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Motorcycle helmet

A motorcycle helmet is a type of helmet used by motorcycle riders. Motorcycle helmets contribute to motorcycle safety by protecting the rider's head in the event of an impact. They reduce the risk of head injury by 69% and the risk of death by 42%. Their use is required by law in many countries.

Motorcycle helmets consist of a polystyrene foam inner shell that absorbs the shock of an impact, and a protective plastic outer layer. Several variations exist, notably helmets that cover the chin area and helmets that do not. Some helmets provide additional conveniences, such as ventilation, face shields, sun visors, ear protection or intercom.

Origins

The origins of the crash helmet date back to the Brooklands race track in early 1914, when a medical officer, Dr. Eric Gardner, noticed he was seeing a motor cyclist with head injuries about every two weeks. He got a Mr. Moss of Bethnal Green to make canvas and shellac helmets stiff enough to stand a heavy blow and smooth enough to glance off any projections it encountered. He presented the design to the Auto-Cycle Union where it was initially condemned, but later converted to the idea and made them compulsory for the 1914 Isle of Man TT races, although there was resistance from riders. Gardner took 94 of these helmets with him to the Isle of Man, and one rider who hit a gate with a glancing blow was saved by the helmet. Dr. Gardner received a letter later from the Isle of Man medical officer stating that after the T.T. they normally had "several interesting concussion cases" but that in 1914 there were none.

In May 1935, T. E. Lawrence (known as Lawrence of Arabia) had a crash on a Brough Superior SS100 on a narrow road near his cottage near Wareham. The accident occurred because a dip in the road obstructed his view of two boys on bicycles. Swerving to avoid them, Lawrence lost control and was thrown over the handlebars. He was not wearing a helmet, and suffered serious head injuries which left him in a coma; he died after six days in the hospital. One of the doctors attending him was Hugh Cairns, a neurosurgeon, who after Lawrence's death began a long study of what he saw as the unnecessary loss of life by motorcycle despatch riders through head injuries. Cairns' research led to the increased use of crash helmets by both military and civilian motorcyclists and the British Army making helmets compulsory for its riders in November 1941.

In the USSR, helmets for motorcyclists became mandatory starting in November 1967. Protective helmets for all motorcyclists and passengers became mandatory since January 1973.

Safety effects
A 2008 systematic study showed that helmets reduce the risk of head injury by around 69% and the risk of death by around 42%.

Although it was once speculated that wearing a motorcycle helmet increased neck and spinal injuries in a crash, recent evidence has shown the opposite to be the case: helmets protect against cervical spine injury. A study that is often cited when advancing the argument that helmets might increase the incidence of neck and spinal injuries dates back to the mid-1980s and "used flawed statistical reasoning".

Basic types
There are five basic types of helmets intended for motorcycling, and others not intended for motorcycling but which are used by some riders. All of these types of helmets are secured by a chin strap, and their protective benefits are greatly reduced, if not eliminated, if the chin strap is not securely fastened so as to maintain a snug fit.

From most to least protective, as generally accepted by riders and manufacturers, the helmet types are:

Full face
A full face helmet covers the entire head, with a rear that covers the base of the skull, and a protective section over the front of the chin. Such helmets have an open cutout in a band across the eyes and nose, and often include a clear or tinted transparent plastic face shield, known as a visor, that generally swivels up and down to allow access to the face. Many full face helmets include vents to increase the airflow to the rider. The significant attraction of these helmets is their protectiveness. Some wearers dislike the increased heat, sense of isolation, lack of wind, and reduced hearing of such helmets. Full-face helmets intended for off-road or motocross use sometimes omit the face shield, but extend the visor and chin portions to increase ventilation, since riding off-road is a very strenuous activity. Studies have shown that full face helmets offer the most protection to motorcycle riders because 35% of all crashes showed major impact on the chin-bar area. Wearing a helmet with less coverage eliminates that protection — the less coverage the helmet offers, the less protection for the rider.

Off-road / motocross

The motocross and off-road helmet has clearly elongated chin and visor portions, a chin bar, and partially open face to give the rider extra protection while wearing goggles and to allow the unhindered flow of air during the physical exertion typical of this type of riding. The visor allows the rider to dip his or her head and provide further protection from flying debris during off-road riding. It also serves the obvious purpose of shielding the wearer's eyes from the sun.

Originally, off-road helmets did not include a chin bar, with riders using helmets very similar to modern open face street helmets, and using a face mask to fend off dirt and debris from the nose and mouth. Modern off-road helmets include a (typically angular, rather than round) chin bar to provide some facial impact protection in addition to protection from flying dirt and debris. When properly combined with goggles, the result provides most of the same protective features of full face street helmets.

Modular or "flip-up"

A hybrid between full face and open face helmets for street use is the modular or "flip-up" helmet, also sometimes termed "convertible" or "flip-face". When fully assembled and closed, they resemble full face helmets by bearing a chin bar for absorbing face impacts. Its chin bar may be pivoted upwards (or, in some cases, may be removed) by a special lever to allow access to most of the face, as in an open face helmet. The rider may thus eat, drink or have a conversation without unfastening the chinstrap and removing the helmet, making them popular among motor officers. It is also popular with people who use eyeglasses as it allows them to fit a helmet without removing their glasses.

Many modular helmets are designed to be worn only in the closed position for riding, as the movable chin bar is designed as a convenience feature, useful while not actively riding. The curved shape of an open chin bar and face shield section can cause increased wind drag during riding, as air will not flow around an open modular helmet in the same way as a three-quarters helmet. Since the chin bar section also protrudes further from the forehead than a three-quarters visor, riding with the helmet in the open position may pose increased risk of neck injury in a crash. Some modular helmets are dual certified as full face and open face helmet. The chin bar of those helmets offer real protection and they can be used in the "open" position while riding. An example of such a helmet would be the BMW Motorrad System 6.

As of 2008, there have not been wide scientific studies of modular helmets to assess how protective the pivoting or removable chin bars are. Observation and unofficial testing suggest that significantly greater protection exists beyond that for an open face helmet, and may be enough to pass full-face helmet standardized tests, but the extent of protection is not fully established by all standards bodies.

The DOT standard does not require chin bar testing. The Snell Memorial Foundation recently certified a flip-up helmet for the first time. ECE 22.05 allows certification of modular helmets with or without chin bar tests, distinguished by -P (protective lower face cover) and -NP (non-protective) suffixes to the certification number, and additional warning text for non-certified chin bars.

Open face or 3/4 helmet

The open face, or "three-quarters", helmet covers the ears, cheeks, and back of the head, but lacks the lower chin bar of the full face helmet. Many offer snap-on visors that may be used by the rider to reduce sunlight glare. An open face helmet provides the same rear protection as a full face helmet, but little protection to the face, even from non-crash events.

Bugs, dust, or even wind to the face and eyes can cause rider discomfort or injury. As a result, it is not uncommon (and in some U.S. states, is required by law) for riders to wear wrap-around sunglasses or goggles to supplement eye protection with these helmets. Alternatively, many open face helmets include, or can be fitted with, a face shield, which is more effective in stopping flying insects from entering the helmet.

Half helmet

The half helmet, also referred to as a "Shorty" in the United States and "Pudding Basin" or TT helmet in the UK and popular with Rockers and road racers of the 1960s in the British Isles. It has essentially the same front design as an open face helmet but without a lowered rear in the shape of a bowl. The half helmet provides the minimum coverage generally allowed by law in the U.S., and British Standards 2001:1956.

As with the open face, it is not uncommon to augment this helmet's eye protection through other means such as goggles. Because of their inferiority compared to other helmet styles, some Motorcycle Safety Foundations prohibit the use of half helmets now.

Novelty helmets

There are other types of headwear often called "beanies," "brain buckets", or "novelty helmets", a term which arose since they are uncertified and cannot legally be called motorcycle helmets in some jurisdictions. Such items are often smaller and lighter than helmets made to U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) standards, and are unsuitable for crash protection because they lack the energy-absorbing foam that protects the brain by allowing it to come to a gradual stop during an impact. A "novelty helmet" can protect the scalp against sunburn while riding and – if it stays on during a crash – might protect the scalp against abrasion, but it has no capability to protect the skull or brain from an impact. In the US, 5% of riders wore non-DOT compliant helmets in 2013, a decrease from 7% the previous year.

Color visibility
Although black helmets are popular among motorcyclists, one study determined they offer the least visibility to motorists. Riders wearing a plain white helmet rather than a black one were associated with a 24% lower risk of suffering a motorcycle accident injury or death. This study also notes "Riders wearing high visibility clothing and white helmets are likely to be more safety conscious than other riders."

Conversely, another study, the MAIDS report, did not back up the claims that helmet color makes any difference in accident frequency, and that in fact motorcycles painted white were actually over-represented in the accident sample compared to the exposure data. While recognizing how much riders need to be seen, the MAIDS report documented that riders' clothing usually fails to do so, saying that "in 65.3% of all cases, the clothing made no contribution to the conspicuity of the rider or the PTW [powered two-wheeler, i.e. motorcycle]. There were very few cases found in which the bright clothing of the PTW rider enhanced the PTW’s overall conspicuity (46 cases). There were more cases in which the use of dark clothing decreased the conspicuity of the rider and the PTW (120 cases)." The MAIDS report was unable to recommend specific items of clothing or colors to make riders better seen.

Subsequently, however, research by Wali et al. (2019) found that: “Helmet color is also one of the factors that can increase or decrease rider conspicuity (Wells et al., 2004; Gershonetal., 2012 ). Usually, dark colored helmets (such as black) can decrease rider conspicuity whereas light colored helmets can increase conspicuity at times when the level of rider conspicuity can influence injury outcomes (as observed above in our findings and in relevant literature (Wells et al., 2004 )). Our analysis shows that black colored helmets are associated with a significant increase in the injury severity score (an increase of 4.25 units – see Table 5), whereas light colored helmets (such as silver or grey) are found associated with a significant decrease in the injury severity score (a decrease of 7.56units). These findings are in agreement with those of Wells et al. (2004) and are important and intuitive as usually dark colored helmets (such as black) can decrease rider conspicuity (especially at night) thus increasing the risk of injury (Wells et al., 2004). Interestingly, our analysis shows that white colored helmets are also associated with a significant increase in the injury severity score, given a crash (see Table 3). This finding may seem apparently unintuitive as white colored helmets are usually believed to increase rider conspicuity and thus lower risk of injury. However, note that a white outfit (such as a white helmet) may increase conspicuity in a more complex and multi-colored urban environment, whereas, it can, in fact, decrease rider’s conspicuity where a background is solely a bright sky (such as on inter-urban roads) (Gershonetal., 2012 ).”

Construction
Modern helmets are constructed from plastics. Premium price helmets are made with fiberglass reinforced with Kevlar or carbon fiber. They generally have fabric and foam interiors for both comfort and protection. Motorcycle helmets are generally designed to distort in a crash (thus expending the energy otherwise destined for the wearer's skull), so they provide little protection at the site of their first impact, but continued protection over the remainder of the helmet.

Helmets are made with an inner EPS (expanded polystyrene foam) shell and an outer shell to protect the EPS. The density and the thickness of the EPS is designed to cushion or crush on impact to help prevent head injuries. Some manufacturers even offer different densities to offer better protection. The outer shell can be made of plastics or fiber materials. Some of the plastics offer very good protection from penetration as in Lexan (bullet-resistant glass) but will not crush on impact, so the outer shell will look undamaged but the inner EPS will be crushed. Fiberglass is less expensive than Lexan but is heavy and very labor-intensive. Fiberglass or fiber shells will crush on impact offering better protection. Some manufacturers will use Kevlar or carbon fiber to help reduce the amount of fiberglass but in the process it will make the helmet lighter and offer more protection from penetration but still crushing on impact. However, using these materials can be very expensive, and manufacturers will balance factors such as protection, comfort, weight, and additional features to meet target price points.

Function

The conventional motorcycle helmet has two principal protective components: a thin, hard, outer shell typically made from polycarbonate plastic, fiberglass, or Kevlar and a soft, thick, inner liner usually made of expanded polystyrene or polypropylene "EPS" foam. The purpose of the hard outer shell is:
 * 1) to prevent penetration of the helmet by a pointed object that might otherwise puncture the skull, and
 * 2) to provide structure to the inner liner so it does not disintegrate upon abrasive contact with pavement. This is important because the foams used have very little resistance to penetration and abrasion.

The purpose of the foam liner is to crush during an impact, thereby increasing the distance and period of time over which the head stops and reducing its deceleration.

To understand the action of a helmet, it is first necessary to understand the mechanism of head injury. The common perception that a helmet's purpose is to save the rider's head from splitting open is misleading. Skull fractures are usually not life-threatening unless the fracture is depressed and impinges on the brain beneath and bone fractures usually heal over a relatively short period. Brain injuries are much more serious. They frequently result in death, permanent disability or personality change and, unlike bone, neurological tissue has very limited ability to recover after an injury. Therefore, the primary purpose of a helmet is to prevent traumatic brain injury while skull and face injuries are a significant secondary concern.

Laws and standards
Motorcycle helmets greatly reduce injuries and fatalities in motorcycle accidents, thus many countries have laws requiring acceptable helmets to be worn by motorcycle riders. These laws vary considerably, often exempting mopeds and other small-displacement bikes. In some countries, most notably the United States and India, there is opposition to compulsory helmet use (see Helmet Law Defense League); not all U.S. states have a compulsory helmet law.

Many countries have set standards for the effectiveness of a motorcycle helmet, including the following.

Europe
European countries apply the United Nations standard ECE 22.06, and some countries apply additional standards and testing:

 * SHARP (UK)
 * GOST R 41.22-2001 (ГОСТ Р 41.22-2001, based on ECE 22.05, Russia)

In the United Kingdom, many riders choose helmets bearing an Auto-Cycle Union (ACU) Gold sticker. There used to be both Gold and Silver stickers, where the Gold stickers met the BSI Type A standards and the Silver stickers met the BSI Type B. The Silver stickers are no longer in use though, as the introduction of the Economic Communities of Europe (ECE) standard provided a clearer, more stringent testing system which made the Silver standards redundant.

Helmets with an ACU Gold sticker are the only ones allowed to be worn in competition or at track days. However, Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) homologation is superseding the outdated ACU Gold in motorcycle racing. The requirements for FIM homologation are more up-to-date (2019) than the much older ACU Gold standard.

North America
[[File:Motorcycle Helmet Laws in the US by State.svg|thumb|Motorcycle helmet laws of the U.S. by state (As of June 2022): {{legend|#008000|optional (no law is in place)}} {{legend|#0000FF|required for those under 18}} {{legend|#551A8B|required for those under 19}} {{legend|#FFA500|required for those under 21}} {{legend|#FFFF00|required for those under 26}} {{legend|#FF0000|required regardless of age}}
 * 279x279px]]

Helmets are required in Canada and Mexico. In the USA, see map: helmets are required in most states of the west and east coasts as well as the southeast, while most states in the center of the country require helmets only for new or young riders, if at all.

North American standards include:

 * CMVSS (Canada)
 * United States Department of Transportation (DOT) FMVSS 218
 * Snell M2005 & M2010 (United States)

The Snell Memorial Foundation has developed stricter requirements and testing procedures for motorcycle helmets with racing in mind, as well as helmets for other activities (e.g. drag racing, bicycling, horseback riding), and many riders in North America consider Snell certification a benefit when considering buying a helmet while others note that its standards allow for more force (g's) to be transferred to a rider's head than the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) standard. However, the DOT standard does not test the chin bar of helmets with them, while the Snell (and ECE) standards do for full-face type only.

South America
One South American standard is NBR 7471 (Norma Brasileira by Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas, Brazil).

Asia and Oceania
Standards in Asia and Oceania include:
 * AS/NZS 1698, (Australia and New Zealand)
 * CRASH (Consumer Rating and Assessment of Safety Helmets, Australia)
 * GB 811-2010 (China)
 * ICC (Import Commodity Clearance, Philippines)
 * IS 4151 (Indian Standard, Bureau of Indian Standards, India)
 * JIS T 8133:2000 (Japanese Industrial Standards, Japan)
 * MS 1:2011 (Previously MS 1:1996. Revised standard based on ECE 22 but with added penetration test. Department of Standards Malaysia, Malaysia)
 * SNI (Standar Nasional Indonesia)
 * TCVN 5756:2001 (test and certify by QUATEST 3) (Vietnam)

Worldwide: ECE 22.05

The United Nations' ECE regulation no. 22.05 contains "uniform provisions concerning the approval of protective helmets and their visors for drivers and passengers of motor cycles and mopeds". It is an addendum to the 1958 U.N. agreement "concerning the Adoption of Harmonized Technical United Nations Regulations for Wheeled Vehicles, Equipment and Parts". The number indicates that it is regulation no. 22, incorporating the 05 series of amendments to the standard.

As first issued in 1972, Regulation No. 22 contained requirements concerning coverage of the head, field of vision, hearing for the user, projections from the helmet, and durability of materials, as well as a series of tests regarding cold, heat and moisture treatments, shock absorption, penetration, rigidity, chinstraps and flammability. It stipulated a maximum helmet mass of 1 kg. Subsequent changes have improved the stringency of the testing procedures, among other issues.

The standard also describes how helmets must be labeled, including with such information as how to wear and clean the helmet, its size and mass, and warnings to replace the helmet after a violent impact. Helmets must also carry a type approval mark of the form "Eaa 05bbbb/c-dddd". This mark encodes the following information:

 * Eaa (within a circle): The number of the country whose authorities approved the helmet (some are no longer parties to the regulation):

 * E1: Germany
 * E2: France
 * E3: Italy
 * E4: the Netherlands
 * E5: Sweden
 * E6: Belgium
 * E7: Hungary
 * E8: Czech Republic
 * E9: Spain
 * E10: Yugoslavia
 * E11: United Kingdom
 * E12: Austria
 * E13: Luxembourg
 * E14: Switzerland
 * E16: Norway
 * E17: Finland
 * E18: Denmark
 * E19: Romania
 * E20: Poland
 * E21: Portugal
 * E22: Russia
 * E23: Greece
 * E24: Ireland
 * E25: Croatia
 * E26: Slovenia
 * E27: Slovakia
 * E28: Belarus
 * E29: Estonia
 * E31: Bosnia and Herzegovina
 * E32: Latvia
 * E34: Bulgaria
 * E36: Lithuania
 * E37: Turkey
 * E39: Azerbaijan
 * E40: Macedonia (now North Macedonia)
 * E42: European Community (unused, as approvals are made by the member states)
 * E43: Japan
 * E45: Australia
 * E46: Ukraine
 * E47: South Africa
 * E48: New Zealand

 * 05: The series of amendments (effectively, the version number) of the standard tested (at present, normally 05)
 * bbbb: The approval number issued by the approving authority
 * c: The type of helmet:
 * "J" if the helmet does not have a lower face cover ("jet-style helmet")
 * "P" if the helmet has a protective lower face cover
 * "NP" if the helmet has a non-protective lower face cover
 * dddd: The continuous production serial number of the individual helmet

As of December 2017, ECE 22.05 was in force in the European Union, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Egypt, Malaysia, Montenegro, New Zealand, Moldova, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Switzerland, North Macedonia and Turkey. Other countries have national standards that are based on or reference ECE 22.05.

Standards testing
Most motorcycle helmet standards use impacts at speeds between 4–7 m/s (9–16 mph). While motorcyclists frequently ride at speeds higher than 20 m/s (45 mph), the perpendicular impact speed of the helmet is usually not the same as the road speed of the motorcycle, and the severity of the impact is determined not only by the speed of the head but also by the surface it hits and the angle of impact.

Since the surface of the road is almost parallel to the direction a motorcyclist moves while driving, only a small component of their velocity is directed perpendicularly (though other surfaces may be perpendicular to the motorcyclist's velocity, such as trees, walls, and the sides of other vehicles). The severity of an impact is also influenced by the nature of the surface struck. The sheet metal wall of a car door may bend inwards to a depth of 7.5 – during a helmeted-head impact, allowing more stopping distance for the rider's head than the helmet itself. A perpendicular impact against a flat steel anvil at 5 m/s (11 mph) may be of approximate severity to an oblique impact against a concrete surface at 30 m/s (67 mph) or a perpendicular impact against a sheet metal car door or windscreen at 30 m/s.

Since there is a wide range of severity in the impacts that could happen in a motorcycle accident, some will be more severe than the impacts used in the standard tests and some will be less.

title: Motorcycle helmet


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Three Kings (1999 film)

Three Kings is a 1999 American black comedy war film written and directed by David O. Russell from a story by John Ridley. It stars George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, and Spike Jonze as four American soldiers on a gold heist that takes place during the 1991 uprisings in Iraq against Saddam Hussein following the end of the First Gulf War.

The film was released on October 1, 1999, in the United States. It received critical acclaim.

Plot
Following the end of the Gulf War, U.S. soldiers are sent to tie loose ends. The soldiers are bored from the lack of action and throw parties at night. Major Archie Gates, a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier, is trading sex for stories with a journalist, Cathy Daitch, when he is interrupted by Adriana Cruz, the television reporter he is assigned to escort.

While disarming and searching an Iraqi officer, U.S. Army Reserve Sergeant First Class Troy Barlow, his best friend Private First Class Conrad Vig, and their unit find a map in the officer's anus. Troy goes to Staff Sergeant Chief Elgin to help translate the map. Major Gates appears after tracking down a lead from Adriana. Archie convinces them that the document is a map of bunkers near Karbala containing gold bullion stolen from Kuwait, which they decide to steal in turn. To keep Adriana off his back, Gates sends Specialist Walter Wogeman to aid her on a false lead.

They set off the next day and, among other goods plundered from Kuwait, find the gold, and stumble on the interrogation of Amir Abdullah. As they leave, Amir's wife pleads with them not to abandon the anti-Saddam dissidents. Still, she is executed by the Iraqi Republican Guard. The group decides to free the Iraqi prisoners, triggering a firefight. They pull out just as Iraqi reinforcements arrive, and as they try to evade a CS gas attack, they blunder into a minefield and get separated. Iraqi soldiers capture Troy while a group of rebels rescue the other Americans and take them to their underground hideout. There, Conrad, Chief, and Archie agree to help the rebels and their families reach the Iranian border after they rescue Troy.

Troy is taken back to the bunker and thrown into a room full of Kuwaiti cell phones. He calls his wife on a MicroTAC and tells her to report his location to his local Army Reserve unit. His call is cut short when he is dragged to an interrogation room where he is interrogated by Iraqi Captain Saïd.

The Americans and the rebels go to a band of Iraqi Army deserters, who are persuaded to sell them luxury cars stolen from Kuwait. The vehicles are outfitted as Saddam's entourage in a ruse to scare away the bunker's defenders. After storming the bunker, they free Troy, who spares Saïd, and find more Shi'ite dissidents held in a dungeon. A few of the soldiers who ran away return, and shoot Conrad and Troy. Conrad dies; Troy's lung is punctured, but he survives.

Archie radios Walter and Adriana and arranges transport while the hapless officers in the camp try to locate the trio after getting the message from Troy's wife. Each of the rebels is given a bar of gold, and the rest is buried as they wait for the transport to arrive. The convoy goes to the Iranian border, where the three Americans intend to escort the rebels across to protect them from the Iraqi soldiers guarding the crossing; American officers arrive and stop the group, however, arresting the trio while the rebels are recaptured. Archie offers the buried gold to the American officers in exchange for letting the refugees through. The commanding officer acquiesces to assisting the rebels get into Iran, but still states that charges (of being absent without leave and disobeying orders by contradicting American post-war policy) and courts-martial will be convened against Archie, Troy, and Chief Elgin.

As an epilogue, the film states that the three surviving soldiers (Archie, Troy, and Chief Elgin) are cleared of the charges and honorably discharged, thanks to Adriana's reporting. The epilogue goes on to show that Archie goes to work as a military adviser for Hollywood action films, Chief leaves his airport job to work with Archie, and Troy returns to his wife and baby to run his own carpet store. The stolen gold was returned to Kuwait, which claimed that some was missing, implying that the rebels managed to keep the gold they had been given.

Cast

 * George Clooney as Major Archie Gates A career U.S. Army Special Forces officer close to retirement, who is disillusioned with the war.
 * Mark Wahlberg as Sergeant First Class Troy Barlow An office worker with a wife and baby daughter at home. He wears the U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations patch and identifies himself as a Civil Affairs Reservist.
 * Ice Cube as Staff Sergeant Chief Elgin An airline baggage handler from Detroit who believes he is protected by a ring of "Jesus-fire", also wears the U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations patch.
 * Spike Jonze as Private First Class Conrad Vig A jobless, semi-literate soldier from a group home in Dallas who idolizes Troy; also wears the U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations patch.
 * Christopher Lohr as French Special Forces Captain Teebaux.
 * Nora Dunn as Adriana Cruz A tough cable news correspondent who is determined to get a good story.
 * Jamie Kennedy as Specialist Walter Wogeman A bumbling soldier whom Archie uses to distract Adriana.
 * Mykelti Williamson as Colonel Ron Horn Archie's superior officer, who discovers the plan to steal the gold.
 * Cliff Curtis as Amir Abdullah A Shi'ite Iraqi rebel who has been captured by Saddam's troops. Educated in the U.S. at Bowling Green State University, he was an entrepreneur in Baghdad, running several cafes before they were destroyed by Coalition bombs.
 * Saïd Taghmaoui as Captain Saïd An Iraqi interrogator who tortures Barlow with electric shocks after he is captured.
 * Judy Greer as Cathy Daitch A journalist competing with Adriana who has sex with Archie early in the film.
 * Liz Stauber as Debbie Barlow, Troy's wife
 * Holt McCallany as Captain Doug Van Meter Troy's superior officer, an obstreperous stickler for the rules.
 * Alia Shawkat as Amir's daughter.
 * Jim Gaffigan as Cuts Troy's cuff soldier

Production
Three Kings was filmed in the deserts of Casa Grande, Arizona, California and Mexico, with many of the extras played by actual Iraqi refugees. According to Russell, two of the cast members had "personally defaced 300 murals of Saddam." After one of the military advisers to the film died during production, Russell said the death was "perhaps due to chemicals he was exposed to in the Gulf."

Script controversy
Former stand-up comic John Ridley had originally written the screenplay, then titled Spoils of War, as an experiment to see how fast he could write and sell a film. The writing took him seven days, and Warner Bros. bought the script 18 days later. When the studio showed a list of their purchased scripts to Russell, the one-sentence description of Spoils of War, "heist set in the Gulf War", appealed to him. Although Russell claimed he never read Ridley's script, so as not "to pollute my own idea", he admits that "John gets credit where it's due. The germ of the idea that I took was his." Ridley maintains that Russell shut him out of the process, saying: "I never heard a word while he was shooting the movie. Never saw any of the script changes. And then finally, a year later, I get a copy of the script, and my name isn't even on it." Although Warner Bros. worked out a deal to give Ridley a "story by" credit, Ridley remains unhappy with the experience, and has blocked Russell's efforts to publish the Three Kings screenplay in book form.

Casting
Russell penned the script with several actors in mind. Although Spike Jonze had never acted in a film before, Russell wrote the part of Conrad Vig specifically for him, and the two practised Conrad's Southern accent over the phone while Jonze directed his first feature film, Being John Malkovich. Although Russell had to convince a wary Warner Bros. to cast an inexperienced actor in such a large role, he eventually won out. Russell said Jonze's lack of previous acting work was beneficial to the film, citing the "chaos that a nonactor brings to the set...he really shakes things up."

Co-star George Clooney also expressed initial reservations about the choice of Jonze. "It's always worrisome when somebody says, 'I got a friend,' and you've never heard of them. But within five minutes of meeting Spike, you just go, 'Oh, he's perfect for the part.'"

The part of Archie Gates was originally planned for Clint Eastwood, but Russell decided to rewrite it as a younger character. George Clooney eventually saw a copy of the script and was "blown away" by it. When he heard the part was being re-written, he jumped at the chance to get involved. At this point in Clooney's career, he was best-known for his role as the handsome Dr. Doug Ross on the popular television drama ER. Clooney was ready to pursue a role in film. Unfortunately, Russell seemed unwilling to cast Clooney in the role. Persistent, Clooney sent a humorously self-deprecating letter signed "George Clooney, TV actor" to Russell asking for the part, and showed up at Russell's New York City apartment to plead his case. Russell still wasn't satisfied that Clooney could portray the character. He instead convinced Nicolas Cage to play the role. However, when Cage became unavailable after being cast in Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead, Russell gave the part to Clooney. Russell later stated that Clooney "was meant to play the part."

Many of the Iraqi roles were played by actual Iraqi refugees in the United States.

Film techniques
Much to the chagrin of Warner Bros., Russell decided to use a number of experimental cinematic techniques in the film. Handheld cameras and Steadicam shots were used to give the film a journalistic feel. Russell shot a majority of the film on Ektachrome transparency stock that was cross-processed in colour negative chemicals, to reproduce "the odd colour of the newspaper images [of the Gulf War]." Though the process produced a unique quality and look to the film, it was exceedingly unreliable to develop, and many film labs would not provide insurance for the transparency stock if it did not develop properly. Russell feared that the scenes would need to be reshot until finally a lab was found that would develop the transparency stock in the negative chemicals. The opening was shot on conventional negative stock and bleach bypassed to give a deep black and high contrast look. Some interior shots were also filmed on conventional negative stock and processed normally. Russell also credited the realism of the firefights to the film's cinematographer, Newton Thomas Sigel, who had shot several documentaries on South American civil wars, saying "he knew what it was like to be in that kind of world."

All of the explosions in the movie were filmed in one shot, as opposed to a typical film where each would have been covered by multiple cameras. Russell explained, "to me that's more real. The car's blowing up on this guy, and we just park the camera. Of course the producer says, 'we gotta run three cameras!' But if I cut three ways, then it just looks like an action picture." Russell also had the sound post-production team tone down the sounds of gunfire, saying he didn't want to "Bruce Willis-ize" the film." One frequently noted shot in the film is an image of a bullet piercing a number of internal organs, releasing bile into the abdominal cavity, used when Gates is describing sepsis as the effect of a gunshot wound. This internal camera is again used when SFC Barlow is shot in the torso and his chest begins to fill with air, crushing his lung. Both of these scenes were inspired by Russell asking an emergency room doctor friend "What's the weirdest wound you've ever seen?" It also erupted a minor controversy, when Russell began to joke around that the gunshots were fired into a real corpse; a statement everyone vehemently denied later.

Conflicts
The film's production process was particularly difficult for Russell, who was taking a variety of risks with what was a $42 million studio film. At the time it was made, Warner Bros. had not financed an auteur film in many years, and executives were hesitant to put such money in the hands of filmmakers who were used to working independently. The film's political overtones also worried the studio, especially with conflict still occurring in the Middle East. As a result, Warner Bros. gave Russell a number of limitations. The shooting schedule was reduced to only 68 days instead of the 80 Russell had initially asked for. The studio wanted the budget lowered to $35 million. Executives were also asking for the removal of more violent scenes, such as the exploding cow and the shooting of an Iraqi woman. Russell was also forced to sign a legal document requiring that scenes containing pedophilia accusations against Michael Jackson be removed from the film.

The shoot took place in Arizona during October. The crew were unused to the improvisational, on-the-fly directing style that Russell implemented. Rather than preparing organized shot lists, Russell preferred to use ideas as they came to him, often asking for longer hours. Early on, some of the crew began to feel a dislike for these methods and Russell along with them. Clooney noted that "there's an element of David that was in way over his head... he was vulnerable and selfish, and it would manifest itself in a lot of yelling." When Russell's frustration led to outbursts, Clooney took it upon himself to defend crew members and extras, leading to increased tensions. When an extra had an epileptic seizure on set, Clooney ran to his aid while Russell apparently remained indifferent. Afterward, Clooney criticized Russell for ignoring the incident, though Russell later stated that he was busy setting up a shot some yards away from the extra and was not aware that the extra had suffered a seizure. Another on-set conflict between the two arose while shooting footage on a Humvee with a camera mounted to it. Clooney recalls Russell yelling at the driver to drive faster. Clooney then approached the director, telling him to "knock it off". Russell remembers the incident differently: "The camera broke, we were losing the day and I was upset about that. So I jumped off the truck and I was like, 'Fuck!' I was just kicking the dirt and everything like that. And then George had this big thing about defending the driver, whom I hadn't really said anything to." During the shoot, Clooney was exhausted as he was still shooting ER in Los Angeles three days a week, while working on Three Kings the other four.

Clooney was determined to stay with the role and remained loyal to the script. He helped convince executives to support certain aspects of the film (such as the exploding cow scene) even after he was urged to drop out of production, as his contract called for his compensation with or without his decision to stay in the film. After a number of arguments, Clooney wrote Russell a letter that criticized Russell's behavior in a last attempt to make peace between the two, days before another fight broke out during the filming of the movie's finale. In it, the three lead characters attempt to escort Iraqi rebels across the border to Iran. There were a number of actors and extras in the scene, as well as other elements such as helicopters flying overhead and landing in the center of the location. The fight began after an extra was having difficulty throwing Ice Cube's character to the ground. After a number of takes, Russell came to the extra and put him through the motions of the action. Some individuals present on the set during the incident state that Russell was simply showing the extra how to convincingly act in the scene. However, Clooney and others thought that Russell had violently thrown the extra to the ground. Clooney recalls: "We were trying to get a shot and then he went berserk. He went nuts on an extra." Clooney approached Russell and began criticizing him again, coming to the extra's defense. The two began shouting at one another before getting into a physical fight. Second assistant director Paul Bernard was so fed up that he put down his camera and walked off the set, effectively quitting. Clooney concludes: "Will I work with David ever again? Absolutely not. Never. Do I think he's tremendously talented and do I think he should be nominated for Oscars? Yeah." Russell offered a different view, saying: "We're both passionate guys who are the two biggest authorities on the set," and maintained that the two continue to be friends. Ice Cube felt the conflict helped the film, saying, "It kind of kicked the set into a different gear where everybody was focused and we finished strong. I wouldn't mind if the director and the star got into an argument on all of my movies."

Though the fight was initially kept under wraps, both Russell and Clooney eventually gave official statements saying that the argument had blown over and neither harbored any ill will towards the other. Clooney continued to describe the event in later interviews, as well as in the cover story of the October 2003 issue of Vanity Fair, in which he states: "I would not stand for him humiliating and yelling and screaming at crew members, who weren't allowed to defend themselves. I don't believe in it and it makes me crazy. So my job was then to humiliate the people who were doing the humiliating." Executive producer and production manager Gregory Goodman later stated of Clooney's comments in the media, "It doesn't reflect well on [Clooney]. It's like some stupid sandbox quarrel." In early 2012, Clooney indicated that he and Russell had mended their relationship, saying, "We made a really, really great film, and we had a really rough time together, but it's a case of both of us getting older. I really do appreciate the work he continues to do, and I think he appreciates what I'm trying to do."

Release
The film was released in the United States and Canada on October 1, 1999, on 2,942 screens.

Critical reception
Three Kings received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 94% rating, based on 128 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Three Kings successfully blends elements of action, drama, and comedy into a thoughtful, exciting movie on the Gulf War." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 82 out of 100, based on 34 reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B on scale of A to F. Peter Bradshaw says, "A strange flavour, but this is an enjoyable and intelligent action film." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four out of four, and said that "Three Kings is one of the most surprising and exciting movies I've seen this year" and that the film is a "weird masterpiece, a screw-loose war picture that sends action and humor crashing head-on into each other and spinning off into political anger". David Edelstein of The New York Times said: "It remains the most caustic anti-war movie of this generation."

The director's commentary of the film reveals that then-incumbent President Bill Clinton liked the film so much that he had it screened for his staff, friends and advisors at the White House.

In Reel Power: Hollywood Cinema and American Supremacy Matthew Alford called Three Kings "an unusual ideological product on Hollywood terms, which begins to break down the official history of the Gulf War [...but nevertheless...] suggests that the problems of Iraq can be solved, and only solved, by the application of US force". He observes that Russell "sheepishly indicated Three Kings' ideological consistency with the 2003 Iraq War" when Russell met George W. Bush in 1999(?) and said he was making a film that would question his father's legacy in Iraq. Alford quotes Bush as responding to Russell: "Then I guess I'm going to have to finish the job, aren't I?"

Box office
The film opened at number two at the United States box office for the weekend with a gross of $15,847,636, behind Double Jeopardy second weekend gross of $17 million. Exit polls suggested the film played to an older audience than anticipated. The film grossed $60,652,036 in the United States and Canada and $47.1 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $107.8 million.

Re-release
In 2004, Warner Bros., feeling the film had become relevant again due to the Iraq War, decided to re-release it in theaters and on DVD. Having no additional footage to add, Russell instead shot Soldiers Pay, a short documentary about the Iraq War, to accompany the film. Taking its name from William Faulkner's first novel of the same name about an airman's return home in World War I's aftermath, Russell said the documentary examined "both sides of the war, people who feel good about the war, who believe in the mission, people who feel bad."

While making the documentary, Russell spoke with both Iraqis and U.S. troops. Asked how the Iraqis he had interviewed felt about the war, Russell said: "Every Iraqi I know is glad that Saddam is gone. I would completely disagree with Michael Moore about that. I think it's good that Saddam is gone. And I think basically the movie takes the position of, is Iraq better off without Saddam? Yes. Is the world better off with this war? Not sure, don't think so." Although Russell had planned to release the film before November 2004, hoping to "perhaps make a difference before the election," Warner Bros. abandoned the project at the last minute, citing "controversy surrounding the documentary, combined with a later-than-expected arrival of the bonus footage". Russell disputed the time-crunch excuse, saying: "I think if they really wanted to, they could make it happen." Eventually, the documentary was purchased by the Independent Film Channel, where it was aired in its entirety the night before the 2004 U.S. presidential election.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Three Kings (1999 film)


text:
Kurdish

Kurdish may refer to:

 * Kurds or Kurdish people
 * Kurdish language
 * Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji)
 * Central Kurdish (Sorani)
 * Southern Kurdish
 * Laki Kurdish
 * Kurdish alphabets
 * Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes:
 * Southern Kurdistan
 * Eastern Kurdistan
 * Northern Kurdistan
 * Western Kurdistan

title: Kurdish


text:
Privy Council of Sweden

The Council of the Realm, or simply The Council (Riksrådet or Rådet: sometimes in Senatus Regni Sueciae), was a cabinet of medieval origin, consisting of magnates (stormän) which advised, and at times co-ruled with, the King of Sweden.

The 1634 Instrument of Government, Sweden's first written constitution in the modern sense, stipulated that the King must have a council, but he was free to choose whomever he might find suitable for the job, as long as they were of Swedish birth. At the introduction of absolutism, Charles XI had the equivalent organ named as Royal Council (Kungligt råd). In the Age of Liberty, the medieval name was reused, but after the bloodless revolution of Gustav III, the old organ was practically abolished.

The 1809 Instrument of Government, created a Council of State, also known as the King in Council (Konungen i Statsrådet) which became the constitutionally mandated cabinet where the King had to make all state decisions in the presence of his cabinet ministers (Statsråd). Throughout the 19th century and reaching its culmination with the enactment of the 1974 Instrument of Government, this new Council gradually transformed into an executive cabinet of ministers known as The Government (Regeringen), chaired and formed by the Prime Minister who since 1975 is elected by the Riksdag, and which governs the Realm independently of a purely ceremonial monarch.

Middle Ages
During the reign of Magnus III between 1275 and 1290 the meetings of the council became a permanent institution having the offices of Steward (Riksdrots), Constable (Riksmarsk) and Chancellor (Rikskansler). Particularly from the reign of King Gustav Vasa, with his efforts of creating a centralised State, the members of the Council (Riksråd) gradually became more of courtiers and state officials rather than the semi-autonomous warlords they once were.

Early modern Sweden
Following the change of policies upon the death of Gustav II Adolf in action at Lützen in 1632, the 1634 Instrument of Government written by Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna laid the foundation for the administration of modern Sweden. For instance, the roots of the present-day administrative subdivision into counties (Län) is a legacy from this time.

From 1634, the council was headed by the five Great Officers of the Realm, each leading a branch of the state administration:
 * Lord High Steward (or Lord High Justiciar) (Swedish: Riksdrots)
 * Lord High Constable (Swedish: Riksmarsk)
 * Lord High Admiral (Swedish: Riksamiral)
 * Lord High Chancellor (Swedish: Rikskansler)
 * Lord High Treasurer (Swedish: Riksskattmästare)

Parliamentarism vs. absolute monarchy
The councillors had the highest position in the kingdom after the royal family and were styled "the King's cousins". From around 1672, the year of the coming of age of Charles XI, the council was assembled less and less frequently and eventually the king ruled autocratically, using an ad hoc group of trusted relations and advisors to discuss a particular matter or group of matters. The Scanian War (1674–1679) gave the king the opportunity to establish – with the approval of the Estates – an absolute Monarchy along the lines of Renaissance Absolutism. Council, Parliament, local government, legal system, Church of Sweden, all were brought within the power of the King and his secretaries.

This was the culmination of a long power-struggle between the kings and the aristocracy. The first of the Riksdag Acts ratifying the change of system was a declaration that the king was not bound by the 1634 constitution, which no king or queen had ever consented to freely. The councillors were now titles Royal Councillors, being appointed and dismissed at the king's pleasure.

In 1713, the son and successor of Charles XI, Charles XII, issued a new working order for the Chancellery to enable him to conduct government from the battle-field, but his sudden death at the siege of Fredricshald in Norway in 1718 provided the opportunity for the parliament (Riksdag of the Estates) to write a new constitution in 1719 and 1721, that gave Sweden half a century of first renewed conciliatory, and then parliamentary government.

The first Estate, the nobility, dominated both the parliament and the council. The council now had 16 members and was chaired by the King. Each councillor had one vote, while the king, as chairman, had two. The council was the government of the country, but also the supreme judicial authority.

From 1738 the Estates could remove councillors to create a majority corresponding to that of the Estates, the Estates also appointing the President of the Chancellery (the prime minister), along party lines. The Freedom of the Press Act (1766) was also passed during this period.

This Age of Liberty lasted until the bloodless coup d'état of king Gustav III in 1772, which restored royal sovereignty under the guise of the 1634 Instrument of Government.

In 1789, by the Act of Union and Security (Förenings- och Säkerhets Acten), an amendment charter to the constitution, the exclusive right of the nobility to high offices was abolished and the Estates of the Burghers and the Peasants also received these privileges - a step towards modern democracy. Aristocratic control of state organs ceased, as among other things the Privy Council was able to be abolished altogether by the Act, although the then councillors retained their titles for life. The council's judicial function devolved on the King's Supreme Court (Konungens Högsta Domstol) composed of an equal number of noble and non-noble members. In the 1789 constitutional amendment Gustav III, having desired to abolish the constitutional power of the Council (a pesky limitation to royal rule of the executive branch, in his view), had instead received the right to determine the number of councillors. He decided to have zero of them, instead he created the office of Rikets allmänna ärendens beredning, which was a predecessor to the Council of State.

The loss of the Finnish War in 1809 prompted a military coup which removed Gustav IV Adolf, replacing the Gustavian era with a new dynasty and a new constitution restoring initiative to the Estates.

Developments in 1809 and beyond
On 6 June 1809, a new constitution was adopted, and while the King still appointed the members of the Council, once again called the Council of State, the legislative powers were once again shared with the Riksdag of the Estates.

The new Council had nine members; the leading members being the Minister of State for Justice (Justitiestatsminister) and the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (Utrikesstatsminister). The departmental reform of 1840 created seven ministries headed by a minister, and in 1866 the four Estates were abolished and the new bicameral Riksdag was constituted.

In 1917, as the outcome of the 1914 Courtyard Crisis (Borggårdskrisen), the parliamentary system was firmly established in Sweden, and the King could no longer independently appoint cabinet members without taking the will of the Riksdag into account.

List of Lords High Chancellor and Presidents of the Chancellery from the advent of Absolutism in 1680 to 1809

 * Count Bengt Oxenstierna (June 1680 – 1685; acting) (1685 – 12 July 1702)
 * Count Nils Gyldenstolpe (12 July 1702 – December 1705; acting) (December 1705 – 4 May 1709)
 * Count Arvid Horn (21 March 1710 – 10 April 1719)
 * Count Gustaf Cronhielm (15 May 1719 – 12 December 1719)
 * Count Johan August Meijerfeldt (12 December 1719 – 22 April 1720; acting)
 * Count Arvid Horn (22 April 1720 – 18 December 1738)
 * Count Gustaf Bonde (18 December 1738 – 16 April 1739; acting)
 * Count Carl Gyllenborg (16 April 1739 – 9 December 1746)
 * Count Carl Gustaf Tessin (9 December 1746 – 5 December 1747; acting) (5 December 1747 – March 1752)
 * Count Andreas Johan von Höpken (17 March 1752 – 5 February 1761)
 * Count Claes Ekeblad (10 April 1761 – 12 August 1765)
 * Count Carl Gustaf Löwenhielm (9 September 1765 – 7 March 1768)
 * Baron Fredrik von Friesendorff (7 March 1768 – 30 May 1769; acting)
 * Count Claes Ekeblad (30 May 1769 – 9 October 1771)
 * Count Ulrik Scheffer (9 October 1771 – 22 April 1772; acting)
 * Count Joachim von Düben (22 April 1772 – 22 August 1772)
 * Count Ulrik Scheffer (23 August 1772 – 5 June 1783)
 * Count Gustaf Philip Creutz (5 June 1783 – 30 October 1785)
 * Baron Malte Ramel (30 October 1785 – May 1786)
 * Baron Emanuel de Geer (May 1786 – 13 June 1787)
 * Count Johan Gabriel Oxenstierna (May 1786 – 14 November 1789)
 * Count Karl Wilhelm von Düben (1788 – 8 November 1790)
 * Baron Evert Wilhelm Taube (29 March 1792 – 1792)
 * Baron Fredrik Wilhelm von Ehrenheim (28 May 1801 – 28 March 1809)
 * Count Lars von Engeström (May 1809 – June 1809)

title: Privy Council of Sweden


text:
Ninette de Valois

Dame Ninette de Valois (born Edris Stannus; 6 June 1898 – 8 March 2001) was an Irish-born British dancer, teacher, choreographer, and director of classical ballet. Most notably, she danced professionally with Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, later establishing the Royal Ballet, one of the foremost ballet companies of the 20th century and one of the leading ballet companies in the world. She also established the Royal Ballet School and the touring company which became the Birmingham Royal Ballet. She is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of ballet and as the "godmother" of English and Irish ballet.

Early life and family
Ninette de Valois was born as Edris Stannus on 6 June 1898 at Baltyboys House, an 18th-century manor house near the town of Blessington, County Wicklow, Ireland, then still part of the United Kingdom. A member of a gentry family, she was the second daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Stannus DSO, a British Army officer, and Elizabeth Graydon Smith, a glassmaker known as "Lilith Stannus". She was the maternal great-granddaughter of the diarist Elizabeth Grant Smith and the maternal great-great-granddaughter of Scottish politician John Peter Grant. Through her mother she was also the great-grandniece of Sir John Peter Grant and a first cousin twice removed of Lady Strachey. In 1905 she moved to England, to live with her grandmother in Kent. She started attending ballet lessons in 1908, at the age of ten.

Early dancing career
At the age of thirteen Stannus began her professional training at the Lila Field Academy for Children. It was at this time that she changed her name to Ninette de Valois and made her professional debut as a principal dancer in pantomime at the Lyceum Theatre in the West End.

In 1919, at the age of 21, she was appointed principal dancer of the Beecham Opera, which was then the resident opera company at the Royal Opera House. She continued to study ballet with notable teachers, including Edouard Espinosa, Enrico Cecchetti and Nicholas Legat.

Ballets Russes
In 1923, de Valois joined the Ballets Russes, a renowned ballet company founded by the Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev. She remained with the company for three years, performing around Europe and being promoted to the rank of Soloist, and creating roles in some of the company's most famous ballets, including Les biches and Le Train Bleu. During this time, she was also mentor to Alicia Markova who was only a child at the time, but would eventually be recognised as a Prima Ballerina Assoluta and one of the most famous English dancers of all time. Later in her life, Valois said that everything she knew about how to run a ballet company she learned from working with Diaghilev. She stepped back from regular intense dancing in 1924, after doctors detected damage from a previously undiagnosed case of childhood polio.

London and Dublin dance schools
After leaving the Ballets Russes, in 1927, de Valois established the Academy of Choreographic Art, a dance school for girls in London and the Abbey Theatre School of Ballet, Dublin. In London, her ultimate goal was to form a repertory ballet company, with dancers drawn from the school and trained in a uniquely British style of ballet. Students of the school were given professional stage experience performing in opera and plays staged at the Old Vic Theatre, with de Valois choreographing several short ballets for the theatre. Lilian Baylis was the owner of the Old Vic at that time, and in 1928 she also acquired and refurbished the Sadler's Wells Theatre, with the intention of creating a sister theatre to the Old Vic. She employed de Valois to stage full-scale dance productions at both theatres and when the Sadler's Wells theatre re-opened in 1931, de Valois moved her school into studios there, under the new name, the Sadler's Wells Ballet School. A ballet company was also formed, known as the Vic-Wells Ballet. The Vic-Wells ballet company and school would be the predecessors of today's Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Royal Ballet School.

Also in 1927, in May, W. B. Yeats, poet and co-founder of the Abbey Theatre, suggested to de Valois while she was visiting Dublin the establishment of a ballet school in the city, and from around November, she took responsibility for the setting up and the programming of the Abbey Theatre School of Ballet in Dublin. This, the first of perhaps five Irish national ballet school projects during the 20th century, ran until June 1933, and 7 of the 16 final students continued in active dancing, with 2 founding the next national ballet project, the "Abbey School of Ballet".

Choreography
During these years de Valois produced a number of ballets each year, mostly to her own choreography. She also worked with music specially commissioned from Irish contemporary composers such as Harold R. White's The Faun (April 1928), Arthur Duff's The Drinking Horn and John F. Larchet's Bluebeard (both in July 1933).

Vic-Wells Ballet
At its formation, the Vic-Wells Ballet had only six female dancers, with de Valois working as lead dancer and choreographer. The company performed its first full ballet production on 5 May 1931 at the Old Vic, with Anton Dolin as guest star. Its first performance at Sadler's Wells Theatre came a few days later, on 15 May 1931. As a result of the success of the company, de Valois hired new dancers and choreographers. She retired fully from the stage herself in 1933, after Alicia Markova joined the company and was appointed as Prima Ballerina.

Under de Valois's direction, the company flourished in the 1930s, becoming one of the first Western dance companies to perform the classical ballet repertoire made famous by the Imperial Russian Ballet. She also set about establishing a British repertory, engaging Frederick Ashton as Principal Choreographer and Constant Lambert as musical director in 1935. She also choreographed a number of her own ballets, including her most notable works, Job (1931), The Rake's Progress (1935) and Checkmate (1937).

Eventually, the company included many of the most famous ballet dancers in the world, including Margot Fonteyn, Robert Helpmann, Moira Shearer, Beryl Grey, and Michael Somes. In 1949 the Sadler Wells Ballet was a sensation when they toured the United States. Fonteyn instantly became an international celebrity.

In 1947, de Valois established the first ballet school in Turkey. Formed as the ballet school of the Turkish State Opera and Ballet in Istanbul, the school was later absorbed into and became the School of Music & Ballet at Ankara State Conservatory, a department of the Hacettepe University.

The Royal Ballet
In 1956, the ballet company and school were granted a Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth II, and formally linked. De Valois made sure that her company had a constant supply of talent, and in later years it had such stars as Svetlana Beriosova, Antoinette Sibley, Nadia Nerina, Lynn Seymour, and, most sensationally, Rudolf Nureyev. She also invited choreographers such as Sir Kenneth MacMillan and George Balanchine to work with her company. She formally retired from the Royal Ballet directorship in 1963, but her presence continued to loom large in the company, and the same was true with the School, from which she formally retired in 1970.

De Valois acted as patron or supporter to a number of other projects, including the Cork Ballet Company and the Irish National Ballet Company in Ireland.

Turkish State Ballet
As with ballet in Britain and Ireland, de Valois exerted a great deal of influence on the development of ballet in Turkey, which had no prior history with the art form. The Turkish Government invited her to research the possibility of establishing a ballet school in the country, and she subsequently visited the country in the 1940s, going on to open a school following the same model as her Sadler's Wells Ballet School in London. Initially, very few people took the project seriously, but the school did become firmly established under the direction of Molly Lake and Travis Kemp, who in 1954 had undertaken to run it at de Valois' request; this ultimately led to the development of the Turkish State Ballet.

After training the first set of pupils at the new school, de Valois produced a number of early performances by the state ballet company, permitting guest appearances by Royal Ballet dancers including Margot Fonteyn, Nadia Nerina, Anya Linden, Michael Somes and David Blair. She mounted productions of the traditional classical repertoire including Coppélia, Giselle, Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, as well as the contemporary ballets Les Patineurs, Les Rendezvous and ' by Frederick Ashton, and her own ballets The Rake's Progress, Checkmate and Orpheus.

In 1965, de Valois produced and choreographed the first full-length work created for the new Turkish State Ballet. Titled Çeşmebaşı (At the Fountain), the ballet was the first to feature music composed by a Turkish composer, Ferit Tuzun, and its choreography incorporated elements of Turkish folk dance. Further ballets followed, and the company continued to develop. Today, ballet continues to be a thriving art form in Turkey, with the ballet school that de Valois established now forming part of the State Conservatory for Music and Drama at the Ankara State Conservatory.

Personal life
In 1935, at Windsor, she married Dr Arthur Blackall Connell (1902–1987), a physician and surgeon from Wandsworth, who worked as a general practitioner in Barnes, London, where they lived, and later Sunningdale, Berkshire. She was his second wife; the union was childless, but de Valois had two step-sons, including Dr David Blackall Connell (born 1930), who, in 1955, married Susan Jean Carnegie, a daughter of John Carnegie, 12th Earl of Northesk; they had two sons and a daughter.

De Valois kept her private life very distinct from her professional, making only the briefest of references to her marriage in her autobiographical writings. In April 1964 she was the subject of This Is Your Life, when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the home of the dancer Frederick Ashton in London. She continued to make public appearances until her death in London at the age of 102.

In 1991, de Valois appeared on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. Her chosen book was a collection of poems and her luxury item was an everlasting bottle of sleeping pills.

Choreographic works
Among her earliest choreography was a production of the Greek tragedy Oresteia, which opened Terence Gray's Cambridge Festival Theatre in November 1926. De Valois first established herself as a choreographer producing several short ballets for the Old Vic Theatre, London. She also provided choreography for plays and operas at the theatre, all of which were performed by her own pupils. After forming the Vic-Wells Ballet, her first major production, Job (1931), was the first ballet to define the future of the British ballet repertoire.

Later, after employing Frederick Ashton as the company's first Principal Choreographer in 1935, de Valois collaborated with him to produce a series of signature ballets, which are recognised as cornerstones of British ballet. These included The Rake's Progress (1935) and Checkmate (1937).

Job (1931)
The oldest ballet in the Royal Ballet repertoire, Job is regarded as a crucial work in the development of British ballet and was the first ballet to be produced by an entirely British creative team. The ballet was produced and choreographed by de Valois, with a commissioned score entitled Job, a Masque for Dancing, written by Ralph Vaughan Williams, with orchestrations by Constant Lambert and designs by Gwendolen Raverat. The libretto for the ballet was written by Geoffrey Keynes and is based on William Blake's engraved edition of the Book of Job from the Hebrew Bible. Consisting of eight scenes, the ballet is inspired by Blake's engravings and so de Valois choreographed the ballet using predominantly mimed actions to create a simple decorative effect.

Job features a number of well-known dances, which continue to be performed regularly. The most recognised extracts are Satan's Dance, an acrobatic solo for a male dancer, the dance of Job's comforters, and the satirical expressionist dances representing War, Pestilence and Famine. Job had its world premiere on 5 July 1931, and was performed for members of the Camargo Society at the Cambridge Theatre, London. The first public performance of the ballet took place on 22 September 1931 at the Old Vic Theatre.

Other works
Ninette de Valois' other works include:
 * The Haunted Ballroom (1934)
 * Bar aux Folies-Bergère (1934), for The Ballet Club
 * The Rake's Progress (1935)
 * As You Like It (1936)
 * Checkmate (1937)
 * Every Goose Can
 * The Gods Go A-Begging
 * Barabau
 * The Prospect Before Us (1940)
 * Keloğlan (1950)
 * At the Fountain Head (1963)
 * Çeşmebaşı (1965), for the Turkish State Opera and Ballet
 * Sinfonietta (1966)
 * Coppèlia

Honours
Ninette de Valois was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) on 1 January 1947 and was promoted Dame Commander (DBE) on 1 January 1951. She became a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) on 31 December 1981 and was honoured by HM The Queen with the Order of Merit (OM) on 2 January 1992.

She was appointed a knighthood of France's Legion of Honour on 1 May 1950. and received the Order of Merit of the Republic of Turkey on 2 January 1998.

Awards
Ninette de Valois received the Bronze award presented for services to Ballet from the Irish Catholic Stage Guild in 1949. She was the first recipient of the Royal Academy of Dance Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award in 1953–1954. She was made Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Dance on 19 July 1963 and of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing on 8 March 1964 In 1964 she received the Royal Society of Arts Albert Medal and in 1974, the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation Erasmus Prize. The Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal was awarded on 7 June 1977 and the Royal Opera House Long Service medal in 1979.

She received the Critics' Circle Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts in 1989 and the Society of London Theatre Laurence Olivier Award Special Award in 1992.

In the United States, she received the Dance Theatre of Harlem Emergence Award on 27 July 1981.

Honoris causa degrees
Ninette de Valois received Doctor of Music (DMus) degrees from the University of London in 1947, the University of Sheffield on 29 June 1955, Trinity College, Dublin in 1957 and Durham University in 1982.

She received DLitt from the University of Reading in 1951, the University of Oxford in 1955 and the University of Ulster in 1979.

In 1958 she received an LLD from the University of Aberdeen and on 5 July 1975 Doctor of Letters from the University of Sussex.

Ninette de Valois Festival of Dance
The Ninette de Valois Festival of Dance has been held annually in de Valois' hometown of Blessington, Co. Wicklow since 2018. The festival was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic but resumed in 2022. A memorial bench to de Valois is situated outside St Mary's Church in Blessington.

title: Ninette de Valois


text:
Odvar Nordli

Odvar Nordli (3 November 1926 – 9 January 2018) was a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party. He was the 28th prime minister of Norway from 1976 to 1981 during the Cold War. Before serving as Prime Minister, Nordli served as the minister of Local Government from 1971 to 1972.

After serving as prime minister, Nordli served as the vice president of the Storting from 1981 until 1985, and was also a member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee from 1985 until 1996.

Early life
The son of a railroad worker, Eugen Nordli (1904–1992) and housewife Marie (1902–1984), (née Jørgensen), Nordli grew up in Tangen in Stange, Hedmark. After World War II he served in the Independent Norwegian Brigade Group in Germany, part of the Allied forces occupying post-war Germany.

By education he became a certified accountant before entering politics, and worked in this field until 1961. He served as deputy mayor of Stange municipality from 1951 to 1963.

Early political career
He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Hedmark in 1961, and was re-elected on five occasions. He had previously served in the position of deputy representative during the terms 1954–1957 and 1958–1961.

Nordli became a cabinet member in 1971, serving as Minister of Local Government in the first cabinet Bratteli.

At the Labour Party Congress in 1975 both Nordli and Reiulf Steen candidated to replace Trygve Bratteli as new leader. A compromise was worked out that made Steen the new party leader while Nordli was designated as the party's new prime minister. This became a strained arrangement and they never cooperated well.

Prime Minister of Norway
Nordli became Prime Minister in 1976, heading the cabinet Nordli which succeeded the second cabinet Bratteli. He had to govern through several tough cases like the so-called double-resolution over NATO and the national controversy over the damming of the Alta-Kautokeino river.

In social policy, Nordli's premiership in 1978 saw improved sickness benefits to 100% wage compensation from day one of sickness for up to 52 weeks. The previous law had not had any compensation for ordinary workers for the first 3 days and 90% compensation after that time. The same year the Abortion Act of 1975 was liberalized and women were granted the right to decide on their own to have an abortion until the end of week 12 after gestation. In the original act approval of a committee of doctors had been required in order to have an abortion.

The Nordli cabinet under Minister of Finance Per Kleppe continued a Keynesian fiscal policy with deficit spending where Norway loaned abroad against future oil income. Wages increased more than in other countries, leading to Norwegian businesses becoming less competitive. In September 1978 the government through a provisional law made a general ban against increases in wages and prices. The law was in effect through 1979. The cabinet also partly reversed the expansive fiscal policy.

As for foreign relations during the Nordli premiership, Norway established a 200 nautical miles exclusive economic zone in 1977 where Norway claimed exclusive rights to marine resources. This caused complications with Russia that also had a 200 nm fishery zone. In 1978, Maritime law minister, Jens Evensen stated that Norway and Russia agreed on a one year Grey Zone Agreement which was subsequently renewed until it was replaced with a permanent agreement in 2010.

The 1977 Norwegian parliamentary election less than a year into Nordli's premiership was a success for Nordli and the Labour Party which continued in position, but the 1979 Norwegian local elections was a set-back, partly due to the economic situation and it weakened Nordli's position.

Nordli got health problems about two years into his premiership and in 1981 his doctor advised him to take a sick leave. This leaked to the media before Nordli had made any decision and as a result he was soon after replaced by Gro Harlem Brundtland and another Labour cabinet, Brundtland's First Cabinet.

Post-Prime Minister career
After retiring as prime minister in 1981, he was elected vice president of the Storting. He served as vice president until 1985.

His career ended with the post of County Governor of Hedmark, which he held from 1981 until his retirement in 1993. He was also a member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee from 1985 to 1993.

After retiring, Nordli had a number of books published which included autobiographical writings and lighter stories about politics, daily life and nature.

Personal life
Nordli met his wife Marit Haraseth (27 April 1932–3 October 2010) during a Hedmark divisional committee Labour Party youth wing meet. They married in 1953, had two daughters and lived in Stange until their respective deaths in 2010 and 2018.

Nordli died on 9 January 2018 of prostate cancer in Oslo at the age of 90. His state funeral was held on 19 January 2018.

Awards

 * Commander of the Order of St. Olav (1994)

Selected works

 * Langs veg og sti, Gyldendal, 1984
 * Min vei, Tiden, 1985
 * Morgenlandet, Damm, 1991
 * Vi så kornmoglansen, Tiden, 1994
 * Storting og småting, Tiden, 1996
 * Skråblikk fra godstolen, Trysil-forlaget, 2006
 * With Kåre Willoch: Alvorlig talt: samtaler om politikk, Aschehoug, 2008

title: Odvar Nordli


text:
Einar Gerhardsen

Einar Henry Gerhardsen (10 May 1897 – 19 September 1987) was a Norwegian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Norway from 1945 to 1951, 1955 to 1963 and 1963 to 1965. With a total of 16 years in office, he is the longest serving Prime Minister in Norway since the introduction of parliamentarism. He was the leader of the Labour Party from 1945 to 1965.

Many Norwegians often refer to him as "Landsfaderen" (Father of the Nation); he is generally considered one of the main architects of the post-war rebuilding of Norway after World War II. He also served as the second President of the Nordic Council in 1954.

Early life
Einar Gerhardsen was born in the municipality of Asker, in the county of Akershus. His parents were Gerhard Olsen (1867–1949) and Emma Hansen (1872–1949). His father was rodemester in Public Roads Administration and was foreman of a trade union committee, fanekomiteen for Veivesenets arbeiderforening, and during Gerhardsen's childhood the trade union's leader Carl Jørgensen frequently visited their home, and sometimes they would sing The Internationale and Seieren følger våre faner ("victory follows our banners").

In 1932, he married Werna Julie Koren Christie (1912–1970), daughter of agent Johan Werner Koren Christie and Klara Rønning. The couple had two sons, Truls and Rune and a daughter Torgunn. His brother was Rolf Gerhardsen and the pair also had a lifelong working relationship. From the age of seventeen, Gerhardsen attended meetings with the Labour Party's youth movement. In 1918, during the Finnish Civil War, Gerhardsen resigned his membership of the Church of Norway after the church sided with the "Whites" against the "Reds".

Political work, imprisonment
Originally a road worker, Gerhardsen became politically active in the socialist labour movement during the 1920s. He was convicted several times of taking part in subversive activities until he, along with the rest of the Labour Party, gradually moved from communism to democratic socialism. He participated in the Left Communist Youth League's military strike action of 1924. He was convicted for assisting in this crime and sentenced to 75 days in prison.

By the mid-1930s, Labour was a major force on the national political scene, becoming the party of government under Prime Minister Johan Nygaardsvold from 1935 until the Nazi invasion in 1940. Gerhardsen was elected to Oslo city council in 1932 and became deputy mayor in 1938. He was deputy leader of the Labour Party from 1939.

After the German occupation of Norway in 1940, Gerhardsen became acting Chairman of the Labour Party, as the chairman, Oscar Torp had gone into exile. Gerhardsen became Mayor of Oslo on 15 August 1940, but was forced to resign by the Germans on 26 August the same year. In September, the Nazi occupation government banned all parliamentary political parties, including the Labour Party.

During World War II, Gerhardsen took part in the organised resistance against the German occupation of Norway, and was arrested on 11 September 1941. Having already been under suspicion for a long time, Gerhardsen had been detained and subjected to interrogations on 31 previous occasions since the summer of 1940. Initially he was sent to Grini concentration camp in Norway. In February 1942, he was accused of leading resistance work from his imprisonment, and removed from the camp for interrogation. Initially interrogated at the police station at Møllergata 19, he was soon transferred to the Gestapo headquarters at Victoria Terrasse. At Victoria Terrasse, he was tortured to reveal information on the resistance, but did not give in. In April 1942, he was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany. In September 1944, he was transferred back to Grini, where he spent the rest of the war.

After the war, Gerhardsen formed the interim government which sat from the end of the occupation in May 1945 until the general election held in October the same year. The election gave Labour an absolute majority in Parliament, the Storting, which it retained until 1961. Gerhardsen served as President of the Storting from 10 January 1954 to 22 January 1955.

Domestic and foreign policy from 1945
During and after his periods in office, he was greatly respected by the people; even those not sharing his social democratic views. The administrations he led forged an eclectic economic policy in which government regulation of commerce, industry and banking. Abject poverty and unemployment were sharply reduced by his government's policies of industrialisation and redistribution of wealth through progressive taxation, together with the creation of a comprehensive social security system.

The Norwegian State Housing Bank Law of March 1946 introduced relatively cheap loans for co-operative housing societies and individual private builders. The Child Allowances Law of October 1946 introduced allowances for second and subsequent children under the age of sixteen years, while also providing allowances for single-parent families for the birth of their first child. Under a July 1947 law, unemployment insurance coverage was extended to agricultural workers and certain other groups. In 1947, a loan fund for students was introduced. That same year, housing allowances were introduced for families with two or more children below the age of sixteen years, “who live in dwellings financed through Housing Bank and in municipalities which pay one-third of the allowance.” The Comprehensive Schooling Law of July 1954 established nine-year comprehensive schooling on a trial basis, while the Sickness Insurance Law of March 1956 introduced compulsory insurance for all residents. A law in January 1960 introduced an invalidity pension scheme and a law of June 1961 extended accident coverage to military personnel and conscripts. In 1957, universal basic pensions were introduced. In 1957 an orphans’ pension scheme was established, and in 1958 university occupational injury insurance was introduced. In 1957, housing allowances were made available for single-parent families with children, and that same year, and income and property means test was introduced while the Housing Allowances Law was made compulsory for all municipalities. In 1964, a national widow’s benefit was introduced.

In foreign policy, he aligned Norway with the Western powers at the end of the 1940s after some initial hesitation within the governing party, and Norway became a founding member of NATO. Documents from 1958 reveal that the Gerhardsen's government knew that Israel was going to use heavy water supplied by Noratom for plutonium production, making it possible for Israel to produce nuclear weapons.

In November 1962, an accident in which 21 miners died occurred in the Kings Bay coal mine on Spitsbergen in the Svalbard archipelago. In the aftermath, the Gerhardsen government was accused of not complying with laws enacted by parliament. In the summer of 1963 a vote of no confidence passed with the support of the Socialist People's Party and a centre-right minority coalition government was formed, under John Lyng. Although this new government lasted only three weeks, until the Socialist People's Party realigned itself with Labour, it formed the basis for an opposition victory under the leadership of Per Borten at the 1965 general election. Gerhardsen retired from national politics in 1969 but continued to influence public opinion through writing and speeches.

Gerhardsen's political legacy is still an important force in Norwegian politics, especially within his own party, although some of the social policies of his government have been revised. (See also Economy of Norway)

Soviet intelligence claim
According to Vassily Mitrokhin, Gerhardsen became a Soviet intelligence operative during his visit to the USSR.

Later life and death
Gerhardsen spent the last years of his life in Oslo, where he died on 19 September 1987, at the age of 90, he was buried in the Vestre Gravlund.

title: Einar Gerhardsen


text:
The Parallax View

The Parallax View is a 1974 American political thriller film starring Warren Beatty, with Hume Cronyn, William Daniels and Paula Prentiss in support. Produced and directed by Alan J. Pakula, its screenplay is by David Giler and Lorenzo Semple Jr., based on the 1970 novel by Loren Singer. The story concerns a reporter's investigation into a secretive organization, the Parallax Corporation, whose business is political assassination.

Plot
TV journalist Lee Carter witnesses the assassination of U.S. senator and presidential aspirant Charles Carroll atop the Seattle Space Needle. The apparent shooter, a waiter, is chased, but falls to his death, while the actual killer, disguised as a waiter, vanishes in the chaos. An investigation by an official panel attributes the killing to a single man who acted alone.

Three years later, Carter visits ex-boyfriend Joe Frady, an investigative newspaper reporter in Oregon. She tells him that six witnesses to the assassination have since died and she fears she will be next. Soon after, Carter is found dead of a suspected drug overdose.

Feeling guilty about disregarding Carter's pleas and suspicious of her sudden death, Frady goes to the nearby small town of Salmontail to probe the drowning death of Judge Arthur Bridges, another witness to Carroll's assassination. The local sheriff, Wicker, offers Frady his assistance and escorts him to the dam where Bridges met his fate to investigate. As its floodgates open, Wicker pulls his gun on Frady.

After a desperate struggle in which the sheriff drowns, Frady escapes in the sheriff's squad car and races to the sheriff's home. There, he uncovers documents from the Parallax Corporation, an organization recruiting "security" operatives. Later, Frady contacts a local psychology professor, Nelson Schwartzkopf, who assesses a Parallax personality test taken from Wicker's desk. He deems it a profiling exam to identify homicidal psychopaths.

Austin Tucker, an aide to Carroll and witness to his assassination, agrees to meet Frady. He reveals there have been two attempts on his life since Carroll's murder. Shortly after, a bomb goes off on his sailboat, killing Tucker and his bodyguard. Frady is also presumed dead by the authorities, but swims ashore and tells his editor, Bill Rintels, he will use his apparent death as cover for applying to Parallax under an alias.

Days later, Parallax official Jack Younger contacts Frady to tell him Parallax has accepted him for training. On his first visit to its Los Angeles headquarters, the corporation measures Frady's reactions as he watches a montage of disturbingly edited still pictures that juxtapose pro- and anti-American attitudes. After leaving the offices, Frady trails a Parallax operative to Hollywood Burbank Airport, where the man sends a bomb aboard a passenger jet in the checked baggage.

Frady boards the plane and spots a United States senator who, like the ill-fated Carroll, is now considering running for president. Frady secretly passes a note to a flight attendant about the bomb, and the jet returns safely to the airport and is evacuated just before it explodes.

Back at his apartment, Frady is confronted by Younger about his fake alias, but mollifies him with a pre-planned cover story. Later, at the newspaper office, Rintels listens to a recording of the conversation between Frady and Younger. He then places it in an envelope with other recordings. That evening, he is poisoned by the same Parallax assassin, disguised as deli delivery boy dropping off dinner, and the recordings vanish.

Frady flies out to the Parallax headquarters in Atlanta, where he has been assigned to a security position, and follows the same Parallax operative to a huge nearby exhibit hall, where a dress rehearsal is being held for a political rally for another presidential aspirant, Senator George Hammond. Frady chases the operative and watches from the hall's catwalks as Hammond drives toward the exit in a golf cart and is fatally shot by an unseen sniper.

Frady is spotted on the catwalk and falsely identified as the shooter. Realizing too late he has been set up as a patsy, he attempts to flee, but is killed by Parallax security men. Six months later, another official investigative committee reports that Frady was a paranoid lone gunman who killed Hammond out of a misguided sense of patriotism.

Development
The film is based on a novel by Loren Singer. The novel followed witnesses of John F. Kennedy's assassination who were subsequently killed, but in the screenplay they see an assassination more like that of Robert F. Kennedy. Robert Towne did an uncredited rewrite of the screenplay.

Cinematography
Frady is often filmed from great distances, suggesting that he is being watched.

Montage
Most of the images used in the assassin training montage were of anonymous figures or important historical figures, featuring among others Richard Nixon, Adolf Hitler, Pope John XXIII, and Lee Harvey Oswald (in the picture taken moments after his shooting). The montage also uses drawings by Jack Kirby from Marvel Comics' Thor. They are juxtaposed with caption cards showing the words 'LOVE', 'MOTHER', 'FATHER', 'HOME', 'ENEMY', 'HAPPINESS', and 'ME'. The montage "captures the confusion of post-Kennedy America" by demonstrating the decay of values and longstanding traditions. It has been compared to the brainwashing scene in Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film A Clockwork Orange.

Critical reception
At the time of its release, The Parallax View received mixed reactions from critics, but the film's reception has been more positive in recent years. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 87% based on 45 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The site's critics consensus says, "The Parallax View blends deft direction from Alan J. Pakula and a charismatic Warren Beatty performance to create a paranoid political thriller that stands with the genre's best." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 65 out of 100 based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars upon its release. While Beatty offered a good performance in an effective if predictable thriller, Ebert said the actor was not called upon to exercise his full talents. Ebert also noted similarities to the 1973 film Executive Action, but said Parallax was "a better use of similar material, however, because it tries to entertain instead of staying behind to argue." In his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby wrote, "Neither Mr. Pakula nor his screenwriters, David Giler and Lorenzo Semple, Jr., display the wit that Alfred Hitchcock might have used to give the tale importance transcending immediate plausibility. The moviemakers have, instead, treated their central idea so soberly that they sabotage credulity." Joseph Kanon of The Atlantic found the film's subject pertinent: "what gives the movie its real force is the way its menace keeps absorbing material from contemporary life."

Time magazine's Richard Schickel wrote, "We would probably be better off rethinking—or better yet, not thinking about—the whole dismal business, if only to put an end to ugly and dramatically unsatisfying products like The Parallax View."

In 2006, Entertainment Weekly critic Chris Nashawaty wrote, "The Parallax View is a mother of a thriller... and Beatty, always an underrated actor thanks (or no thanks) to his off-screen rep as a Hollywood lothario, gives a hell of a performance in a career that's been full of them."

Alexander Kaplan at Film Score Monthly wrote, "Beatty brought his relaxed, low-key charm[,] making his character’s fate even more shocking, while the supporting cast provided ... memorable performances, including Paula Prentiss’s heartbreakingly terrified reporter[.] ... Pakula observed that Frady 'imagines the most bizarre kind of plots, (but) is destroyed by a truth worse than anything he could have imagined.' The film’s ending ... suggests that Parallax may have been onto Frady the whole time, another subversion of his heroic status. Even the hero’s name is unheroic, 'Joe Frady' suggesting a mocking mixture of Dragnet’s Joe Friday and the schoolyard taunt [']fraidy cat.'"

The motion picture won the Critics Award at the Avoriaz Film Festival (France) and was nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture. Gordon Willis won the Award for Best Cinematography from the National Society of Film Critics (USA).

Reviewing films depicting political assassination conspiracies for The Guardian, director Alex Cox called the film the "best JFK conspiracy movie". Film critic Matt Zoller Seitz has called it "a damn near perfect movie".

title: The Parallax View


text:
User:Qfwfq

In real life I'm John Lavagnino; I teach humanities computing at King's College London. And in real life Qfwfq is the narrator of Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino.

Some planned articles or updates: Joseph Brodsky, Anthony Burgess, Jonathan Dove, English National Opera, E. H. Gombrich, William Dean Howells, John Marston, Edward Purcell, Frederic Rzewski, Howard Skempton, University of London.

http://www.lavagnino.org.uk/

title: User:Qfwfq


text:
Trier (region)

Trier was one of the three Regierungsbezirke of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, located in the west of the state.

History
The region was created in 1815 as part of the Prussian Rhineland. Until 1920 the bulk of what then became the Territory of Saar Basin was part of the Trier Region. Only the east of the Saar Territory, today's Saar-Palatinate district, formerly the western fringes of the then Bavarian Rhenish Palatinate, was previously no part of the Trier Region. In April 1937 the St. Wendel-Baumholder district, formed in 1920 from those parts of the St. Wendel district that had not been seceded to the Saar Territory, was dissected from the Trier Region and merged in the new Birkenfeld district within the Koblenz Region.

After the Second World War the French military government several times extended the Saar area before forming the Saar Protectorate, also including additional 109 municipalities belonging until July 1946 to the Trier Region and some to the Koblenz Region. Koblenz Region's former areas make up part of today's St. Wendel district in the Saarland. In December 1946, when a new customs boundary dissected the Saar Protectorate (later becoming the Saarland) from the area under the Allied Control Council over Allied-occupied Germany, the Trier Region with its then remaining territory had become one of the then five regions forming the new state of Rhineland-Palatinate, founded in August 1946. Later, the French occupation government again redeployed some municipalities – some returned to Allied-occupied Germany, some newly annexed to the protectorate – between the Saar area and the new state of Rhineland-Palatinate in 1947 and 1949, before the border was finally fixed.

Since 2000, the employees and assets of the Bezirksregierungen (i.e. regional administrations) form the Aufsichts- und Dienstleistungsdirektion Trier (ADD; Supervisory and Service Directorate Trier) and the Struktur- und Genehmigungsdirektionen (SGD; Structural and Approval Directorates) Nord in Koblenz and Süd in Neustadt (Weinstraße). These administrations execute their authority over the whole state, i. e. the ADD Trier oversees all schools.

Kreise (districts)
 * 1) Bernkastel-Wittlich
 * 2) Bitburg-Prüm
 * 3) Vulkaneifel
 * 4) Trier-Saarburg

Kreisfreie Städte (district-free towns)
 * 1) Trier

title: Trier (region)


text:
Koblenz (region)

Koblenz was one of the - at last - three Regierungsbezirke of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, located in the north-east of the state.

The region was created in 1815 as part of the Prussian Rhineland, becoming part of the new state of Rhineland-Palatinate in 1946. In 1968 the neighbouring Montabaur Region was dissolved and its territory annexed to Koblenz Region.

Since 2000, the employees and assets of the Bezirksregierungen form the Aufsichts- und Dienstleistungsdirektion Trier (Supervisory and Service Directorate Trier) and the Struktur- und Genehmigungsdirektionen (Structural and Approval Directorates) Nord in Koblenz and Süd in Neustadt (Weinstraße). These administrations execute their authority over the whole state, i. e. the ADD Trier oversees all schools.

Kreise (districts)
 * 1) Ahrweiler
 * 2) Altenkirchen
 * 3) Bad Kreuznach
 * 4) Birkenfeld
 * 5) Cochem-Zell
 * 6) Mayen-Koblenz
 * 7) Neuwied
 * 8) Rhein-Hunsrück
 * 9) Rhein-Lahn
 * 10) Westerwaldkreis

Kreisfreie Städte (district-free towns)
 * 1) Koblenz

title: Koblenz (region)


text:
User talk:Durvaux

Hi. the image uploader is not for HTML documents. If you want to add text to Wikipedia, please create or add to a page, but remember our copyright conditions. -- Tarquin 12:59 Mar 6, 2003 (UTC)

title: User talk:Durvaux