Editing Roger Ebert (section)

===1967–1974: Early writings ===
[[File:Russ Meyer and Roger Ebert by Roger Ebert.jpg|thumb|right|Ebert (right) with [[Russ Meyer]] in 1970|alt=A black and white photograph of two men in suits. The man on the right is wearing glasses.]]
Ebert's first review for the ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'' began: "[[Georges Lautner]]’s ''Galia'' opens and closes with arty shots of the ocean, mother of us all, but in between it’s pretty clear that what is washing ashore is the [[French New Wave]]."<ref>{{cite news| author=Roger Ebert| date=April 7, 1967| title=Gaila| work=[[Chicago Sun Times]]| url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/galia-1967}}</ref> He recalls that "Within a day after Zonka gave me the job, I read ''The Immediate Experience'' by [[Robert Warshow]]", from which he gleaned that "the critic has to set aside theory and ideology, theology and politics, and open himself to—well, the immediate experience."<ref name=ImmediateExperience>{{cite book| author=Roger Ebert| title=Life Itself: A Memoir| date=2011| page=154}}</ref> That same year, he met film critic [[Pauline Kael]] for the first time at the [[New York Film Festival]]. After he sent her some of his columns, she told him they were "the best film criticism being done in American newspapers today."<ref name=ChicagoMag /> He recalls her telling him how she worked: "I go into the movie, I watch it, and I ask myself what happened to me."<ref name=ImmediateExperience/> A formative experience was reviewing [[Ingmar Bergman]]'s ''[[Persona (1966 film)|Persona]]'' (1966).<ref>{{cite news| last=Ebert| first=Roger| date=November 7, 1967| title=Persona| work=Chicago Sun-Times| url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-persona-1966| access-date=April 8, 2024| archive-date=November 16, 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161116124240/http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-persona-1966| url-status=live}}</ref> He told his editor he wasn't sure how to review it when he didn't feel he could explain it. His editor told him he didn't have to explain it, just describe it.<ref>{{cite news| last=Ebert| first=Roger| date=January 7, 2001| title=Great Movies: Persona| work=Chicago Sun-Times| url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-persona-1966| access-date=April 8, 2024| archive-date=November 16, 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161116124240/http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-persona-1966| url-status=live}}</ref>

He was one of the first critics to champion [[Arthur Penn]]'s ''[[Bonnie and Clyde (film)|Bonnie and Clyde]]'' (1967), calling it "a milestone in the history of American movies, a work of truth and brilliance. It is also pitilessly cruel, filled with sympathy, nauseating, funny, heartbreaking and astonishingly beautiful. If it does not seem that those words should be strung together, perhaps that is because movies do not very often reflect the full range of human life." He concluded: "The fact that the story is set 35 years ago doesn't mean a thing. It had to be set some time. But it was made now and it's about us."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=September 25, 1967 |title=Bonnie and Clyde |work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/bonnie-and-clyde-1967 |access-date=July 30, 2022 |archive-date=November 11, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171111205357/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/bonnie-and-clyde-1967 |url-status=live }}</ref> Thirty-one years later, he wrote "When I saw it, I had been a film critic for less than six months, and it was the first masterpiece I had seen on the job. I felt an exhilaration beyond describing. I did not suspect how long it would be between such experiences, but at least I learned that they were possible."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=August 3, 1998 |title=Great Movies: Bonnie and Clyde |work=[[Chicago Sun Times]] |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-bonnie-and-clyde-1967 |access-date=February 11, 2023 |archive-date=February 11, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230211222807/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-bonnie-and-clyde-1967 |url-status=live }}</ref> He wrote [[Martin Scorsese]]'s first review, for ''[[Who's That Knocking at My Door]]'' (1967, then titled ''I Call First''), and predicted the young director could become "an American [[Federico Fellini| Fellini]]."<ref name=Who'sThat>{{Cite news |last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=November 17, 1967 |title=I Call First/ Who's That Knocking at My Door? |work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/i-call-first--whos-that-knocking-at-my-door-1967 |access-date=July 30, 2022 |archive-date=December 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201227045136/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/i-call-first--whos-that-knocking-at-my-door-1967 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Ebert co-wrote the screenplay for [[Russ Meyer]]'s ''[[Beyond the Valley of the Dolls]]'' (1970) and sometimes joked about being responsible for it. It was poorly received on its release yet has become a [[cult film]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/beyond-the-valley-of-the-dolls-1980 |title=Beyond the Valley of the Dolls |work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |first=Roger |last=Ebert |access-date=September 3, 2012 |date=January 1, 1970 |archive-date=December 30, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181230054847/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/beyond-the-valley-of-the-dolls-1980 |url-status=live }}</ref> Ebert and Meyer also made ''[[Up! (1976 film)|Up!]]'' (1976), ''[[Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens]]'' (1979) and other films, and were involved in the ill-fated [[Sex Pistols]] film ''[[Who Killed Bambi? (unfinished film)|Who Killed Bambi?]]'' In April 2010, Ebert posted his screenplay of ''Who Killed Bambi?'', also known as ''Anarchy in the UK'', on his blog.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/04/who_killed_bambi_-_a_screenpla.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100429015727/http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/04/who_killed_bambi_-_a_screenpla.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 29, 2010 |last=Ebert |first=Roger |title='Who Killed Bambi?'&nbsp;– A screenplay |website=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |date=April 25, 2010 }}</ref>

Beginning in 1968, Ebert worked for the [[University of Chicago]] as an adjunct lecturer, teaching a night class on film at the [[Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.uchicago.edu/article/2013/04/05/roger-ebert-x-70-film-critic-and-longtime-graham-school-lecturer-1942-2013 |title=Roger Ebert, X'70, film critic and longtime Graham School lecturer, 1942–2013 |date=April 5, 2013 |access-date=December 26, 2016 |website=UChicagoNews |publisher=[[University of Chicago]] |location=Chicago, Illinois |archive-date=December 27, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161227130527/https://news.uchicago.edu/article/2013/04/05/roger-ebert-x-70-film-critic-and-longtime-graham-school-lecturer-1942-2013 |url-status=live }}</ref>