Roger and Me

I just want to mark the passing of Roger Ebert with belated thanks to him. I have modeled a great deal of my own writing based on his and I learned more GRE words from him than I can count. His writing served as a great example to me of how one can write clearly and concisely; how one could be simultaneously sophisticated yet approachable. 

Lastly, a belated "thank you" for making my question to headlilner to his "Movie Answer Man" column on January 13, 2002.

January 13, 2002   
Q. Sometimes I'll take a look at the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) to see how people are reacting to a recent release. To my disbelief, people have rated "Lord of the Rings" the best movie of all time on IMDb's Top 250 list! I thought it was a good action/fantasy adventure but I wouldn't have even included it in my personal Top 100 list. After speaking with many people, I realize that most of those who consider it the best film are also fans of the books. I noticed the same reaction for "Harry Potter:" If the book is great, the movie must be great. Is it possible that movies in the future will simply be visualizations of a book? Will books in the future simply be "test script runs?" Will people rate movies based on how close the visuals and characters look and act like people think they are supposed to? I'm scared. (Bruce M. Arnold, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.)

A. Take it from me: "Lord of the Rings" isn't the best movie of all time. What's reflected is extreme enthusiasm by a lot of fans, who gave it a "10" on the IMDb poll although many of them, individually, might not rate it the best of all films.