Dear Mr. Ebert

Dear Mr. Ebert:

I was scouring the VCRs at Best Buy with my mom and dad. It was the mid-1990s (making me about 10 years old). A day prior my parents had purchased a brand new red Ford conversion van.

It came with a television.

The console that housed the television had a (very slim – hence the necessary scouring) slot for a VCR.

We found the perfect one.

The sales associate gladly handed us a free gift for purchasing a VCR at Best Buy on that day (who knows how long the promotion lasted? A week? A month? As long as supplies last?). The gift was the 1994 edition of your Video Companion.

That very night I literally began to read every review in that massive volume and make annotations of what I had already seen, wanted to see, etc… This was an ongoing process that I engaged in all the way through most of high school. Half the appendix is missing (it started to deteriorate with the excessive use) and there is a lot of my scribbling over half the pages (at one point I even kept a tally of how many “Scott Awards” films you reviewed had earned or been nominated for…yes, the “Scott Awards” were my version of the Academy Awards – I still dutifully do my own awards list every year).

It wasn’t until I eventually read your review of the movie Fargo that I realized I had learned most of what I know about movies from you. Maybe you didn’t write out all the answers to the questions that I had or will have in the future, but you provided the crux of what was necessary for me to answer my ponderings. You ended your review of Fargo with this sentence:

“Films like Fargo are why I love the movies.”

How long had you already been in the business? How many thousands of crap movies had you endured? That tiny moment of self-actualization made me feel like I was justified in my burgeoning obsession with the cinema.

Over the many years since I’ve followed your career quite closely (most of the time). I’ve always needed to know your opinion – and the times where we disagree are at times (ironically?) the most gratifying. You’re not out to please anyone; you call it like you see it. The most recent incident is with the 2009’s Bad Lieutenant: The Port of Call New Orleans. I found your acclaim for it puzzling. Then I went to see it – making me more bewildered at your love for it. But it’s not about agreeing - it’s about understanding. We understand we all have our own thoughts on cinematic excellence. We’ve all got the movies that make us argue or agree about – the shouting matches and the laughter from quoting favorite lines.

Films like Bad Lieutenant: The Port of Call New Orleans are why I love the movies.

I just happened to dislike it.

We took the newly purchased VCR for a test drive. It was defective…didn’t work. We needed to return it for another model. I was fearful my parents would have to return the Video Companion gift since we were getting a whole different VCR.

I hid it in my room. No sense in taking a chance.

Scott

Ebert's review of Fargo