Two Thumbs Up™

Once in a while I still run across the phrase I used for a title here. It is an indicator that something has strong approval. Do you remember where it came from? And did you notice that the phrase is actually trademarked? Here’s the story.

Way back in the last part of the last century there were two film critics in Chicago who teamed up to do a TV show about current movies. Gene Siskel was the film critic for the Chicago Tribune, and Roger Ebert was the film critic for the Chicago Sun Times. Starting in 1975 they put on a review show that aired on the Chicago PBS station and they called it Opening Soon… At A Theater Near You. Someone apparently thought that was a little long and they renamed the show Sneak Previews. By 1977 it was airing all over America, still on PBS.

The show was immediately popular and quickly gained a growing fan base. According to Wikipedia, “By 1980, it was a weekly series airing on over 180 stations and the highest-rated weekly entertainment series in the history of public broadcasting.” The formula was brilliant, and so were the hosts.

Who doesn’t like to see two grown men, both experts in their craft, talking about — and often arguing about — movies they’ve both seen and formed opinions on? The reason we all loved it was because it was authentic. At the beginning, and for a while, the two men really did not get along. Here is what Ebert wrote after Siskel died in 1999:

We both thought of ourselves as full-service, one-stop film critics. We didn’t see why the other one was quite necessary…. No sooner had I expressed a verdict on a movie, my verdict, than here came Siskel with the arrogance to say I was wrong, or, for that matter, the condescension to agree with me. It really felt like that. It was not an act…. In the television biz, they talk about “chemistry.” Not a thought was given to our chemistry. We just had it, because from the day the Chicago Tribune made Gene its film critic, we were professional enemies.

Over time they became very close personal friends, and that was authentic as well. But they still disagreed in a beautiful way about a lot of movies. When they did agree, the movie got that rare and magical honor: Two thumbs up. (The trademark is owned, appropriately, by the families of Siskel and Ebert.)

Movies we like

I discovered Siskel and Ebert because their early tapings were done at a movie theater in Park Ridge, a suburb of Chicago, and my brother and his family happened to live there. He told us all about it, being a fan, and we never missed it.

(Bonus! Here is a video of Siskel and Ebert reviewing 9 to 5 in 1980.)

While it was great fun to watch Gene and Roger discuss the cinematography and the directing and the acting and the costumes and sets, I mostly enjoyed watching them discuss the story. Stories are why we go to the movies, I think, and a story well told by the amazing collaboration of writers and directors and actors is a joy. Sometimes that is true even if the story doesn’t have a happy ending.

But overwhelmingly, the movies that people pay money to watch in a theater have this in common: a happy ending. Good wins, and we walk out of the theater knowing that all is right with the world.

Of course there are popular movies — especially if you watch awards shows — that do not have happy endings. Those endings might fit, but in them people you have come to know and like (on screen) might just die. I found a list of 13 movies like that online, and while several were popular, I’ve only seen one. For me, it still had a “good wins” ending.

Why do we prefer a happy ending?

Do a search for that question, and you will find that many have both asked and answered it. I like a lot of what I’ve read about the “why happy endings are popular” debate. Several who support the idea talk about the hope we receive from a happy ending. Movies with hope at the end generally have a lot of struggle in the middle. If we are struggling, that hope just might help us get through it. I love that.

Some also write that happy endings are safe for us, and I understand that. More than 40 years ago I watched a movie I thought would end happily, and in the movie evil actually defeated good. It took me years to not be angry about that. Perhaps deep down I’d never considered evil winning, although I know it often does win in the short term. But it doesn’t win in the end, and this made it look like it did. You don’t have to deal with that when the ending is happy.

And of course happy endings give us closure — at least for a while.

Critics of happy endings like to say that they aren’t real life, to which I reply, “Says you.” Life is definitely hard and often populated with unhappiness. And of course evil is real and active and the enemy of good.

Spoiler alert

My own take on why we like happy endings so much is that we are born with that desire in us. We want things to turn out well. Sometimes that desire turns in a slightly wrong direction and becomes selfishness or greed or lust. But I still believe that most people want good not only for themselves, but for others as well. In fact the idea of doing good is about others, and billions of people do good every day. You are probably one of them.

Finally, I’ve read the book and I know the ending: God wins, which means good wins. Every happy ending reminds us that the ultimate ending is happy, and that glimpse into the future makes us smile.

In fact I’m giving it two thumbs up, even if both thumbs are mine, because that is the happy ending all other happy endings point us to.

Do good! It’s in you.