antagonists can be useful collaborators. When Ebert wrote the screenplay for Russ Meyer’s film Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Siskel dismissed it as “a cesspool on film” and blamed—without naming him—“a screenwriting neophyte.” Ebert later won the first Pulitzer Prize awarded for film criticism in 1975. Singer’s dual biography is written in a jocular, irreverent style.