New Book ‘Opposable Thumbs’ Takes a Look at Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert’s Impact on the Movies
The new book chronicles how the legendary film critics changed moviegoing and pop culture for more than 50 years.
By Rudie Obias
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October 24, 2023 8:53am
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Before the advent of Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb, people turned to their local newspaper critics for movie recommendations. However, a pair of Chicago film critics named Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert were the first to voice their opinions on the latest releases on national TV to a wide audience.
On sale for $26 (regularly $29), Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever takes a look at the history of their individual careers and partnership as on-camera TV personalities that changed the face of moviegoing, film criticism, movie recommendations and pop culture for more than 50 years.
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Written by film critic and ScreenCrush editor-in-chief Matt Singer, the 352-page book explores how Siskel and Ebert went from newspaper critics — at the Chicago Tribune and rival Chicago Sun-Times, respectively — to appearing on a local Chicago PBS program called Opening Soon at a Theater Near You to eventually starring in their own nationally syndicated TV show, At The Movies. It also chronicles Siskel’s secret battle with brain cancer that led to his death in February 1999 and ended his long partnership with Ebert.
Meanwhile, Opposable Thumbs is available as an e-book for Kindle e-readers and the Kindle mobile app for $14.99, as well as an unabridged Audible audiobook, narrated by the author, for $5.95 — for Audible members only.
Not a member? Sign up for a 30-day free trial and get two free audiobooks (which includes Opposable Thumbs). Afterwards, the service auto-renews for $14.95 per month. However, Audible has a promotion going on for $5.95 per month for the first four months of your subscription when you sign up by Dec. 31.
Looking to get a copy for yourself? Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever is now available on Amazon as a hardcover book, for Kindle as an e-book and for Audible as an audiobook. Read the book here.
$13.88 $30.00 54% off
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