Siskel & Ebert - The Great Santini, Willie & Phil, Middle Age Crazy, Ordinary People, Divine Madness

In this episode, Siskel and Ebert review: The Great Santini, Willie & Phil, Middle Age Crazy, Ordinary People and Divine Madness.

[@seansmith4880]

I just watched Ordinary People for the 1st time. Wow, what an amazing film.

[@clc7763]

I miss this show Siskel and Ebert

[@timcook6566]

Growing up in a USMC family in the 70’s, I was already familiar with the book. But mom said I was too young to read and really understand it. Until the movie came out. Then she handed me a battered paperback to read before she took us to see it. Duval and Danner were superb in their portrayals.

[@madahad9]

I will never forget seeing Ordinary People at a local last run theatre in my neighbourhood and walking home in a daze at what I had just watched. I was 16 at the time and had never seen a film quite like Ordinary People. It is a film that has lost none of its power since that initial viewing and it still engages me in the drama, but as an adult I see it from a different perspective. Although we tend to see Conrad, the son, as the central character, I now see the father Calvin as the key character, helplessly watching his family crumble around him. Donald Sutherland gives a stunning and restrained performance as he tries to be the bridge between his son and his wife but sees them drifting further apart. Mary Tyler Moore gives a performance unlike any we had seen before. She was neither Laura Petrie or Mary Richards. I probably hated the character when I first saw the film but now see her as an emotionally damaged person. The title suggests that people who are economically better off then others don't suffer from the same traumas that lower classes experience. It is why I love films.

[@citygirl5705]

I was 15 or 16 when I saw it on Showtime in 1982. It blew me away. One powerful, moving scene after another. And that beautiful musical score.

[@madahad9]

I recommend reading the book. It's been a while since I last read it but it gets deeper into the characters. I'll never forget the scene when Conrad finds out the girl he met in the psychiatric hospital had killed herself. It was like a kick in the stomach. To say this film was an emotional experience is an understatement.

[@ricardocantoral7672]

I strongly remember being bored crapless by it. I would gladly watch The Great Santini instead.

[@donskuse2194]

Not trying to one up you but I convinced my two best friends (male like me) to see both Ordinary People AND The Elephant Man on the same night. My one friend always chose bad movies to see but on this occasion I talked him into seeing these films. He, myself and our friend were stunned on the way home, both movies had moved us so much. Even my 'bad movie' friend admitted that I was right on insisting we see these two movies and that was a shock to me haha. To prove to you how he chose bad movies he had us, on our previous trip to the movie theatre, see "Andy Warhol's Frankenstein" (in early 3D if I remember correctly". It was, and stil is, the worst movie I've seen in a theatre and we never let him live that down! In fact this was the ammunition we used to convince him to see my two choices because he agreed that Frankenstein was horrible.

[@citygirl5705]

@@ricardocantoral7672 You're not too bright, are you?

[@RobMacKendrick]

"Adults want to go to the movies, too." Ain't nothing changed in almost 40 years, except that adults now mostly want to see comic book movies.

[@maskedmarvyl4774]

Mary Tyler Moore did a very good job in Ordinary People.

[@CR41489]

“Ordinary People” is a great film. I have it digitally and I have watched it several times, but I’m looking forward to the upcoming Paramount Presents Blu-ray in early 2022.

[@euanuglowisdead]

Gene Siskel's words with the Great Santini review are still true today, decades later, and really much more true. Adult dramas needed over movies made for kids, summer popcorn blockbusters.

[@bort_hill]

I only watched this episode because hank hill's favorite movie is the great santini and he rented it at least 23 times.

[@sheilaholmes996]

I love Divine Madness!!

[@emanuellawton7942]

"The Great Santini" actually came out in September 1979. I wonder why it's on this show in which they review "Ordinary People" which came out in the September of 1980. "Divine Madness" was released in September 1980 as well.

[@RobMacKendrick]

As the guys said in the episode, Santini was held back by the studio, released, un-released, retitled ("The Ace"), released to cable TV, withdrawn, title restored, and released again to theatres. The final release was the "real" one as far as the theatre-going viewing public was concerned.

[@patrickprendergast9589]

i watched this 44years ago in 1980 in gramer school

[@crystalshaw8744]

My mom introduced me to Bette Midler with her music first. " Do You Wanna Dance" is one of my favorite songs.

[@uhdudewhy7980]

Her rendition of Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B is pretty good too.

[@peterporker7803]

Props to this Channel for having this kind of content and the way you set it up with the TV and the channel set to 720p nicely done.

[@CaptainSpalding72]

Ordinary People IS phenomenal. MTM has the most difficult part. You want to feel bad for her, but she is truly selfish and resentful of her live son for killing the dead one. Sutherland caught in the middle. Fascinating film. Imagine, if the parts had been switched, MTM as the middle one, it would have been so routine and forgettable.

[@jbshore2012]

I would rather watch old Siskel & Ebert shows than watch the news now…

[@freemangriffin4953]

4 bucks for a movie! LOL! (: This episode made me want to see Ordinary People again! (: Donald Sutherland should have gotten an Oscar nomination, and Timothy Hutton should have won Best Actor not Supporting Actor. Mary's best movie performance!

[@doloreswallin4381]

Ordinary People was good.

[@reneedennis2011]

This is a good episode.

[@kristopherwilhite]

Bette Midler is a concert phenomenon. She is far left and her audiences love her! I find it so thrilling they gave the now legendary "DIVINE MADNESS" a very good review!

[@yournamehere6002]

It's so funny that Gene decries the movies playing to teenagers in relation to THE GREAT SANTINI, not knowing that only a few years later. Lewis John Carlino would direct CLASS with Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy.

[@MilesBellas]

Bullying non supportive fathers compensating for insecurity = sources of social problems?

[@MilesBellas]

Military fraternities can use victims as job justification : the dark side of nationalism. Insight into psychology and behavior = growth.

[@MilesBellas]

Great Santini : nobody wants to pay to watch ordinary unpleasant people

[@bsanaee]

I find it funny that they always felt compelled to explain their yes / no system at the start of their wrap up. Seems pretty obvious, guys.

[@RobMacKendrick]

Note that KZbin is using the same system right here.

[@crystalshaw8744]

" Assaulted by midlife "...?

[@danorthsidemang3834]

24:51

[@hungwilliam44]

...that's "brutal"? Gene obviously grew up without the benefit of an alcoholic father. I thought for a second I was watching Mr Brady.

[@timmitchell3870]

If Robert Redford let out gas, both Siskel and Ebert would have called it 'One Of The Year's Best.'

[@steveconn]

Stupid thing to say.

[@morgan8757]

ordinary people was boring

[@gheller2261]

That's a you problem.

[@danorthsidemang3834]

26:05