title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Dewey was the Republican candidate again in the 1948 presidential election, with California Governor Earl Warren on the bottom half of the ticket. Dewey was almost unanimously projected to win against incumbent Harry S. Truman, who had taken over from FDR when he died in office in 1945.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: During the primaries, Dewey was repeatedly urged to engage in red-baiting, but he refused. In a debate before the Oregon primary with Harold Stassen, Dewey argued against outlawing the Communist Party of the United States of America, saying "you can't shoot an idea with a gun." He later told Styles Bridges, the Republican national campaign manager, that he was not "going around looking under beds".


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Given Truman's sinking popularity and the Democratic Party's three-way split (the left-winger Henry A. Wallace and the Southern segregationist Strom Thurmond ran third-party campaigns), Dewey seemed unbeatable to the point that the Republicans believed that all they had to do to win was to avoid making any major mistakes.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Following this advice, Dewey carefully avoided risks and spoke in platitudes, avoiding controversial issues, and remained vague on what he planned to do as president, with speech after speech being nonpartisan and also filled with optimistic assertions or empty statements of the obvious, including the famous quote: "You know that your future is still ahead of you." An editorial in the "Louisville Courier-Journal" summed it up:


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: No presidential candidate in the future will be so inept that four of his major speeches can be boiled down to these historic four sentences: Agriculture is important. Our rivers are full of fish. You cannot have freedom without liberty. Our future lies ahead.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Another reason Dewey ran such a cautious, vague campaign came from his experience as a presidential candidate in 1944, where Dewey felt that he had allowed Roosevelt to draw him into a partisan, verbal "mudslinging" match, and he believed that this had cost him votes.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Dewey was accordingly convinced in 1948 to appear as non-partisan as possible, and to emphasize the positive aspects of his campaign while ignoring his opponent: this strategy proved to be a total failure, as it allowed Truman to repeatedly criticize and ridicule Dewey, who never answered any of Truman's criticisms.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Although Dewey was not as conservative as the Republican-controlled 80th Congress, the association proved problematic, as Truman tied Dewey to the "do-nothing" Congress.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Near the end of the campaign, Dewey considered adopting a more aggressive style and responding directly to Truman's criticisms, going so far as to tell his aides one evening that he wanted to "tear to shreds" a speech draft and make it more critical of the Democratic ticket. However, nearly all his major advisors insisted that it would be a mistake to change tactics. Dewey's wife Frances strongly opposed her husband changing tactics, telling him, "If I have to stay up all night to see that you don't tear up that speech [draft], I will." Dewey relented and continued to ignore Truman's attacks and to focus on positive generalities instead of specific issues.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: The "Chicago Daily Tribune" printed "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN" as its post-election headline, issuing 150,000 copies before the returns showed Truman winning.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Dewey received 45.1% of the popular vote to Truman's 49.6%. In the Electoral College, Dewey won 16 states with 189 electoral votes, Truman 28 states with 303 electoral votes, and Thurmond four states (all in the South) with 39 electoral votes. The key states in the election were Illinois, California, and Ohio, which together had a combined 78 electoral votes. Truman won each of these three states by less than one percentage point; had Dewey won all three states, he would have won the election in the Electoral College, and if he had any two, this would have forced a contingent election in the House of Representatives. Summarizing Dewey's campaign, a biographer wrote that "Dewey had swept the industrial Northeast, pared Democratic margins in the big cities by a third, run better than any Republican since Herbert Hoover in the South, and still lost decisively." After the election, Dewey told publisher Henry Luce that "you can analyze figures from now to kingdom come, and all they will show is that we lost the farm vote which we had in 1944 and that lost us the election."


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: A biographer noted that Dewey "rarely mentioned 1948 in the years thereafter. It was like a locked room in a musty mansion whose master never entered ... he seemed a bit bewildered at the unanimous front put up by his Albany advisers [during the campaign], regretted not having taken a final poll when his own senses detected slippage, and couldn't resist a potshot at "that bastard Truman" for having successfully exploited farmers' fears of a new depression."


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Pre-election planning by Dewey and his advisors for a potential presidential transition was much greater in 1948 than in any previous election cycle, and included selection by Dewey of potential cabinet officers. Though these efforts were ridiculed after Dewey was defeated, pre-election transition planning later became standard practice.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Dewey did not run for president in 1952, but he played a key role in securing the Republican nomination for General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Taft was an announced candidate and, given his age, he freely admitted 1952 would be his last chance to win the presidency. Once Eisenhower became a candidate, Dewey used his powerful political machine to win Eisenhower the support of delegates in New York and elsewhere.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: The 1952 campaign culminated in a climactic moment in the fierce rivalry between Dewey and Taft for control of the Republican Party. At the Republican Convention, pro-Taft delegates and speakers verbally attacked Dewey as the real power behind Eisenhower, but Dewey had the satisfaction of seeing Eisenhower win the nomination and end Taft's presidential hopes for the last time.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Dewey played a major role in helping California Senator Richard Nixon become Eisenhower's running mate. When Eisenhower won the presidency later that year, many of Dewey's closest aides and advisors became leading figures in the Eisenhower Administration. Among them were Herbert Brownell, who would become Eisenhower's Attorney General; James Hagerty, who would become White House Press Secretary; and John Foster Dulles, who would become Eisenhower's Secretary of State.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Dewey's biographer Richard Norton Smith wrote, "For fifteen years ... these two combatants waged political warfare. Their dispute pitted East against Midwest, city against countryside, internationalist against isolationist, pragmatic liberals against principled conservatives. Each man thought himself the genuine spokesman of the future; each denounced the other as a political heretic."


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: In a 1949 speech, Dewey criticized Taft and his followers by saying that "we have in our party some fine, high-minded patriotic people who honestly oppose farm price supports, unemployment insurance, old age benefits, slum clearance, and other social programs... these people believe in a laissez-faire society and look back wistfully to the miscalled 'good old days' of the nineteenth century... if such efforts to turn back the clock are actually pursued, you can bury the Republican Party as the deadest pigeon in the country." He added that people who opposed such social programs should "go out and try to get elected in a typical American community and see what happens to them. But they ought not to do it as Republicans."


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: In the speech, Dewey added that the Republican Party believed in social progress "under a flourishing, competitive system of private enterprise where every human right is expanded ... we are opposed to delivering the nation into the hands of any group who will have the power to tell the American people whether they may have food or fuel, shelter or jobs." Dewey believed in what he called "compassionate capitalism", and argued that "in the modern age, man's needs include as much economic security as is consistent with individual freedom." When Taft and his supporters criticized Dewey's policies as liberal "me-tooism", or "aping the New Deal in a vain attempt to outbid Roosevelt's heirs", Dewey responded that he was following in the tradition of Republicans such as Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, and that "it was conservative reforms like anti-trust laws and federal regulation of railroads ... that retained the allegiance of the people for a capitalist system combining private incentive and public conscience."


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: In May 1953, Governor Dewey set up a nine-member Advisory Board to help the State Safety Division’s Bureau of Safety and Accident Prevention and appointed Edward Burton Hughes (the Deputy New York State Superintendent of Public Works) as Chairman. The Advisory Board was formed to draft accident prevention policies and programs.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Dewey's third term as governor of New York expired at the end of 1954, after which he retired from public service and returned to his law practice, Dewey Ballantine, although he remained a power broker behind the scenes in the Republican Party. In 1956, when Eisenhower mulled not running for a second term, he suggested Dewey as his choice as successor, but party leaders made it plain that they would not entrust the nomination to Dewey yet again, and ultimately Eisenhower decided to run for re-election. Dewey also played a major role that year in convincing Eisenhower to keep Nixon as his running mate; Eisenhower had considered dropping Nixon from the Republican ticket and picking someone he felt would be less partisan and controversial. However, Dewey argued that dropping Nixon from the ticket would only anger Republican voters while winning Eisenhower few votes from the Democrats. Dewey's arguments helped convince Eisenhower to keep Nixon on the ticket. In 1960, Dewey would strongly support Nixon's ultimately unsuccessful presidential campaign against Democrat John F. Kennedy.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Although Dewey publicly supported Nelson Rockefeller in all four of his campaigns for Governor of New York, and backed Rockefeller in his losing 1964 bid for the Republican presidential nomination against Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, he did privately express concern and disappointment with what he regarded as Rockefeller's "spendthrift" methods as governor, and once told him "I like you Nelson, but I don't think I can afford you." In 1968, when both Rockefeller and Nixon were competing for the Republican presidential nomination, Dewey was publicly neutral, but "privately, according to close friends, he favored Nixon."


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: By the 1960s, as the conservative wing assumed more and more power within the Republican Party, Dewey removed himself further and further from party matters. When the Republicans in 1964 gave the conservative Senator Goldwater their presidential nomination, Dewey declined to even attend the Republican Convention in San Francisco; it was the first Republican Convention he had missed since 1936. Still, however, he did publicly support Goldwater for president in the election.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Although closely identified with the Republican Party for virtually his entire adult life, Dewey was a close friend of Democratic Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, and Dewey aided Humphrey in being named as the Democratic nominee for vice-president in 1964, advising President Lyndon Johnson on ways to block efforts at the party convention by Kennedy loyalists to stampede Robert F. Kennedy onto the ticket as Johnson's running mate.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: In the mid-1960s, President Johnson tried to convince Dewey to accept positions on several government commissions, especially a national crime commission, which Johnson wanted Dewey to chair. After Nixon won the presidency in 1968, there were rumors that Dewey would be offered a Cabinet position, or a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. However, Dewey declined all offers to return to government service, preferring instead to concentrate on his highly profitable law firm. By the early 1960s, his share of the firm's profits had made him a millionaire, and his net worth at the time of his death was estimated at over $3 million (or over $ million in dollars).


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Dewey was offered the position of Chief Justice of the United States by Dwight D. Eisenhower and again by Richard Nixon in 1969. He declined the offer both times.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Dewey's wife Frances died in July 1970, six years after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Later that year he began dating actress Kitty Carlisle, and there was talk of marriage.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: On March 15, 1971, Dewey traveled to Miami, Florida, for a brief golfing vacation with his friend Dwayne Andreas, and others. The next day, following a round of golf with baseball star Carl Yastrzemski, Dewey failed to appear for his ride to Miami airport. He was found dead in his room. An autopsy determined that he had died suddenly from a massive heart attack.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Following a public memorial service at Saint James' Episcopal Church in New York City, which was attended by President Nixon, former vice president Hubert Humphrey, New York governor Nelson Rockefeller, and other prominent politicians, Dewey was buried next to his wife Frances in the town cemetery of Pawling, New York. After his death, his farm of Dapplemere was sold and renamed "Dewey Lane Farm" in his honor.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Dewey received varied reactions from the public and fellow politicians, with praise for his good intentions, honesty, administrative talents, and inspiring speeches, but most also criticizing his ambition and perceived stiffness in public. One of his biographers wrote that he had "a personality that attracted contempt and adulation in equal proportion."


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Dewey was a forceful and inspiring speaker, traveling the whole country during his presidential campaigns and attracting uncommonly huge crowds. His friend and neighbor Lowell Thomas believed that Dewey was "an authentic colossus" whose "appetite for excellence [tended] to frighten less obsessive types", and his 1948 running mate Earl Warren "professed little personal affection for Dewey, but [believed] him a born executive who would make a great president." The pollster George Gallup once described Dewey as "the ablest public figure of his lifetime... the most misunderstood man in recent American history."


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: On the other hand, President Franklin D. Roosevelt privately called Dewey "the little man" and a "son of a bitch", and to Robert Taft and other conservative Republicans Dewey "became synonymous with ... New York newspapers, New York banks, New York arrogance – the very city Taft's America loves to hate." A Taft supporter once referred to Dewey as "that snooty little governor of New York."


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Herbert Brownell, Dewey's campaign manager in his 1944 and 1948 presidential campaigns, later recalled that Dewey was "a tough man to herd...He'd see a local political leader who wasn't doing a very good job and he'd tell him so. Well, he should have left that to his managers to do...he could tell another person what to do brilliantly, but he wouldn't do it himself. He'd give me the perfect formula for handling a difficult person, but then he'd get annoyed at something the guy said." According to Brownell, "perfectionism had its price, and Dewey paid it...He didn't really like handshaking, and he wasn't good at it...he'd climbed up the [political] ladder the hard way. He worked harder, studied longer than anyone else. He could take a problem, break it down into component parts, assign it to talented people. He was a real fighter. As president he would have been boss, but the glad handing, small talk, personality side of politics, he just could not do." When asked if Dewey was happy in politics, Brownell replied "I don't think he was ever happy. He got joy out of attainment. He was satisfied with many of his accomplishments. But as for happiness, in the usual sense of the word – he wasn't really geared to our political system."


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Dewey grew his mustache when he was dating Frances, and because "she liked it, the mustache stayed, to delight cartoonists and dismay political advisers for 20 years." During the 1944 election campaign, Dewey suffered an unexpected blow when Alice Roosevelt Longworth was reported as having mocked Dewey as "the little man on the wedding cake", alluding to his neat mustache and dapper dress. It was ridicule he could never shake.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Dewey alienated former Republican president Herbert Hoover, who confided to a friend "Dewey has no inner reservoir of knowledge on which to draw for his thinking," elaborating that "A man couldn't wear a mustache like that without having it affect his mind."


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Dewey had a tendency towards pomposity and was considered stiff and unapproachable in public, with his aide Ruth McCormick Simms once describing him as "cold, cold as a February iceberg". She added that "he was brilliant and thoroughly honest."


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: During his governorship, one writer observed: "A blunt fact about Mr. Dewey should be faced: it is that many people do not like him. He is, unfortunately, one of the least seductive personalities in public life. That he has made an excellent record as governor is indisputable. Even so, people resent what they call his vindictiveness, the 'metallic' nature of his efficiency, his cockiness (which actually conceals a nature basically shy), and his suspiciousness. People say... that he is as devoid of charm as a rivet or a lump of stone."


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: However, Dewey's friends considered him a warm and friendly companion. Journalist Irwin Ross noted that, "more than most politicians, [Dewey] displayed an enormous gap between his private and his public manner. To friends and colleagues he was warm and gracious, considerate of others' views… He could tell a joke and was not dismayed by an off-color story. In public, however, he tended to freeze up, either out of diffidence or too stern a sense of the dignity of office. The smiles would seem forced… the glad-handing gesture awkward."


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: A magazine writer described the difference between Dewey's private and public behavior by noting that, "Till he gets to the door, he may be cracking jokes and laughing like a schoolboy. But the moment he enters a room he ceases to be Tom Dewey and becomes what he thinks the Governor of New York ought to be."


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Leo W. O'Brien, a reporter for United Press International (UPI) who was later elected to Congress as a Democrat, recalled Dewey in an interview by saying that "I hated his guts when he first came to Albany, and I loved him by the time he left. It was almost tragic – how he put on a pose that alienated people. Behind a pretty thin veneer he was a wonderful guy." John Gunther wrote in 1947 that many supporters were fiercely loyal to Dewey.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Dewey's presidential campaigns were hampered by Dewey's habit of not being "prematurely specific" on controversial issues. President Truman poked fun at Dewey's vague campaign by joking that G.O.P. actually stood for "grand old platitudes."


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Dewey's frequent refusal to discuss specific issues and proposals in his campaigns was based partly on his belief in public opinion polls; one biographer claimed that he "had an almost religious belief in the revolutionary science of public-opinion sampling." He was the first presidential candidate to employ his own team of pollsters, and when a worried businessman told Dewey in the 1948 presidential campaign that he was losing ground to Truman and urged him to "talk specifics in his closing speeches", Dewey and his aide Paul Lockwood displayed polling data that showed Dewey still well ahead of Truman, and Dewey told the businessman "when you're leading, don't talk."


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Walter Lippman regarded Dewey as an opportunist, who "changes his views from hour to hour… always more concerned with taking the popular position than he is in dealing with the real issues."


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: The journalist John Gunther wrote that "There are plenty of vain and ambitious and uncharming politicians. This would not be enough to cause Dewey's lack of popularity. What counts more is that so many people think of him as opportunistic. Dewey seldom goes out on a limb by taking a personal position which may be unpopular... every step is carefully calculated and prepared."


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: As governor, Dewey had a reputation for ruthless treatment of New York legislators and political opponents. "[Dewey] cracked the whip ruthlessly on [Republican] legislators who strayed from the party fold. Assemblymen have found themselves under investigation by the State Tax Department after opposing the Governor over an insurance regulation bill. Others discover job-rich construction projects, state buildings, even highways, directed to friendlier [legislators]... [He] forced the legislature his own party dominates to reform its comfortable ways of payroll padding. Now legislative workers must verify in writing every two weeks what they have been doing to earn their salary; every state senator and assemblyman must verify that [they] are telling the truth. All this has occasioned more than grumbling. Some Assemblymen have quit in protest. Others have been denied renomination by Dewey's formidable political organization. Reporters mutter among themselves about government by blackmail."


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Dewey received positive publicity for his reputation for honesty and integrity. The newspaper editor William Allen White praised Dewey as "an honest cop with the mind of an honest cop." An October 1953 editorial in the "Oneonta Star" said that "We think the Governor is ruthless in his actions, but we also think he will countenance nothing that smacks of trickery and dishonesty in public administration."


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: He insisted on having every candidate for a job paying $2,500 or more rigorously probed by state police. He was so concerned about the elected public official being motivated by the wealth his position could produce that he frequently said, "No man should be in public office who can't make more money in private life." Dewey accepted no anonymous campaign contributions and had every large contributor not known personally to him investigated "for motive." When he signed autographs, he would date them so that no one could imply a closer relationship than actually existed.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: A journalist noted in 1947 that Dewey "has never made the slightest attempt to capitalize on his enormous fame, except politically. Even when temporarily out of office, in the middle 1930s, he rigorously resisted any temptation to be vulgarized or exploited...he could easily have become a millionaire several times over by succumbing to various movie and radio offers. He would have had to do nothing except give permission for movies or radio serials to be built around his career and name. Be it said to his honor, he never did so."


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: In 1964, the New York State legislature officially renamed the New York State Thruway in honor of Dewey. Signs on Interstate 95 between the end of the Bruckner Expressway (in the Bronx) and the Connecticut state line, as well as on the Thruway mainline (Interstate 87 between the Bronx-Westchester line and Albany, and Interstate 90 between Albany and the New York-Pennsylvania line) designate the name as "Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway," though this official designation is rarely used in reference to these roads.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: Dewey's official papers from his years in politics and public life were given to the University of Rochester; they are housed in the university library and are available to historians and other writers.


title: Thomas E. Dewey

text: In 2005, the New York City Bar Association named an award after Dewey. The Thomas E. Dewey Medal, formerly sponsored by the law firm of Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, is awarded annually to one outstanding Assistant District Attorney in each of New York City's five counties (New York, Kings, Queens, Bronx, and Richmond). The Medal was first awarded on November 29, 2005. The Thomas E. Dewey Medal is now sponsored by the law firm Dewey Pegno & Kramarsky LLP.


title: Colombiana

text: Colombiana is a 2011 French English-language action thriller film co-written and produced by Luc Besson and directed by Olivier Megaton. The film stars Zoe Saldaña with supporting roles by Michael Vartan, Cliff Curtis, Lennie James, Callum Blue, and Jordi Mollà. The term "Colombiana" means a woman from Colombia. The film is about Cataleya (named for a genus of orchids), a nine-year-old girl in Colombia whose family is killed by a drug lord. Fifteen years later, a grown Cataleya seeks her revenge.


title: Colombiana

text: While the film had a generally negative reception from critics, Saldaña's action sequences were praised and the movie earned $63.4 million against a $40 million budget.


title: Colombiana

text: In 1992, in Bogota, Colombia, drug baron Don Luis Sandoval sends his enforcer Marco and a gang of armed men to kill his associate Fabio Restrepo and his family because Fabio has defied him by trying to leave his criminal life behind. Fabio gives his nine-year-old daughter, Cataleya, a SmartMedia computer memory card loaded with information on Don Luis' business and tells her it's her "passport"; he also gives her the address of her uncle Emilio in Chicago, who will take care of her. Finally, he leaves her with her mother's cataleya orchid necklace. After Fabio and his wife Alicia are gunned down, Cataleya escapes and seeks asylum at the U.S. Embassy. She is granted passage to the United States after handing over the memory card to embassy staff. Although American officials attempt to transfer her into the foster care system, Cataleya tracks down her uncle in Chicago and asks him to train her as a killer.


title: Colombiana

text: Fifteen years later, a grown Cataleya has become an accomplished assassin. Emilio serves as her broker, providing her with contracts. With each murder she commits, she leaves her signature, the Cattleya flower, hoping to one day attract the attention of Don Luis so she can take her revenge. When Emilio finds out about Cataleya's intentions and that she has been targeting men connected to the Don, he begs her to stop to avoid endangering the lives of his own family, but she refuses and they have a falling out. While she is spending the night with her American boyfriend, Danny Delanay, he takes a photo of her sleeping and then shows it to a friend, who then decides to run a background check on Cataleya.


title: Colombiana

text: Meanwhile, FBI agent James Ross is working to identify the killer behind more than twenty unsolved murders, all of which have cattleya orchids left behind. He gets a pin on Cataleya's photo from the background check and orders her arrest, but Cataleya escapes and reaches out to Emilio, only to find him and his family brutally slaughtered. She then confronts Ross at his home and threatens his wife and children, forcing him to reach out to CIA agent Steve Richard, who she knows is sheltering Don Luis from the law in exchange for his cooperation with American authorities. After she makes it clear to Richard that she knows where to find his family, he gives her the Don's location.


title: Colombiana

text: Meanwhile, Don Luis learns that Cataleya is still alive and organizes his men to kill her, but she ambushes them first and wipes out the entire gang. She also confronts and kills Marco before Don Luis flees and swears revenge. Cataleya, having planted her specially trained attack dogs in his escape vehicle, orders them to tear the Don to pieces. Danny is last seen being interrogated by Ross, but the moment the agent steps outside, Cataleya calls him from a payphone before getting on a bus back to nowhere.


title: Colombiana

text: The script for "Colombiana" was based on "Mathilda", which was originally written by Luc Besson as a sequel to "". After a disagreement with the Gaumont Film Company on how to proceed with the film, Besson and director Olivier Megaton reworked the script into a standalone film.


title: Colombiana

text: Filming began in August 2010 in locations including Chicago, New Orleans, Mexico, and France. The film was produced by Besson's EuropaCorp company and the script was written by Besson and Robert Mark Kamen.


title: Colombiana

text: David Martin-Jones, who wrote the article ""Colombiana": Europa Corp and the Ambiguous Geopolitics of the Action Movie," stated that the film was likely to have been perceived by audiences to be an American Hollywood production since it "disguises its national origin to appeal to mainstream audiences"; he added that the trait of "aping the look of a Hollywood genre film, with a non-US twist" had been used in previous European films.


title: Colombiana

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a 28% rating based on 100 reviews, with an average rating of 4.88/10. The site's consensus is that "Zoe Saldaña has the chops but she's taken out by erratic and sloppy filmmaking." On Metacritic the film has a score of 45% based on reviews from 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Colombiana

text: Christy Lemire of "The Associated Press" reviewed "Colombiana", writing that "The director of "La Femme Nikita" and "The Fifth Element" serves as co-writer and producer here, but this is very much a spin-off of his brand, a continuation of the kind of stereotype- and gravity-defying characters he's made his name on. "Colombiana" feels more hammy and muscular, though – but knowingly so, and that's what makes it solid, late-summer escapist fun." Betsy Sharkey of the "Los Angeles Times "wrote: "This B-movie blast of bloody blam blam is the latest chapter in the Luc Besson book of badly bruised lovelies who are better not crossed. What he began in 1990 with "Nikita" followed with "Léon" in '94 and '97's "The Fifth Element", (the last written with Robert Mark Kamen, who co-wrote "Colombiana" with Besson), he refines in "Colombiana"." Claudia Puig of "USA Today" wrote: "This is a showy flower of an action film. Saldaña doesn't get much of a chance to emote, but her action skills blossom." Jordan Mintzer of "The Hollywood Reporter", said that "There are guilty pleasures to be had in this frenzied B starring Zoe Saldaña, who gives an acrobatic performance that makes the overcooked material watchable."


title: Colombiana

text: A nonprofit group called PorColombia criticized the film, saying that it stereotyped Colombia in a negative way. Carlos Macias, president of PorColombia, claimed that the film is proof of a "total lack of creativity" in "Hollywood". When asked about the situation in an interview, Saldaña said "Shame on them? I don't know, I wish I knew how to address stupid unintelligent comments but I don't, I'm not a stupid person." In his review in "Senses of Cinema", David Martin-Jones named and analyzed a number of shortcomings. He stated that in spite of all its resemblances to Hollywood blockbusters this film provided—in comparison—at least "a different perspective" concerning immigration and international wealth inequality. Martin-Jones states that in the film, a "character from the global south wreaks havoc on the wealthy and corrupt in the global north." He states that the film "juxtaposes the spaces of wealth inequality that coexist and proliferate under globalization." In the film, Saldaña's travels "mirror[ ] the trajectory of many immigrants forced to travel to the global north due to conflict or poverty." The "film offers the possibility of considering the world from a different perspective than is usually seen in a Hollywood blockbuster."


title: Colombiana

text: "Colombiana" debuted in second place in its first week at the U.S. box office with $10,408,176 behind "The Help". It stayed No. 2 until 31 August 2011, when it went down to No. 3 behind "The Help" and "The Debt". The film has made $36,665,854 in United States and Canada, and $24,300,000 internationally, bringing its total to $60,965,854 worldwide.


title: Colombiana

text: A Bengali film production company Jaaz Multimedia created an unauthorised remake named "Agnee". It stars Mahiya Mahi, Arefin Shuvo and Misha Sawdagor, and was released in February 2014. The film set a box office record in Bangladesh.


title: Colombiana

text: At the 2015 CineEurope, when the production house EuropaCorp announced upcoming films, it mentioned that "Colombiana 2" was in development. While Saldaña responded to an interviewer, in 2017, that she wouldn't mind reprising her role as Cataleya, as of early 2019 there has been no further news from EuropaCorp to suggest a sequel is forthcoming.


title: They Both Die at the End

text: They Both Die at the End is a young adult novel written by American author Adam Silvera and published on September 5, 2017, by HarperTeen. It is Silvera's third novel and focuses on two teenage boys, Mateo and Rufus, who discover that they only have one day left to live.


title: They Both Die at the End

text: In April 2020, due to #BookTok, a popular hashtag for readers on social media platform TikTok, the book's popularity saw a resurgence, once again placing it on "The New York Times" Best Seller list.


title: They Both Die at the End

text: Shortly after midnight on September 5, 2017, Mateo receives a phone call from Death-Cast, a company that rose to prominence seven years prior and is able to predict the deaths of individuals, informing him that he is now a Decker, someone with only twenty-four hours (or less) left to live. Mateo initially intends to spend his End Day in his bedroom but decides to try to push himself to truly live, reluctantly downloading Last Friend, an app developed to help lonely Deckers find someone to spend their End Day with. Rufus is in the middle of beating up Peck, his ex-girlfriend Aimee's new boyfriend, when he received a call from Death-Cast claiming he is going to die in the next 24 hours. His friends Malcolm and Tagoe remind Rufus not to get carried away because of the news. He allows Peck to leave so that he can return to his foster home to say his goodbyes. Rufus, Aimee, Malcolm and Tagoe, collectively known as The Plutos, hold a funeral for Rufus at his foster home but it is interrupted by Peck, who calls the police to have Rufus arrested for assault. Rufus flees and goes on the run, downloading Last Friend so that he won't live out his final day alone.


title: They Both Die at the End

text: Mateo and Rufus meet through Last Friend and decide to spend the day accompanying each other. Rufus agrees to go with Mateo to the hospital so Mateo can visit his father, who has been in a coma for two weeks. Mateo says goodbye to his father and leaves him a note for him to read when he wakes up. Mateo and Rufus then go to see Lidia, Mateo's best friend, and her baby daughter (and Mateo's goddaughter) Penny. Not wanting to make Lidia upset, Mateo pretends everything is normal, but leaves her an envelope of cash before leaving and blocks her phone number. Rufus receives a call from Aimee telling him that Malcolm and Tagoe were arrested when they attempted to hold off the police to give him more time to escape. Rufus opens up about his past, explaining that his parents and sister all received a phone call from Death-Cast on the same day and drowned when their car crashed into the Hudson river, leaving him as the only survivor. Rufus and Mateo discuss the plans they had for their life: Mateo always wanted to be an architect and Rufus wishes he could have turned his passion for photography into a career. As their friendship deepens, Mateo becomes bolder and Rufus begins to take color photos for his Instagram page, @rufusonpluto, as opposed to his usual monochrome posts, to signify his End Day. Rufus buys Mateo some Lego bricks and, as they are leaving, they barely manage to survive an explosion at a nearby gym. Mateo builds a sanctuary while they are on the train using the bricks. Rufus and Mateo head to the cemetery so that Mateo can visit his mother's grave, only to find a groundskeeper is in the process of digging Mateo's grave beside hers. Mateo leaves his Lego sanctuary at his mother's grave and sits down inside his own with Rufus, talking about the afterlife and debating what will happen to them in the near future.


title: They Both Die at the End

text: Rufus and Mateo go to Make-A-Moment, a centre for Deckers where they can experience dangerous activities without fear, and the two fake skydive. Unimpressed, Mateo asks Lidia to meet them at the Travel Arena. Rufus, Mateo and Lidia go on an "around the world in eighty minutes" tour at the Arena and jump off of a waterfall, allowing Rufus to conquer his fear of the water. Rufus receives a call from Malcolm and Tagoe, who were released from custody, and tells them to bring Aimee and meet him at the Graveyard, a club for Deckers.


title: They Both Die at the End

text: The group dance together at Graveyard and Rufus convinces Mateo to sing karaoke with him. After their performance, Mateo finally works up the courage to kiss Rufus, who asks why it took him so long. Rufus is able to say a proper goodbye to the Plutos and Mateo tries to help Lidia comprehend her life without him. Peck and his gang arrive at the club, having tracked Rufus using his Instagram posts, with a loaded gun. Peck tries to shoot Rufus but Aimee tries to talk him down, giving Mateo enough time to cause a commotion, making Peck drop the gun. Mateo and Rufus return to Mateo's apartment and Mateo asks if they can go back to the hospital so that he can come out to his father and tell him about their End Day. Mateo sings and plays the piano for Rufus, who videos the moment before taking a goofy picture with Mateo for his final Instagram post. They lie in bed and confess their love to one another, both wishing that they had met sooner. They fall asleep in each other's arms, agreeing that they will stay together in the safety of their bed forever.


title: They Both Die at the End

text: Mateo wakes up first and goes into the kitchen to make peppermint tea, hoping to cheer Rufus up. He absentmindedly turns on the burner that, which he had told his neighbor not to fix that earlier that day since he knew he would be dying. The burner explodes and Rufus wakes up because of the smoke and flees the apartment. Then he runs back into the burning building and drags Mateo's dead body out, begging him to wake up. He lies to the paramedics and tells them Mateo is not a Decker and needs to go to the hospital. However, Mateo is declared dead at the scene and a devastated Rufus calls Lidia to inform her. Refusing medical treatment, Rufus is determined to fulfill Mateo's dying wish and visits his father in the hospital. He tells the unconscious man all about their day together and says that his son was brave, fought his fears and was able to truly live. He leaves a note telling Mateo's father who Rufus was and to see the photos of him and Mateo on the Instagram account.


title: They Both Die at the End

text: On his way to the park to spend his final hours, Rufus puts on his headphones to listen to the video he took of Mateo singing and steps out into the road without looking.


title: They Both Die at the End

text: Delilah's story: she receives a call from Death-Cast, but believes it to be a prank. She conducts an interview with Howie Maldonado but he is killed by Peck and his gang when they run in front of his car. The last chapter focusing on her is her at Althea's Diner. She calls Victor, her ex-boyfriend, who says that he didn't prank her with the Death-Cast call. Delilah breaks out in sobs, saying she wasted her last day because she thought he pranked her to get back at her for breaking up with him. Victor tells her to stay put and rushes to the diner. This diner is across the street from where Rufus went to spend his final hour. It is implied Victor is the one that hits Rufus with his car. Her fate remains unknown.


title: They Both Die at the End

text: Deirde's story: like Zoe, she only has one chapter, where she contemplates suicide but is dissuaded by the appearance of Mateo and Rufus.


title: They Both Die at the End

text: Dalma's story: she only has one chapter too, where she discusses the uses and benefits of her app, Last Friend.


title: They Both Die at the End

text: Vin's story: his only chapter is his decision to murder-suicide with the bomb that nearly killed Rufus and Mateo.


title: They Both Die at the End

text: Officer Andrade's story: his only chapter talks about his release of Malcolm and Tageo from custody, his partner Graham's death, and his efforts to shut down the website that caused it.


title: They Both Die at the End

text: "They Both Die at the End" is a "New York Times" and IndieBound best seller, as well as a Junior Library Guild selection.


title: They Both Die at the End

text: The book received starred reviews from "Booklist," "Publishers Weekly", "School Library Journal," and "Kirkus Reviews," as well as positive reviews from "The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books," "American Review," BookPage, Common Sense Media, "BuzzFeed," "Children's Book and Media Review," and "Teen Vogue."


title: They Both Die at the End

text: "Booklist" called the novel "extraordinary and unforgettable." "Kirkus Reviews" noted that the book was "another standout from Silvera who here grapples gracefully with heavy questions about death and the meaning of a life well-lived" before concluding that "They Both Die at the End" is "engrossing, contemplative and as heart-wrenching as the title promises".


title: They Both Die at the End

text: "BuzzFeed" noted that "Adam Silvera not only poignantly captures the raw emotion of facing your own mortality but also creates entirely relatable and authentic characters you'll want to follow on their journey."


title: They Both Die at the End

text: "American Review" stated that "this book is an important contribution to young adult literature because of its humanizing portrayals of queer, adolescent characters of color." They note this is especially important "given the repeatedly cited issues of hegemonic Whiteness and heteronormativity in young adult publishing, particularly in speculative fiction."


title: They Both Die at the End

text: The audiobook, narrated by Michael Crouch, Robbie Daymond, and Bahni Turpin, received a favorable review from "Booklist", who noted that the voice actors brought "the full range of this story’s anguish and joy to the listener. Crouch and Daymond, voicing Mateo and Rufus, respectively, emphasize how the characters change yet remain true to themselves."


title: They Both Die at the End

text: "BuzzFeed" named "They Both Die at the End" one of the best young adult books of the decade. "Kirkus Reviews," "BookPage, School Library Journal," Amazon, and "BuzzFeed" named it one of the best young adult novels of 2017, and Book Riot named it one of the best queer books of the year.


title: They Both Die at the End

text: "They Both Die at the End" has also been analyzed in academic journals for its depiction of LGBT teens of color.


title: They Both Die at the End

text: "They Both Die at the End" is currently in development by eOne with Bridgerton creator Chris Van Dusen attached to executive produce and write alongside author Silvera. Previously, the adaptation was set as a half-hour television miniseries at HBO with J. J. Abrams executive producing.


title: They Both Die at the End

text: Adam Silvera has announced that a prequel "The First to Die at the End" which gives an introduction to the Death-Cast system and introduces us to a set of new star-crossed lovers, was released on October 4, 2022.


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: Short Circuit is a 1986 American science fiction comedy film directed by John Badham and written by S. S. Wilson and Brent Maddock. The film's plot centers upon an experimental military robot that is struck by lightning and gains a human-like intelligence, prompting it to escape its facility to learn more about the world. The film stars Ally Sheedy, Steve Guttenberg, Fisher Stevens, Austin Pendleton and G. W. Bailey, with Tim Blaney as the voice of the robot named "Number 5". A sequel, "Short Circuit 2", was released in 1988, directed by Kenneth Johnson, but did not do as well at the box office.


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: NOVA Laboratory robotics experts Newton Crosby and Ben Jabituya have developed several prototype robots called S.A.I.N.T. (Strategic Artificially Intelligent Nuclear Transport) for the U.S. military to use in Cold War operations, though Crosby and Ben would rather seek peaceful applications of the robots. After a live demonstration for the military, one of the units, S.A.I.N.T. Number 5, is struck by lightning arcing through the lab's power grid. This scrambles its programming and makes it sentient, resulting in its escape from the NOVA facility.


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: The robot finds itself in Astoria, Oregon, and is found by Stephanie Speck, an animal caregiver, who mistakes him for an alien. She takes the robot into her home, where she provides him with "input" in the form of visual and verbal stimuli, allowing the robot to improve its language skills, and eventually names itself "Number 5". Stephanie continues to help the curious Number 5 robot learn about the world. She eventually discovers that Number 5 was built by NOVA, and contacts them about the lost robot. Nova's CEO, Dr. Howard Marner, orders Crosby and Ben to recover him, so they can disassemble and rebuild him. While waiting for NOVA to arrive, Number 5 learns about death when he accidentally crushes a grasshopper and concludes that if NOVA disassembles him, he will die, and escapes in Stephanie's food truck. However, NOVA uses a tracking device on Number 5 to corner him and deactivate the robot for return to the facility. During transport, Number 5 reactivates himself and removes the tracking device, and flees back to Stephanie.


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: Because of these unusual actions, Crosby tries to convince Howard that something has changed with Number 5's programming and that they should take care not to damage it in their recovery efforts so that he can examine them later. Howard instead sends their security chief Captain Skroeder and three other S.A.I.N.T. prototypes to recapture Number 5 by force, ignoring Crosby's concerns. Number 5 outwits the other robots and reprograms their personalities to act like The Three Stooges, allowing him to escape. Number 5 “captures” Crosby, takes him back to Stephanie, and convinces Crosby of his sentience. They find that Skroeder has called in the United States Army to capture Number 5, and on his orders, restrain Crosby and Stephanie so he can open fire. To protect his friends, Number 5 leads the Army away and appears to be destroyed by a helicopter missile. Stephanie is devastated as Skroeder's men scrounge the remains of Number 5 as trophies, prompting Crosby to resign from NOVA and drive away with Stephanie in the NOVA van. Howard is dismayed over the loss of his research and dismisses Skroeder for insubordination.


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: Crosby and Stephanie are surprised to discover that Number 5 had hidden under the van, having assembled a decoy of himself from spare parts to mislead the military. Crosby decides to take Number 5 to a secluded ranch in Montana, where there will be much "input" for the robot, and Stephanie agrees to come with them. As they drive off, Number 5 asserts that his name should now be "Johnny 5" based on the El DeBarge song "Who's Johnny" which had been playing on the van's radio.


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: This film was conceived after the producers distributed an educational video about a robot to various colleges. Studying other films with a prominent robot cast (like the "Star Wars" series) for inspiration, they decided to question human reactions to a 'living' robot, on the premise that no one would initially believe its sentience.


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: According to the commentary in the DVD, Number 5 was the most expensive part of the film, requiring several different versions to be made for different sequences. Almost everything else in the film was relatively inexpensive, allowing them to allocate as much money as they needed for the robot character. Number 5 was designed by Syd Mead, the "visual futurist" famous for his work on "Blade Runner" and "Tron".


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: Mead's design was greatly influenced by the sketches of Eric Allard, the Robotics Supervisor credited for "realizing" the robots. John Badham named Eric "the most valuable player" on the film.


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: Most of the arm movements of Number 5 were controlled by a "telemetry suit", carried on the puppeteer's upper torso. Each joint in the suit had a separate sensor, allowing the puppeteer's arm and hand movements to be transferred directly to the machine. He was also voiced in real-time by his puppeteer, the director believing that it provided for a more realistic interaction between the robot and the other actors than putting in his voice in post-production, although a few of his lines were re-dubbed later.


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: During Stephanie's impromptu news interview, director John Badham makes a cameo appearance as the news cameraman.


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: The sequence in the film depicting Number 5 watching the movie "Saturday Night Fever" (and imitating John Travolta's dance moves) is an in-joke: "Saturday Night Fever" and "Short Circuit" were both directed by John Badham.


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: Fisher Stevens said that when he was originally hired to play Ben Jabituya, the character was not intended to be Indian. Stevens was fired and replaced by Bronson Pinchot at one point, but then Pinchot left to do the sitcom "Perfect Strangers", and Stevens was rehired. To portray the role he had to grow a beard, dye his hair black, darken his skin with makeup, turn his blue eyes brown with contact lenses, speak with an East Indian accent and "walk hunched over like a cricket player". In 2015, Aziz Ansari had a cordial discussion with Stevens over the role, with Ansari saying he did not view Stevens as a bad guy or someone who played Ben as a tired stereotype, and Stevens saying (with Ansari's agreement) that a present-day version of the role would definitely be played by an actor who had an Indian or a South Asian background.


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: In 2009, Austin Pendleton, who had gone to college with "Short Circuit" director John Badham, stated "some stuff was cut out of my part in ["Short Circuit"]. And also the two leading roles were cast with really talented, attractive people who were not right for the parts. [The] script was just 'heartbreakingly' beautiful to read. And now it's a nice little slightly bland kids' movie. Nothing exactly wrong with it. Those two people who are in the leads are good, very likable, easy-to-work-with people, and have done some good work; they just weren't those people that were written in the script. And I said to John when it was about to open, 'Why did you cast them?' And he said, 'That was what the studio insisted on'. And it sort of ended the discussion. I said, 'Okay'. The film kind of works, but again, it was going to have been quite a beautiful film".


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: According to Pendleton, the role Steve Guttenberg ended up playing "was a person who could not relate to other human beings, so he poured all that into the creation of the robot. Well, Steve, he's a lovely guy, and I think he's talented... He had a wonderful kind of charisma. Very easy, but utterly social. He's just so very engaging and open with people. He's wonderful to be on a movie with... [But] he does not bring onscreen with him the problem that the character in that movie has... The perfect person for the role, 20 years earlier, would have been Dustin Hoffman. That thing that Dustin brought to "The Graduate" that a more affable actor would not have... A sense of utter alienation from everything around him".


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: Although no soundtrack album was released at the time, El DeBarge had a chart hit with the single "Who's Johnny (Theme from "Short Circuit")".


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: In 2008, Varèse Sarabande issued David Shire's score as part of their CD Club series of limited edition releases. The DeBarge song was not included or mentioned in the liner notes. The last three tracks are source music.


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: The booklet claims the end title song is not used in the film. It is, however, on the soundtrack. The finale mix and end title are combined into one track, but used separately in the film.


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: "Short Circuit" received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 61% rating from 38 reviews and an average rating of 5.30/10, with the website's consensus stating: "Amiable and good-natured but also shallow and predictable, "Short Circuit" is hardly as deep or emotionally resonant as "E.T." – though Johnny Five makes for a charming robot protagonist". On Metacritic it has a score of 50 out of 100 based on reviews from 12 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave it a grade A−.


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: Trade paper "Variety" wrote: ""Short Circuit" is a hip, sexless sci-fi send-up" and praised the writers "for some terrific dialog that would have been a lot less disarming if not for the winsome robot and Sheedy's affection for it. Guttenberg plays his best goofy self". Writing in "The New York Times", Vincent Canby wrote: "The movie, which has the clean, well-scrubbed look of an old Disney comedy, is nicely acted". The "Sun-Sentinel" gave "Short Circuit" a good review, saying: "Number Five is the real star of this energetic film. Sheedy, Guttenberg and company are just supporting players". Roger Ebert, writing in the "Chicago Sun-Times", rated "Short Circuit" 1.5 out of 4 four stars and called it "too cute for its own good".


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: Colin Greenland reviewed "Short Circuit" for issue 85 of "White Dwarf" and stated that "there "are" good jokes, but the picture's so bland they hardly count".


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: "Short Circuit" debuted at No. 1 in the US box office with a studio-reported weekend gross of $5.3 million, although independent sources suggested that the gross was inflated and more likely between $4.5 and $4.725 million. It grossed a domestic total of $40.7 million, ranking it 21st for 1986 in the United States; it performed slightly better than other hits of that year, such as "Pretty in Pink", "The Fly", "Three Amigos", "Little Shop Of Horrors" and "About Last Night". By 1987, "Short Circuit" had grossed in worldwide theatrical and ancillary revenues (not including merchandise). The film was reportedly the top home video rental of 1987.


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: A video game developed by Ocean Software for ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC was also made based on the film. It featured two parts: one arcade adventure where Johnny 5 had to escape from the lab, and one action part where Johnny 5 escapes across the countryside, avoiding soldiers, other robots, and animals.


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: The sequel, "Short Circuit 2", premiered in 1988. There was a script for a possible third film written in 1989 and rewritten in 1990, but was found unsatisfactory by the producers, and the project was subsequently scrapped.


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: Johnny 5 answered questions in character in a videotaped interview with Dallas-based reporter Bobbie Wygant to promote "Short Circuit 2". He would later appear in an episode of "Home", voiced by Peter Greenwood, and in a short educational film, "Hot Cars, Cold Facts", voiced by Russell Turner.


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: On April 4, 2008, "Variety" reported that Dimension Films had acquired the rights to remake the original film. Dan Milano had been hired to write the script, and David Foster to produce it. Foster said that the robot's appearance would not change. Later in October 2009, the reports circulated that Steve Carr will direct the remake and that the film's plot would involve a boy from a broken family befriending the Number 5 robot. Carr left the project and on August 4, 2011 Tim Hill was reportedly hired to direct.


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: Spyglass Media Group bought the rights on November 15, 2020, and was reportedly planning to make a remake with James Vanderbilt through his company Project X Productions, Paul Neinstein and William Sherak producing, Eduardo Cisneros and Jason Shuman writing, and John W. Hyde returning as executive producer alongside Terissa Kelton. The company plans to put a Latino twist on the original screenplay.


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: American comedian Aziz Ansari cited the casting of Fisher Stevens, a white actor, to play Indian character Ben Jabituya in "brownface" as an example of whitewashing in Hollywood. In 2021, Stevens said: "It definitely haunts me. I still think it's a really good movie, but I would never do that part again. The world was a different place in 1986, obviously".


title: Short Circuit (1986 film)

text: According to Badham, the character was planned to be American when Stevens was cast; inspired by a scene in "Beverly Hills Cop" (1984) in which a French shop assistant is rude to her American customers, Badham made Ben Indian, thinking the "culture mismatch was fun". He said he would have auditioned Indian or Indian-American actors had the decision been made before Stevens was cast. He said: "That was an oversight on our part, but we never intended to make fun of the character of Ben".


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is a Taiwanese nationalist and centre-left political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). Controlling both the Republic of China presidency and the unicameral Legislative Yuan, it is the majority ruling party and the dominant party in the Pan-Green Coalition as of 2022.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: Founded in 1986 by Hsu Hsin-liang, Hsieh Tsung-min and Lin Shui-chuan, a year prior to the end of martial law, the DPP is one of two major parties in Taiwan, the other being the historically dominant Kuomintang (KMT), which previously ruled the country as a one-party state. It has traditionally been associated with a strong advocacy of human rights, emerging against the authoritarian White Terror that was initiated by the KMT, as well as the promotion of Taiwanese nationalism and identity, in contrast to Chinese unification. The incumbent President and three-time leader of the DPP, Tsai Ing-wen, is the second member of the DPP to hold the office.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: The DPP is a longtime member of Liberal International and a founding member of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats. It represented Taiwan in the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO). The DPP and its affiliated parties are widely classified as socially liberal having been founded as a party for human rights, including factions within the party supporting same-sex marriage and other LGBT rights. On foreign policy, the DPP is more willing to increase military expenditures to defend against a potential invasion by the People's Republic of China (PRC) due to the ambiguous political status of Taiwan, and favors closer ties with Japan and the United States, as well as the nations of ASEAN as part of its New Southbound Policy.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: The DPP's roots were in the "tangwai" – or "outside-the-KMT" – movement, which formed in opposition to the Kuomintang's one-party authoritarian rule under the "party-state" system during martial law. This movement culminated in the formation of the DPP as an alternative, but still illegal, party on 28 September 1986 by eighteen organizing members at Grand Hotel Taipei, with a total of 132 people joining the party in attendance. The new party members contested the 1986 election as "nonpartisan" candidates since competing parties would remain illegal until the following year. These early members of the party, like the "tangwai", drew heavily from the ranks of family members and defense lawyers of political prisoners, as well as intellectuals and artists who had spent time abroad. These individuals were strongly committed to political change toward democracy and freedom of speech, press, assembly, and association.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: The "tangwai" were not a unified political unit and consisted of factions which carried over into the early DPP. At its founding the DPP consisted of three factions: the Kang group (a moderate faction led by Kang Ning-hsiang), New Tide faction (consisting of intellectuals and social activists led by Wu Nai-ren and Chiou I-jen), and the Progress Faction (led by Lin Cheng-chieh, a "waishengren" opposed to independence). Moderates would later coalesce around the Formosa faction, founded by those arrested during the Formosa Incident after their release from prison. In the early days of the party, the Formosa faction focused on winning elections by wielding the star power of its leaders, while New Tide would focus on ideological mobilization and developing grassroots support for social movements. As a result, the Formosa faction would become more moderate, often bending to public opinion, while New Tide would become more ideologically cohesive. By 1988 the Formosa Faction would dominate high-level positions within the party.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: The party did not at the outset give explicit support to an independent Taiwanese national identity, partially because moderates such as Hsu Hsin-liang were concerned that such a move that could have invited a violent crackdown by the Kuomintang and alienate voters, but also because some members such as Lin Cheng-chieh supported unification. Partially due to their waning influence within the party and partially due to their ideological commitment, between 1988 and 1991 the New Tide Faction would push the independence issue, bolstered by the return of pro-independence activists from overseas who were previously barred from Taiwan. In 1991, in order to head off the New Tide, party chairman Hsu Hsin-liang of the moderate Formosa faction agreed to include language in the party charter which advocated for the drafting of a new constitution as well as declaration of a new Republic of Taiwan via referendum (which resulted in many pro-unification members leaving the party). However, the party would quickly begin to walk back on this language, and eventually in 1999 the party congress passed a resolution that Taiwan was already an independent country, under the official name "Republic of China," and that any constitutional changes should be approved by the people via referendum, while emphasizing the use of the name "Taiwan" in international settings.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: Despite its lack of electoral success, the pressure that the DPP created on the ruling KMT via its demands are widely credited in the political reforms of the 1990s, most notably the direct popular election of Republic of China's president and all representatives in the National Assembly and Legislative Yuan, as well the ability to open discuss events from the past such as the February 28 Incident and its long aftermath of martial law, and space for a greater variety of political views and advocacy. Once the DPP had representation in the Legislative Yuan, the party used the legislature as a forum to challenge the ruling KMT.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: Post-democratization, the DPP shifted their focus to anti-corruption issues, in particular regarding KMT connections to organized crime as well as "party assets" illegally acquired from the government during martial law. Meanwhile, factions continued to form within the DPP as a mechanism for coalition-building within the party; notably, future President Chen Shui-bian would form the Justice Alliance faction.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: The DPP won the presidency with the election of Chen Shui-bian in March 2000 with a plurality, due to Pan-Blue voters splitting their vote between the Kuomintang and independent candidate James Soong, ending 91 years of KMT rule in the Republic of China. Chen softened the party's stance on independence to appeal to moderate voters, appease the United States, and placate China. He also promised not to change the ROC state symbols or declare formal independence as long as the People's Republic of China did not attack Taiwan. Further, he advocated for economic exchange with China as well as the establishment of transportation links.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: In 2002 the DPP became the first party other than the KMT to reach a plurality in the Legislative Yuan following the 2001 legislative election. However, a majority coalition between the KMT, People First Party, and New Party prevented it from taking control of the chamber. This coalition was at odds with the presidency from the beginning, and led to President Chen's abandonment of the centrist positions that he ran his campaign on.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: In 2003, Chen announced a campaign to draft a referendum law as well as a new constitution, a move which appealed to the fundamentalist wing of the DPP. By now, the New Tide faction had begun to favor pragmatic approaches to their pro-independence goals and dominated decision-making positions within the party. By contrast, grassroots support was divided largely between moderate and fundamentalist wings. Though Chen's plans for a referendum on a new constitution were scuttled by the legislature, he did manage to include a largely symbolic referendum on the PRC military threat to coincide with the 2004 presidential election. President Chen Shui-bian would be narrowly re-elected in 2004 after an assassination attempt the day before the election, and in the later legislative election, the pan-blue coalition opposition retained control of the chamber.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: President Chen's moves sparked a debate within the party between fundamentalists and moderates who were concerned that voters would abandon their party. The fundamentalists won out, and as a result the DPP would largely follow Chen's lead. The DPP suffered a significant election defeat in nationwide local and county elections in December 2005, while the pan-blue coalition captured 16 of 23 county and city government offices under the leadership of popular Taipei mayor and KMT Party Chairman Ma Ying-jeou. Moderates within the party would blame this loss on the party's fundamentalist turn.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: The results led to a shake up of the party leadership. Su Tseng-chang resigned as DPP chairman soon after election results were announced. Su had pledged to step down if the DPP lost either Taipei County or failed to win 10 of the 23 mayor/magistrate positions. Vice President Annette Lu was appointed acting DPP leader. Presidential Office Secretary-General Yu Shyi-kun was elected in a three-way race against legislator Chai Trong-rong and Wong Chin-chu with 54.4% of the vote.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: Premier Frank Hsieh, DPP election organizer and former mayor of Kaohsiung twice tendered a verbal resignation immediately following the election, but his resignation was not accepted by President Chen until 17 January 2006 after the DPP chairmanship election had concluded. The former DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang was appointed to replace Hsieh as premier. Hsieh and his cabinet resigned en masse on 24 January to make way for Su and his new cabinet. President Chen had offered the position of Presidential Office Secretary-General (vacated by Su) to the departing premier, but Hsieh declined and left office criticizing President Chen for his tough line on dealing with China.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: In 2005, following the passage of the Anti-Secession Law, the Chen administration issued a statement asserting the position that Taiwan's future should be decided by the people on Taiwan only.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: On 30 September 2007, the DPP approved a resolution asserting a separate identity from China and called for the enactment of a new constitution for a "normal nation". It struck an accommodating tone by advocating general use of "Taiwan" as the country's name without calling for abandonment of the name Republic of China.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: In the national elections held in early months of 2008, the DPP won less than 25% of the seats (38.2% vote share) in the new Legislative Yuan while its presidential candidate, former Kaohsiung mayor Frank Hsieh, lost to KMT candidate Ma Ying-jeou by a wide margin (41.55% vs. 58.45%). In May, the DPP elected moderate Tsai Ing-wen as their new leader over fundamentalist Koo Kwang-ming. Tsai became the first female leader of the DPP and the first female leader to lead a major party in Taiwan.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: The first months since backed to the opposition were dominated by press coverage of the travails of Chen Shui-bian and his wife Wu Shu-jen. On 15 August 2008, Chen resigned from the DPP and apologized: "Today I have to say sorry to all of the DPP members and supporters. I let everyone down, caused you humiliation and failed to meet your expectations. My acts have caused irreparable damage to the party. I love the DPP deeply and am proud of being a DPP member. To express my deepest regrets to all DPP members and supporters, I announce my withdrawal from the DPP immediately. My wife Wu Shu-jen is also withdrawing from the party." DPP Chairperson followed with a public statement on behalf of the party: "In regard to Chen and his wife's decision to withdraw from the party and his desire to shoulder responsibility for his actions as well as to undergo an investigation by the party's anti-corruption committee, we respect his decision and accept it."


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: The DPP vowed to reflect on public misgivings towards the party. Chairperson Tsai insisted on the need for the party to remember its history, defend the Republic of China's sovereignty and national security, and maintain its confidence.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: The party re-emerged as a voice in Taiwan's political debate when Ma's administration reached the end of its first year in office. The DPP marked the anniversary with massive rallies in Taipei and Kaohsiung. Tsai's address to the crowd in Taipei on 17 May proclaimed a "citizens' movement to protect Republic of China" seeking to "protect our democracy and protect Republic of China."


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: On 16 January 2016, Taiwan held a general election for its presidency and for the Legislative Yuan. The DPP gained the presidential seat, with the election of Tsai Ing-wen, who received 56.12% of the votes, while her opponent Eric Chu gained 31.2%. In addition, the DPP gained a majority of the Legislative Yuan, winning 68 seats in the 113-seat legislature, up from 40 in 2012 election, thus giving them the majority for the first time in its history.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: President Tsai won reelection in the 2020 Taiwanese presidential election on 11 January 2020, and the Democratic Progressive Party retained its legislative majority, winning 61 seats.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: Programs supported by the party include moderate social welfare policies involving the rights of women, senior citizens, children, young people, labor, minorities, indigenous peoples, farmers, and other disadvantaged sectors of the society. Furthermore, its platform includes a legal and political order based on human rights and democracy; balanced economic and financial administration; fair and open social welfare; educational and cultural reform; and, independent defense and peaceful foreign policy with closer ties to United States and Japan. For these reasons, it used to be considered a party of the center-left economically though its base consisted largely of the middle class. The party also has a progressive stance that includes support for gender equality and same-sex marriage under Tsai's leadership, and also has a conservative base that includes support from the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: The primary political axis in Taiwan involves the issue of Taiwan independence versus unification with China. Although the differences tend to be portrayed in polarized terms, both major coalitions have developed modified, nuanced and often complex positions. Though opposed in the philosophical origins, the practical differences between such positions can sometimes be subtle.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: The current official position of the party is that Taiwan is an independent and sovereign country whose territory consists of Taiwan and its surrounding smaller islands and whose sovereignty derives only from the ROC citizens living in Taiwan (similar philosophy of self-determination), based on the 1999 "Resolution on Taiwan's Future". It considers Taiwan an independent nation under the name of Republic of China, making a formal declaration of independence unnecessary. Though calls for drafting a new constitution and a declaration of a Republic of Taiwan was written into the party charter in 1991, the 1999 resolution has practically superseded the earlier charter. The DPP rejects the so-called "One China principle" defined in 1992 as the basis for official diplomatic relations with the PRC and advocates a Taiwanese national identity which is separate from mainland China.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: By contrast, the KMT or pan-blue coalition agrees that the Republic of China is an independent and sovereign country that is not part of the PRC, but argues that a one China principle (with different definitions across the strait) can be used as the basis for talks with China. The KMT also opposes Taiwan independence and argues that efforts to establish a Taiwanese national identity separated from the Chinese national identity are unnecessary and needlessly provocative. Some KMT conservative officials have called efforts from DPP "anti-China" (opposing migrants from mainland China, who DPP officials did not recognize as Taiwanese, but Chinese). At the other end of the political spectrum, the acceptance by the DPP of the symbols of the Republic of China is opposed by the Taiwan Solidarity Union.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: The first years of the DPP as the ruling party drew accusations from the opposition that, as a self-styled Taiwanese nationalist party, the DPP was itself inadequately sensitive to the ethnographic diversity of Taiwan's population. Where the KMT had been guilty of Chinese chauvinism, the critics charged, the DPP might offer nothing more as a remedy than Hoklo chauvinism. The DPP argues that its efforts to promote a Taiwanese national identity are merely an effort to normalize a Taiwanese identity repressed during years of authoritarian Kuomintang rule.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: Since the democratization of Taiwan in the 1990s, the DPP has had its strongest performance in the Hokkien-speaking counties and cities of Taiwan, compared with the predominantly Hakka and Mandarin-speaking counties, that tend to support the Kuomintang.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: The deep-rooted hostility between Taiwanese aborigines and (Taiwanese) Hoklo, and the effective KMT networks within aboriginal communities contribute to aboriginal skepticism against the DPP and the aboriginals‘ tendency to vote for the KMT. Aboriginals have criticized politicians for abusing the "indigenization" movement for political gains, such as aboriginal opposition to the DPP's "rectification" by recognizing the Truku for political reasons, where the Atayal and Seediq slammed the Truku for their name rectification. In 2008, the majority of mountain townships voted for Ma Ying-jeou. However, the DPP share of the aboriginal vote has been rising.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: The DPP National Party Congress selects, for two-year terms, the 30 members of the Central Executive Committee and the 11 members of the Central Review Committee. The Central Executive Committee, in turn, chooses the 10 members of the Central Standing Committee. Since 2012, the DPP has had a "China Affairs Committee" to deal with Cross-Strait relations; the name caused some controversy within the party and in the Taiwan media, with critics suggesting that "Mainland Affairs Committee" or "Cross-Strait Affairs Committee" would show less of a hostile "One Country on Each Side" attitude.


title: Democratic Progressive Party

text: For many years the DPP officially recognized several factions within its membership, such as the New Tide faction (), the Formosa faction (), the Justice Alliance faction () and Welfare State Alliance faction (). Each faction endorsed slightly different policies. The factions were often generationally identifiable, representing individuals who had entered the party at different times. In 2006, the party ended recognition of factions. The factions have since stated that they will comply with the resolution. However, the factions are still referred to by name in national media.


title: Kathryn Morris

text: Kathryn Morris is an American actress, best known for her lead role as Detective Lilly Rush in the CBS series "Cold Case".


title: Kathryn Morris

text: Morris's first role was a minor one in the 1991 tele-movie "Long Road Home". Several other small parts followed, including a bit part as a psychiatric patient in the Oscar-winning "As Good as It Gets". Her breakthrough role came as Lt. Annalisa "Stinger" Lindstrom in the television series "" in 1997 for two seasons. Morris continued to work in films (notably ones directed by Rod Lurie) and had a brief stint on the "" series in 1999 as .


title: Kathryn Morris

text: After seeing her in the film "The Contender" (which DreamWorks distributed), Steven Spielberg cast her in two successive films. Her scenes as a rock star in "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence", which required Morris to take intensive singing and guitar lessons were cut by the director, which was particularly agonizing for her. In "Minority Report", she portrayed the tormented wife of Tom Cruise's character.


title: Kathryn Morris

text: In 2003, Morris won the lead role of detective Lilly Rush in the CBS dramatic series "Cold Case". She also appeared in the 2004 films "Mindhunters" and "Paycheck", opposite Ben Affleck, and more recently as the journalist wife of Josh Hartnett in Lurie's drama "Resurrecting the Champ" (2007). Morris appeared in the film "Cougars, Inc." which was distributed in 2011. In 2012, Morris appeared the Hallmark Channel movie "The Sweeter Side of Life", a romantic comedy.


title: Kathryn Morris

text: Morris was born in 1969 in Cincinnati, Ohio. She grew up Christian in Windsor Locks, Connecticut with her parents, Stanley, a Bible scholar, and Joyce, an insurance agent, and five siblings before


title: Kathryn Morris

text: moving away. From age 6 to 17, Morris and her family traveled the southern 'Bible Belt' as a gospel group called 'The Morris Code'.


title: Kathryn Morris

text: She attended two colleges in the Philadelphia area, Northeastern Christian Junior College and Temple University. After studying theatre in high school, she was involved in a hit-and-run collision while on her way to her first acting gig, a Japanese music video based on the musical "Grease". She still made it to the gig and that's when she knew she was going to be an actress.


title: Kathryn Morris

text: On April 8, 2013, Morris announced that she and her partner Johnny Messner were expecting twins. She gave birth to twin boys, Jameson and Rocco. Jameson and Rocco were diagnosed with autism when they were 3 years old. In October 2021, Morris launched "The Savants"; an initiative to "revolutionize how the world lives on and off the spectrum".


title: 1999 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The 1999 UEFA Champions League Final was an association football match between Manchester United of England and Bayern Munich of Germany, played at Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain, on 26 May 1999, to determine the winner of the 1998–99 UEFA Champions League. Injury time goals from Manchester United's Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjær cancelled out Mario Basler's early goal for Bayern to give Manchester United a 2–1 win. Referee Pierluigi Collina has cited this match as one of the most memorable of his career, and described the noise from the crowd at the end of the game as being like a "lion's roar".


title: 1999 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The two sides had played each other earlier in the competition, having both been drawn in Group D in the group stage; Bayern won the group, while Manchester United qualified for the knockout phase as one of the two best runners-up across all six groups. After beating Inter Milan in the quarter-finals, Manchester United beat another Italian side, Juventus, in the semis to reach the final; meanwhile, Bayern beat fellow Germans Kaiserslautern in the quarter-finals, before overcoming Ukrainian side Dynamo Kyiv in the semis. The victory completed a treble-winning season for Manchester United, after they had won the Premier League and FA Cup. Bayern were also playing for a treble, having won the Bundesliga and reached the DFB-Pokal final, although they went on to lose that match as well.


title: 1999 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Manchester United and Bayern Munich had only met twice in competitive matches before the final, both meetings coming earlier in the 1998–99 season and both finished as draws. Manchester United's only other German opponents in their history were Borussia Dortmund, against whom they had an overall winning record, with three wins, two defeats and a draw in their six matches, including a 10–1 aggregate win in the second round of the 1964–65 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and a 2–0 aggregate defeat in the 1996–97 UEFA Champions League semi-finals. Bayern Munich had an equally narrow advantage in their 22 matches against English opposition, with seven wins, nine draws and six defeats, including a win over Leeds United in the 1975 European Cup Final and a defeat to Aston Villa in the 1982 final.


title: 1999 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Including the victory over Leeds in 1975, Bayern Munich had won the European Cup on three occasions going into the 1999 final. With three victories in a row from 1974 to 1976, they became only the third team to achieve such a feat after Real Madrid (1956 to 1960) and Ajax (1971 to 1973). They had also finished as runners-up twice: in 1982 against Aston Villa and 1987 against Porto. Although Bayern had been waiting 23 years for a European Cup title, Manchester United had had to wait even longer, their only victory having come in 1968. Their manager then was Matt Busby, who had been seriously injured 10 years earlier in the Munich air disaster, which killed eight of his players on the way back from a European Cup tie in Belgrade, before rebuilding the team to become European Cup winners. Busby died in 1994; the day of the 1999 Champions League final would have been his 90th birthday.


title: 1999 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Although it was the second Champions League season to feature clubs that had not won their national leagues the year before, Manchester United and Bayern Munich were the first such clubs to reach the final of the competition. Nevertheless, both went into the match as champions, having won their domestic leagues in 1998–99; Bayern Munich claimed the Bundesliga title with a 1–1 draw against Hertha BSC on 9 May with three games to go, while Manchester United left it until the last day of the season (16 May), when they came back from 1–0 down against Tottenham Hotspur to win 2–1 and beat Arsenal to the title by a point. Both teams were also playing for the treble; in addition to their league win, Manchester United had beaten Newcastle United in the 1999 FA Cup Final on 22 May to claim the Double, while Bayern were due to play Werder Bremen in the 1999 DFB-Pokal Final on 12 June.


title: 1999 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Since neither Manchester United nor Bayern Munich had won their respective leagues in 1997–98, both sides faced a qualifier to enter the 1998–99 Champions League. Manchester United were drawn against Polish champions ŁKS Łódź and won 2–0 on aggregate, goals from Ryan Giggs and Andy Cole in the first leg at Old Trafford giving them the victory. Bayern Munich had an easier time against Yugoslavian champions Obilić, winning 4–0 in the first leg at the Olympiastadion with goals from Stefan Effenberg, Giovane Élber, Alexander Zickler and Thorsten Fink, all scored in the space of 17 second-half minutes. In the second leg, played at Partizan's ground in Belgrade, an 88th-minute goal from Lothar Matthäus rescued a 1–1 draw to give Bayern a 5–1 win on aggregate.


title: 1999 UEFA Champions League Final

text: In the draw for the group stage, Bayern Munich were placed in Pot 2 and Manchester United in Pot 3 as Germany was higher than England in the UEFA association club coefficient rankings. They were drawn together in Group D, along with Spanish champions Barcelona and Danish champions Brøndby, in what became known as the "group of death". United and Bayern found themselves bottom of the group after the first round of matches, in which Bayern lost 2–1 away to Brøndby after surrendering a 1–0 lead in the last three minutes; United, meanwhile, played out a 3–3 draw at home to Barcelona after twice giving up the lead. The first group stage meeting between United and Bayern took place at the Olympiastadion on matchday 2 and finished in a 2–2 draw; Élber opened the scoring for Bayern before goals from Dwight Yorke and Paul Scholes gave United the lead, only for a Teddy Sheringham own goal – brought about by an error by Peter Schmeichel – to level the scores in the 89th minute.


title: 1999 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Matchdays 3 and 4 saw double-headers, with Manchester United taking on Brøndby and Bayern Munich playing Barcelona. Manchester United beat Brøndby 6–2 in their first match at Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, then 5–0 at Old Trafford two weeks later. Bayern also recorded a pair of victories over Barcelona, winning 1–0 at the Olympiastadion and 2–1 at the Camp Nou. On matchday 5, United played their second match against Barcelona – their first trip of the season to the Camp Nou – and again the two sides played out a 3–3 draw. With Bayern beating Brøndby 2–0 at home, the German side moved onto 10 points and took top spot in the group going into the final round of matches, one point ahead of United. Qualification for the quarter-finals was only guaranteed for the group winners, meaning that both United and Bayern had to play for victory in their final match against each other at Old Trafford. United took the lead just before half-time through a Roy Keane strike from just outside the penalty area; however, Hasan Salihamidžić equalised for Bayern in the 55th minute and the game finished as a 1–1 draw. The result meant that Bayern finished as group winners, but United's points total was enough to see them go through as one of the two group runners-up with the best record.


title: 1999 UEFA Champions League Final

text: In the quarter-finals, Bayern Munich were drawn against Group F winners and fellow German side Kaiserslautern, while Manchester United were paired with Group C winners Inter Milan. Two Yorke goals gave United a 2–0 win in their first leg at Old Trafford, while Bayern beat Kaiserslautern by the same scoreline at the Olympiastadion through goals from Élber and Effenberg. In the second leg, Nicola Ventola pulled a goal back for Inter, but Paul Scholes secured United's passage to the semi-finals with a late away goal. Meanwhile, Bayern won convincingly at Kaiserslautern, as goals from Effenberg, Carsten Jancker, Mario Basler and an own goal from Uwe Rösler gave them a 4–0 win, 6–0 on aggregate.


title: 1999 UEFA Champions League Final

text: United again came up against Italian opposition in the semi-finals, facing Juventus, who had beaten Greek side Olympiacos in the quarters, and Bayern were drawn against Ukrainian side Dynamo Kyiv, who beat reigning champions Real Madrid to reach the semis. Both first legs finished as draws; Giggs scored in injury time to secure a 1–1 home draw for Manchester United after Antonio Conte had put Juventus ahead midway through the first half, while Bayern also had to come from behind to draw 3–3 in Kyiv. A single goal from Basler proved the difference between Bayern and Dynamo in the second leg, giving the Germans a 4–3 aggregate win. Manchester United fell behind early in the second leg in Turin, as Filippo Inzaghi scored twice in the first 11 minutes. Goals from Keane and Yorke before half-time levelled the tie but gave United the advantage on away goals, before Cole secured victory with the winning goal seven minutes from time.


title: 1999 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, Spain, was selected as the venue for the final at a meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee in Lisbon, Portugal, on 6 October 1998. The selection process had begun more than four months earlier, in May 1998, when FC Barcelona submitted the Camp Nou as a contender to host the match in recognition of the club's centenary year. The other venues in contention to host the match were London's Wembley Stadium and Marseille's Stade Vélodrome, but the Camp Nou was considered by UEFA's Stadiums Commission to be the favourite for its superior security, comfort and capacity. The Camp Nou had hosted one previous European Cup final: Italian club Milan's 4–0 victory over Steaua București of Romania in 1989. It had also hosted two Cup Winners' Cup finals, in 1972 and 1982; the latter was won on home turf by Barcelona.


title: 1999 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The Camp Nou was constructed over three years from 1954 to 1957 as a replacement for Barcelona's previous home, the nearby Camp de Les Corts. The original capacity of the Camp Nou was just over 93,000, but its first major European final, the 1972 Cup Winners' Cup Final, was attended by just 35,000 spectators. 1982 was the stadium's busiest year to date, hosting not only the 1982 Cup Winners' Cup Final, but also five matches at the FIFA World Cup, including the opening match, all three matches in Group A of the second group stage and the semi-final between Poland and Italy. Subsequent renovations meant that by 1999, the stadium's capacity had reached 115,000.


title: 1999 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Due to UEFA regulations regarding standing at football matches, the Camp Nou's terraced sections were closed for the 1999 Champions League Final, reducing the capacity to approximately 92,000. Of these, around two-thirds were reserved for the two finalist clubs (approximately 30,000 tickets each). The remaining third was divided between fans of FC Barcelona (around 7,500 tickets), UEFA, and competition sponsors. After an initial announcement that the clubs would only receive 25,000 tickets each, the Independent Manchester United Supporters Association (IMUSA) called that figure "ridiculous", claiming it would push black market prices to "astronomical levels"; the group's spokesman, Lee Hodgkiss, suggested a figure closer to 50,000 would be more appropriate, given the stadium's usual capacity of around 115,000. Despite the club receiving only 30,000 tickets, it was estimated that up to 100,000 Manchester United fans travelled to Barcelona for the final, paying around £300 for flights and around £1,000 for match tickets. Many were able to buy tickets from touts, who had paid up to £400 to buy from Barcelona fans who had bought through their club for the equivalent of £28.


title: 1999 UEFA Champions League Final

text: As well as reducing the capacity of the stadium, UEFA also mandated that the Camp Nou pitch be narrowed by from to , to match UEFA's 'standard' pitch size.


title: 1999 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The match referee was Pierluigi Collina of the Italian Football Federation. Collina was promoted to the FIFA International Referees list in 1995, and took charge of his first UEFA Cup matches in the 1995–96 season. He had only refereed eight Champions League matches before the 1999 final, three of which came in the group stage earlier in the season, including the match between Barcelona and Bayern Munich at the Camp Nou on 4 November 1998; however, he had also taken charge of four matches at the 1996 Summer Olympics, including the final between Nigeria and Argentina, and two group stage matches at the 1998 FIFA World Cup. Collina was supported by fellow Italian officials Gennaro Mazzei and Claudio Puglisi as assistant referees, and fourth official Fiorenzo Treossi.


title: 1999 UEFA Champions League Final

text: The match ball for the final was the Nike NK 800 Geo, a white ball with a standard 32-panel design. It featured a large "swoosh" across two adjacent hexagonal panels with the Champions League logo on a pentagonal panel above, and a pattern of five-pointed stars similar to those used in the UEFA Champions League logo over the entire surface of the ball.


title: 1999 UEFA Champions League Final

text: As both Manchester United and Bayern Munich's primary kits featured significant amounts of red, UEFA regulations about kit clashes would normally have required both teams to wear their change kits. However, the two clubs felt it would have been a shame for neither to wear their traditional colours, and they agreed to toss a coin to see who would have first choice. Manchester United won the toss and therefore wore their usual European colours of red shirts, white shorts and white socks, while Bayern wore silver shirts, shorts and socks, all with maroon trim.


title: 1999 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Prior to kick-off, opera singer Montserrat Caballé – moving around the field on the back of a golf cart – performed a live version of "Barcelona", a song she recorded with the late Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury in 1987, accompanied by a recording of Mercury on the stadium's electronic screen. The opening ceremony featured inflatable versions of some of Barcelona's most recognisable landmarks, as well as flag-bearers waving flags of the crests of the participating teams. Bayern Munich's fans, meanwhile, created a tifo of the name of their team with thousands of coloured cards.


title: 1999 UEFA Champions League Final

text: Manchester United left England two days before the final, first flying from Manchester Ringway Airport to Heathrow, where they boarded a Concorde aircraft for the flight to Barcelona. They stayed in the Meliá Gran hotel in the town of Sitges, about down the coast south-west of Barcelona. Captain Roy Keane and midfielder Paul Scholes both missed out on the final due to suspension; manager Alex Ferguson had originally considered selecting Giggs to join Nicky Butt in central midfield, but ultimately picked David Beckham as a player who could help the team control possession in the middle of the pitch, with Giggs on the right wing and Jesper Blomqvist starting on the left. Keane had suffered an ankle injury in the FA Cup final that would keep him out until the start of the following season, but his suspension rendered the injury irrelevant to his selection. Norwegian defender Henning Berg also missed out through injury, meaning that his compatriot Ronny Johnsen – who had been an early contender to play alongside Butt in midfield – played in central defence alongside Jaap Stam, who overcame an Achilles injury. With Keane out, goalkeeper Schmeichel – who in November 1998 had announced his intention to leave Manchester United at the end of the season – was named as captain for his final Manchester United appearance; this meant that both sides were captained by their goalkeepers, as Oliver Kahn wore the armband for Bayern. As Manchester United's top two goalscorers throughout the season, Cole and Yorke started up front, leaving Sheringham – who had played a part in both goals in the FA Cup Final a few days earlier – on the bench. Also on the bench were fellow striker Ole Gunnar Solskjær, back-up goalkeeper Raimond van der Gouw, defenders David May, Phil Neville and Wes Brown, and midfielder Jonathan Greening.