For 45 years, Roger Ebert was a critical tour de force. As film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, as half of the review dreamteam, Siskel and Ebert and the Movies, and, in his later life, as a prolific blogger, Ebert reached generations of film-goers even after he lost the ability to speak.
Ebert died yesterday at the age of seventy, a significant loss for anyone who loves the movies, and especially for Jim Palmer, director of the Conference on World Affairs and senior professor of film studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Palmer and Ebert were friends for 18 years.