Gene Siskel: Self - Host

George of the Jungle/Mrs. Brown/Nothing to Lose/Operation Condor/Contempt

Self - Host

Gene Siskel: [responding to a letter by Lawrence Ferlingetti] Well first of all, it's great to hear from you Mr. Ferlingetti. And don't worry, Roger's been wrong about movies before and he's now in very distinguished company. I can't claim to know the truth of Neil Cassidy as you do, but as a movie i found the specific portrait of Cassidy as a man who couldn't commit to a woman as quite provocative. The hard drinking, hard writing life and that kind of behavior are not exactly strangers in history. I enjoyed the lead performances by Thomas Jane and Keanu Reeves, I enjoyed "The Last Time I Committed Suicide" and also your letter.
Roger Ebert: Well Mr. Ferlingetti, uh, I'd like you to forget everything that Gene just said; all he did was just recycle his original erroneous review, and you and I, especially you, who knew Neil Cassidy, and I who know him through the character Dean Moriarty in "On the Road", the wonderful book by Jack Kerouac, will treasure that memory and not allow it to be tarnished by this latter-day weak recycling.

Gene Siskel: [reviewing "Operation Condor"] You've heard this story before, when I asked George C. Scott "How do you decide the really good actors from the stars?", and he said "a joy of performing quality", I mean, Jackie Chan has it. Y'know, he's on there, "I'm out to please ya, I'll do anything, I'll risk my own life to make you laugh and enjoy yourself", and that's what happens in the picture. It's a lot of fun.