Seven Years in Tibet/RocketMan/Boogie Nights/Gang Related/Washington Square

Gene Siskel - Host: [reviewing "Boogie Nights"] I particularly want to praise the casting of this film, in big roles and small by Christine Sheaks. Every role of the large cast is perfectly realized. But as well as "Boogie Nights" plays, in a sequence at the end of the movie that sums up the fate of all the characters, I was left cold, frankly. Their fates seemed arbitrary, and I certainly found no larger meaning in this film. That's why you're getting a positive, to be sure, but mixed review from me.

Roger Ebert - Host: Mixed?

Gene Siskel - Host: Yeah.

Roger Ebert - Host: This is going on my list of the ten best films...

Gene Siskel - Host: Not mine.

Roger Ebert - Host: ...Of the year. This is a wonderful film, and that last sequence of the guy throwing the firecrackers...

Gene Siskel - Host: Well, I'm talking about...

Roger Ebert - Host: ...That was a fabulous scene, you've got to admit that's one of the best stretches of film you've ever seen.

Gene Siskel - Host: No, I don't...

Roger Ebert - Host: It IS.

Gene Siskel - Host: ...But that isn't what I was criticizing.

Roger Ebert - Host: Okay.

Gene Siskel - Host: Because what I was saying is, when we see all of the characters.

Roger Ebert - Host: Well, you know, there isn't a point. Y'know? There isn't a point. These people...

Gene Siskel - Host: Okay.

Roger Ebert - Host: ...Are in a movie that tells a story about a pointless existence, and for a while, they were able to persuade themselves that there IS a point. They're stars, even in this genre, and then at the end, it all comes to pieces for them, because drugs destroy them, video destroys them, and the mob destroys them. And they try to go out into the real world and they're really kind of lost. That's the whole point of the movie.

Gene Siskel - Host: All right Roger, but, but, wait, Roger, you just said it has no point, and then you told me what the point was, but beyond that, that doesn't, isn't enough. This is the kind of...

Roger Ebert - Host: What did you want? What did you want? Some kind of...

Gene Siskel - Host: Wait a second. I am praising the film for its excellence, but it doesn't tell me anything that I didn't know about this world, or that, frankly, if I gave you a camera and shot it, I'm talking script-wise, not execution...

Roger Ebert - Host: Oh, listen.

Gene Siskel - Host: You can't make a film that good...

Roger Ebert - Host: Think about the Julianne Moore character, this woman who has left her husband and child, who wants to make it as a porn- who is really supportive and...

Gene Siskel - Host: You've named a very good character. That's an excellent character.

Roger Ebert - Host: ...Nurturing to the other people in the film, but can't do anything for herself. Talk about the Burt Reynolds character.

Gene Siskel - Host: I already DID. I praised him.

Roger Ebert - Host: Talk about- well, to a degree, you praised him, but you didn't really give an idea of what a fabulous job he does of trying to keep these sad, losing drifting people together.

Gene Siskel - Host: I praised him. I praised him.

Roger Ebert - Host: This movie shows an entire world. It's a sad world, it's an isolated world, where the dreams of stardom nevertheless keep them going.

Gene Siskel - Host: Oh, the "dreams of stardom" is an old show business cliche, and it happens to be true. It isn't enough to make my ten best list. It's a familiar subject.