When Bill Murray confronted Roger Ebert over a negative review
One thing’s for sure: if the actor and comedian Bill Murray isn’t happy about something, he’s never been shy about sharing his opinion. The iconic star, who has had the pleasure of working with such filmmakers as Wes Anderson, Jim Jarmusch and Sydney Pollack, even once hit back at the iconic American movie critic Roger Ebert after reading an unsavoury review of one of his own films.
The movie in question was the festive flick Scrooged, a modern adaptation of the Charles Dickens tale A Christmas Carol, which starred Murray as a selfish television executive who pushes his employees to the limit during the festive season. Recognised as one of the most beloved Christmas movies, Murray stars alongside the likes of Karen Allen, John Forsythe and Alfre Woodard.
Whilst many people adored the flick, Ebert wasn’t too keen, penning back in 1988: “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”.
This review was left to fester in the public consciousness until many years later, when Murray sat down with Ebert and let his feelings be heard.
“How do you plan to explain your one-star review of Scrooged?” Murray asked in a later interview. “It wasn’t that bad. It had some good stuff in it. Watch it on video and you’ll see…I thought maybe you had some inside information, you know, about an unhappy set or something”.
Defending his point of view, Ebert responded, “It just didn’t seem that funny. Did you have some disagreements with the director?”. Calming down a little, Murray went on to reveal a lesser-known fact about the tensions on the film’s set.
“Only a few,” he added, “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”.
Take a look at the trailer for Scrooged below and decide for yourself who is right or wrong, Bill Murray or Roger Ebert.
