Life Itself Page #3

- We'd get crushed.

Meyer wanted everything

in the screenplay

except the kitchen sink.

The movie, he explained,

would simultaneously

be a satire,

a serious melodrama,

a rock musical, a comedy,

a violent exploitation picture,

a skin flick,

and a moralistic expos

of the oft-times nightmarish world

of show business.

- It's a no talent town.

- Don't put it down.

I had to review

for the Chicago Sun-Times,

and I think I gave it three stars,

because Roger was my friend.

And somewhere deep in the piece said,

"This is a new rating system,

ten stars,

so this gets three out of ten."

This is my happening

and it freaks me out!

I reviewed the film

in National Review.

And listed it as one of

the 10 great films of the 1960s.

It was funny, it had

a pulse that raced past

Howard Hawk's film

from the '40s.

But with the wild

who-gives-a-sh*t air,

it was perfect for the late '60s.

You're a groovy boy.

I'd like to strap you on sometime.

Beyond the Valley.

It's beyond it.

You know, this is a title,

because you're gonna go beyond it.

It went over my head.

That doesn't mean

I didn't enjoy it.

I did like her

having sex in the Bentley.

It's my first time in a Rolls.

Because of the way

he cut to the grill.

There's nothing like a Rolls.

Not even a Bentley.

Not even a Bentley.

Bentley! Rolls!

A Rolls. A Rolls!

But I did like that editing

in the Bentley.

I don't really have

any new confessions.

It is true that the first 10 years

I came to the conference,

I came primarily hoping to get laid.

That didn't work out.

I lived more than nine months

of my life in Boulder, Colorado,

one week at a time.

It all happened

at the sleep-inducingly named,

"Conference on World Affairs."

It's a conference that comes

together once a year at Boulder.

Astrophysicists, sociologists,

experts of the Middle East.

Free wheeling...

and engaging.

Roger was an absolute star.

He was the longest running panelist

in history of the CWA.

I was in my 20s when I first

came to the conference.

There, I was on a panel

about the Establishment

with Henry Fairly,

who coined the term.

I discussed masturbation

with the Greek Ambassador

to the United Nations.

There I asked Ted Turner

how he got so much right

and colorization wrong.

He would hold what was called

Cinema Interruptus.

On Monday of World Affairs week,

Roger would show a film.

Tuesday through Friday

he would conduct

a shot by shot

discussion of the film.

To listen to Roger talk

for upwards of five hours

about In Cold Blood,

or The Third Man,

or Vertigo, or Citizen Kane,

he was enlightening

with every new frame.

It was a theatrical experience

of the highest order.

And anybody who wanted to,

at any moment,

could yell out, "Stop,"

to ask a question

or make a statement.

Stop!

Look at that.

Every year we find

something absolutely amazing,

totally amazing in the films.

It's not there, but we find it.

There was a limit to Roger's

democratizing of film criticism.

A student asked,

"Who do you think you are

that you get to have

all these opinions?

I saw Porky's

and I think Porky's is great,

so why don't I get to talk about it?"

And Roger said,

"I have two things to say.

First, Marshall Field,

who owns the Chicago Sun-Times,

appointed me film critic...

that's who I am."

And he said,

"My other thing is a question.

Would you wanna listen to you?"

After the year that Roger came

and worked with a voice synthesizer,

he decided not to come again.

He said it was too hard.

I won't return

to the conference.

It is fueled by speech,

and I am out of gas.

But I went there

for my adult lifetime,

and had a hell of a good time.

The move is taking place,

and they are loading up

the medical car

to take us over to RIC.

Will you send an email

for me, please?

Come in.

Is there a special back elevator

that we go down here or?

Well, actually, yeah.

Because the last time

we took him from this hospital,

we had to push the chair

past the morgue.

Everything.

And we got lost down there.

He's excited because he gets

to see a movie he wants to see.

It should be coming over

later today.

So he's happy about that.

I'm glad we don't have

to go under that...

the underground anymore.

Past the morgue.

We're not ready for it!

You've been working away, huh?

You have a lot of writing to do.

I was hoping you could see

at least one of them

on a big screen.

When he was

in the hospital before,

we took a semi-not sanctioned

trip out of the hospital.

Bundled him up

and took him to the movies.

But I don't know if... I don't think

the doctor will let you out.

Oops.

Chaz is a strong woman.

I never met anyone like her.

I think it'll be easier.

You can...

She is the love of my life.

Just wanna make sure

that you don't get cold.

She saved me from the fate

of living out my life alone,

which is where

I seemed to be heading.

The first time he actually

saw me was at an AA meeting.

And it's the first time

I've ever said it publicly.

Roger became very public about his...

but I felt that it was,

you know, more private for me.

If it doesn't fit,

you must acquit.

Roger weighed 300 pounds

when we first started dating.

He didn't care that he was fat.

He thought he was great.

And that was so sexy.

I take it this is not yours.

If my cancer had come,

and Chaz had not been there with me,

I can imagine a descent

into lonely decrepitude.

That I am still active,

going places,

moving,

is directly because of her.

My instinct was to guard myself.

I could never again be

on television as I once was.

She said, "Yes, but people

are interested

in what you have to say,

not in how you say it."

With Roger now headed

for at least

a couple of weeks of rehab,

he suggested I email him

questions in advance

of our major interview

when he gets back home.

I sent him the first third

of nine pages of questions.

He emailed me back.

- Hello.

- Hi, how are you?

Welcome to RIC. My name's Jackie

and we're going to go in this room.

- Okay.

- How are you?

I am politically my father's child,

and emotionally more my mother's.

My mother supported me as if

I was the local sports team.

But she was fatalistic.

She was permanently scarred

by the Depression,

and constantly predicted she would

end up in the county poor home.

My parents so strongly

encouraged my schoolwork.

We even took

a third paper at home,

the Chicago Daily News,

for me to read.

When I stood

in the kitchen door,

and used a sentence

with a new word in it,

they would look up

from their coffee and cigarettes

and actually applaud me.

This is the memorable occasion

that Roger was given

the Pulitzer Prize.

Usually, when somebody

won a Pulitzer Prize,

it was, "Who is he to win

a Pulitzer?", you know.

"Yeah, I'll go

congratulate him, yeah."

But for Roger,

there was real joy.

You know, it was our Roger.

One of us.

The only Pulitzer Prize,

for years and years,

Rate this script:3.5 / 2 votes