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Once Upon a Time in the West

Once Upon a Time in the West (, "Once upon a time (there was) the West") is a 1968 epic spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone, who co-wrote it with Sergio Donati based on a story by Dario Argento, Bernardo Bertolucci and Leone. It stars Henry Fonda, cast against type as the villain, Charles Bronson as his nemesis, Jason Robards as a bandit and Claudia Cardinale as a newly widowed homesteader. The widescreen cinematography was by Tonino Delli Colli and the acclaimed film score was by Ennio Morricone.

After directing The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Leone decided to retire from Westerns and aimed to produce his film based on the novel The Hoods, which eventually became Once Upon a Time in America. However, Leone accepted an offer from Paramount Pictures providing Henry Fonda and a budget to produce another Western. He recruited Bertolucci and Argento to devise the plot of the film in 1966, researching other Western films in the process. After Clint Eastwood turned down an offer to play the movie's protagonist, Bronson was offered the role. During production, Leone recruited Donati to rewrite the script due to concerns over time limitations.

The original version by the director was 166 minutes when it was first released on December 21, 1968. This version was shown in European cinemas, and was a box-office success. For the US release on May 28, 1969, Once Upon a Time in the West was edited down to 145 minutes by Paramount and was a financial flop.

The film is the first installment in Leone's Once Upon a Time trilogy, followed by Duck, You Sucker! and Once Upon a Time in America, though the films do not share any characters in common.

In 2009, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film is regarded as one of the greatest Westerns of all time and one of the greatest films of all time.

Plot
A train arrives at the Old West town of "Flagstone". A man with a harmonica on a thong about his neck alights and faces three gunfighters who are waiting for him, killing all three. Their leader, an outlaw called Frank, is working as a hired gunman for the railroad tycoon Morton, who is trying to acquire land owned by Brett McBain's family.

The dusters worn by the three outlaws lead Harmonica to believe that the men work for a rival outlaw, Cheyenne. Meanwhile, Frank and his henchmen kill McBain and his three children at their "Sweetwater" ranch and leave behind evidence to frame Cheyenne for the murders.

A woman named Jill arrives in Flagstone, supposedly to marry McBain at Sweetwater. In fact, she is a former New Orleans prostitute who married McBain a month earlier, so she is the sole heir to Sweetwater. As it will emerge, McBain knew the railroad would pass through Sweetwater one day and planned to build a watering station there, subject to a reverter that he would forfeit Sweetwater if the station was not built by the time the railroad reached it. Morton told Frank to only intimidate McBain, and the murder has put them at odds. Morton wants to make a deal with Jill, but Frank wants the land for himself.

Cheyenne denies that it was his men who tried to ambush Harmonica and murder the McBains. Harmonica saves Jill from two of Frank's men and spies out the railway carriage to which Morton is confined on crutches, owing to his spinal tuberculosis. Harmonica discovers the connection between Frank and Morton but is seen and captured. When Frank asks for Harmonica's name, he replies with names of men that Frank has killed in the past. Frank is called away and Cheyenne rescues Harmonica. The two collaborate to help Jill save Sweetwater, using stockpiled materials to start building a station.

After a threatening sexual encounter with Frank, Jill is forced to auction the land while Frank's henchmen intimidate the bidders in order to keep the purchase price low. Suddenly, Harmonica appears with Cheyenne in tow and bids $5,000, which is the price on Cheyenne's head as a wanted fugitive, and gets the property himself. Meanwhile, Morton has bribed Frank's own men to kill him, but Harmonica intervenes to save Frank from being ambushed in the street. When Jill condemns Harmonica for saving Frank's life, he replies "I didn't let them kill him and that's not the same thing".

Cheyenne soon escapes custody and he and his gang engage Frank's remaining men in a gunfight on Morton's train. Except for Cheyenne, who heads to Sweetwater, everyone is killed, including Morton. When Frank sees the aftermath of the fight, he rides to Sweetwater too, where he finds Harmonica waiting. Cheyenne has arrived earlier, but he remains in the ranch house with Jill. Outside, Harmonica and Frank engage in a showdown; through a flashback, it is revealed that Frank had once hanged Harmonica's older brother, forcing the younger brother to support him on his shoulders. Just before the panting boy collapsed under the weight, Frank had forced a harmonica into his mouth, telling him to "keep your lovin' brother happy".

Harmonica beats Frank to the draw. As he lies dying, Frank again asks Harmonica's identity and Harmonica places the instrument in Frank's mouth. Frank remembers, nods his head, and dies.

Jill hopes he will stay with her but, as Cheyenne has already told her, that won't happen. Jill asks Harmonica to come back and he says: "Some day". Harmonica and Cheyenne leave Sweetwater together, but Cheyenne collapses and dies from a gut wound he received in the gunfight with Morton. As Harmonica departs carrying Cheyenne's body on a horse, Jill serves water to the railroad workers.

Origins
After making his American gunfighter epic The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Leone had intended to make no more Westerns, believing he had said all he wanted to say. He had come across the novel The Hoods by the pseudonymous "Harry Grey", a fictionalized book based on the author's own experiences as a Jewish hood during Prohibition, and planned to adapt it into a film (17 years later, it would become his final film, Once Upon a Time in America). Leone, though, was offered only Westerns by the Hollywood studios. United Artists (which had produced the Dollars Trilogy) offered him the opportunity to make a film starring Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas and Rock Hudson, but Leone refused. When Paramount offered Leone a generous budget along with access to Henry Fonda—his favorite actor, and one with whom he had wanted to work for virtually all of his career—Leone accepted the offer.

Leone commissioned Bernardo Bertolucci and Dario Argento to help him devise a film treatment in late 1966. The men spent much of the following year watching and discussing numerous classic Westerns, such as High Noon, The Iron Horse, The Comancheros and The Searchers at Leone's house, and constructed a story made up almost entirely of references to American Westerns.

Beginning with The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which originally ran for three hours, Leone's films had usually been cut (often quite considerably) for box-office release. Leone was very conscious of the length of Once Upon a Time in the West during filming and subsequently commissioned Sergio Donati, who had worked on several of Leone's other films, to help him refine the screenplay, largely to curb the length of the film toward the end of production.

Style and pacing
For Once Upon a Time in the West, Leone changed his approach over his earlier Westerns. Whereas the "Dollars" films were quirky and up-tempo, a celebratory yet tongue-in-cheek parody of the icons of the Wild West, this film is much slower in pace and somber in theme. Leone's distinctive style, which is very different from, but very much influenced by, Akira Kurosawa's Sanshiro Sugata (1943), is still present, but has been modified for the beginning of Leone's second trilogy, the so-called Once Upon a Time trilogy. The characters in this film are also beginning to change markedly over their predecessors in the Dollars trilogy. They are not quite as defined and, unusual for Leone characters up to this point, they begin to change (or at least attempt to) over the course of the story. This signals the start of the second phase of Leone's style, which was further developed in Duck, You Sucker! and Once Upon a Time in America.

The film features long, slow scenes with very little dialogue and little happening, broken by brief and sudden violence. Leone was far more interested in the rituals preceding violence than in the violence itself. The tone of the film is consistent with the arid semidesert in which the story unfolds, and imbues it with a feeling of realism that contrasts with the elaborately choreographed gunplay.

Leone liked to tell the story of a cinema in Paris where the film ran uninterrupted for two years. When he visited this theater, he was surrounded by fans who wanted his autograph, as well as the projectionist, who was less than enthusiastic. Leone claimed the projectionist told him, "I kill you! The same movie over and over again for two years! And it's so SLOW!"

Locations
Interiors for the film were shot in Cinecittà studios, Rome. The opening sequence with the three gunmen meeting the train was one of the sequences filmed in Spain. Shooting for scenes at Cattle Corner Station, as the location was called in the story, was scheduled for four days and was filmed at the "ghost" railway station in the municipality of La Calahorra, near Guadix, in the Province of Granada, Spain, as were the scenes of Flagstone. Shooting for the scenes in the middle of the railway were filmed along the Guadix–Hernán-Valle railway line. Scenes at the Sweetwater Ranch were filmed in the Tabernas Desert, Spain; the ranch is still located at what is now called Western Leone. The brick arch, where Bronson's character flashes back to his youth and the original lynching incident, was built near a small airport 15 miles (24 km) north of Monument Valley, in Utah, and two miles from U.S. Route 163 (which links Gouldings Lodge and Mexican Hat). Monument Valley itself is used extensively for the route Jill travels towards her new family in Sweetwater.

Casting
Henry Fonda did not accept Leone's first offer to play Frank, so Leone flew to New York to convince him, telling him: "Picture this: the camera shows a gunman from the waist down pulling his gun and shooting a running child. The camera tilts up to the gunman's face and... it's Henry Fonda". After meeting with Leone, Fonda called his friend Eli Wallach, who had co-starred in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Wallach advised Fonda to do the film, telling him "You will have the time of your life."

When he accepted the role, Fonda came to the set with brown contact lenses and a handlebar mustache. Fonda felt having dark eyes and facial hair would blend well with his character's evil, and also help the audience to accept this "new" Fonda as the bad guy, but Leone immediately told him to remove the contacts and facial hair, saying he did not want Fonda to look like a cliche villain.

Leone said he cast Claudia Cardinale in part because she was an Italian national and, as such, they could get a tax break.

Leone wanted the three men who ambush Harmonica and are subsequently killed to be played by Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach in a symbolic killing of the Dollars Trilogy which Leone wanted to put behind him. However, though Wallach was willing, Van Cleef was unavailable and Eastwood was not interested in the role.

Localization
Following the film's completion, Once Upon a Time in the West was dubbed into several languages, including Italian, French, German, Spanish, and English. The film's dialogue was translated into English by expatriate American actor Mickey Knox. For the English dub, the voices of many of the American cast, including Fonda, Bronson, Robards, Wynn, Wolff, and Lionel Stander, were used. However, the rest of the cast had to be dubbed by other actors – including Claudia Cardinale, who was dubbed by actress Joyce Gordon, Gabriele Ferzetti, who was voiced by Gordon's husband, Bernard Grant, and Jack Elam.

Music
The music was written by composer Ennio Morricone, Leone's regular collaborator, who wrote the score under Leone's direction before filming began. As in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the haunting music contributes to the film's grandeur and, like the music for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, is considered one of Morricone's greatest compositions.

The film features leitmotifs that relate to each of the main characters (with their own theme music), as well as to the spirit of the American West. Especially compelling are the wordless vocals by Italian singer Edda Dell'Orso during the theme music for Jill McBain. Leone's desire was to have the music available and played during filming. Leone had Morricone compose the score before shooting started and played the music in the background for the actors on set.

Except for about a minute of the "Judgment" motif, before Harmonica kills the three outlaws, no soundtrack music is played until the end of the second scene, when Fonda makes his first entry. During the beginning of the film, Leone instead uses a number of natural sounds, for instance, a turning wheel in the wind, sound of a train, grasshoppers, shotguns while hunting, wings of pigeons, etc., in addition to the diegetic sound of the harmonica.

European release
The film was a massive hit in France, and was easily the most successful film released there in 1969, with 14.8 million admissions, ranking seventh of all time. It sparked a brief fashion trend for duster coats, which took such proportions that Parisian department stores such as Au Printemps had to affix signs on escalators warning patrons to keep their "maxis", as they were called, clear from the edges of moving steps to prevent jamming.

It was also the most popular film in Germany with admissions of 13 million, ranking third of all time.

American release
In the US, Paramount edited the film to about 145 minutes for the wide release, but the film underperformed at the box office, earning $2.1M in rentals in North America.

These scenes were cut for the American release:
 * The entire scene at Lionel Stander's trading post. Cheyenne (Robards) was not introduced in the American release until his arrival at the McBain ranch later in the film. Stander remained in the credits, though he did not appear in this version at all.
 * The scene in which Morton and Frank discuss what to do with Jill at the Navajo Cliffs.
 * Morton's death scene was reduced considerably.
 * Cheyenne's death scene was completely excised.

Otherwise, one scene was slightly longer in the US version than in the international film release:

Following the opening duel (where all four gunmen fire and fall), Charles Bronson's character stands up again, showing that he had only been shot in the arm. This part of the scene had been originally cut by director Sergio Leone for the worldwide theatrical release. It was added again for the U.S. market, because the American distributors feared American viewers would not understand the story otherwise, especially since Harmonica's arm wound is originally shown for the first time in the scene at the trading post, which was cut for the shorter U.S. version.

The English-language version was restored to around 165 minutes for a re-release in 1984, and for its video release the following year.

Director's cut
In Italy, a 175-minute director's cut features a yellow tint filter, and several scenes were augmented with additional material. This director's cut was available on home video until the early 2000s, and still airs on TV, but more recent home-video releases have used the international cut.

Home media
After years of public requests, Paramount released a two-disc "Special Collector's Edition" of Once Upon a Time in the West on November 18, 2003, with a running time of 165 minutes (158 minutes in some regions). This release is the color 2.35:1 aspect ratio version in anamorphic widescreen, closed captioned, and Dolby. Commentary is also provided by film experts and historians, including John Carpenter, John Milius, Alex Cox, film historian and Leone biographer Sir Christopher Frayling, Dr. Sheldon Hall, and actors Claudia Cardinale and Gabriele Ferzetti, and director Bernardo Bertolucci, a co-writer of the film.

The second disc has special features, including three recent documentaries on several aspects of the film:
 * An Opera of Violence
 * The Wages of Sin
 * Something to Do with Death

The film was released on Blu-ray on May 31, 2011.

Restored version
A restored 4K version was published by Cineteca Bologna in 2018, with improved colors and image quality.

Box office
In Italy, the film sold 8,870,732 tickets. In the United States, it grossed $5,321,508, from 3.7 million ticket sales. It sold a further 14,873,804 admissions in France and 13,018,414 admissions in Germany, for a total of 0 tickets sold worldwide.

Critical response
Once Upon a Time in the West was reviewed in 1969 in the Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert, who gave it two and a half stars out of four. He found the film "good fun" and "a painstaking distillation" of Leone's famous style, with intriguing performances by actors cast against their type and a richness of detail projecting "a sense of life of the West" made possible by Paramount's larger budget for this Leone film. Ebert complained, however, of the film's length and convoluted plot, which he said only becomes clear by the second hour. While viewing Cardinale as a good casting choice, he said she lacked the "blood-and-thunder abandon" of her performance in Cartouche (1962), blaming Leone for directing her "too passively".

In subsequent years, the film developed a greater standing among critics, as well as a cult following. Directors such as Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Quentin Tarantino, and Vince Gilligan have cited the film as an influence on their work. It has also appeared on prominent all-time critics lists, including Times 100 greatest films of the 20th century and Empires 500 greatest movies of all time, where it was the list's highest-ranking Western at number 14. Popular culture scholar Christopher Frayling regarded it as "one of the greatest films ever made".

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 95% approval rating based on 66 reviews, with an average score of 9.20/10. The critical consensus reads: "A landmark Sergio Leone spaghetti Western masterpiece featuring a classic Morricone score". Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 82 out of 100 based on reviews from 9 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Accolades

 * Time named Once Upon a Time in the West as one of the 100 greatest films of all time.
 * In They Shoot Pictures, Don't They's list of the 1000 Greatest Films, Once Upon a Time in the West is placed at number 62.
 * Total Film placed Once Upon a Time in the West in their special edition issue of the 100 Greatest Movies.
 * In 2008, Empire held a poll of "the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time", taking votes from 10,000 readers, 150 filmmakers, and 50 film critics. "Once Upon a Time in the West" was voted in at number 14, the highest Western on the list. In 2017, it was then ranked at number 52 on Empire's poll for "The 100 Greatest Movies" (the second-highest Western on the list).

 * In 2009, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".
 * In 2010, The Guardian ranked it third in its "The 25 Best Action and War Films of All Time" list; and in 2013 the paper ranked it first in its "Top 10 Movie Westerns" list.
 * In the 2012 Sight & Sound polls, it was ranked the 78th-greatest film ever made in the critics' poll and 44th in the directors' poll.
 * In 2014, Time Out polled several film critics, directors, actors, and stunt actors to list their top action films. Once Upon A Time In The West placed 30th on their list.

Year-end lists
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
 * 2003: AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains:
 * Frank – Nominated Villain
 * 2005: AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores – Nominated

Film references
Leone's intent was to take the stock conventions of the American Westerns of John Ford, Howard Hawks, and others, and rework them in an ironic fashion, essentially reversing their intended meaning in their original sources to create a darker connotation. The most obvious example of this is the casting of veteran film good guy Henry Fonda as the villainous Frank, but many other, more subtle reversals occur throughout the film. According to film critic and historian Christopher Frayling, the film quotes from as many as 30 classic American Westerns.

The major films referenced include:
 * The Comancheros (1961): The names "McBain" and "Sweetwater" may come from this film. Contrary to popular belief, the name of the town "Sweetwater" was not taken from Victor Sjöström's silent epic drama The Wind. Bernardo Bertolucci has stated that he looked at a map of the Southwestern United States, found the name of the town in Arizona, and decided to incorporate it into the film. However, both "Sweetwater" and a character named "McBain" appeared in The Comancheros, which Leone admired.
 * Johnny Guitar (1954): Jill and Vienna have similar backstories (both are former prostitutes who become saloonkeepers), and both own land where a train station will be built because of access to water. Also, Harmonica, like Sterling Hayden's title character, is a mysterious, gunslinging outsider known by his musical nickname. Some of West's central plot (Western settlers vs. the railroad company) may be recycled from Nicholas Ray's film.
 * The Iron Horse (1924): West may contain several subtle references to this film, including a low-angle shot of a shrieking train rushing towards the screen in the opening scene, and the shot of the train pulling into the Sweetwater station at the end.
 * Shane (1953): The massacre scene in West features young Timmy McBain out hunting with his father, just as Joey does in this movie. The funeral of the McBains is borrowed almost shot-for-shot from Shane.
 * The Searchers (1956): Leone admitted that the rustling bushes, the silencing of insect sounds, and the fluttering grouse that suggests menace is approaching the farmhouse when the McBain family is massacred were all taken from The Searchers. The ending of the film—where Western nomads Harmonica and Cheyenne move on rather than join modern society—also echoes the famous ending of Ford's film.
 * Winchester '73 (1950): The scenes in West at the trading post are claimed to be based on those in Winchester '73, but the resemblance is slight.
 * The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962): The dusters (long coats) worn by Cheyenne and his gang (and by Frank and his men while impersonating them) resemble those worn by Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) and his henchmen when they are introduced in this film. In addition, the auction scene in West was intended to recall the election scene in Liberty Valance.
 * The Last Sunset (1961): The final duel between Frank and Harmonica is shot almost identically to the duel between Kirk Douglas and Rock Hudson in this film.
 * Duel in the Sun (1946): The character of Morton, the crippled railroad baron in West, was based on the character played by Lionel Barrymore in this film.

title: Once Upon a Time in the West


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Ballooning

Ballooning may refer to:

 * Hot air ballooning
 * Balloon (aeronautics)
 * Ballooning (spider)
 * Ballooning degeneration, a disease
 * Memory ballooning

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title: Ballooning


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Gesamtkunstwerk

A Gesamtkunstwerk (, literally 'total artwork', translated as 'total work of art', 'ideal work of art', 'universal artwork', 'synthesis of the arts', 'comprehensive artwork', or 'all-embracing art form') is a work of art that makes use of all or many art forms or strives to do so. The term is a German loanword accepted in English as a term in aesthetics.

Background
The term was developed by the German writer and philosopher K. F. E. Trahndorff in his 1827 essay Ästhetik oder Lehre von Weltanschauung und Kunst (or 'Aesthetics, or Doctrine of Worldview and Art'). The German opera composer Richard Wagner used the term in two 1849 essays, and the word has become particularly associated with his aesthetic ideals. It is unclear whether Wagner knew of Trahndorff's essay.

In France in the 1850s, Viollet-le-Duc was a proponent of integrating major arts (architecture) and minor arts (decorative arts). This led to a fierce combat with the Beaux Arts academy in Paris who refused Viollet le Duc's educational reforms in 1863.

In the 20th century, some writers applied the term to some forms of architecture, while others applied it to film and mass media.

Before Wagner
Some elements of opera had begun seeking a more 'classical' formula at the end of the 18th century. After the lengthy domination of opera seria and the da capo aria, a movement began to advance the librettist and the composer in relation to the singers, and to return the drama to a more intense and less moralistic focus. This movement, 'reform opera', is primarily associated with Christoph Willibald Gluck and Ranieri de' Calzabigi. The themes in the operas produced by Gluck's collaborations with Calzabigi continue throughout the operas of Carl Maria von Weber, until Wagner, rejecting both the Italian bel canto tradition and the French 'spectacle opera', developed his union of music, drama, theatrical effects, and occasionally dance.

However, these trends had developed fortuitously, rather than in response to a specific philosophy of art. Wagner, who recognised the reforms of Gluck and admired the works of Weber, originally wished to consolidate his view as part of his radical social and political views of the late 1840s. Previous to Wagner, others had expressed ideas about union of the arts, which was a familiar topic among German Romantics, as evidenced by the title of Trahndorff's essay, 'Aesthetics, or Theory of Philosophy of Art'. Others who wrote on syntheses of the arts included Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Ludwig Tieck and Novalis. Carl Maria von Weber's enthusiastic review of E.T.A. Hoffmann's opera Undine (1816) admired it as 'an art work complete in itself, in which partial contributions of the related and collaborating arts blend together, disappear, and, in disappearing, somehow form a new world'.

Wagner's ideas

Wagner used the exact term Gesamtkunstwerk (which he spelt 'Gesammtkunstwerk') on only two occasions, in his 1849 essays 'Art and Revolution' and 'The Artwork of the Future', where he speaks of his ideal of unifying all works of art via the theatre. He also used in these essays many similar expressions such as 'the consummate artwork of the future' and 'the integrated drama', and frequently referred to 'Gesamtkunst'. Such a work of art was to be the clearest and most profound expression of folk legend.

Wagner felt that the Greek tragedies of Aeschylus had been the finest (though still flawed) examples so far of total artistic synthesis, but that this synthesis had subsequently been corrupted by Euripides. Wagner felt that during the rest of human history up to the present day (i.e. 1850) the arts had drifted further and further apart, resulting in such 'monstrosities' as Grand Opera. Wagner felt that such works celebrated bravura singing, sensational stage effects, and meaningless plots. In 'Art and Revolution', Wagner applies the term Gesamtkunstwerk in the context of Greek tragedy. In 'The Art-Work of the Future', he uses it to apply to his own, as yet unrealized, ideal.

In his extensive book Opera and Drama (completed in 1851), Wagner takes these ideas further, describing in detail his idea of the union of opera and drama (later called music drama despite Wagner's disapproval of the term), in which the individual arts are subordinated to a common purpose.

Wagner's own opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, specifically its components Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, represent perhaps the closest he, or anyone else, came to realizing these ideals. After this stage, Wagner came to relax his own strictures and write more conventionally 'operatically'.

Arts and Crafts movement
William Morris (1834–1896), a British textile designer, poet, novelist, translator, and socialist activist, was associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement and largely influenced by the ideas of John Ruskin, who believed that industrialization led to a qualitative decline in artistically crafted goods. Morris believed a home must nurture harmony as well as infuse its inhabitants with a creative energy.

The quote 'Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful' epitomized Morris' way of living of Gesamtkunstwerk.

Morris' and Philip Webb's Red House, designed in 1859, is a major example, as well as the Blackwell House in the English Lake District, designed by Baillie Scott. Blackwell House was built in 1898–1900, as a holiday home for Sir Edward Holt, a wealthy Manchester brewer. It is situated near the town of Bowness-on-Windermere with views looking over Windermere and across to the Coniston Fells.

In architecture
Some architectural writers have used the term Gesamtkunstwerk to signify circumstances where an architect is responsible for the design and/or overseeing of the building's totality: shell, accessories, furnishings, and landscape. It is difficult to make a claim for when the term Gesamtkunstwerk was first used to refer to a building and its contents (although the term itself was not used in this context until the late 20th century); already during the Renaissance, artists such as Michelangelo saw no strict division in their tasks between architecture, interior design, sculpture, painting and even engineering.

Historian Robert L. Delevoy has argued that Art Nouveau represented an essentially decorative trend that thus lent itself to the idea of the architectural Gesamtkunstwerk. Of course, it is equally possible it was born from social theories that arose out of a fear of the rise of industrialism.

Nonetheless, evidence of complete interiors that typify the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk can be seen from some time before the 1890s. An increasing trend among architects in the 18th and 19th centuries was to control every facet of an architectural commission. As well as being responsible for the structure itself, they tried to extend their role to also include designing (or at least vetting) every aspect of the interior work. This included not only the interior architectural features but also the design of furniture, carpets, wallpaper, fabrics, light fixtures, and door-handles. Robert Adam and Augustus Welby Pugin are examples of this trend to create an overall harmonising effect which in some cases might even extend to the choice or design of table silver, china, and glassware.

Art Nouveau
The form and ideology of Gesamtkunstwerk was regularly engaged with by the Art Nouveau artists and architects of the period. Belgians Victor Horta and Henry Van de Velde, Catalan Antoni Gaudí, French Hector Guimard, Scottish Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Austrian Josef Hoffmann, Russian-German Franz (Fyodor) Schechtel, Finn Eliel Saarinen, and many other architects also acted as furniture and interior designers.

Many Art Nouveau masterpieces were results of cooperation of artists of different fields:

 * Villa Majorelle (1901–1902) in Nancy, France was created by architect Henri Sauvage, furniture designer Louis Majorelle, ceramist Alexandre Bigot, and stained glass artist Jacques Grüber.

 * The Municipal House (1904–1912) in Prague, Czech Republic was designed by Osvald Polívka and Antonín Balšánek and painted by famous Czech painter Alphonse Mucha, and features sculptures of Josef Mařatka and Ladislav Šaloun.

 * The Gresham Palace (1904–1906) in Budapest, Hungary was created by architects Zsigmond Quittner and Jozsef Vago; sculptors Géza Maróti, Miklós Ligeti, and Ede Telcs; stained glass artist Miksa Róth; and metalwork artist Gyula Jungfer.

 * Works of Victor Horta:
 * Hôtel Tassel, Hôtel Solvay, and Hôtel van Eetvelde were created in cooperation with stained glass master Raphaël Évaldre.
 * Maison and Atelier Horta was created in cooperation with sculptor Pieter Braecke.

 * Works of Lluís Domènech i Montaner: Palau de la Música Catalana and Hospital de Sant Pau in Barcelona:
 * Sculptors Pablo Gargallo and Eusebi Arnau and mosaic master Mario Maragliano took part in both projects.
 * Sculptor Miguel Blay, stained-glass designer Antoni Rigalt, and ceramist Lluis Brù i Salelles were involved in construction of Palau de la Música Catalana.
 * Metalwork artist Josep Perpinyà was involved in construction of Hospital de Sant Pau.

 * Works of Antoni Gaudí: Park Güell, Palau Güell, Sagrada Família, Casa Batlló, Casa Milá, and Casa Vicens in Barcelona and Colònia Güell in Santa Coloma de Cervelló:
 * Mosaic master Mario Maragliano was involved in construction of Sagrada Família.
 * Architect Francesc Berenguer i Mestres was involved in construction of Sagrada Família and Colònia Güell,
 * Architect Joan Rubió was involved in construction of Sagrada Família, Casa Batlló, and Parc Güell.
 * Multi-disciplinary artist Josep Maria Jujol helped Gaudí with Casa Batlló, Casa Milà, and Parc Güell.

 * Stoclet Palace in Brussels was created by architect and designer Josef Hoffmann, painters Gustav Klimt and Fernand Khnopff, sculptor Franz Metzner, and mosaic master Leopold Forstner. The construction of the palace foreshadowed Art Deco and Modern architecture.

 * Museum Villa Stuck is the work of artist Franz von Stuck and 'was celebrated as a marvelously modern yet curious construction. Built along his guiding principle of the Gesamtkunstwerk the Villa Stuck combined all aspects of architecture, art, music, theatre, and life within its walls and garden'.

 * In Switzerland, Bruno Weber Park, a sculpture garden by artist Bruno Weber, is a later example of an Art Nouveau piece inspired by Gesamtkunstwerk.

 * Kirche am Steinhof, or the Church of St. Leopold, was designed by the architect Otto Wagner. It is the Roman Catholic oratory of the Steinhof Psychiatric Hospital in Vienna, Austria. The building is considered one of the most important Art Nouveau churches in the world. Dedicated to Saint Leopold, it was built between 1903 and 1907, and includes mosaics and stained glass by Koloman Moser, and sculptures of angels by Othmar Schimkowitz. The great majority of the other smaller details are the work of Otto Wagner himself. The statues on the two external towers represent Saint Leopold on the left and Saint Severin on the right, the two patron saints of Lower Austria, and are the work of the Viennese sculptor Richard Luksch.

Modernism
The architectural movement of Modernism also saw architects implementing this principle of Gesamtkunstwerk. Centre Le Corbusier is an example by famed Modernist architect Le Corbusier. The Villa Cavrois mansion in France is another example of modernist Gesamtkunstwerk, designed by French architect Robert Mallet-Stevens.

In art
The album Gesamtkunstwerk was released by Detroit, electro band Dopplereffekt in 1999 on International Deejay Gigolos

The multi-media style pioneered by Dadaists such as Hugo Ball has also been called a Gesamtkunstwerk. 'Towards the Merz Gesamtkunstwerk' was a University of Oregon graduate seminar that explored themes of Dadaism and Gesamtkunstwerk, especially Kurt Schwitter's legendary Merzbau. They cite Richard Huelsenbeck in his German Dada Manifesto: 'Life appears as a simultaneous confusion of noises, colours and spiritual rhythms, and is thus incorporated — with all the sensational screams and feverish excitements of its audacious everyday psyche and the entirety of its brutal reality — unwaveringly into Dadaist art'.

In 2011, Saatchi Gallery in London held Gesamtkunstwerk: New Art from Germany, a survey exhibition of 24 contemporary German artists.

An exhibition entitled Utopia Gesamtkunstwerk, curated by Bettina Steinbrügge and Harald Krejci, took place from January to May 2012 at the 21er Haus in Belvedere, Vienna. It was a 'contemporary perspective of the historical idea of the total work of art' and included a display by Esther Stocker based on the idea of 'the untidy nursery', it housed works by Joseph Beuys, Monica Bonvicini, Christian Boltanski, Marcel Broodthaers, Daniel Buren, Heinz Emigholz, Valie Export, Claire Fontaine, gelatin, Isa Genzken, Liam Gillick, Thomas Hirschhorn, Ilya Kabakov, Martin Kippenberger, Gordon Matta-Clark, Paul McCarthy, Superflex, Franz West, and numerous others. An accompanying book exploring the topic was produced with the same name.

Many reviews have characterized the contemporary art exhibition the 9th Berlin Biennale as a Gesamtkunstwerk.

In 2017, prominent visual artists Shirin Neshat and William Kentridge directed operas at the Salzburg Festival.

Other applications
The Catholic Mass has been cited as an example of a Gesamtkunstwerk, and one could consider various liturgical expressions to be similar examples. Beyoncé has created multiple works that have been considered examples of Gesamtkunstwerk.

Canadian development corporation Westbank, founded by Ian Gillespie, uses Gesamtkunstwerk as the founding idea behind the company's vision and philosophy for urban development.

title: Gesamtkunstwerk


text: User talk:65.96.185.114

title: User talk:65.96.185.114


text:
Intolerable Acts

The Intolerable Acts, sometimes referred to as the Insufferable Acts or Coercive Acts, were a series of five punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. The laws aimed to punish Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in the Tea Party protest of the Tea Act, a tax measure enacted by Parliament in May 1773. In Great Britain, these laws were referred to as the Coercive Acts. They were a key development leading to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in April 1775.

Four acts were enacted by Parliament in early 1774 in direct response to the Boston Tea Party of December 16, 1773: Boston Port, Massachusetts Government, Impartial Administration of Justice, and Quartering Acts. The acts took away self-governance and rights that Massachusetts had enjoyed since its founding, triggering outrage and indignation in the Thirteen Colonies.

The British Parliament hoped these punitive measures would, by making an example of Massachusetts, reverse the trend of colonial resistance to parliamentary authority that had begun with the Sugar Act 1764. A fifth act, the Quebec Act, enlarged the boundaries of what was then the Province of Quebec notably southwestward into the Ohio Country and other future mid-western states, and instituted reforms generally favorable to the francophone Catholic inhabitants of the region. Although unrelated to the other four Acts, it was passed in the same legislative session and seen by the colonists as one of the Intolerable Acts. The Patriots viewed the acts as an arbitrary violation of the rights of Massachusetts, and in September 1774 they organized the First Continental Congress to coordinate a protest. As tensions escalated, the Revolutionary War broke out in April 1775, leading to the declaration of an independent United States of America in July 1776.

Background

Relations between the Thirteen Colonies and the British Parliament slowly but steadily worsened after the end of the Seven Years' War (French and Indian War) in 1763. The war had plunged the British government deep into debt, and so the British Parliament enacted a series of measures to increase tax revenue from the colonies. Parliament believed that these acts, such as the Stamp Act 1765 and the Townshend Acts of 1767, were legitimate means of having the colonies pay their fair share of the costs of maintaining the British Empire. Although protests led to the repeal of the Stamp and Townshend Acts, Parliament adhered to the position that it had the right to legislate for the colonies "in all cases whatsoever" in the Declaratory Act of 1766.

Many colonists argued that under the unwritten British constitution, a British subject's property could not be taken from him (in the form of taxes) without his consent (in the form of representation in government). Therefore, because the colonies were not directly represented in Parliament, it followed that Parliament had no right to levy taxes upon them, a view expressed by the slogan "No taxation without representation". After the Townshend Acts, some colonial essayists took this line of thinking even further, and began to question whether Parliament had any legitimate jurisdiction in the colonies at all. This question of the extent of Parliament's sovereignty in the colonies was the issue underlying what became the American Revolution.

Passage
On December 16, 1773, a group of Patriot colonists associated with the Sons of Liberty destroyed 342 chests of tea in Boston, Massachusetts, an act that came to be known as the Boston Tea Party. The colonists partook in this action because Parliament had passed the Tea Act, which granted the British East India Company a monopoly on tea sales in the colonies, thereby saving the company from bankruptcy. This made British tea less expensive. In addition, there was added a small tax. This angered the colonists. News of the Boston Tea Party reached England in January 1774. Parliament responded by passing four laws. Three of the laws were intended to directly punish Massachusetts. This was for the destruction of private property, to restore British authority in Massachusetts, and to otherwise reform colonial government in America.

On April 22, 1774, Prime Minister Lord North defended the programme in the House of Commons, saying:

"The Americans have tarred and feathered your subjects, plundered your merchants, burnt your ships, denied all obedience to your laws and authority; yet so clement and so long forbearing has our conduct been that it is incumbent on us now to take a different course. Whatever may be the consequences, we must risk something; if we do not, all is over."

The Acts
The Boston Port Act was the first of the laws passed in 1774 in response to the Boston Tea Party. It closed the port of Boston until the colonists paid for the destroyed tea and the king was satisfied that order had been restored. Colonists objected that the Port Act punished all of Boston rather than just the individuals who had destroyed the tea, and that they were being punished without having been given an opportunity to testify in their own defense.

The Massachusetts Government Act provoked even more outrage than the Port Act because it unilaterally took away Massachusetts' charter and brought it under control of the British government. Under the terms of the Government Act, almost all positions in the colonial government were to be appointed by the governor, Parliament, or the king. The act also severely limited town meetings in Massachusetts to one per year, unless the governor called for one. Colonists outside Massachusetts feared that their governments could now also be changed by the legislative fiat of Parliament.

The Administration of Justice Act allowed the royal governor to order trials of accused royal officials to take place in Great Britain or elsewhere within the Empire if he decided that the defendant could not get a fair trial in Massachusetts. Although the act stipulated for witnesses to be reimbursed after having traveled at their own expense across the Atlantic, it was not stipulated that this would include reimbursement for lost earnings during the period for which they would be unable to work, leaving few with the ability to testify. George Washington called this the "Murder Act" because he believed that it allowed officials to harass colonists and then escape justice. Many colonists believed the act was unnecessary because British soldiers had been given a fair trial following the Boston Massacre in 1770.

The Quartering Act, which applied to all British colonies in North America, sought to create a more effective method of housing British troops. In a previous act, the colonies had been required to provide housing for soldiers, but colonial legislatures had been uncooperative in doing so. The new Quartering Act allowed a governor to house soldiers in other buildings if suitable quarters were not provided. While many sources claim that the Quartering Act allowed troops to be billeted in occupied private homes, historian David Ammerman's 1974 study claimed that this is a myth, and that the act only permitted troops to be quartered in unoccupied buildings.

Although unrelated to the aforementioned Acts, the Quebec Act, passed in the same parliamentary session, was considered by the colonists to be one of the Intolerable Acts. The Act expanded the territory of the Province of Quebec into the Great Lakes region and much of what is now the Midwestern United States, which appeared to void the land claims of the Ohio Company on the region. The guarantee of free practice of Catholicism, the majority religion in Canada, was seen by colonists as an "establishment" of the faith in the colonies which were overwhelmingly Protestant. Furthermore, colonists resented the lenient provisions granted to their erstwhile enemies whom they had fought hard against during the French and Indian War.

Effects
Many colonists saw the Intolerable Acts as a violation of their constitutional rights, their natural rights, and their colonial charters. They, therefore, viewed the acts as a threat to the liberties of all of British America, not just Massachusetts. Legislation denouncing the act (the Loudoun and Fairfax resolves) was swift, and Richard Henry Lee of Virginia described the acts as "a most wicked System for destroying the liberty of America".

The citizens of Boston viewed the Intolerable Acts as unnecessary and cruel punishment, further inflaming hatred toward Britain. Even more Bostonians turned against British rule.

Great Britain hoped that the Intolerable Acts would isolate radicals in Massachusetts and cause American colonists to concede the authority of Parliament over their elected assemblies. The calculated risk backfired: the harshness of some of the acts made it difficult for colonial moderates to speak in favor of Parliament. Instead, the acts only served to distance the colonies from the Crown, create sympathy for Massachusetts and encourage colonists from the otherwise diverse colonies to form committees of correspondence which sent delegates to the First Continental Congress. The Continental Congress created the Continental Association, an agreement to boycott British goods. Additionally, it was decided that if the Intolerable Acts were not reversed after a year, goods were to stop being exported to Great Britain as well. The Congress also pledged to support Massachusetts in case of attack, which meant that all of the colonies would become involved when the American Revolutionary War began at Lexington and Concord.

title: Intolerable Acts


text:
Manukau Harbour

The Manukau Harbour is the second largest natural harbour in New Zealand by area. It is located to the southwest of the Auckland isthmus, and opens out into the Tasman Sea.

Geography

The harbour mouth is between the northern head ("Burnett Head" / "Ohaka Head") located at the southern end of the Waitākere Ranges and South Head at the end of the Āwhitu Peninsula reaching up from close to the mouth of the Waikato River. The mouth is only 1800 metres wide, but after a nine kilometre channel it opens up into a roughly square basin 20 kilometres in width. The harbour has a water surface area of 394 square kilometres. There is a tidal variation of up to 4 metres, a very substantial change, especially since the harbour, being silted up with almost 10 million years of sedimentation, is rather shallow itself.

Because of the large harbour area and narrow mouth between the Manukau Heads, tidal flow is rapid and a bar at the mouth makes navigating in or out of the harbour dangerous. New Zealand's most tragic shipwreck occurred on the bar in 1863 when HMS Orpheus ran aground in clear weather with a loss of 189 lives. For this reason, along with the harbour's shallowness, it is not Auckland's favoured port, and, with only one short wharf, the facilities at Onehunga are tiny compared to the other Ports of Auckland facilities on the Waitematā Harbour along the northeast of the isthmus.

The harbour has three main arms. The Māngere Inlet at the northeast lies close to Auckland's central city area, with the inner suburbs of Onehunga and Te Papapa situated close to its northern shore. The Ōtāhuhu and Māngere urban areas lie south of this arm, which is crossed by the Māngere Bridge. In the southeast is the Papakura Channel, which extends into the urban area of Papakura. In the southwest a further inlet known as the Waiuku River reaches south to the town of Waiuku. The harbour reaches into Māngere Lagoon, which occupies a volcanic crater. Auckland Airport is located close to the harbour's eastern shore.

Geology
The Manukau Harbour is a drowned river valley system, which formed between 3 and 5 million years ago when tectonic forces between the Pacific Plate and Australian Plate uplifted the Waitākere Ranges and subsided the Manukau Harbour. It began as an open bay, eventually forming as a sheltered harbour as elongated sand dune barriers formed at the harbour's mouth. Over the last two million years, the harbour has cycled between periods of being a forested river valley and a flooded harbour, depending on changes in the global sea level. The present harbour formed approximately 8,000 years ago, after the Last Glacial Maximum.

Names and etymology
There are various traditions associated with the naming of the harbour. A Tainui tradition involves the crew of the Tainui. As they crossed Te Tō Waka (the portage at Ōtāhuhu between the Manukau Harbour and the Tāmaki River), the crew believed they heard voices of people on the other side. When they reached the harbour, they found that this was only birds ("Manu kau").

Another Tainui tradition involves Hoturoa, the captain of the Tainui waka. This tradition involves the naming of the Manukau Heads opening and sandbars, which is known as Te Manuka-o-Hotunui or Te Manukanuka-o-Hotunui, describing the anxiety Hoturoa felt when attempting to navigate this passage. The name, originally used for just the mouth of the harbour, became used for the entire harbour over time.

Other traditions hold that it is a corruption of mānuka, being a descriptive name for the number of mānuka shrubs growing around the harbour, while another asserts that Manukau is the name of a chief who died in the waters of the harbour.

Another traditional name for the harbour is Nga-tai-o-Rakataura, referring to Rakatāura / Hape, the tohunga of the Tainui. During the early colonial era of Auckland, an attempt was made to rename the harbour Symonds Harbour, after the late William Cornwallis Symonds, who died in 1841, battling a storm in the harbour.

History
The harbour was an important historical waterway for Māori. It had several portages to the Pacific Ocean and to the Waikato River, and various villages and pā (hill forts) clustered around it. Snapper, flounder, mullet, scallops, cockles and pipi provided food in plentiful amounts. In Te Kawerau ā Maki tradition, the taniwha Paikea guards the Manukau Harbour and Waitākere Ranges coastline.

Cornwallis, on the Karangahape Peninsula, was the first site for the future city of Auckland. However, because of fraudulent land sales and rugged conditions, the settlement was mostly abandoned in the 1840s. The surrounding bush clad hills had vast amounts of kauri removed for milling and shipped from a wharf on Paratutai to either the other end of the harbour at Onehunga for use in house building in the new city of Auckland, or along the coast to other New Zealand settlements. The last mills were abandoned in the early 1920s.

European settlement of the area was thus almost often an outgrowth of the Waitematā Harbour-centred settlement, as these settlers spread south and west through the isthmus and reached the Manukau Harbour. One of the few separate earlier European settlements was Onehunga, from where some raiding of enemy settlements occurred during the New Zealand wars, and which later became a landing point for kauri and other products landed by ship and canoe from the south, the shipping route being shorter than the one along the east coast to the Waitematā Harbour. However, the combination of the difficult entry into the harbour, which limited ships to about 1,000 tons maximum, and the extension of the railway to Onehunga in 1873 made naval traffic on the harbour less important again, though the Port of Onehunga can trace its origins to this time.

Construction of a canal between the Manukau and the Waitemata was considered in the early 1900s, and the Auckland and Manukau Canal Act 1908 was passed to allow authorities to take privately owned land for this purpose. However, no serious work (or land take) was undertaken. The act was reported as technically still being in force as of 2008, but was repealed on 1 November 2010. A 2700 ft canal reserve, 2 ch wide, remains in place.

Recreation
The harbour is popular for fishing, though entry to the water is difficult with few all-tide boat ramps; often local beaches are used. The harbour also houses five active sailing clubs, three on the southern side, one near Māngere Bridge, and one on the northern side. Since 1988, there has been an annual interclub competition, hosted by each club in rotation.

Ecological threats
Despite all that is precious about the Manukau, it is under ongoing threat from constant development and growth, with the pollution and damage that brings. Currently, according to the State of Auckland Marine Report Card, the harbour has a D-rating overall, based on water quality, contaminants and sediment, and ecology.

Careful and integrated management of land-based activities, such as development through good land-use practices, and commitment to a programme of integrated management is required to reverse this situation and secure a healthy, productive and sustainable resource for everybody now and for future generations.

In response to concern about the deteriorating state of the Manukau Harbour and the urgent need for a collaborative response to improve its condition, the Manukau Harbour Forum was created in November 2010 to advocate for the restoration of Manukau Harbour.

title: Manukau Harbour


text:
User:Corixidae

Hi, I'm Don.

Where
Lived in Salt Lake City for 30 years until March 2002 when I moved to Seattle for a couple of years. Moved on to the Phoenix metro area in April 2004, back to Salt Lake City in June 2004, and back to the Seattle area again (specifically, Mill Creek) in January 2005.

In 2011, I relocated to Lake Forest Park, and in 2023, to the Shoreline area.

Did
I've worked in retail sales, I've run technical help desks for large managed-care companies, and I've done project management and electronic-data formatting for an environmental laboratory, I've been a systems engineer, and I've worked for non-profits.

Elsewhere

 * Typepad profile
 * X/Twitter
 * Instagram

title: User:Corixidae


text:
The Rundown

The Rundown (known internationally as Welcome to the Jungle) is a 2003 American buddy action comedy film directed by Peter Berg and written by James Vanderbilt and R.J. Stewart. It stars Dwayne Johnson (credited as The Rock), Seann William Scott, Christopher Walken, Rosario Dawson, and William Lucking. In the film, Johnson plays a bounty hunter who travels to Brazil to retrieve his employer's son (Scott). The film was released by Universal Pictures in North America and Japan and by Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International under the Columbia Pictures label internationally on September 26, 2003 and made $80.9 million on an $85 million budget.

Plot
Beck is a "retrieval expert", a bounty hunter who collects debts for Billy Walker. He is sent to a nightclub to retrieve a championship ring from a football player, and after doing so is assaulted by one of Walker's other collectors. Angry, he confronts Walker and tells him that he wants out of the business.

Walker talks Beck into one last bounty – retrieve Walker's son Travis from a small mining town in Brazil and he will give him enough money to open his own restaurant. He accepts and leaves for Brazil.

When he arrives in the town of El Dorado, Beck meets with the man running the mining operation, Cornelius Hatcher. Hatcher gives him his blessing to grab Travis, but reneges after he finds out Travis has discovered the missing golden artifact "O Gato do Diabo” (The Devil's Cat). Hatcher and his men confront Beck in the local bar, but he manages to leave with Travis.

On the way back to the airfield, Travis forces their Jeep off the road and into the jungle. He attempts to escape but is re-captured by Beck. After an unfortunate encounter with some local monkeys, the two find themselves in the camp of the local resistance movement.

At the resistance camp, Travis convinces the rebels that Beck works for Hatcher and was sent to kill them all. After a prolonged fight, Beck gains the upper hand before the rebel leader Mariana intervenes. She wants the Gato so it can be used to ensure the locals can free themselves from Hatcher. Hatcher and his men suddenly attack the camp, killing many rebels.

Beck, Travis, and Mariana escape the camp and Beck makes Mariana a deal – she helps him get Travis to the airfield in exchange for the Gato. After some searching, Travis leads them to a cave behind a waterfall where the Gato is located. They retrieve it and begin the journey back.

On the way back, Mariana chastises Travis for wanting to sell the artifact, but he argues that he actually did want to give it to a museum. She gives them a toxic fruit that temporarily paralyzes them. She tells Beck which direction the airfield is, and leaves them with a fire to keep the animals away.

After waking up able to move, Beck hauls Travis to the airfield. The local pilot, Declan, tells Beck that Mariana was captured earlier by Hatcher and will probably be killed. Travis pleads with Beck to help, and the two head into town to rescue her.

Using a cow stampede for cover, they begin their assault on Hatcher's goons. Travis becomes trapped by gunfire in a bus, and Beck saves him before it explodes. Hatcher tells his brother to take Mariana and the Gato and flee, but they are stopped by Travis.

Hatcher confronts Beck, who offers him the chance to leave town, which Hatcher initially refuses. After he is shot by the townspeople, Hatcher agrees to leave town, but eventually dies from his gunshot wounds. Travis gives the Gato to Mariana before leaving with Beck, who tells him that despite all they've been through he must still return him to the United States.

Back in Los Angeles, Travis is delivered to his father who begins to verbally and physically abuse him. Beck asks to celebrate with them and gives Walker and his men the same fruit Mariana used on him. As they are paralyzed, Beck uncuffs Travis and the duo leave together.

Cast

 * Dwayne Johnson as Beck, a skilled bounty hunter who longs to quit the business and start a career as a chef.
 * Seann William Scott as Travis Walker, a treasure hunter who is searching El Dorado for a lost artifact.
 * Rosario Dawson as Mariana, the town bartender who is also the secret leader of the local resistance against Hatcher.
 * Christopher Walken as Cornelius Bernard Hatcher, the owner of the mining operation and founder of the town of El Dorado.
 * Ewen Bremner as Declan, the Irish pilot who operates out of the town airstrip.
 * Jon Gries as Harvey Hatcher, Cornelius' younger brother and co-owner of the mine. He enforces his brother's orders and commands the security forces.
 * Ernie Reyes Jr. as Manito, a resistance fighter who engages Beck in a prolonged fight using his skill in capoeira.
 * William Lucking as Billy Walker, a loan shark and bookie who uses Beck to collect debts.
 * Antonio Muñoz as Kontiki Rebel
 * Stephen Bishop as Knappmiller, a football player who owes Billy money from gambling debts.
 * Arnold Schwarzenegger as Bar Patron (uncredited cameo)

Production
The movie was originally called Helldorado. It was offered to Peter Berg, who had made one film, Very Bad Things. Looking for inspiration on how to do it, Berg bought a DVD titled "The Fifty Best Fights Ever Filmed". At first he says watching it made him depressed. "I just thought, 'Good God, it's all been done and it's all been done so well, probably with more money than I'm going to have," Berg said. "What am I going to do?" Then he saw the fight between Roddy Piper and Keith David in They Live. "It just hurt watching it," Berg says. "It was a completely different style from all these sexy and sleek movies. And thinking about it, I couldn't remember the last time in a movie fight where I felt the pain, where if you got hit in the face, it hurt. So that's where I found my breathing room: Let's give people old-school guys slugging it out with big punches."

Producer Kevin Misher called the film "Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark" meets "Romancing the Stone" with a little bit of "Midnight Run".

Johnson was paid $12.5 million for the film. "This movie could have been a dark, vicious action thriller," said Berg. "But the fact that it's playful and funny is a tribute to The Rock. He's a charming, charismatic and very smart man."

Berg and producer Kevin Misher were held up by armed robbers in Brazil in June 2002 while scouting locations. This meant they decided to film in Hawaii instead. Shooting began in September 2002. "We just basically made up as we went along," said Scott.

One scene on Oahu involved Johnson and Scott falling down the side of a mountain. "The goal was to put the biggest fall down a hill in a movie that people have ever seen," said Berg. "The big inspiration was the old 'Wide World of Sports' - 'and the agony of defeat' - and wondering what would have happened if that poor bastard on the ski slope had had a few more stages to go," it became a question of finding the stuntmen." Johnson's regular stuntman refused to do the stunt, so they hired "a guy who has a reputation for just doing anything," said Berg. The new stuntman was knocked out the first time.

Arnold Schwarzenegger made a cameo in the film. He visited Universal Studios during the shoot and was having lunch with The Rock. Berg asked if he would like to appear in the film, and Schwarzenegger agreed if they could do it then. "Within 15 minutes, we were on the set," said Berg. This is the last time Schwarzenegger has appeared in a film distributed by Universal Pictures.

Box office
Despite the positive reviews, The Rundown was a significant box office failure, grossing just under $81 million worldwide compared to its $85 million budget, which makes a sequel not entirely likely. Director Peter Berg has expressed interest in making a sequel to the film but notes that "no one can ever get motivated and focused enough to do it."

Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 70% based on 152 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The website's critical consensus states, "The Rundown doesn't break any new ground, but it's a smart, funny buddy action picture with terrific comic chemistry between Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and Seann William Scott." At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 59 out of 100 based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3$1/2$ stars out of 4, saying "The jungle locations give the film a texture and beauty that underlines the out-sized characters."

Possible sequel
In December 2009, Berg acknowledged that discussions for a sequel had begun shortly after the film's release and were ongoing. The filmmaker cited scheduling conflicts as the reason why the project hadn't been green-lit yet. By November 2010, Dwayne Johnson corroborated this; stating that he and Berg are always discussing options for a second film. Johnson stated that the pair are also in negotiations with Universal Pictures, and that if a good enough story is written the film will be made.

In December 2013, Berg announced that he was officially developing a second Rundown film. The filmmaker confirmed that Dwayne Johnson also was invested in a sequel, while stating that Scott would not return in his co-starring role. A number of unnamed screenwriters were hired for the project, by the filmmaker. By September 2016, Berg stated that the script for the sequel had been written with Kevin Hart in mind as the co-star, while also stating that he would also consider making the film with Jonah Hill alternatively in the supporting role. Johnson publicly confirmed his involvement with the project, while proposing HellDorado - which was the working title of the first movie - as a possible title for the sequel. The pair asked fans to campaign for Hill to sign on as co-star. In August 2018, the Berg revealed that the current draft of the script included a story that took place in Alaska with a comedic scene involving walruses, similar to the scene with baboons from the first movie. Acknowledging Johnson's disinterest in the ice-covered state, the filmmaker stated that a new draft is being written with a less frigid location being considered for the plot.

In September 2020, Berg stated that development for a sequel is ongoing, while citing Johnson's busy production schedule as one of the reasons the film hasn't been made yet. The filmmaker also stated that they are currently "rethink[ing] the script".

title: The Rundown


text:
Wikipedia:Autobiography

Writing an autobiography on Wikipedia is an example of conflict-of-interest editing and is strongly  discouraged. Editing a biography about yourself is acceptable only if you are removing unambiguous vandalism or clear-cut and serious violations of our biography of living persons policy.

Wikipedia has gone through many prolonged disputes about the significance, factual accuracy, and neutrality of such articles. Avoiding such editing keeps Wikipedia neutral and helps avoid pushing a particular point of view.

Writing autobiographies is discouraged because it is difficult to write a neutral, verifiable autobiography, and there are many pitfalls.

If you have been published elsewhere on a topic, we welcome your expertise on the subject for Wikipedia articles. However, every Wikipedia article must cover its subject in a neutral, fair, and comprehensive way to advance knowledge of the subject as a whole. Please acknowledge and minimize your biases while enriching the Wikipedia readers' knowledge. Articles that exist primarily to advance the interests of the contributor will likely be deleted.

The problem with autobiographies
The quote above illustrates a number of fundamental problems with autobiographies:
 * They are often biased, usually positively. People will write overly positive impressions of themselves, and often present opinions as facts. Wikipedia aims to avoid presenting opinions as facts. Neutral point of view does  simply mean writing in the third person.
 * They are often unverifiable. If the only source for a particular fact about you is, readers cannot verify it. Everything on Wikipedia must be verifiable. For example, unverifiable autobiographical claims are often made about one's internal thoughts, including one's feelings, hopes, dreams, and aspirations. There is no way for readers to verify what you think—a verifiable claim may result from a secondary source reporting on you expressing your thoughts publicly.
 * They can contain original research. People often include information in autobiographies that has never been published before, or is the result of first-hand knowledge. In order to verify information of this kind, readers would need to perform their own original research. Wikipedia does not distribute previously unpublished information, nor does it permit original research.

In this context, an "autobiography" is not only a biography you have written about yourself, but also a biography you have paid or instructed someone else to write on your behalf.

Why these problems exist
Your own neutrality cannot be adequately determined without external sources or analysis. Unconscious biases are commonplace and problematic in autobiographical articles, affecting neutrality and verifiability.

Even if you believe you can write a verifiable autobiography without doing original research, you may still not be able to achieve a neutral result. As a notable figure, you might emphasize objective data, such as the sheer volume of your published material, or the fact that your work has been translated into different languages or performed in other countries. Examples of volume or scope can create a non-neutral tone that is usually recognizable as deliberate self-aggrandizement. Likewise, deep biographical detail, such as details of your religious beliefs, the careers of your non-notable family members, or the mere fact that you have famous friends may not be verifiable or relevant.

If Wikipedia already has an article about you
It is difficult to write neutrally and objectively about oneself (see above about unconscious biases). You should generally let others do the writing.

Contributing material or making suggestions on the article's talk page is considered proper—let independent editors write it into the article itself or approve it if you still want to make the changes yourself. It may help attract attention to your talk page request to include the edit COI template as part of the request.

In clear-cut cases, it is permissible to edit pages connected to yourself. So, you can revert vandalism; but of course it has to be simple, obvious vandalism and not a content dispute. Similarly, you should feel free to remove obviously mistaken facts about yourself, such as marital status, current employer, place of birth, and so on. (Note it on the talk page.) If the fact has different interpretations, others will edit it.

Since Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, it should be a tertiary source—it should not contain any "new" information or theories (see No original research) and most information should exist in checkable third-party sources. Facts, retellings of events, and clarifications which you may wish to have added to an article about yourself must be verifiable with reliable sources.

If you are a regular Wikipedia editor, you can identify yourself on the article's talk page with the Notable Wikipedian notice.

Problems in an article about you
If Wikipedia has an article about you, we want it to be accurate, fair, balanced and neutral—to accurately reflect the sourced, cited opinions of reliable sources. If you believe reliable sources exist which will make the article more balanced, you can help by pointing other editors to such sources.

You may wish to make suggestions on the article's talk page or, if the problem is clear-cut and uncontroversial, you may wish to edit the page yourself. If your edit may be misinterpreted, you should explain it on the talk page. Note that if the fact has different interpretations, others will edit it. Your edits are more likely to be accepted if they are neutral and well-sourced to third parties.

If others do not agree with the changes you propose, you may pursue dispute resolution. For instance, the Biographies of living persons noticeboard may offer a forum for impartial contributors to help resolve differences.

If you feel insufficient attention is being paid to problems with an article about you, try placing a note on the help desk detailing the problems. Legal problems with material in an article about you, please email [mailto:info-en-q@wikimedia.org info-en-q@wikimedia.org] promptly with full details. But do not post legal threats on Wikipedia itself (articles, talk pages, noticeboards)—doing so is a serious violation of Wikipedia rules (see WP:No legal threats) and will lead to your being immediately blocked from further editing until you withdraw the threat.

If the article about you has no photo, or you can supply a better one, feel free to contribute one under a suitable free content license. (If you did not create the photo yourself e.g. photos from promotional materials, make sure you have the legal authority to release the photo under such a license.)

Creating an article about yourself
If your life and achievements are verifiable and genuinely notable, someone else will probably create an article about you sooner or later, but creating an article about yourself is strongly discouraged: we want biographies here, not autobiographies.

 * Independent creation encourages independent validation of both significance and verifiability; it is natural for people to exaggerate in writing about themselves. All edits to articles must conform to No original research, Neutral point of view, and Verifiability.
 * If no third party has yet created an article about you, there is the danger that, should the article be vandalised, there will be no interested editors watching and the vandalism may remain uncorrected for long periods.
 * Self-created articles are often nominated for deletion, and comments in the ensuing discussions are often most uncomplimentary. Many editors feel that persons who create autobiographies are exploiting a volunteer project for their own aggrandizement.
 * Anything you submit will be edited mercilessly to make it neutral. Many autobiographical articles have become a source of dismay to their original authors after a period of editing by the community, and in several instances their original authors have asked that they be deleted – usually unsuccessfully, because if an article qualifies for deletion the community will typically do that without prompting, and an article won't be deleted just because its subject is unhappy with it.

If you really think that you can meet the inclusion criteria, and if you are willing to accept that your article must be neutral and non-promotional, then propose one at Articles for Creation instead of creating one directly. Articles for Creation provides independent viewpoints that may uncover or discover biases you were unaware of, and shows you value volunteer editors' time over your own ego.

title: Wikipedia:Autobiography


text:
Wikipedia talk:Autobiography

Misleading advice
If your life and achievements are verifiable and genuinely notable, someone else will probably create an article about you sooner or later. Er, no; there are more notable living people without articles than with them. I would certainly not give this advice to, say, an Algerian pop singer who peaked in popularity in the 90s. Mach61 (talk) 18:45, 31 December 2023 (UTC)
 * It's a bit of a hollow, unverifiable claim to make, and I think it should be worded another way. However, to be blunt—the point of the advice is to dissuade people from making autobiographies, because most autobiographies are bad. Any rewording has to somehow maintain the firm tone and intent, or else it's mostly a useless verbiage in the context of this page. Remsense  留  18:48, 31 December 2023 (UTC)

Merge
I propose to merge this page into FAQ/Article subjects, and to make the various shortcuts point to that page.

My reasons for doing so are several: the content is duplicative; it is often not clear which page should be recommended to enquirers at help desks; it is confusing for people searching for such pages to find so many variants; and it will reduce the maintenance overhead.

Rather than merging in the other direction, I would keep the "FAQ/Article subjects" title, as it is part of a series; it also applies to people wanting to write about their company or organisation.

Thoughts? Andy Mabbett ( Pigsonthewing ); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:19, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

 * Oppose this is a guideline and therefore holds weight. WP:FAQ isn't even an essay. Further FAQ/Article subjects is about subjects who already have an article, which is different to most situations where this guideline applies when people are trying to create a new article. It's not uncommon for us to have a formal guideline or policy and then another page which explains it - following your reasoning would mean merging multiple policies and guidelines into the FAQ. SmartSE (talk) 17:59, 15 February 2024 (UTC)
 * You are incorrect; the FAQ page is also about people who want or think there should be an article about them (e.g. Q11: "Can I start an article about myself or my company?"). We can easily say the FAQ page is a guideline. I make no proposals to merge policies into FAQs. Andy Mabbett ( Pigsonthewing ); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 18:33, 15 February 2024 (UTC)
 * There's a specific process for properly making a page into a guideline. Graham87 (talk) 07:02, 16 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Oppose. This is an important page with hundreds of incoming wikilinks and probably thousands of incoming external links (I just made one myself from a question on Quora). Andrewa (talk) 04:39, 11 March 2024 (UTC)
 * So? We have redirects for that. Our internal housekeeping should not trump convenience for people with concerns about what we write about them. Andy Mabbett ( Pigsonthewing ); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:56, 10 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Strongest possible oppose. This is an in-depth explainer with plenty of good reasoning that I think would be either (1) a lot longer than a lot of the FAQ answers on the suggested page and dominate it, or (2) would be required to be trimmed down to fit the size of that and a lot of the valuable info would be lost. Wikipedia has plenty of explanatory project pages explaining community conesus and guidelines and offering advice. We don't need to trim them down for the sake of slimming the project. E-ink is free. If you want this advice proffered there, an except can be included with reference to the page, possibly with main. microbiology Marcus [petri dish·growths] 00:36, 11 April 2024 (UTC)

How To Add information?
What needs to remember when adding information? and to ensure not violating any rules of Wikipedia? I hope someone mentor me. Tricounty17 (talk) 06:59, 22 February 2024 (UTC)

 * I recommend reading the various guidelines and policies that the page itself links to. Remsense  诉  07:35, 22 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Or have a look at Simplified ruleset and feel free to ask on my talk page of there's anything there you don't understand. Or drop in to the teahouse to seek a more formal mentor. Andrewa (talk) 04:46, 11 March 2024 (UTC)

title: Wikipedia talk:Autobiography


text:
Hutchison Whampoa

Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL) was an investment holding company based in Hong Kong. It was a Fortune Global 500 company and one of the largest companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. HWL was an international corporation with a diverse array of holdings which included the world's biggest port, and telecommunication operations in 14 countries that were run under the 3 brand. Its businesses also included retail, property development, and infrastructure.

In 2015, the company merged with Cheung Kong Group as part of a major reorganisation of the group's businesses. The combined business was renamed CK Hutchison Holdings.

History
Hutchison Whampoa originated as two separate companies, both founded in the 19th century. Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock was formed in 1863 by John Couper, as a port management company. The other part was founded as Hutchison International, a wholesale trading company and importer of consumer products, in 1877 by John Duflon Hutchison.

In the 1965, Hutchison International under the leadership of Sir Douglas Clague gained a controlling interest of Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock. He pursued an aggressive path of diversification. He acquired A.S. Watson, Davie, Boag and Co. Ltd., Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Co. Ltd., and China Provident Co. Ltd. A decade later, however, the conglomerate reported losses of HK$130 million and became unable to service its growing debt.

In 1975, Douglas Clague lost control of Hutchison Whampoa due to disastrous speculation on foreign currency and stock markets. HSBC refused to bail out the company. Though it was later taken over by the bank. HSBC took a 22% stake in the company and replaced Clague. In 1977, Hutchison Whampoa Limited was formed as a result of merger between Hutchison International Limited and Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Company Limited. A year later Hutchison Whampoa was listed on stock exchange.

In 1979, Michael Sandberg convinced G. M. Sayer, not to hand over a restructured Hutchison Whampoa to another British firm. The bank instead sold off the company on generous terms to Li Ka-shing. On 25 September 1979, at the close of trade in London, HSBC announced that it was selling its 23% stake in Hutchison Whampoa to Cheung Kong for HK$639 million.

During the 1980s, Hutchison Whampoa bought 33 percent of Hong Kong Electric Holdings. In 1985, Hutchison Telecommunications, a mobile-phone service, was launched which became a major player in telecommunications in the 1990s. By 2004, Li's equity in the HW gradually increased to 49.9 per cent.

In March 2011, Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (HPHT) announced that the company would IPO through Singapore Exchange for about US$5.4 billion. This would be the largest offering in South East Asia and surpass Petronas Chemicals' offering of about $4.1 billion.

In January 2015, Li Ka-shing entered into talks with Telefónica to buy its British mobile division O2 for around $15.4 billion but the deal was blocked in 2016 by the EU's Competition Commissioner.

In January 2015, Li Ka Shing confirmed plans for Cheung Kong Holdings to purchase the remaining shares in Hutchison Whampoa that it did not already own, and merge the two companies as CK Hutchison Holdings. The merger is part of a larger reorganisation of Li's businesses, which will involve the spin-off of property assets into Cheung Kong Property. The new holding company has been incorporated in the Cayman Islands, rather than Hong Kong.

In May 2015, Hutchison revealed plans to sell one-third of its stake in its British-based mobile phone businesses for a potential fee of $4.3 billion to five investors including GIC Private Limited, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, BTG Pactual and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.

Operations
HWL operated in 54 countries and employed around 230,000 staff worldwide. The company had six core businesses, most of which transferred to CK Hutchison:

Ports and related services
Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) operates across Europe, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. It operates in five of the seven busiest container ports in the world, handling 13% of the world's container traffic. Hutchison Whampoa operates container terminals in Panama, as well as Mexico and other parts of the Americas.

Property and hotels
From office buildings in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, to luxury residential properties in the United Kingdom, Hutchison Whampoa Property develops and invests in real estate. Together with Cheung Kong Holdings, HWL has set up a joint-venture company, Harbour Plaza Hotel Management to operate and manage hotels under the portfolio of the Hutchison Property division.

Retail
A.S. Watson Group (ASW), HWL's retail arm, operates its flagship retail chains in Asia such as Watsons, ParknShop supermarket, TASTE food galleria, GOURMET boutique style fine food hall, GREAT Food Hall, Fortress electrical appliances store, Watson's Wine Cellar and Nuance-Watson duty-free operator. In Europe, ASW's retail network comprises health and beauty chains: DC, Drogas, Kruidvat, Rossmann, Savers Health & Beauty, Superdrug, Trekpleister, Spektr and Watson's, as well as luxury perfumeries and cosmetics retail brands: Marionnaud, ICI Paris XL and The Perfume Shop. A.S. Watson is the world's largest health and beauty retailer.

Infrastructure
Cheung Kong Infrastructure (CKI), HWL's infrastructure arm, is a diversified infrastructure company with businesses in transportation, energy, infrastructure materials, water plants and related operations.

Energy
HWL was a major shareholder of Husky Energy, one of Canada's largest energy and energy related companies, holding 33.97%.

Telecommunications
HWL owned the "3" brand. It also owns 60.4% of Hutchison Asia Telecommunications (HAT), which provides mobile phone networks and data services in Asia. The company's subsidiary 3 Group Europe owns its '3' branded businesses in Europe. Another 1% of HAT is owned directly by Cheung Kong Holdings, the holding behind Cheung Kong group to which HWL belongs. Additionally, HWL is an official backer of the .mobi top level domain created specifically for the mobile internet and has launched the mobile portal Three.mobi under its "3" brand. Hutchison Whampoa attempted to purchase O2 for £10.25 billion in March 2015, but the European Commission blocked the acquisition in May 2016.

Criticisms
Hutchison Whampoa has received criticism from charities such as the Burma Campaign UK and appear on the charity's 'dirty list' for their involvement in trade with the military junta in Burma. They state that the company's subsidiary Myanmar International Terminals Thilawa (MITT) is "strategically positioned to facilitate and service Myanmar's international trade" and are concerned about the role foreign investment plays in "perpetuating" the country's brutal regime.

title: Hutchison Whampoa


text:
Draft:Dean Shomshak

Dean Shomshak (born 1964) is an author of supplements for role playing games.

Early life and education
Shomshak attended Peninsula High School in Gig Harbor, Washington and was a semi-finalist for a Merit Scholarship in 1981.

Career
After starting his career writing articles for game magazines, Shomshak moved on to writing supplements for Hero Games's Champions system. Shomshak wrote The Ultimate Super Mage debuted on February 17, 1996 at DunDraCon and was then the first text product published on floppy disc for computers through the Hero Plus division of Hero Games. Shomshak wrote The Mystic World (2004) for Champions, a subject which had previously been covered in Mystic Masters by Allen Varney and The Ultimate Supermage by Shomshak, with an RPGnet reviewer commenting that "In developing the cosmology of The Mystic World, Shomshak has drawn primarily from Kabbalah, mixed it with Comic-book Metaphysick, and thrown in a dash of William Blake for flavor."

Shomshak was later hired by White Wolf Game Studio in the early 2000s to develop role-playing game supplements. Shomshak wrote the Vampire: The Masquerade supplement Clanbook: Followers of Set (2001), which attempts to address some of the issues in portraying that clan from previous publications, with a reviewer from RPGnet saying that "Dean Shomshak's new book addresses most of these issues, but does little to solve them. The image problem is lessened with advice on playing Setites seriously, but their focus is largely unchanged. ... In terms of style, Mr. Shomshak's writing is accessible, and apart from the regularly-repeated error of 'Clanbook: Setite' the text does not have an excessive number of typos."

Magazine articles

 * "A Ghastly Grimoire," Dragon #126 (October, 1987)
 * "The Dragon's Bestiary: Colder Than Ice," Dragon #129 (January, 1988)
 * "Unspeakable Secrets Made Easy," Dragon #150 (October, 1989)
 * "The Well-Rounded Monster Hunter," Dragon #150 (October, 1989)
 * "How Far Did Grond Throw You?" Adventurer's Club #20 (Spring, 1993)
 * "What the Deities Mean," The Unspeakable Oath #10 (Fall, 1993)
 * "Crooks and Crusaders: Edomite Monsters," Adventurer's Club #22 (Fall, 1993)
 * "College of Alchemy," Adventurer's Club #23 (Winter, 1994)
 * "Mega-Villains," Digital Hero #3 (September, 2002)

Books

 * Creatures of the Night: Horror Enemies. HERO Games, 1993
 * The Ultimate Super-Mage. HERO Games, 1996
 * The Super-Mage Bestiary. HERO Games, 1999
 * Time of Thin Blood. White Wolf Games, 1999 (with Sarah Roark)
 * Aberrant: Year One. White Wolf Games, 1999 (with James A. Moore, John Snead)
 * "Introduction," in Nights of Prophecy. White Wolf Games, 2000
 * Exalted Storyteller's Companion. White Wolf Games, 2001 (with Heather Grove and Adam Tinworth)
 * Clanbook: Followers of Set. White Wolf Games, 2001
 * Blood Sacrifice: The Thaumaturgy Companion. White Wolf Games, 2002 (with Ari Marmell)
 * "Guardians of the Invisible Fortress," in Time of Tumult. White Wolf Games, 2002
 * Mexico City By Night. White Wolf Games, 2002 (with Philippe R. Boulle and Lucien Soulban)
 * Relics and Rituals. Sword and Sorcery Studios, 2002 (with diverse hands)
 * EverQuest Role-Playing Game Game Master's Guide. Sword and Sorcery Studio, 2002 (with diverse hands)
 * Sunset Empires. White Wolf Games, 2002 (with diverse hands)
 * Lair of the Hidden. White Wolf Games, 2003 (with Sarah Roark and Janet Trautvetter)
 * Vampire Player's Guide. White Wolf Games, 2003 (with diverse hands)
 * Orpheus. White Wolf Games. 2003 (with diverse hands)
 * Shades of Gray. White Wolf Games. 2003 (with diverse hands)
 * Gehenna. White Wolf Games. 2004 (with diverse hands)
 * End Game. White Wolf Games. 2004 (with diverse hands)
 * The Mystic World. Hero Games, 2004
 * Arcane Adversaries. Hero Games, 2004
 * Vampire: The Requiem, 2004
 * The Ultimate Mystic. Hero Games, 2005
 * Scroll of the Monk. White Wolf, 2006
 * The Manual of Exalted Power: Sidereals. White Wolf, 2007
 * The Compass of Celestial Directions, Vol. IV: The Underworld. White Wolf, 2008
 * Scion Companion. White Wolf, 2009
 * Return of the Scarlet Empress. White Wolf, 2010

title: Draft:Dean Shomshak


text:
Talk:Interactive proof system

Untitled
Hmmm. I'm certainly not an expert in computational complexity theory, but I'm unfamiliar with this idea, and the article at the moment sounds overly enthusiastic.

Could we have full references for the papers you mention, so I can check where else they have been cited? Has the concept been used to prove anything else of interest? --Robert Merkel 04:58, 30 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * OK, it's real, and there are papers in the area. Still not sure how important it is, though. --Robert Merkel 05:02, 30 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * It's responsible for at least two of the most important theorems in complexity theory, the IP=PSPACE theorem and the PCP Theorem. Both of these are widely cited and held in high regard because of their difficulty, how surprising they are, and how they link interactive proof systems together with traditional machines. They've also been valuable in proving other things like the lower bounds on approximation algorithms. This stuff should be covered in any second-semester course on complexity, at least in passing. I provided 10 references, most of which have received many hundreds of citations and are seminal works. Some you can read for free, have a look. Deco 09:26, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

If that still matters, it's a fairly popular concept in complexity theory. You can look the references up in, for example, this survey and they get cited a lot (hundreds of citations for each of them). Andris 20:49, May 19, 2004 (UTC)

My written english is not so well, but there is no Entry in German for this one, so I strived through the english version. You should Include a remarkt that class IP and PSPACE are equivalent!

Bolding of abbreviations
I admit I know nothing about the subject of the article, but I think there may be a tad too many boldings in this article.--Rockfang (talk) 10:15, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

The lead forgets to explain...
The lead does not give enough context. Only after reading on I infer the following context, but I am not an expert.

Real machines can only produce text by following mechanical procedures, possibly involving random choices from finite sets, and otherwise relying on given inputs and built-in constants.

In the abstract machine of an interactive proof, the prover is trying to convince the verifier about a statement, and the question is if there are messages that the prover can supply to the verifier to convince it. In order to give a proof of anything, the proof must be found, provided it exists at all, and that may require a very long search. If the proof does not exist, a search for it may never end. We assume the prover is all-powerful in the sense that it is able to find a message that achieves the goal if such a message exists, and is able to avoid being stuck in an infinite search if the proof does not exist. In other words, we are not really concerned about how the prover works. We are studying the verifier. Cacadril (talk) 07:32, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

Origin year
The current article says, "Although NP may be viewed as using interaction, it wasn't until 1985 that the concept of computation through interaction was conceived by two independent groups of researchers." It is well known that Goldwasser-Micali-Rackoff existed by the middle of 1983; for instance, I heard their work expounded during lunches at the FCT'83 conference in late August in Borgholm, Sweden. It was rejected from three previous STOC/FOCS'es. Not sure how to revise the article, so I'll leave it as a discussion point. KWRegan (talk) 02:29, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

title: Talk:Interactive proof system