Siskel & Ebert (TV Series)

Full Metal Jacket/Spaceballs/Roxanne/Benji the Hunted (1987)

Gene Siskel: Self - Host

Quotes 

• Gene Siskel - Host : "Benji the Hunted" exhausted me. It was the first time I wanted to tell a dog to stop to smell the flowers. I can't recommend "Benji the Hunted".

  Roger Ebert - Host : Well, there is a little suspense in the movie, for example, will Benji be able to protect those cougar cubs until they get big enough to eat him, but I don't know, Gene, your review is the typical sort of blase, sophisticated, cynical review...

  Gene Siskel - Host : I'll take the word "sophisticated".

  Roger Ebert - Host : ...That I would expect from an adult. This movie is not for adults, this movie is for children...

  [Gene tries to talk] 

  Roger Ebert - Host : I can remember when it was like to be six years old, eight years old...

  Gene Siskel - Host : So can I.

  Roger Ebert - Host : ...To see a movie that's 90 minutes long, only has about 100 words of dialogue, it's about a dog in the wilderness, beautiful photography, cute little cougar cubs you mentioned, the magnificence of the other animals...

  Gene Siskel - Host : Roger.

  Roger Ebert - Host : ...Adventures, the little kittens crossing the stream, the very shot you pointed out. This is a movie that kids will really enjoy.

  Gene Siskel - Host : No, you know what they'd rather see, Roger? My rebuttal of this film is, you're wrapping yourself in the flag of children, and I'm saying go see "The Black Stallion" instead. There's a film with little dialogue that's so much better.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Hold on! I'm not wrapping myself up in the flag of children, you're wrapping yourself in the flag of the sophisticated film critic who's seen it all.

  Gene Siskel - Host : No, boredom, boredom with Benji running!

  Roger Ebert - Host : I don't think that any child is gonna be bored by this movie, and indeed, I found the nature photography to be very interesting myself.

  Gene Siskel - Host : I recommend films for kids that are good, "The Black Stallion" is a great film, this is garbage.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Oh, well I recommend films for kids that are bad, but I'll tell you what, whether it's good or bad, I think kids will really enjoy it.

• Roger Ebert - Host : [reviewing "Full Metal Jacket"]  There is irony in this movie, and satire, and comedy, but there is also way too much routine war footage. The opening scenes in basic training recycle material we've seen before, all except for a brilliant performance by Vincent D'Onofrio as a pudgy weakling that the Marines turn into a psychopath, that was him we saw looking up at the camera in that earlier scene. And there is more recycling at the end of the film, which is devoted to that firefight in the ruins of a burning city, a sequence that was shot on a giant set and looks like it, and reminds me more of World War II movies than of the special war in Vietnam. We expect an original masterpiece from Stanley Kubrick every time out, and this time, I'm afraid... not a bad movie, but it's not original, and it's not a masterpiece.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Oh, I think it's very original and very close to being a masterpiece. I mean, first of all, I think that the stuff that we see, the training sequences, are absolutely startling, even though this is familiar material, I think that image we got of that guy is explosive and I'll never forget it. Second, the fighting here is a different kind of fighting than in "Platoon". It's city fighting, and it looks different. And it's a whole different war, and he's playing this film, I think, at a whole 'nother level. "Platoon" was about embracing the soldier, and giving the soldier credit for this crazy world that he was in. This fighting, to me, is about the mixture of joy in fighting and the absolute fear of being killed, in the sense of, when there's this guy called Animal who charges, I was so excited for him. And this is a guy you're supposed to hate. And then when I see a sniper go on an American, and Kubrick has his camera push in, I feel for the first time people getting attacked. I think, visually, this is the strongest film I've seen in a long time.

  Roger Ebert - Host : First of all, I didn't think it was that visually exciting, except for a few specific shots that were really great, but secondly, let's talk about that very sequence you're talking about. One of the guy's friends is wounded, and he's out there under fire, and the other one says, "I'm gonna go get him", and he runs out, blasting with his machine gun to try and rescue him. Then later...

  Gene Siskel - Host : Rambo-like.

  Roger Ebert - Host : ...Later, later, later, the others come up behind, and we can clearly see where the sniper is. Then, when you get to that reverse shot and the camera pushes in, that is a CLICHE, Gene! I mean, when I saw that push, I was so disappointed in Kubrick. This whole sequence is taken right out of absolutely routine, grade B Republic World War II movies of guys running out there to try to save their buddy and someone's shooting at them.

  Gene Siskel - Host : I have never- I have never felt a kill in a movie quite like that. Ever. Not even Vietnam films.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Not in "Apocalypse Now"? Not in "The Deer Hunter"? Not in "Platoon"?

  Gene Siskel - Host : No, no, not like that. Not like that.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Well, in that case, you're gonna love the late show, because they have kills like that every night in black and white, starring John Wayne.

  Gene Siskel - Host : But they don't have movies like this film, "Full Metal Jacket".

  Roger Ebert - Host : I disagree, and I disagree particularly about the part that you liked.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Well, that's just one scene, I liked the whole film, it's full of great scenes.

• Roger Ebert - Host : [reviewing "Spaceballs"]  Gee, this is a tough one for me to call. There are individual moments in this movie when I laughed out loud...

  Gene Siskel - Host : And you didn't want to miss 'em.

  Roger Ebert - Host : ...And enjoyed myself and glad I didn't miss them. The movie, as a whole, I feel, is, first of all, not successful, and secondly, way too late. We're celebrating the tenth anniversary of "Star Wars", and the whole idea of making a parody of "Star Wars" has itself been done over and over and over again.

  Gene Siskel - Host : And badly.

  Roger Ebert - Host : And badly, but I mean, the whole idea of it has been worn out, on television and in other movies. Why didn't Mel Brooks satirize something that was a little bit more up-to-date? Like "Aliens", for example, or the Schwarzenegger movies?

  Gene Siskel - Host : Well, he does throw in a little tribute to "Aliens" and the "Star Trek" series in the end of the film. But I thought it was a little late myself, but when I'm laughing, I'm not thinking it's late, I'm laughing. And I think on the judgement of this as a comedy, I laughed, it's good, enough, recommendation.

  Roger Ebert - Host : Uh, I laughed, it's NOT good enough, thumbs down, but if you happen to go on Gene's recommendation, you'll laugh loud a couple times, so how's that for-?

  Gene Siskel - Host : Well, at least you're wrong now on two films, let's keep going.

  Roger Ebert - Host : I'm trying to keep my record intact.

• Roger Ebert - Host : The real buried subject here is our disagreement about "Full Metal Jacket", and I would be very surprised if you liked that movie in thirty years as much as you liked this one

  ["Paths of Glory"] 

  Roger Ebert - Host : today. I don't think it's gonna hold up that well, it's not one of his great films.

  Gene Siskel - Host : In the world of films that's made today, "Full Metal Jacket" is a film to recommend, and "Full Metal Jacket" is a very, very fine film.

  Roger Ebert - Host : My opinion is that "Full Metal Jacket" is not Kubrick at the top of his form, which we've seen here.

  Gene Siskel - Host : Roger, it is not as good as those two films, which are among the greatest films ever made, but for you, on this show, to give thumbs down to "Full Metal Jacket", I think, is a gross mistake. It is a film worth seeing.

  Roger Ebert - Host : I think I'm trying to put the movie in a context, and I'm trying to tell people it is not as good...

  Gene Siskel - Host : This is the show where you give "Benji the Hunted" a positive review and NOT "Full Metal Jacket"...

  Roger Ebert - Host : Now Gene, that's totally unfair, because you realize that these reviews are relative. "Benji the Hunted" is not 1/3 the film, 1/10 the film that the Kubrick film is, but you know that the same thing happens, that you review films in context. So it's not fair to compare those two reviews, and you know it, and you ought to be ashamed of yourself.

  Gene Siskel - Host : No, I'm not.

• Gene Siskel - Host : "Full Metal Jacket", Roger, again, I don't think you would really tell people to miss it, and you even almost want people to see and have a good time at "Spaceballs". Consider your thumb, look at your thumb over the weekend.