Bill Murray and Roger Ebert’s awkward exchange about ‘Scrooged’
It seems to be an unspoken rule within the entertainment industry that stars and filmmakers don’t discuss the reviews of their work. It’s probably a healthy approach to let the work speak for itself, but I’m sure behind the scenes, many go online to see what the critical response has been to their movies. Bill Murray, however, stands as the exception to the rule. He was so displeased with a review for one of his films that he confronted a famous critic to challenge their analysis.
In 1988, Bill Murray starred in the Christmas comedy fantasy Scrooged. Directed by Richard Donner, the story is another adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel, A Christmas Carol, in which Murray plays Frank Cross, a cynical and grumpy TV executive who is haunted by three spirits from his past, present, and future. On the film’s release, the famous and now iconic film critic, Roger Ebert, reviewed the film but gave it a one-star rating and was damning in his thoughts on the picture.
“Scrooged is one of the most disquieting, unsettling films to come along in quite some time. It was obviously intended as a comedy, but there is little comic about it, and indeed, the movie’s overriding emotions seem to be pain and anger. This entire production seems to be in dire need of visits from the ghosts of Christmas,” wrote Ebert.
Ebert’s words on Scrooged made it back to Murray, who clearly wasn’t happy with the critic’s analysis. Two years after the film was released, Murray sat down with Ebert to discuss his directorial debut, Quick Change, but Murray brought up Scrooged. Ebert recounted the interaction.
He disappeared into the bathroom and then stuck his face out again, covered with lather, and asked, “How do you plan to explain your one-star review of Scrooged?
“I was hoping it wouldn’t come up,” I said.
“It wasn’t that bad,” Murray said. “It had some good stuff in it. Watch it on video and you’ll see.”
“It just didn’t work for me,” I said.
“I thought maybe you had some inside information, you know, about an unhappy set or something,” he said.
“No,” I said, “it just didn’t seem that funny. Did you have some disagreements with the director?”
“Only a few,” he said. “Every single minute of the day. That could have been a really, really great movie. The script was so good. There’s maybe one take in the final cut movie that is mine. We made it so fast; it was like doing a movie live. He kept telling me to do things louder, louder, louder. I think he was deaf.”
Both Murray and Ebert come off well in the interaction, and Murray seems more interested in Ebert’s reason for disliking the film rather than defending his work on it. Murray also alluded to his challenges working with the director of the picture, Richard Donner, in the exchange.
Scrooged, though not one of Murray’s very best outings, was successful at the box office and certainly isn’t one of the worst Christmas movies that have graced cinema. Interestingly, Roger Ebert, who has fully earned his status as one of the best film critics of all time with his honest and articulate movie analysis, did have a change of heart later in his career.
Ebert teamed up with the successful American sexploitation director Russ Meyer to co-write Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. It was said the experience of writing a film and then seeing the results unfold on screen was an eye-opening experience for Ebert, enlightening him on just how hard it is to make a great movie. It was the critic’s very own ‘Scrooge’ moment, as after the experience, he had a strong change of heart and was far less ruthless in his critique going forward.
