GENERAL ELECTIVE

AESTHETICS AND FILM APPRECIATION

Works and writing style of GENE SISKEL
Siskel was a Chicago sports fan, especially of his hometown basketball
team, the Chicago Bulls , and would cover locker-room celebrations
for WBBM-TV  news broadcasts following Bulls championships in the
1990s.
Siskel was also a member of the advisory committee of the Film Center  at
the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a strong supporter of the
Film Center mission. He wrote hundreds of articles applauding the Film
Center's distinctive programming and lent the power of his position as a
well-known film critic to urge public funding and audience support. In 2000,
the Film Center was renamed The Gene Siskel Film Center  in his honor.
One of his favorite films was Saturday Night Fever; he even bought the
famous white disco  suit that John Travolta wore in the film from a charity
auction.  Another all-time favorite was Dr. Strangelove . A favorite from
childhood was Dumbo, which he often mentioned as the first film that had
an influence on him. On the other hand, Siskel said that he walked out on
three films during his professional career: the 1971 comedy The Million
Dollar Duck starring Dean Jones, the 1980 horror film Maniac, and the
1996 Penelope Spheeris  film Black Sheep.

Works and writing style of ROGER EBERT

Ebert began his career as a film critic in 1967, writing for the Chicago Sun-
Times. That same year, he met film critic Pauline Kael  for the first time at
the New York Film Festival. After he sent her some of his columns, she told
him they were "the best film criticism being done in American newspapers
today. That same year, Ebert's first book, a history of the University of
Illinois  titled Illini Century: One Hundred Years of Campus Life, was
published by the University's press. In 1969, his review of Night of the
Living Dead was published in Reader's Digest.  In addition to film, Ebert
would occasionally write about other topics for the Sun-Times, such as
music; in 1970, Ebert wrote the first published concert review of singer-
songwriter John Prine, who at the time was working as a mailman and
performing at Chicago folk clubs.

Ebert (right) with Russ Meyer in 1970

Ebert co-wrote the screenplay for the Russ Meyer  film  Beyond the Valley
of the Dolls (1970) and sometimes joked about being responsible for the
film, which was poorly received on its release yet has become a cult film.
Ebert and Meyer also made up ! (1976), Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-
Vixens (1979), and other films, and were involved in the ill-fated Sex Pistols
movie Who Killed Bambi? (In April 2010, Ebert posted his screenplay
of Who Killed Bambi?, aka Anarchy in the UK, on his blog.)
Beginning in 1968, Ebert worked for the University of Chicago as an
adjunct lecturer, teaching a night class on film at the Graham School of
Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies.
In 1975, Ebert received the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
In October 1986, while continuing to work for the Sun-Times and still being
based in Chicago, Ebert replaced Rex Reed as the New York Post chief
film reviewer.
As of 2007, his reviews were syndicated to more than 200 newspapers in
the United States and abroad. Ebert also published more than 20 books
and dozens of collected reviews.
Even as he used TV (and later the internet) to share his reviews, Ebert
continued to write for the Chicago Sun-Times until he died in 2013.
Works and writing style of JOE LEYDON
Joseph Patrick Michael Leydon (born August 22, 1952) is an American film critic
and historian. A critic and correspondent for Variety since 1990, he is the author
of Joe Leydon's Guide to Essential Movies You Must See (Michael Wiese
Productions), and was a contributing critic for Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide. He
is also a founding member of Houston Film Critics Society and a senior writer for
Cowboys & Indians Magazine. Since 2001, Leydon has been an instructor at the
Jack J. Valenti School of Communication at University of Houston.
Leydon was a film critic for The Houston Post from 1982 until the paper’s
demise in 1995. He has also reviewed films for The Houston Press, The San
Francisco Examiner, MSNBC.com, and NBC affiliate KPRC-TV in Houston. His
work as a journalist, interviewer, and feature writer has appeared in the New
York Daily News, Los Angeles Times, Newsday, The Tennessean, The Boston
Globe, Toronto Star, and the Austin American-Statesman; Film Comment,
MovieMaker, Houstonia, and New Orleans magazines. From 2001 to 2020, he
taught film studies courses at Houston Community College.

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