Roger Ebert from "Chicago Sun Times" awarded the film 3/4 stars, calling it "a weird, uneven, generally intriguing thriller".
(meta data) TITLE: Fade to Black Movie Review & Film Summary (1980) | Roger Ebert (meta data) AUTHOR: Roger Ebert (meta data) COPYRIGHT: © Copyright 2019, (meta data) PUBLISHED DATETIME: 1980-11-10T00:00:00-06:00 In Memoriam 1942 – 2013 "Roger Ebert loved movies." ## RogerEbert.com Great Movies Chaz's Journal Far Flungers ### Brittany Runs a Marathon Far from being just a simple comedy about fitness and weight loss, Brittany's journey includes the healing and forgiveness it takes to really meet those… ### Overcomer Overcomer isn't for an audience that cares about being told a story. It's aimed at an audience that doesn't mind too much if a story… ##### Other Reviews ###### Angel Has Fallen ###### Give Me Liberty ###### Tigers Are Not Afraid Review Archives ### Howards End Roger Ebert on James Ivory's "Howards End". ### Ballad of Narayama "The Ballad of Narayama" is a Japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. What a space it opens… ##### Other Reviews ###### Monsieur Hire ###### Veronika Voss ###### Spirit of the Beehive Great Movie Archives ### Ain't I a Woman: Sojourner Truth Takes Her Rightful Place in History Among the Statues in Central Park Chaz's Journal by Chaz Ebert An article about the inclusion of Sojourner Truth on Central Park's suffragette statue. ### Happy One Year Anniversary to Our First Female Editor, Nell Minow Chaz's Journal by Chaz Ebert An article celebrating the one-year anniversary of our first female editor at RogerEbert.com, Nell Minow. ##### Other Articles ###### Chicago Stories Gala 2019 to Feature Play by Chaz Ebert on October 5th|Chaz's Journal ###### Fly Me to the Moon: 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11 and Man's Walk on the Moon|Chaz's Journal ###### Video: Roger Ebert Day Declared in Chicago on July 12th, 2005|Chaz's Journal Chaz's Journal Archives ### Ain't I a Woman: Sojourner Truth Takes Her Rightful Place in History Among the Statues in Central Park Chaz's Journal by Chaz Ebert An article about the inclusion of Sojourner Truth on Central Park's suffragette statue. ### Son of the father: Peter Fonda, 1940-2019 by Matt Zoller Seitz From a childhood of pain, a lifetime of art. ##### Other Articles ###### The Active Eye: D.A. Pennebaker, 1924-2019|MZS ###### Happy One Year Anniversary to Our First Female Editor, Nell Minow|Chaz's Journal ###### The Unloved, Part 68: K-19: The Widowmaker|MZS Blog Archives ### One, Two, Three: A wild Cold War farce from Wilder and Cagney Far Flungers by Seongyong Cho A reappreciation of a Billy Wilder classic. ### A Hitchockian Nightmare: On Alan J. Pakula's Presumed Innocent Far Flungers by Seongyong Cho FFC Seongyong Cho looks back at Alan J. Pakula's twisty thriller Presumed Innocent. ##### Other Articles ###### The Haunting of Spotlight|Far Flungers ###### On the President's Orders Plays at Human Rights Festival|Far Flungers ###### That Complicated Thing Called Love: On Pawel Pawlikowski's Cold War|Far Flungers Far Flunger Archives ### Buy What Showtime is Selling in On Becoming a God in Central Florida by Brian Tallerico A review of Showtime's great On Becoming a God in Central Florida. ### Music Box Memories: A Legendary Theatre Celebrates 90 Years Balder and Dash by Brian Tallerico Our Managing Editor and staff give some love to Music Box on its 90th birthday. ##### Other Articles ###### Home Entertainment Guide: August 22, 2019|Demanders ###### Andrew Davis and The Fugitive Return To Chicago|Festivals & Awards ###### The Story of Richard Williams and His Unfinished Fairy Tale, The Thief and the Cobbler|Balder and Dash Channel Archives ## Reviews # Fade to Black #### Fade to Black (1980) ##### Cast Dennis Christopher as Eric Binford Linda Kerridge as Marilyn Tim Thomerson as Dr. Moriarty Morgan Paull as Gary Bially Gwynne Gilford as Anne Eve Brent Ashe as Aunt Stella Roger Ebert November 10, 1980 Almost every day, I get half a dozen calls from readers who urgently need the answers to obscure questions about movie lore. Today's latest: "After Tarzan always said 'Me Tarzan, you Jane,' what did Jane say back?" It astonishes me that people expect movie critics to have the answers to these questions, which require the addictive, repetitive viewing of old movies. Indeed, I sometimes think movie trivia is an avoidance of movie art: Obsession with the license plate on a movie character's car has nothing to do with the movie in question, but it does place the trivia addict in a safe position of ascendancy over the larger issues in the movie. At parties, movie trivia experts are like stand-up comedians. They've found a way to dominate the conversation without having one. They're like Travis McGee's definition of a bore: They deprive you of solitude without providing you with companionship. But enough of this. I originally started out to say that it would probably help to be a movie buff if you find yourself watching "Fade to Black." This is a weird, uneven, generally intriguing thriller about a young man whose fantasy life is totally controlled by images from movies. He works in a Los Angeles film exchange, checking and shipping movie prints, and at night he comes home to his museum-like room in the home of his aunt-a shrill harridan who would feel less secure in her wheelchair if she had ever seen "Kiss of Death." The young man is played with a kind of creepy power by Dennis Christopher, in a role completely opposite from his last appearance as the hero of "Breaking Away." He is lonely, socially isolated, hostile. He has memorized every movie ever made. (Although when he bets money on a trivia question, it's one with a ridiculously easy answer: He wants to know Humphrey Bogart's full name in "Casablanca." Everybody knows that one. If you don't, don't call me, call Siskel.) Things start going wrong in the kid's life. His boss gets on his case at work. His aunt is impossible. He makes a date with a young girl (Linda Kerridge) who looks just like Marilyn Monroe, and then it looks to him as if she's stood him up. This is too much all at once, and the kid goes berserk. In a scene we know is inevitable, he mimics Richard Widmark in "Kiss of Death" and pushes his aunt down the stairs. Then he begins masquerading as his other movie heroes-Hopalong Cassidy, James Cagney, the Mummy-and wiping out the rest of his opposition. These scenes are handled by director Vernon Zimmerman with a mixture of reality and stylized fantasy. For example, when Hoppy gets in a shootout the scene is staged and lit like a movie, which heightens the effect. But it's not lit like a Hopalong Cassidy movie; it's lit solely to backlight and single out the hero, and, that, no doubt, is the kid's own fantasy. I don't want to give away too many of the movie's surprises, although if you're a movie buff you'll anticipate a lot of them. The climax, though, is a bravura piece of stylistic overkill, with Christopher creeping around on the roof of Hollywood's Chinese Theater, looking like a cross between the Phantom of the Opera and Cary Grant in "To Catch a Thief " What's the point of all this? Just pure escapist silliness, I suppose. But I was rather moved by the Christopher character's loneliness in the earlier scenes (later, he's frankly just a caricature manipulated by the plot). I also liked the way that some of the minor roles, including Kerridge's, were handled to develop the humanity of the characters rather than just the stereotypes. All of those are positive responses-and I can balance, them, I suppose, against the certainty that this movie is going to inspire all sorts of telephone calls from trivia maniacs wanting to know who it was who shouted "I finally made it, Ma! Top of the world!" And why. #### Popular Blog Posts ###### 30 Minutes On: "Prometheus"Matt Zoller Seitz A nightmare movie ruled by nightmare logic, and gorgeous from start to finish. ###### Son of the father: Peter Fonda, 1940-2019Matt Zoller Seitz From a childhood of pain, a lifetime of art. ###### Andrew Davis and The Fugitive Return To ChicagoPeter Sobczynski An article about The Fugitive returning to Chicago's Music Box Theatre for the venue's 90th anniversary. #### Popular Reviews ###### Angel Has Fallen ###### Ready or Not ###### Apocalypse Now: Final Cut ###### Blinded by the Light Reveal Comments comments powered by Disqus #### Subscribe to our mailing list Enter Your Email Address The Ebert Club is our hand-picked selection of content for Ebert fans. You will receive a weekly newsletter full of movie-related tidbits, articles, trailers, even the occasional streamable movie. Club members also get access to our members-only section on RogerEbert.com Premiere Member : $20.00USD - yearly #### Reviews RSS #### In Theaters ###### Angel Has Fallen ###### Brittany Runs a Marathon ###### Burn ###### Friedkin Uncut ###### Give Me Liberty ###### Hot Air ###### Jacob's Ladder ###### Jawline ###### Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool ###### Overcomer ###### Tigers Are Not Afraid ###### Tone-Deaf ###### Vita & Virginia ###### American Factory ###### Ready or Not ###### 47 Meters Down: Uncaged ###### Aquarela ###### Blinded by the Light ###### Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles ###### Cold Case Hammarskjöld ###### Driven ###### Good Boys ###### Sextuplets ###### The Amazing Johnathan Documentary ###### The Divine Fury ###### What You Gonna Do When the World's on Fire? ###### Where'd You Go, Bernadette ###### Apocalypse Now: Final Cut ###### Adam ###### The Angry Birds Movie 2 ###### After the Wedding ###### Brian Banks ###### Dora and the Lost City of Gold ###### Dying to Survive ###### Light of My Life ###### Ode to Joy ###### One Child Nation ###### Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark ###### Sócrates ###### The Art of Racing in the Rain ###### The Kitchen ###### The Peanut Butter Falcon ###### This Is Not Berlin ###### Vision Portraits ###### A Score to Settle ###### Into the Dark: School Spirit ###### Joan the Maid ###### La flor ###### Love, Antosha ###### Luce ###### Otherhood ###### Piranhas ###### Tel Aviv on Fire ###### The Nightingale ###### The Operative ###### Them That Follow ###### Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw ###### Jay Myself ###### The Red Sea Diving Resort ###### Share ###### For Sama ###### Honeyland ###### Mike Wallace Is Here ###### Skin ###### The Mountain ###### Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood ###### The Great Hack ###### Who Killed Garrett Phillips? ###### This Changes Everything ###### A Faithful Man ###### At War ###### Bottom of the 9th ###### CoinCoin and the Extra-Humans ###### David Crosby: Remember My Name ###### Into the Ashes ###### Luz ###### She's Just a Shadow ###### The Lion King
train07072
Fade to Black (1980 film)
Reception.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 45% based on 11 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 4.9/10.