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10 Movies That Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert Famously Disagreed On
Apr 27, 2025
Those who love cinema and film criticism should be more than familiar enough with and Gene Siskel. Two of the best and most notorious film critics in history, the pair were the stars of Siskel & Ebert, a show that ran from 1986 to 2010. In it, these Chicago critics talked about the latest movie releases and rated them with either a thumbs up or a thumbs down.
But any good show requires drama, and as it happens, Siskel & Ebert had plenty of it. The two critics were often rivals (the media loved to say they couldn't stand each other, though the truth was more nuanced than that), and that meant that they often disagreed on certain films. Sometimes, those disagreements made for some really solid entertainment.
10 'Unforgiven' (1992)
Ebert: Thumbs up, Siskel: Thumbs down
made history in 1993, becoming the third-ever Western to win the Best Picture Oscar. It has aged like fine wine; today, it's remembered as one of the best of its genre, a sharp and incisive deconstruction of Western tropes and the archetype of the Western hero in one of the best revenge stories ever told through film.
Indeed, although Ebert thought that the film didn't really build much momentum and was more of "a meandering picture," he still loved the visuals, the atmospheric world, and the leading characters. Siskel had similar problems, but found them significantly more annoying. He felt that there were too many characters, that the runtime dragged on for too long, and that it was overall "lifeless." Though the Academy seemed to disagree, one can see where they're coming from.
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