Siskel & Ebert - If We Picked The Winners (1993)

[@Goldenwhatever]

Maybe it’s just me but whenever I’m feeling down, I go back into the Siskel and Ebert rabbit hole. They always make me feel better, no matter how many times I rewatch.

[@scottcole6093]

Same for me 💯

[@pdxtim97209]

Same for me too. Two brilliant minds sparring with each other. What compares?

[@threeminuteshate]

Takes me back to a less complicated time in my life.

[@paramitch]

I've been enjoying all of these Oscar specials so much!

[@sleuthentertainment5872]

This specials of Siskel and Ebert are great

[@RandyHawkeye]

Is 8:30 the first known *SPOILER ALERT* in video communications history? I thought Gene was right to honor Jaye Davidson's performance in The Crying Game, and he made some good points in their brief philosophical debate about spoilers and criticism. Very good segment.

[@michaelcoy311]

Roger doesn’t want the Crying Game spoiled. I think the category “Best Supporting Actor” beat him to it ;)

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

Siskel's alleged "spoiler" to a mass audience was considered a pretty big deal at the time and received a fair amount of pushback and press coverage. Yet no one pointed out that Roger did pretty much the exact same thing a month earlier on their show.

[@cherylhulting1301]

The thing is, Gene made a legitimate and difficult point. It would be hard to explain why he was so enthusiastic about Davidson's performance (and rightly so, it was a good one) without revealing the secret of the character. The language of discussion would have had to be so cryptic as to make his feedback much less meaningful. The only other way he could have done it was to give the name of his choice, say a couple of general things about competency of performance and leave it at that. Gene couldn't tell the studio audience not to hear him.but he did what he could for the TV viewers. It's also legitimate to say that the nomination more or less gave the secret away.

[@paramitch]

I really love Siskel's love for "The Crying Game" here, as well as Roger's passion for "Malcolm X."

[@jstewlly4747]

Bill Paxton got screwed Academy didn't care for Indie films at all when ONE FALSE MOVE WAS THE BEST OF 1992 RIPBillP

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

Roger in February: Jaye Davidson's Supporting Actor nomination gives away the fact that Dil is a man. Roger in March: Gene, you oughta be ashamed of yourself spoiling "The Crying Game" for everyone!

[@cherylhulting1301]

Good call.

[@owenbloomfield1177]

I remember Roger doing one of the first big spoils.

[@ericlevenchuck6212]

I forgot why I never appreciated Siskel’s opinions, and now I remember. Unforgiven was an instant classic and he gave it thumbs down. What?!

[@rg1809]

At times, both gave thumbs down to great films. Sickle here, and Ebert for To Kill a Mockingbird

[@archibaldcreep1]

It's almost like people are different and have different opinions and tastes. Crazy

[@lw3646]

Also a big fan of Husbands and Wives too.

[@branagain]

The secret twist of The Crying Game was spoiled to me because of the supporting actor nomination.

[@keithdoherty3178]

I know right

[@oobrocks]

Gene asked u to "turn down the volume"

[@kstepko]

I figured it out during Billy Crystal’s opening song at The Oscars. “Those lips! Those eyes! SURPRISE!”

[@williamfreemon3878]

😂😂😂

[@iamsoverybored878]

Me too I was a kid at the time and I asked my mom why is there a lady nominated in the supporting actor category and she explained it to me.

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

Chapter jumps: Best Actress - 1:53 Best Supporting Actor - 6:58 Best Actor - 16:22 Best Cinematography - 21:43 Best Supporting Actress - 28:53 Best Original Song - 32:46 Best Picture - 36:33 Worst Nomination - 42:18

[@oobrocks]

👍

[@SueProv]

Thank you. These are great videos to watch.

[@9114SouthCentralAv]

Thanks so much for these!! I hope you also have 1994 and 1995.

[@kane4013]

Gene gave Unforgiven a thumbs down!?

[@KernelHughes]

He also didn't like Silence of the Lambs so that says something

[@Rambleredhead]

He should - it was so boring

[@greghughes6098]

Another opinion, difficult I know.

[@kane4013]

@@greghughes6098 What’s your point?

[@lw3646]

I haven't seen all these films but Howard's End and Unforgiven I thought were both excellent.

[@chrisyanover1777]

I love that you kept the commercials in. I actually enjoyed watching those old commercials almost as much as the show

[@langdonalger9219]

Denzel Washington not winning was absurd.

[@heaintloveu]

I saw Malcolm X just last year and thought exactly the same, how did he not win an Oscar for this?

[@cherylhulting1301]

It was. This is one of the biggest Oscar flubs ever. It still makes me mad to remember it.

[@GrassValleyGreg]

Agreed.

[@axr7149]

On the flip side, had Al Pacino lost, he would’ve preceded Peter O’Toole to receive the most acting nominations without ever winning. He was double nominated that night (Best Actor for SCENT OF A WOMAN and Best Supporting Actor for GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS), his 7th and 8th nominations respectively, and lost Supporting to Gene Hackman for UNFORGIVEN.

[@sleong]

Ebert is right on A Few Good Men. It's only a good/average movie.

[@cherylhulting1301]

Yes. I like the film better than Roger did but it's not Best Picture quality. Ebert is right - "Malcolm X" would have been a much more meaningful and deserved nomination. Spike Lee got robbed.

[@matthewwilton7778]

Denzel hell yeah

[@cymaddux3131]

this really needs a remaster

[@timhorn0511]

I wish these interchanges.

[@donniemoder1466]

These guys love to criticize each other more than the films or the perfomances.

[@philiphalpenny9761]

Isn't it amusing that KZbin features a thumbs up & thumbs down option when these Siskel & Ebert programmes are posted?

[@oobrocks]

Jaye was great and fooled me until "the" moment 😆

[@johnmarcey7176]

Gay

[@oobrocks]

Yes u are

[@johnmarcey7176]

@@oobrocks I knew it was a guy..f@@ 🌈

[@oobrocks]

Congratulations

[@johnmarcey7176]

@@oobrocks thanks

[@MrS98VAC]

Judy Davis should have won the Best Supporting Actress.

[@talkingmotanka]

Spoiler of The Crying Game happens at 8:30

[@alexsandell8260]

Why did you cut out both of Judy Davis' scenes?

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

Copyright restrictions

[@alexsandell8260]

@@flaccidusminimus2170 fair use.

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

@@alexsandell8260 KZbin algorithms don't see it that way. They block videos containing certain clips.

[@SorendeSelbyBowen]

Not only do Siskel & Ebert snub Best Director in the awards, but when they do Best Picture, on the screen they show the producer, but not the director. What did they have against directors?

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

Only producers are nominated for Best Pictures. Directors are not, unless they also produced.

[@SorendeSelbyBowen]

​@@flaccidusminimus2170 I forgot. Still, I'm amazed they snub the Best Director award.

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

@@SorendeSelbyBowen There is usually so much overlap between Best Picture and Best Director winners that, to them, it may not have been worth distinguishing. The latter ruins the suspense of the bigger prize. Don't forget, they're playing to an audience. TV and an auditorium crowd. The producers likely chose the categories that the audience would find most interesting.

[@SorendeSelbyBowen]

@@flaccidusminimus2170 But they know the difference, and maybe it's worth pointing out? (And before they were playing to an audience, they used to do the What We Would shows the same as usual, just the two of them, and they still didn't do Best Director. Ah well.)

[@ericslee1980]

Both gave Unforgiven thumbs down in 1992. So glad it ended up winning, even though The Crying Game and Howard's End are great films.

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

I think Roger's original TV review was a mild Thumbs Up. He watched it a second time, and his print review was 4/4 stars. He then included it on his top 10 list for the year and admitted that he just wasn't paying attention the firs time.

[@jedijones]

@@flaccidusminimus2170 I think in an Answer Man years later, he said he initially gave it a negative review. It's unclear where he did that, since he gave it thumbs up and no print review has ever surfaced with a negative rating. It's possible he taped a "local news" review for it, in which he announces star ratings, and gave it less than 3 stars there, but that's pure speculation. He may have considered his mild thumbs up a "negative" compared to what the movie deserved. Or he may have misremembered in later years how bad his review was.

[@Goldenwhatever]

Ebert says on Letterman that he gave it a thumbs down. Later, on their top ten for the respective year, he claims his wedding was on the week of his first screening for the film and his mind was elsewhere.

[@ericslee1980]

@@Goldenwhatever Well yes clearly his mind was elsewhere. I don't know how Siskel gave thumbs-down to The Silence of the Lambs, Unforgiven and Casino. SMH.

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

@@Goldenwhatever He may be correct on the second point, but his original review was in fact Thumbs Up. The audio is available on KZbin and I remember seeing the review on their original website.

[@oobrocks]

Best film: Macolm X

[@stevesuk4569]

The biggest ripoff, was when Denzel lost to Al Pacino.

[@jlobiafra]

It was a make up call for pacino getting snubbed for godfather 1 and 2. Plus Denzel had won an award a few years earlier.

[@erakfishfishfish]

It’s interesting hearing how Siskel describes Jaye Davidson’s character, first by using (the unfortunately) of-its-time terms like “transvestite” and “guy posing as a girl”, but also being a little ahead of his time by using the character’s preferred pronouns. (This is not a knock on Siskel by any measure-just more of a display on how times have changed in the last 28 years.)

[@jedijones]

Politically correct dogma may have changed, but no one can change the fact that just because you think you're Ethel Merman or try to look like Ethel Merman, it doesn't make you Ethel Merman.

[@alrightthen6259]

both S and E, despite their at-the-time protestations regarding "political correctness", were pretty progressive dudes for the time and place in which they lived. shortly before ebert died, he wrote an essay about heteronormativity and his evolving understanding of sexuality and gender.

[@knowthycell]

@@alrightthen6259 lol bc he was scared of being posthumously cancelled.

[@VCPRPressingIssues]

Shut up

[@winonafrog]

@@jedijonesPathetic comment 👍🏼

[@heaintloveu]

I disagree with the sentiment that The Player should have been nominated for Best Picture. I thought it was garbage.

[@mariogamefreak1]

How did they not pick Marisa Tomeii for worst nomination.

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

Because they liked her a great deal, and Gene singled her out as a pleasant surprise in their preceding show "Oscar Nomination Surprises".

[@kerprice]

Marisa Tomeii is a good actress, but she shouldn't have won for this. Hollywood voted, though. She was popular that year in a slew of movies including the very good Untamed Heart

[@randycunningham7318]

She stole every scene she was in. Totally deserved.

[@clanofclams2720]

Because she was fucking great

[@NA86737]

Early 90s Gene Siskel was a real snob when it came to films that dealt with violence in a brutal way yet were still entertaining and quality films. 2 years in a row he hated the films that were best picture winners Silence of the Lambs and Unforgiven.

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

He didn't hate them, just couldn't recommend them. His original review of The Silence of the Lambs is overblown, but he later said on Letterman that he didn't think it was a bad film just not one he could vote Thumbs Up on.

[@langdonalger9219]

@@flaccidusminimus2170 he also came around on Hopkins and Foster’s performances. He didn’t love them when he originally reviewed the film, but said nicer things later on.

[@kerprice]

So was Ebert. He hated "Not without my daughter" because he said it was anti-Iranian which it wasn't.

[@TheCatIndeed]

Are we forgetting that these guys absolutely adored Pulp Fiction?

[@jlobiafra]

They both gave Henry a portrait of a serial killer two thumbs up and that movie is really violently

[@oobrocks]

I prefer u cut the ads and not cut the clips

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

Some of them need to be cut in order to get around the copyright restrictions. I only do it when necessary because I don't want to risk the videos being taken down.

[@erakfishfishfish]

The ads make for an amusing time capsule. If I find myself not caring, they’re easy enough to fast forward through. Understandable about the clips-don’t want this video to get DCMAed.

[@langdonalger9219]

How about be grateful that the video was posted at all?

[@keithdoherty3178]

@@langdonalger9219 Hear Hear

[@kerprice]

The Crying Game didn't age well-it was an okay movie with a surprise twist. If you hear Siskel and Ebert talking they talk about how they "admire" it

[@kkarx]

Gene Hackman all the way for the supporting actor. These guys just pushed the stupid agenda even in the early 90s. Even the audience cringed at their pick. And how was the Crying game even a spoiler? Has anyone with eyes not seen the "twist". :S

[@jerryklooster438]

Well, that's like your opinion, man.

[@kerprice]

I saw it at a theater--as soon as they played the whole song of "When a Man Loves a Woman" I had an inkling what would happen

[@wexfordrob]

Jack Nicholson all the way. Crying game is a joke

[@rg1809]

so was nickolsons over acted performance

[@kerprice]

Anthony Hopkins ruined "Remains of the Day" for me. He was too old to play the part

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

Wrong year! "Howards End" was this year's nominee. Regardless, is your take based on attachment to the book?

[@kerprice]

@@flaccidusminimus2170 thr book and the BBC version

[@JRRLewis]

Are you talking about Howards End? I thought Hopkins was closer to the book Henry Wilcox than Matthew McFadyen was in the BBC miniseries version. I thought the way the BBC version dealt with Henry Wilcox was one of the great failings of the miniseries. They made him far too attractive and appealing and likeable--completely wrong for the character. At any rate, I did enjoy the miniseries but it was more like a good quality soap opera than the masterpiece that was the Merchant-Ivory movie.