title: John Birch Society

text: Former Eisenhower cabinet member Ezra Taft Benson—a leading Mormon—spoke in favor of the JBS, but in January 1963 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a statement distancing itself from the Society. Antisemitic, racist, anti-Mormon, anti-Masonic groups criticized the organization's acceptance of Jews, non-whites, Masons, and Mormons as members. These opponents accused Welch of harboring feminist, ecumenical, and evolutionary ideas. Welch rejected these accusations by his detractors: "All we are interested in here is opposing the advance of the Communists, and eventually destroying the whole Communist conspiracy, so that Jews and Christians alike, and Mohammedans and Buddhists, can again have a decent world in which to live."


title: John Birch Society

text: In a 1963 report, the California Senate Factfinding Subcommittee on Un-American Activities, following an investigation into the JBS, found no evidence it was "a secret, fascist, subversive, un-American, [or] anti-Semitic organization."


title: John Birch Society

text: In 1964, Welch favored Barry Goldwater for the Republican presidential nomination, but the membership split, with two-thirds supporting Goldwater and one-third supporting Richard Nixon, who did not run. A number of Birch members and their allies were Goldwater supporters in 1964 and a hundred of them were delegates at the 1964 Republican National Convention.


title: John Birch Society

text: The JBS opposed the 1960s civil rights movement and claimed the movement had Communists in important positions. In the latter half of 1965, the JBS produced a flyer titled "What's Wrong With Civil Rights?" and used the flyer as a newspaper advertisement. In the piece, one of the answers was: "For the civil rights movement in the United States, with all of its growing agitation and riots and bitterness, and insidious steps towards the appearance of a civil war, has not been "infiltrated" by the Communists, as you now frequently hear. It has been deliberately and almost wholly "created" by the Communists patiently building up to this present stage for more than forty years." The society believed that the ultimate aim of the civil rights movement was the creation of a "Soviet Negro Republic" in the southeastern United States and opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, claiming it violated the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and overstepped individual states' rights to enact laws regarding civil rights. Some prominent black conservatives such as George Schuyler and Manning Johnson joined forces with the JBS during this period and echoed the Society's rhetoric about the civil-rights movement and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.


title: John Birch Society

text: In April 1966, a "New York Times" article on New Jersey and the society voiced—in part—a concern for "the increasing tempo of radical right attacks on local government, libraries, school boards, parent-teacher associations, mental health programs, the Republican Party and, most recently, the ecumenical movement." It then characterized the society as "by far the most successful and 'respectable' radical right organization in the country. It operates alone or in support of other extremist organizations whose major preoccupation, like that of the Birchers, is the internal Communist conspiracy in the United States."


title: John Birch Society

text: The JBS also opposed the creation of the first sex education curriculum in the United States through a division called the Movement to Restore Decency (MOTOREDE). Surviving MOTOREDE pamphlets date from 1967 to 1971. Additionally, the JBS advocated against other manifestations of social liberalism, including abortion.


title: John Birch Society

text: John Birch Society members and activities were featured in "The Radical Americans", a series produced by National Educational Television (NET) and WGBH-TV that aired in 1966 on NET outlets.


title: John Birch Society

text: Welch wrote in a widely circulated 1954 statement, "The Politician", "Could Eisenhower really be simply a smart politician, entirely without principles and hungry for glory, who is only the tool of the Communists? The answer is yes." He went on. "With regard to ... Eisenhower, it is difficult to avoid raising the question of deliberate treason."


title: John Birch Society

text: The sensationalism of Welch's charges against Eisenhower prompted several conservatives and Republicans, most prominently Goldwater and the intellectuals of William F. Buckley's circle, to renounce outright or quietly shun the group. Buckley, an early friend and admirer of Welch, regarded his accusations against Eisenhower as "paranoid and idiotic libels" and attempted unsuccessfully to purge Welch from the Birch Society. From then on, Buckley became the leading intellectual spokesman and organizer of the anti-Bircher conservatives. Buckley's biographer, John B. Judis, wrote that "Buckley was beginning to worry that with the John Birch Society growing so rapidly, the right-wing upsurge in the country would take an ugly, even Fascist turn rather than leading toward the kind of conservatism "National Review" had promoted." Despite Buckley's opposition, the author Edward H. Miller wrote, the JBS "remained a force in the conservative movement", and arguments to the contrary are "greatly exaggerated".


title: John Birch Society

text: The booklet found support from Ezra Taft Benson, then Eisenhower's Secretary of Agriculture and later the 13th President of the LDS Church. In a letter to his friend FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, Benson asked "how can a man [Eisenhower] who seems to be so strong for Christian principles and base American concepts be so effectively used as a tool to serve the Communist conspiracy?" Benson privately fought to prevent the Bureau from condemning the JBS, which prompted Hoover to distance himself from Benson. At one point in 1971, Hoover directed his staff to lie to Benson to avoid having to meet with him about the issue.


title: John Birch Society

text: By 1976 the JBS had 90,000 members, 240 paid staffers and a $7 million dollar annual budget, according to a paper written by libertarian conservative tycoon Charles Koch.


title: John Birch Society

text: The JBS was at the center of a free-speech law case in the 1970s, after "American Opinion" accused a Chicago lawyer, Elmer Gertz, who was representing the family of a young man killed by a police officer, of being part of a Communist conspiracy to merge all police agencies in the country into one large force. The resulting libel suit, "Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc.", reached the United States Supreme Court, which held that a state may allow a private figure such as Gertz to recover actual damages from a media defendant without proving malice, but that a public figure does have to prove actual malice, according to the standard laid out in "New York Times Co. v. Sullivan", in order to recover presumed damages or punitive damages. The court ordered a retrial in which Gertz prevailed.


title: John Birch Society

text: Key causes of the JBS in the 1970s included opposition to both the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and to the establishment of diplomatic ties with the People's Republic of China. The JBS claimed in 1973 that the regime of Mao Zedong had murdered 64 million Chinese as of that year and that it was the primary supplier of illicit heroin into the United States. This led to bumper stickers showing a pair of scissors cutting a hypodermic needle in half accompanied by the slogan "Cut The Red China Connection". The society also was opposed to transferring control of the Panama Canal from American to Panamanian sovereignty.


title: John Birch Society

text: The John Birch Society, along with other conservative groups such as the Eagle Forum and the Christian right, successfully opposed the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s. JBS played a key role in stopping the ERA's ratification – on par with Phyllis Schlafly, herself a JBS member – and it organized opposition to it across the nation. JBS accused the ERA's supporters of subversion, asserting that the ERA was part of a Communist plot "to reduce human beings to living at the same level as animals."


title: John Birch Society

text: The JBS advocated for lower taxes, including reducing the federal income tax rate. By 1977, it had established over 200 TRIM (Tax Relief Immediately) committees across the U.S.


title: John Birch Society

text: In the 1970s, the JBS played a prominent role in promoting the false claim that laetrile was a cancer cure, and in advocating for the legalization of the compound as a drug. A "New York Times" review in 1977 found identified JBS and other far-right groups were involved in pro-laetrile campaigns in at least nine states. "Virtually all" of the officers of the "Committee for Freedom of Choice in Cancer Therapy," the leading pro-laetrile group, were JBS members. Congressman and Birch Society leader Lawrence P. McDonald was involved in the campaign as a member of the committee.


title: John Birch Society

text: The JBS also opposed Earth Day, suggesting that it was a Communist plot and noting that the first celebration fell on the 100th anniversary of Vladimir Lenin's birth.


title: John Birch Society

text: The JBS was organized into local chapters during this period. Ernest Brosang, a New Jersey regional coordinator, claimed that it was virtually impossible for opponents of the society to penetrate its policy-making levels, thereby protecting it from "anti-American" takeover attempts. Its activities included the distribution of literature critical of civil rights legislation, warnings over the influence of the United Nations, and the release of petitions to impeach United States Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren. To spread their message, members held showings of documentary films and operated initiatives such as "Let Freedom Ring", a nationwide network of recorded telephone messages.


title: John Birch Society

text: After the Vietnam War, the JBS's membership and influence declined. This decline continued through the 1980s and 1990s due to Welch's death in 1985 (at age 85) and the end of the Cold War in 1991. By the mid-1990s, membership in the JBS was estimated between 15,000 and 20,000. While other anti-Communist organizations faded away following the Cold War's end, the JBS survived and experienced some growth in the 1990s. News reports said President George H.W. Bush's invocation of a "new world order" during the 1991 Gulf War gave the society a new audience. The society consolidated its national office in Appleton, Wisconsin, the birthplace of Senator Joseph McCarthy.


title: John Birch Society

text: In 1984, three members of the San Diego Padres, Eric Show, Mark Thurmond, and Dave Dravecky revealed they were members of the JBS.


title: John Birch Society

text: The society campaigned against the ratification of the Genocide Convention, arguing it would erode U.S. national sovereignty.


title: John Birch Society

text: The JBS continued to press for an end to United States membership in the United Nations. As evidence of its effectiveness, the society pointed to the Utah State Legislature's failed resolution calling for United States withdrawal, as well as the actions of several other states where the society's membership was active.


title: John Birch Society

text: The second head of the JBS was Congressman Larry McDonald (D) from Georgia. McDonald's first wife "estimated that, over the years, he had hosted 10,000 people in his living room for Bircher-inspired lectures and documentaries." In 1982, McDonald was appointed as national chairman of the Society. McDonald was killed in 1983 when airliner KAL 007 was shot down by a Soviet interceptor.


title: John Birch Society

text: William P. Hoar, a writer for the JBS who has attacked mainstream politicians from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush, published regularly in "The New American" and its predecessor "American Opinion." He coauthored "The Clinton Clique" with Larry Abraham alleging that Clinton was part of the Anglo-American conspiracy supposedly ruled through the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission. The Birch Society publications arm, Western Islands, published his "Architects of Conspiracy: An Intriguing History" (1984), and Huntington House Publishers published his "Handouts and Pickpockets: Our Government Gone Berserk" (1996).


title: John Birch Society

text: In 1995, the JBS campaigned against plans for a Conference of States; proponents said such a conference would reduce federal powers, but the JBS feared it would lead to a second Constitutional Convention.


title: John Birch Society

text: In the mid-2000s, the JBS, along with the Eagle Forum, mobilized conservative opposition to a so-called North American Union and the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. As a result of two organizations' activities, 23 state legislatures saw bills introduced condemning an NAU while the Bush and Obama administrations were deterred "from any grand initiatives." In 2007, "The New American" published a special issue devoted to the topic; approximately 500,000 copies were distributed. The JBS also advocated for U.S. withdrawal from the UN.


title: John Birch Society

text: The JBS was a co-sponsor of the 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), ending its decades-long distance from the mainstream conservative movement.


title: John Birch Society

text: Although JBS membership numbers are kept private, it reported a resurgence of members in the 2010s and 2020s, specifically in Texas. A 2017 article in "Politico" describing the group's activities in Texas listed some of its stances as opposing the UN's Agenda 21 based on a conspiracy theory that it will "establish control over all human activity", opposing a bill that would allow people who entered the United States illegally to pay in-state college tuition, pulling the United States out of NAFTA, returning America to what the group calls its Christian foundations, and abolishing the federal departments of education and energy.


title: John Birch Society

text: The JBS was associated with the Trump presidency by political commentators such as Jeet Heer (now of "The Nation" magazine), who argued while writing for "The New Republic" in June 2016 that "Trumpism" is essentially Bircherism. Trump confidant and longtime advisor Roger Stone said that Trump's father Fred Trump was a financier of the JBS and a personal friend of founder Robert Welch. Trump's former Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney was the speaker at the John Birch Society's National Council dinner shortly before joining the Trump administration. Former Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas), has had a long and close relationship with the JBS, celebrating its work in his 2008 keynote speech at its 50th anniversary event and saying that the JBS was leading the fight to restore freedom. The keynote speaker at the organization's 60th anniversary celebration was Congressman Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky.), who maintained a near-perfect score on the JBS's "Freedom Index" ranking of members of Congress. Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who hosted Trump on his Infowars radio show and claimed to have a personal relationship with the president, called Trump a "John Birch Society president" and previously said Trump was "more John Birch Society than the John Birch Society."


title: John Birch Society

text: In July 2021, the Republican central committees of Kootenai County, Idaho, and Benewah County, Idaho, unanimously approved resolutions calling JBS "a valuable organization that is dedicated to restoring the Republic according to the vision of the Founding Fathers." The Idaho Republican Party declined to endorse the resolutions. The JBS had been active in Idaho.


title: John Birch Society

text: In 2022, the JBS campaigned against carbon-capture pipelines in Iowa, arguing they threatened property rights.


title: Vesper Lynd

text: Vesper Lynd is a fictional character featured in Ian Fleming's 1953 James Bond novel "Casino Royale". She was portrayed by Ursula Andress in the 1967 James Bond parody, which is only slightly based on the novel, and by Eva Green in the 2006 film adaptation.


title: Vesper Lynd

text: In the novel, the character explains that she was born "on a very stormy evening", and that her parents named her "Vesper", Latin for "evening" and Bond then gives her name to a cocktail he has recently invented. The "Vesper" became popular after the novel's publication. The actual name for the drink (as well as its complete recipe) was mentioned on screen for the first time in the 2006 film adaptation of "Casino Royale".


title: Vesper Lynd

text: In 1993, journalist Donald McCormick claimed that Fleming based Vesper on the real life of Polish agent Krystyna Skarbek, who was working for Special Operations Executive.


title: Vesper Lynd

text: Vesper works at MI6 headquarters as a personal assistant to Head of section S. She is lent to Bond, much to his irritation, to assist him in his mission to bankrupt Le Chiffre, the paymaster of a SMERSH-controlled trade union. She poses as a radio seller, working with secret agent Rene Mathis, and later as Bond's companion to infiltrate the casino in Royale-Les-Eaux, in which Le Chiffre frequently gambles. After Bond takes all of Le Chiffre's money in a high-stakes game of baccarat, Vesper is abducted by Le Chiffre's thugs, who also capture Bond when he tries to rescue her. Both are rescued after Le Chiffre is murdered by a SMERSH agent, but only after Le Chiffre has tortured Bond.


title: Vesper Lynd

text: Vesper visits Bond every day in the hospital, and the two grow very close; much to his own surprise, Bond develops genuine feelings for her, and even dreams of leaving the service and marrying her. After he is released from the hospital, they go on a holiday together and eventually become lovers.


title: Vesper Lynd

text: Vesper has a terrible secret, however – she is a double agent working for the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) and worked with Bond only because she was ordered to lure him into a trap. (Her kidnapping was staged to lure Bond into Le Chiffre's clutches.) Before she met Bond, she had been romantically involved with a Polish RAF operative. This man had been captured by SMERSH and revealed information about Vesper under torture. Hence, SMERSH was using this operative to blackmail Vesper into helping them. After Le Chiffre's death, she is initially hopeful that she can have a fresh start with Bond, but she realizes this is impossible when she sees a SMERSH operative with an eye patch, Adolph Gettler, tracking her and Bond. Consumed with guilt and certain that SMERSH will find and kill both of them, she commits suicide, leaving a note admitting her treachery and pledging her love to Bond.


title: Vesper Lynd

text: Bond deals with his grief over her death by denouncing her as a traitor and going back to work as though nothing has happened, coldly telling his superiors, "The job is done, and the bitch is dead."


title: Vesper Lynd

text: However, later books in the series suggest that Bond still has feelings for Vesper. Fleming's tenth novel, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", reveals that Bond makes an annual pilgrimage to Royale-Les-Eaux to visit her grave. In "Diamonds Are Forever", Bond skips the song "La Vie En Rose" in Tiffany Case's hotel room "because it has memories for him"; this is a song closely associated with Vesper in "Casino Royale". In the novel "Goldfinger", when Bond has been poisoned and believes he is about to enter heaven, he worries about how to introduce Tilly Masterton, who he believes has died along with him, to Vesper.


title: Vesper Lynd

text: In the 1967 version of "Casino Royale", Lynd was portrayed by Ursula Andress, who had portrayed another Bond girl, Honey Ryder, in the 1962 film version of "Dr. No".


title: Vesper Lynd

text: In this version, which bore little resemblance to the novel, Vesper is depicted as a former secret agent who has since become a multi-millionaire with a penchant for wearing ridiculously extravagant outfits at her office ("because if I wore it in the street people might stare"). Bond (played by David Niven), now in the position of M at MI6, uses a discount for her past due taxes to bribe her into becoming another 007 agent, and to recruit baccarat expert Evelyn Tremble (Peter Sellers) into stopping Le Chiffre (played by Orson Welles).


title: Vesper Lynd

text: Vesper and Tremble have an affair during which she eliminates an enemy agent sent to seduce Tremble ("Miss Goodthighs"). Ultimately, however, she betrays Tremble to Le Chiffre and SMERSH, declaring to Tremble, "Never trust a rich spy" before killing him with a machine gun hidden inside a bagpipe. She presumably does this for the same reason she does in the novel, as she remarks that it isn't for money but for love. Though her ultimate fate is not revealed in the film, in the closing credits she is shown as an angel playing a harp, showing her to be one of the "seven James Bonds at Casino Royale" killed by an atomic explosion.


title: Vesper Lynd

text: In the 2006 film version of "Casino Royale", Vesper Lynd is a foreign liaison agent from the HM Treasury's Financial Action Task Force assigned to make sure that Bond adequately manages the funds provided by MI6 to bankrupt Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), a money manager for several terrorist groups. Upon meeting for the first time, Vesper and Bond size each other up, and each deduce that the other is an orphan. Vesper is initially skeptical about Bond's ego and at first is unwilling to act as his girlfriend to distract the other players at the high-stakes Texas Hold 'Em poker tournament hosted by Le Chiffre. However, she assists Bond when Lord's Resistance Army leader Steven Obanno (Isaach de Bankolé) attacks him, knocking a gun out of Obanno's hand and giving Bond the chance to kill him and his bodyguards.


title: Vesper Lynd

text: She retreats to the shower afterwards, wracked with guilt, feeling she has blood on her hands from helping to kill Obanno. Bond sits next to her and comforts her by kissing the "blood" off her fingers, and they return to the casino. His kindness does not prevent her from doing her job, however; she refuses to bankroll him after he loses his table stakes to Le Chiffre. Shortly afterwards, Vesper saves Bond's life. Poisoned by Le Chiffre's girlfriend, Valenka (Ivana Miličević), Bond struggles unsuccessfully to connect a key wire to his automatic external defibrillator and enters cardiac arrest, but Vesper arrives in time to connect the wire properly, enabling the machine to revive him.


title: Vesper Lynd

text: After Bond wins the tournament, Le Chiffre kidnaps Vesper, and Bond gives chase. They fall into Le Chiffre's trap and are tortured by him and his thugs, but are saved by the mysterious Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), who shoots and kills Le Chiffre for losing his organisation's money.


title: Vesper Lynd

text: While both are hospitalized to recover, Bond and Vesper fall in love, and Bond plans to resign from MI6 to be with her. As in the novel, Bond and Vesper go on vacation to Venice, both of them hoping to start a new life. Unknown to Bond, however, Vesper embezzles the tournament winnings and intends to deliver them to Adolph Gettler (Richard Sammel), who (like his novel counterpart) has been spying on the two agents since they arrived in Venice, and was spotted by Vesper, to her visible dismay.


title: Vesper Lynd

text: When Bond receives a timely phone call from MI6 chief M (Judi Dench) and realizes Vesper's scheme, he pursues her as Gettler takes her hostage and throws her in a caged elevator while he and his men battle Bond. Bond kills Gettler and his thugs, but in the process causes the building to flood and start sinking. After apologizing to Bond, Vesper locks herself in the elevator just before it plunges into the waters below. Bond frantically tries to save her life, but in a final gesture, she kisses Bond's hands as if to clear him of guilt and drowns. Bond finally extricates her and unsuccessfully attempts to revive her.


title: Vesper Lynd

text: As in the novel, Bond copes with Vesper's death by denouncing her, saying "The job's done and the bitch is dead." M tells Bond that the organisation behind Le Chiffre had kidnapped Vesper's boyfriend, Yusef Kabeira, and threatened to kill him unless she became their spy. She then tells him that Vesper had made a deal with Kabeira's kidnappers: the money in exchange for Bond's life. When Bond opens Vesper's mobile phone left in their Venice hotel room, he discovers her note for him with Mr. White's phone number which enables Bond to track down and confront him at the movie's end.


title: Vesper Lynd

text: In the 2008 film "Quantum of Solace", Kabeira (Simon Kassianides) is revealed to be an agent working for Quantum, the terrorist organisation behind Le Chiffre and Mr. White. Kabeira seduces high-ranking women in the world's intelligence agencies. Kabeira's is then "kidnapped" by Quantum, and the women are forced to become double agents in the hope of securing his freedom. This information vindicates Vesper in Bond's eyes, as he realizes that her betrayal was not her fault. He does not kill Kabeira, but leaves him to MI6 and tells M that she was right about Vesper. As Bond walks away, he drops Vesper's necklace in the snow.


title: Vesper Lynd

text: In the 2015 film "Spectre", Bond finds a VHS video tape in Mr. White's hotel room in Morocco labelled "Vesper Lynd Interrogation". He chooses to put the tape down and not watch it.


title: Vesper Lynd

text: At the beginning of the 2021 film "No Time to Die", Bond and Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) are in Matera, Italy. While in a hotel discussing each other's secrets, Swann suggests Bond should visit Vesper's grave. When Bond does so, he says "I miss you" and burns a note saying, "forgive me". Bond notices a card placed by the side of the grave with the SPECTRE symbol. As he picks it up, a bomb intended to kill him detonates. Bond leaves Madeleine at a train station after being attacked by SPECTRE as he believes Madeleine has betrayed him to the organisation. Later, Bond visits Blofeld in prison. Blofeld explains to Bond that he ordered his organisation to follow Bond and Madeleine to Matera knowing that Madeleine would take Bond to Vesper's grave to seek solace, providing an ideal moment to kill Bond.


title: Vesper Lynd

text: The character of Vesper Lynd does not appear in the 1954 television adaptation of "Casino Royale". Instead, the character was replaced by a new character named Valerie Mathis (Linda Christian), who is depicted as an American. She also betrays Bond (Barry Nelson), but comes to his rescue after he is shot by Le Chiffre (Peter Lorre). Valerie does not die in this adaptation.


title: Splice (film)

text: Splice is a 2009 science fiction horror film directed by Vincenzo Natali and starring Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, and Delphine Chanéac. The story concerns experiments in genetic engineering being done by a young scientific couple, who attempt to introduce human DNA into their work of splicing animal genes. Guillermo del Toro, Don Murphy, and Joel Silver are the executive producers of this film. Theatrically released on June 4, 2010, the film received generally positive reviews from critics but grossed just $27 million against a $30 million production budget.


title: Splice (film)

text: Genetic engineers Clive Nicoli and Elsa Kast hope to achieve fame by splicing animal DNA to create hybrids for medical use at the company N.E.R.D. (Nucleic Exchange Research and Development). Their work has yielded Fred and Ginger, two large vermiform creatures intended as mates for each other. After successfully mating them, Clive and Elsa plan to create a revolutionary human-animal hybrid. Their employers Joan Chorot and William Barlow forbid this and order them to focus on identifying and extracting proteins from Fred and Ginger for drug production. Clive and Elsa, however, follow their plans in secret and develop a viable prepubescent female creature. Although they planned to terminate before the hybrid reached full term, Elsa persuades Clive to let it live. The hybrid physically ages much faster than humans and mentally develops like a human child. After it spells out NERD with toys, seeing the acronym on Elsa's shirt, Elsa names it "Dren".


title: Splice (film)

text: Clive’s brother Gavin discovers Dren, but flees after she jumps on him. Elsa notices Dren has a fever and tries to cool her in an industrial-sized sink of cold water. Clive holds Dren underwater. This forces Dren to use her gills, revealing she is amphibious. Elsa forms a motherly bond with Dren. Meanwhile, she and Clive neglect their work with Fred and Ginger. At a publicized presentation, Fred and Ginger fight and kill each other. Ginger had spontaneously changed into a male, but Elsa and Clive failed to notice, as they were focused on Dren.


title: Splice (film)

text: The couple moves Dren to the isolated farm where Elsa grew up. Dren reveals she has carnivorous tendencies and retractable wings and enters adolescence. She grows bored of confinement, but Elsa and Clive fear she might be discovered outside. Clive realizes the human DNA used to create Dren is not that of an anonymous donor, as Elsa told him, but Elsa's. After Dren kills her pet cat with the stinger on her tail, Elsa restrains her roughly and amputates the stinger, then uses it to synthesize a protein for their work. While alone with each other, Dren uses her pheromones to seduce Clive and has sex with him, much to Elsa's horror. Clive accuses her of not wanting a "normal" child prior to that because of her fear of losing control. They return to the farm to terminate Dren, but find her seemingly dying.


title: Splice (film)

text: William Barlow discovers human DNA in Dren's protein samples and arrives at the barn with Gavin, who revealed the location. Elsa says Dren is dead and buried behind the barn. Dren, having spontaneously metamorphosed into a male, rises from the grave and attacks them, killing Barlow and Gavin before raping Elsa. Clive attacks Dren to help Elsa but is overpowered by Dren. Elsa attacks Dren to help Clive but hesitates, which allows Dren to kill Clive. Elsa then kills Dren.


title: Splice (film)

text: In an office tower, Joan tells Elsa that Dren's body contained numerous biochemical compounds, for which the company is filing patents. She offers a visibly pregnant Elsa a large sum of money to go through with the pregnancy, which Elsa accepts.


title: Splice (film)

text: "Splice" was written by director Vincenzo Natali and screenwriters Antoinette Terry Bryant and Doug Taylor. The script was originally meant to follow up Natali's "Cube" (1997), but the budget and restricted technology hindered the project. In 2007, the project entered active development as a 75% Canadian and 25% French co-production, receiving a budget of $26 million. The director described the film: ""Splice" is very much about our genetic future and the way science is catching up with much of the fiction out there. [This] is a serious film and an emotional one. And there's sex... Very, very unconventional sex. The centerpiece of the movie is a creature which goes through a dramatic evolutionary process. The goal is to create something shocking but also very subtle and completely believable."


title: Splice (film)

text: In October 2007, actors Brody and Polley were cast into the lead roles. Production began the following November in Toronto. It was aided by Telefilm Canada's funding of US$2.5 million. Filming took place in Toronto and concluded in February 2008.


title: Splice (film)

text: In an interview, when asked if there would be any sequels, Natali responded, "I don't think so. It could happen, but it would have required the movie to make a lot of money in the States, but even though the ending of the film appears to be setting up a sequel, that was never my intention. All of my films end with a question, and somewhat ambiguously, and they always imply the beginning of another story. I like to leave the audience with something to ponder."


title: Splice (film)

text: The film premiered on October 6, 2009 at the Sitges Film Festival, where it won "Best Special Effects" and was in the running for "Best Film", and was part of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. After a bidding war with Apparition, The Weinstein Company, Newmarket Films, First Look Studios, and Samuel Goldwyn Films, Dark Castle Entertainment purchased the U.S rights to the film and the worldwide rights to any possible sequels in February 2010, thinking they "found "the next Paranormal Activity"". The film received a wide release in the United States on June 4, 2010, with Warner Bros. as distributor. The trailer was attached to two other Warner Bros. movies, "The Losers" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street". The film opened on June 4, 2010 in wide release to a $7.4 million opening weekend in 2,450 theaters, averaging $3,014 per theater. "Splice" was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 5, 2010, in the US and on November 29, 2010, in the UK.


title: Splice (film)

text: Manohla Dargis of "The New York Times" wrote that Natali "hasn't reinvented the horror genre" but "has done the next best thing with an intelligent movie that, in between its small boos and an occasional hair-raising jolt, explores chewy issues like bioethics, abortion, corporate-sponsored science, commitment problems between lovers and even Freudian-worthy family dynamics." Andrew O'Hehir from "Salon" said "Dark, sleek, funny and creepily infectious, the genetic-engineering horror-comedy Splice is a dynamic comeback vehicle for Canadian genre director Vincenzo Natali, who made a splash a few years ago with "Cube"." Lisa Schwarzbaum from "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film an A− and stated, "The outstanding creature effects by Howard Berger only get more astonishing as Splice splits into an eerie horror picture, then divides again into something out of "Rosemary's Baby"." Roger Ebert from the "Chicago Sun-Times" called it "well done and intriguing" but said it is disappointing in that it does not explore Dren's persona. Comparing the film to David Cronenberg's "The Brood", Peter Travers from "Rolling Stone" said, "Played as a child by Abigail Chu and as an adult by Delphine Chanéac, Dren morphs into a special-effects miracle, sexy and scary in equal doses." and gave the film 3 out of 4. Also comparing the sex scenes to Cronenberg's work, Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" rated it 2/4 stars and wrote that while it has several disgusting scenes, it is "a regulation monster movie" that is "too dumb to be serious and too slow to be entertaining". Richard Roeper panned "Splice", calling it one of the worst movies of 2010. He gave the film a D+, calling it "ridiculous" but giving it credit for trying to be different.


title: Splice (film)

text: "Splice" won the 2011 Telefilm Golden Box Office Award, CAD$40,000, for being the highest-grossing Canadian feature film in English in 2010.


title: Splice (film)

text: The film was nominated for Best Science Fiction Film at 37th Saturn Awards, but lost to "Inception", another film from Warner Bros.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The Finnish Defence Forces (, ) are the military of Finland. The Finnish Defence Forces consist of the Finnish Army, the Finnish Navy and the Finnish Air Force. In wartime the Finnish Border Guard (which is its own military unit in peacetime) becomes part of the Finnish Defence Forces.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: Universal male conscription is in place, under which all men serve for 165, 255, or 347 days, from the year they turn 18 until the year they turn 29. Alternative non-military service for men and voluntary service for women is available.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: Finland is the only non-NATO European Union state bordering Russia. Finland's official policy states that a wartime military strength of 280,000 personnel constitutes a sufficient deterrent. The army consists of a highly mobile field army backed up by local defence units. The army defends the national territory and its military strategy employs the use of the heavily forested terrain and numerous lakes to wear down an aggressor, instead of attempting to hold the attacking army on the frontier.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: Finland's defence budget for 2022 equals approximately €5.8 billion. The voluntary overseas service is highly popular and troops serve around the world in UN, NATO and EU missions. With an arsenal of 700 howitzers, 700 heavy mortars and 100 multiple rocket launchers, Finland has the largest artillery capability in western Europe. Homeland defence willingness against a superior enemy is at 76%, one of the highest rates in Europe.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The Finnish Defence Forces cooperate closely with the Finnish Border Guard. The Finnish Border Guard has its own yearly and long term investment budget.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: After Finland's declaration of independence on 6 December 1917, the Civic Guards were proclaimed the troops of the government on 25 January 1918 and then Lieutenant-General of the Russian Imperial Army C. G. E. Mannerheim was appointed as Commander-in-Chief of these forces the next day. Fighting between the White Guards (as the Civic Guards were commonly known) and the Red Guards had already broken out about a week before around Viipuri, in what became known as the Finnish Civil War.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: In the war, the Whites were victorious in large part thanks to the leadership of General Mannerheim and the lead by example offensive mindedness of 1,800 German-trained Finnish Jägers, who brought with them German tactical doctrine and military culture. The post-war years were characterized by the Volunteer Campaigns that came to an end in 1920 with the signing of the Treaty of Tartu, which ended the state of war between Finland and Soviet Russia and defined the internationally recognized borders of Finland.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: After winning the Civil War, the Finnish peacetime army was organized as three divisions and a brigade by professional German officers. It became the basic structure for the next 20 years. The coast was guarded by former czarist coastal fortifications and ships taken as prizes of war. The Air Force had already been formed in March 1918, but remained a part of the Army and did not become a fully independent fighting force until 1928. The White Guard ("Suojeluskunta") played a key role in interwar Finnish defence policy, as they essentially served as local/territorial militia forces, and some had higher readiness and training for quick mobilization.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The new government instituted conscription after the Civil War and also introduced a mobilization system and compulsory refresher courses for reservists. An academy providing basic officer training ("Kadettikoulu") was established in 1919, the founding of a General Staff College ("Sotakorkeakoulu") followed in 1924, and in 1927 a tactical training school ("Taistelukoulu") for company-grade and junior officers and NCOs was set up. The requirement of one year of compulsory service was greater than that imposed by any other Scandinavian country in the 1920s and the 1930s, but political opposition to defense spending left the military badly equipped to resist an attack by the Soviet Union, the only security threat in Finnish eyes.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: When the Soviets invaded in November 1939, the Finns, led by Marshal Mannerheim, defeated the Red Army on numerous occasions, including at the crucial Battle of Suomussalmi. These successes were in large part thanks to the application of motti tactics. Finland successfully defended its independence, but ceded 9% of its territory per the Moscow Peace Treaty. During the war the Finns lost 25,904 men, while Soviet losses were 167,976 dead.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: Finland fought in the Continuation War alongside Germany from 1941 to 1944. Thanks to Nazi-German aid, the army was now much better equipped, and the period of conscription had been increased to two years, making possible the formation of sixteen infantry divisions. Having initially deployed on the defensive, the Finns took advantage of the weakening of the Soviet positions as a consequence of Operation Barbarossa, swiftly recovering their lost territories and invading Soviet territory in Karelia, eventually settling into defensive positions from December 1941 onwards. The Soviet offensive of June 1944 undid these Finnish gains and, while failing in its objective of destroying the Finnish army and forcing Finland's unconditional surrender, forced Finland out of the war. The Finnish were able to preserve their independence with key defensive victories over the Red Army, the Battle of Tali-Ihantala being very significant.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: These conflicts involving Finland has had a significant impact on the Finnish defense force of today, while other European militaries have reduced their forces, Finland has maintained a large conscript-based reserve army. As a Swedish report stated: "The reason why the FDF chose to maintain this model while its Nordic neighbours jumped on the expeditionary bandwagon is not hard to see. Sharing a 1340km border with Russia, the need for large ground forces is self-explanatory. Furthermore, memories of World War II – in which over 2 per cent of the population perished in two brutal wars with the Soviet Union – are very much alive in Finland". This same aspect has been highlighted even more strongly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Finland's decision to join NATO. With quotes like; "After World War II, having thwarted the advance of the mighty Red Army in the Winter War of 1939-40 and then seeking to recapture the territory the Soviets eventually claimed, Finland had to settle for neutrality imposed by Moscow. But to almost everyone’s surprise, it succeeded in this degrading task, too, building up armed forces that were highly capable and were energetically supported by civil society—while at the same time managing to maintain dialogue with Moscow.", "Finland still has compulsory military service. Finland would be in a position to mobilize an army of 280,000 soldiers. That's quite a big army in modern Europe,", with similar views being expressed elsewhere as well, often referring to the fact that Finland has kept it's conscript based armed force or other readiness related things, while other European countries now have to re-arm, such as Germany as an example. During the events of 2022 it is receiving attention also internationally.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The demobilization and regrouping of the Finnish Defence Forces were carried out in late 1944 under the supervision of the Soviet-dominated Allied Control Commission. Following the Treaty of Paris in 1947, which imposed restrictions on the size and equipment of the armed forces and required disbandment of the Civic Guard, Finland reorganized its defense forces. The fact that the conditions of the peace treaty did not include prohibitions on reserves or mobilization made it possible to contemplate an adequate defense establishment within the prescribed limits. The reorganization resulted in the adoption of the brigade -in place of the division- as the standard formation.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: For the first two decades after the Second World War, the Finnish Defence Forces relied largely on obsolete wartime material. Defence spending remained minimal until the early 1960s. During the peak of the Cold War, the Finnish government made a conscious effort to increase defence capability. This resulted in the commissioning of several new weapons systems and the strengthening of the defence of Finnish Lapland by the establishment of new garrisons in the area. From 1968 onwards, the Finnish government adopted the doctrine of territorial defence, which requires the use of large land areas to delay and wear out a potential aggressor. The doctrine was complemented by the concept of total defence which calls for the use of all resources of society for national defence in case of a crisis. From the mid-1960s onwards the Finnish Defence Forces also began to specifically prepare to defeat a strategic strike, the kind which the Soviet Union employed successfully to topple the government of Czechoslovakia in 1968. In an all-out confrontation between the two major blocs, Finnish objective would have been to prevent any military incursions to Finnish territory and thereby keep Finland outside the war.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 did not eliminate the military threat perceived by the government, but the nature of the threat had changed. While the concept of total, territorial defence was not dropped, military planning has moved towards the capability to prevent and frustrate a strategic attack toward the vital regions of the country.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The end of the Cold War also allowed new opportunities which would have previously been seen as breaking Finland's stance of neutrality. This has meant for example participation in the War in Afghanistan and the Nordic Battlegroup.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: With the change in the European security environment brought by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Finnish government officials began voicing increasingly strong support for joining NATO; this policy shift is buttressed by polls showing a rapid increase in Finnish citizens' willingness to join NATO. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg voiced his support in April 2022 for the inclusion of Finland into the Euro-Atlantic defence alliance and stated that NATO member countries would likely enthusiastically support a Finland bid for membership.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: On 11 May 2022, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Finnish President Sauli Niinistö signed a new mutual defence agreement "to reinforce their security and fortify northern Europe’s defences, in the face of renewed threats." This has helped to address concerns within Finland that the delay between application and acceptance to NATO, during which time Finland would not yet be able to invoke NATO Article 5 and may present an opportunity for a Russian invasion.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: On 12 May 2022, President Sauli Niinistö and Prime Minister Sanna Marin issued a joint statement supporting Finland's application for membership of NATO, saying "As a member of NATO, Finland would strengthen the entire defence alliance. Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay." On 17 May 2022, the Parliament of Finland voted overwhelmingly to apply for membership of NATO, with 188 votes in favour of the motion and 8 against. The following morning, The Finnish ambassador to NATO, Klaus Korhonen, formally submitted Finland's application to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Sweden also submitted their application at the same time.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: On 29 June 2022, 30 NATO countries extended a formal invitation for Finland along with Sweden to join NATO. Both nations received the status of aspiring members while attending the annual NATO summit in Madrid as guest nations.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The defence forces are currently undergoing key procurement programmes for all the three branches. The Navy is scheduled to get its largest vessels since the Väinämöinen class with the new 100m+ Pohjanmaa-class corvette. Finland has made the decision to acquiring the Lockheed Martin F-35A to replace all McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets for 10€ billion. Meanwhile, the Army is planning to complement the modernized Patria Pasi armoured vehicles with the Finnish Patria 6×6. Acquisition by Finland of three Patria 6x6 vehicles for pre-series testing will be followed by a contract for 160 vehicles in 2023. The standard issue assault rifle RK 62 is also being upgraded to a new variant. Future development will focus also for high altitude air defence missile cababilities. Last two tenders shortlisted in the competition are IAI's Barak-MX system with LRAD ER missile and Elta radar, and Rafael’s David's Sling- system with STUNNER missile and Elta radar. The winning bid is expected to be announced in early 2023.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The Finnish Defence Forces are under the command of the Chief of Defence, who is directly subordinate to the President of the Republic in matters related to the military command. Decisions concerning military orders are made by the President of the Republic in consultation with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: Apart from the Defence Command (, ), the military branches are the Finnish Army (, ), the Finnish Navy (, ) and the Finnish Air Force (, ). The Border Guard (, ) (including the coast guard) is under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior, but can be incorporated fully or in part into the defence forces when required by defence readiness. All logistical duties of the Defence Forces are carried out by the Defence Forces Logistics Command (), which has three Logistics Regiment for each military province.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The Army is divided into eight brigade-level units (). Under the brigades, there were 12 military districts (), which were responsible for carrying out the draft, training and crisis-time activation of reservists and for planning and executing territorial defence of their areas. The military districts were disbanded in 2014, as a part of the 800 million euro savings the Finnish Defence Forces had to carry out.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The Navy consists of headquarters and four brigade-level units: Coastal Fleet (), Coastal Brigade (), Nyland Brigade (, ), and Naval Academy (). The Coastal Fleet includes all the surface combatants of the Navy, while Coastal Brigade and Nyland Brigade train coastal troops.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The Air Force consists of headquarters and four brigade-level units: Satakunta, Lapland and Karelian Air Commands () and Air Force Academy (). They are responsible for securing the integrity of the Finnish airspace during peace and for conducting aerial warfare independently during a crisis.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The military training of the reservists is primarily the duty of the Defence Forces, but it is assisted by the National Defence Training Association of Finland (). This association provides reservists with personal, squad, platoon and company level military training. Most of the 2,000 instructors of the association are volunteers certified by the Defence Forces, but when Defence Forces materiel is used, the training always takes place under the supervision of career military personnel. Annually, the Defence Forces requests the Association to run specialized exercises for some 8,500 personnel placed in reserve units, and an additional 16,500 reservists participate in military courses where the participants are not directly selected by the Defence Forces. The legislation concerning the association will require that the chairman and the majority of the members of its board are chosen by the Finnish Government. The other board members are chosen by NGOs active in the national defence.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The Finnish defence forces is based on universal male conscription. All men above 18 years of age are liable to serve either 6, 9 or 12 months. Some 27,000 conscripts are trained annually. 80% of Finnish men complete their service. The conscripts at first receive basic training, after which they are assigned to various units for special training. Privates who are trained for tasks not requiring special skills serve for 6 months. In technically demanding tasks the time of service is 9, or in some cases 12 months. Those selected for NCO (non-commissioned officer) or officer training serve 12 months. At the completion of the service, the conscripts receive a reserve military rank of private, lance corporal, corporal, sergeant or second lieutenant, depending on their training and accomplishments. After their military service, the conscripts are placed in reserve until the end of their 50th or 60th living year, depending on their military rank. During their time in reserve, the reservists are liable to participate in military refresher exercises for a total of 40, 75 or 100 days, depending on their military rank. In addition, all reservists are liable for activation in a situation where the military threat against Finland has seriously increased, in full or partial mobilization or in a large-scale disaster or a virulent epidemic. The males who do not belong to the reserve may only be activated in case of full mobilization, and those rank-and-file personnel who have fulfilled 50 years of age only with a specific parliamentary decision.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: Military service can be started after turning 18. The service can be delayed due to studies, work or other personal reasons until the 28th birthday, but these reasons do not result in exemptions. In addition to lodging, food, clothes and health care the conscripts receive between 5 and 11.70 euros per day, depending on the time they have served. The state also pays for any rental and electricity bills the conscripts incur during their service. If the conscripts have families, they are entitled to benefits as well. It is illegal to fire an employee due to military service or due to a refresher exercise or activation. Voluntary females in military service receive a small additional benefit, because they are expected to provide their own underwear and other personal items.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The military service consists of lessons, practical training, various cleaning and maintenance duties and field exercises. Most weekends conscripts can leave the barracks on Friday and are expected to return by midnight on Sunday. A small force of conscripts are kept in readiness on weekends to aid civil agencies in various types of emergency situations, to guard the premises and to maintain defence in case of a sudden military emergency. Field exercises can go on regardless of the time of day or week.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The training of conscripts is based on "joukkotuotanto"-principle (lit. English "troop production"). In this system, 80% of the conscripts are trained to fulfill a specific role in a specific wartime military unit. Each brigade-level unit is responsible for producing specified reserve units from the conscripts it has been allocated. As the reservists are discharged, they receive a specific wartime placement in the unit with which they have trained during their conscription. As the conscripts age, their unit is given new, different tasks and materiel. Typically, reservists are placed for the first five years in first-line units, then moved to military formations with less demanding tasks, while the reservists unable to serve in the unit are substituted with reservists from the reserve without specific placement. In refresher exercises, the unit is then given new training for these duties, if the defence funding permits this.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The inhabitants of the demilitarized Åland islands are exempt from military service. By the Conscription act of 1950, they are however required to serve a time at a local institution, like the coast guard instead. However, until such service has been arranged, they are freed from service obligation. The non-military service of Åland islands has not been arranged since the introduction of the act, and there are no plans to institute it. The inhabitants of Åland islands can also volunteer for military service on the mainland. Jehovah's Witnesses were exempt until February 2019. It is also possible to serve either weapon-free military service of 270 or 362 days or undergo a 12-month-long non-military service. Finnish law requires that men who do not want to serve the defense of the country in any capacity (so-called total objectors) be sentenced to a prison term of 197 days. As of 1995, women were permitted to serve on a voluntary basis and pursue careers as officers. In conscription, women have consideration time of six weeks, during which they have the choice to halt their service without any other specific reason. After the said six weeks, all the same laws and jurisdictions apply to them as to men. Unlike in many other countries, women are allowed to serve in all combat arms including front-line infantry and special forces.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The Finnish military ranks follow the Western usage in the officer ranks. As a Finnish peculiarity, the rank of lieutenant has three grades: 2nd lieutenant, lieutenant and senior lieutenant. The 2nd lieutenant is a reserve officer rank, active commissioned officers beginning their service as lieutenants.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The basic structure of the NCO ranks is a variant of the German rank structure, but the rank system has some peculiarities due to different personnel groups. The duties carried out by NCOs in most Western armed forces are carried out by


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: In a case of war, most of the NCO duties would be carried out by reserve NCOs who have received their training during conscription.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The rank and file of the Finnish Defence Forces is composed of conscripts serving in the ranks of private, lance corporal and NCO student.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: In early March 2012 Finland decided to purchase advanced Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (AGM-158 JASSM) from the United States. Other non-USA operators for the JASSM are Australia, Poland and South Korea.Deal also included other sophisticated bombs like glidebomp AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon and JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition).


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: Finland has updated its M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS. In Finnish 298 RSRAKH 06) to be able to fire the ATACMS tactical ballistic missile). Legislation forbids nuclear weapons entirely.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: Finland has taken part in peacekeeping operations since 1956 (the number of Finnish peacekeepers who have served since 1956 amounts to 43,000). In 2003 over a thousand Finnish peacekeepers were involved in peacekeeping operations, including UN and NATO led missions. According to the Finnish law the maximum simultaneous strength of the peacekeeping forces is limited to 2,000 soldiers.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: Since 1996 the Pori Brigade has trained parts of the Finnish Rapid Deployment Force (FRDF), which can take part in international crisis management/peacekeeping operations at short notice. The Nyland/Uusimaa Brigade has started training the Amphibious Task Unit (ATU) in recent years, a joint Swedish-Finnish international task unit.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: Since 2006, Finland has participated in the formation of European Union Battlegroups. Finland participated in two European Union Battlegroups in 2011.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: International operations Finland is participating in by deploying military units (personnel strength in parenthesis):


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: Other international operations Finland is participating in with staff personnel, military observers and similar (personnel strength in parenthesis):


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The Finnish military doctrine is based on the concept of total defence. The term total means that all sectors of the government and economy are involved in the defence planning. In principle, each ministry has the responsibility for planning its operations during a crisis. There are no special emergency authorities, such as the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) or Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations. Instead, each authority regularly trains for crises and has been allocated a combination of normal and emergency powers it needs to keep functioning in any conceivable situation. In a war, all resources of society may be diverted to ensure the survival of the nation. The legal basis for such measures is found in the Readiness Act and in the State of Defence Act, which would come into force through a presidential decision verified by parliament in the case of a crisis.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The main objective of the doctrine is to establish and maintain a military force capable of deterring any potential aggressor from using Finnish territory or applying military pressure against Finland. To accomplish this, the defence is organised on the doctrine of territorial defence. The stated main principles of the territorial defence doctrine are


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: In all cases, the national objective is to keep the vital areas, especially the capital area in Finnish possession. In other areas, the size of the country is used to delay and wear down the invader, until the enemy may be defeated in an area of Finnish choosing. The Army carries most of the responsibility for this task.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The army units are mostly composed of reservists, the career soldiers manning the command and specialty positions.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The role of the Navy is to repel all attacks carried out against Finnish coasts and to safeguard the territorial integrity during peacetime and the "gray" phase of the conflict. The maritime defence relies on combined use of coastal artillery, missile systems and naval mines to wear down the attacker. The Air Force is used to deny the invader the air superiority and to protect most important troops and objects of national importance in conjunction with the ground-based air defence. As the readiness of the Air Force and the Navy is high even during the peacetime, the career personnel have a much more visible role in the wartime duties of these defence branches.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The Border Guard has the responsibility for border security in all situations. During a war, it will contribute to the national defence partially integrated into the army, its total mobilized strength being some 11,600 troops. One of the projected uses for the Border Guard is guerrilla warfare in areas temporarily occupied by enemy.


title: Finnish Defence Forces

text: The army is organised into operative forces, which consist of approximately 61,000 persons, and territorial forces, which consist of 176,000 persons. The following list is the wartime organisation of the Finnish army from January 2008.


title: Rod Steiger

text: Rodney Stephen Steiger (; April 14, 1925July 9, 2002, aged 77) was an American actor, noted for his portrayal of offbeat, often volatile and crazed characters. Cited as "one of Hollywood's most charismatic and dynamic stars," he is closely associated with the art of method acting, embodying the characters he played, which at times led to clashes with directors and co-stars. He starred as Marlon Brando's mobster brother Charley in "On the Waterfront" (1954), the title character Sol Nazerman in "The Pawnbroker" (1964) which won him the Silver Bear for Best Actor, and as police chief Bill Gillespie opposite Sidney Poitier in the film "In the Heat of the Night" (1967) which won him the Academy Award for Best Actor.


title: Rod Steiger

text: Steiger was born in Westhampton, New York, the son of a vaudevillian. He had a difficult childhood, with an alcoholic mother from whom he ran away at the age of 16. After serving in the South Pacific Theater during World War II, he began his acting career with television roles in 1947, and went on to garner critical acclaim for his portrayal of the main character in the teleplay "Marty" (1953). He made his stage debut in 1946, in a production of "Curse you, Jack Dalton!" at the Civic Repertory Theatre of Newark, and subsequently appeared in productions such as "An Enemy of the People" (1950), Clifford Odets's "Night Music" (1951), "Seagulls Over Sorrento" (1952) and "Rashomon" (1959).


title: Rod Steiger

text: Steiger made his film debut in Fred Zinnemann's "Teresa" in 1951, and subsequently appeared in films such as "The Big Knife" (1955), "Oklahoma!" (1955), "Jubal" (1956), "Across the Bridge" (1957) and "Al Capone" (1959). After Steiger's performance in "The Pawnbroker" in 1964, in which he played an embittered Jewish Holocaust survivor working as a pawnbroker in New York City, he portrayed an opportunistic Russian politician in David Lean's "Doctor Zhivago" (1965). "In the Heat of the Night" (1967) won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Steiger, who was lauded for his performance as a Mississippi police chief who learns to respect an African-American officer (Poitier) as they search for a killer. The following year, he played a serial killer of many guises in "No Way to Treat a Lady".


title: Rod Steiger

text: During the 1970s, Steiger increasingly turned to European productions in his search for more demanding roles. He portrayed Napoleon Bonaparte in "Waterloo" (1970), a Mexican bandit in Sergio Leone's "Duck, You Sucker!" (1971), Benito Mussolini in "Last Days of Mussolini" (1975), and ended the decade playing a disturbed priest in " The Amityville Horror" (1979). By the 1980s, heart problems and depression took its toll on Steiger's career, and he found it difficult to find employment, agreeing to appear in low-budget B movies. One of his final roles was as judge H. Lee Sarokin in the prison drama "The Hurricane" (1999), which reunited him with "In the Heat of the Night" director Norman Jewison. Steiger was married five times, and had a daughter, opera singer Anna Steiger, and a son, Michael Steiger. He died of pneumonia and kidney failure as a result of complications from surgery for a gall bladder tumor on July 9, 2002, aged 77, in Los Angeles, and was survived by his fifth wife Joan Benedict Steiger.


title: Rod Steiger

text: Steiger was born on April 14, 1925, in Westhampton, New York, the only child of Lorraine (née Driver) and Frederick Steiger, of French, Scottish and German descent. Rod was raised as a Lutheran. He never knew his father, a vaudevillian who had been part of a travelling song-and-dance team with Steiger's mother, but was told that he was a handsome Latino-looking man, who was a talented musician and dancer. Biographer Tom Hutchinson describes him as a "shadowy, fugitive figure," one who "haunted" Rod throughout his life and was an "invisible presence and unseen influence."


title: Rod Steiger

text: Hutchinson described Steiger's mother as "plump, energetic and small, with long auburn hair." She had a good singing voice and nearly became a Hollywood actress, but after a leg surgery permanently impaired her walking ability, she gave up acting and turned to alcohol. As a result, she quit show business and moved away from Westhampton to raise her son. They moved through several towns, including Irvington and Bloomfield, before settling in Newark, New Jersey. Her alcoholism caused Steiger much embarrassment, and the family was frequently mocked by other children and their parents within the community. At the age of five he was sexually abused by a pedophile who lured him in with a butterfly collection. Steiger said of his troubled family background: "If you had the choice of having the childhood you experienced, with your alcoholic mother and being the famous actor you are today, or having a loving, secure childhood and not being famous, which would you take? A loving, secure childhood in a New York minute". During the last 11 years of her life, Steiger's mother stayed sober and regularly attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Steiger recalled: "I was so proud of her. She turned herself around. She came alive again".


title: Rod Steiger

text: During his childhood, and owing to his considerable strength and bulk, Steiger became known as "The Rock". Despite being mocked over his mother's alcoholism, he was a popular figure at school and an able softball player. He displayed an interest in writing poetry and acting during his adolescent years, and appeared in several school plays while at West Side High School in Newark. Tired of fighting with his mother, he ran away from home at age sixteen to join the United States Navy during World War II.


title: Rod Steiger

text: He enlisted on May 11, 1942, and received his training at the U.S. Naval Training Station in Newport, Rhode Island. He joined the newly commissioned USS "Taussig" (DD-746) on May 20, 1944. While serving as a torpedoman on destroyers, he saw action in the South Pacific, including the Battle of Iwo Jima. Steiger later commented: "I loved the Navy. I was stupid enough to think I was being heroic." His experiences during the war haunted him for the rest of his life, particularly the loss of Americans during the Battle of Iwo Jima, as well as the sinking of vessels by the "Taussig" which were known to have women and children aboard. On December 17, 1944, off the coast of Luzon in the Philippines, Steiger and the "Taussig" encountered a severe typhoon, which became known as "Halsey's Typhoon", with winds reaching one hundred knots (115 mph) and waves. As a result, three U.S. destroyers were lost, but the "Taussig" survived, with Steiger tying a rope to himself on deck and flattening himself as waves engulfed the ship.


title: Rod Steiger

text: After the war, the GI Bill paid for his rent at a room on West 81st Street in New York City, an income of just over $100 a month, and four years of schooling. He initially found a job oiling machines and washing floors. He decided to attend a drama class, primarily because of its membership of attractive young women. Known as the Civil Service Little Theater group, it was conducted by the Office of Dependants and Beneficiaries, where he was employed at the time. This led him to start a two-year course at the New School for Social Research, run by German émigré Erwin Piscator. During one audition, Steiger was cast after barely uttering a few words, the director exclaiming he had a "fresh, wonderful quality." Another talented pupil at the time was Walter Matthau, who dubbed the institution "The Neurotic School for Sexual Research." Steiger was surprised to discover his own talent as an actor, and he was encouraged to pursue further studies at the Dramatic Workshop. One of the main reasons he wanted to be an actor was to regain public respect for his family name, which had so humiliated him during childhood. Another important factor was his belief that he did not "have the temperament for a regular job", and would have ended up a miserable, violent alcoholic. His only role model as an actor was Paul Muni, who he thought was "the greatest," though he also had a deep respect for French actor Harry Baur and, according to biographer Hutchinson, he admired Charlie Chaplin "to the point of adoration."


title: Rod Steiger

text: Steiger made his stage debut in a production of "Curse you, Jack Dalton!" (1946) at the Civic Repertory Theatre of Newark. Subsequent to this, he received an invitation from one of his teachers, Daniel Mann, to attend the Actors Studio, established by Elia Kazan in October 1947. It was here, along with Marlon Brando, Karl Malden and Eli Wallach, that he studied method acting, which became deeply engrained in him. Lacking matinée idol looks, much like Malden and Wallach, he began pursuing a career as a character actor rather than as a leading man. Steiger's stage work continued in 1950, with a minor role as a townperson in a stage production of "An Enemy of the People" at the Music Box Theatre. His first major role on Broadway came in Clifford Odets's production of "Night Music" (1951), where he played A. L. Rosenberger. The play was held at the ANTA Playhouse. The following year, he played a telegraphist in the play "Seagulls Over Sorrento", performed at the John Golden Theatre beginning on September 11, 1952.


title: Rod Steiger

text: Steiger's early roles, although minor, were numerous, especially in television series during the early 1950s, when he appeared in more than 250 live television productions over a five-year period. He was spotted by Fred Coe, NBC's manager of program development, who increasingly gave him bigger parts. Steiger considered television to be what repertory theatre had been for an earlier generation, and saw it as a place where he could test his talent with a plethora of different roles. Soon afterward he began receiving positive reviews from critics such as John Crosby, who noted that Steiger regularly gave "effortless persuasive performances". Among Steiger's credits were "Danger" (1950–53), "Lux Video Theatre" (1951), "Out There" (1951), "Tales of Tomorrow" (1952–53), "The Gulf Playhouse" (1953), "Medallion Theatre" (1953), "Goodyear Television Playhouse" (1953), and as Shakespeare's Romeo in "The First Command Performance of Romeo and Juliet (1957)" episode of "You Are There" in 1954, under director Sidney Lumet. He continued to make appearances in various playhouse television productions, appearing in five episodes of "Kraft Theatre" (1952–54), which earned him praise from critics, six episodes of "The Philco Television Playhouse" (1951–55) and two episodes of "Schlitz Playhouse of Stars" (1957–58). Steiger made his big screen debut in 1953, with a small role in Fred Zinnemann's "Teresa", shot in 1951. Steiger, who described himself as "cocky", won over Zinnemann by praising his direction. Zinnemann recalled that Steiger was "very popular, extremely articulate and full of remarkable memories", and the two remained highly respectful of each other for life.


title: Rod Steiger

text: On May 24, 1953, Steiger played the title role in Paddy Chayefsky's "Marty" episode of the Goodyear Television Playhouse. The role had originally been intended for Martin Ritt, who later became a director. "Marty" is the story of a lonely and homely butcher from the Bronx in search of love. The play was a critical success that increased Steiger's public exposure; Tom Stempel noted that he brought "striking intensity to his performance as Marty, particularly in giving us Marty's pain". As Steiger refused to sign a seven-year studio contract, he was replaced with Ernest Borgnine in the film "Marty" (1955), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, as well as the Best Actor Oscar for Borgnine. 1953 proved to be Steiger's breakthrough year; he garnered Sylvania Awards for "Marty" and four other best performances of the year—as Vishinsky and Rudolf Hess in two episodes of "You Are There", as gangster Dutch Schultz in a thriller, and as a radar operator in "My Brother's Keeper".


title: Rod Steiger

text: For his role as Charley "the Gent", the brother of Marlon Brando's character in Elia Kazan's "On the Waterfront" (1954), Steiger was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Film writer Leo Braudy wrote that the "incessantly repeated images of its taxicab confrontation between Brando and Rod Steiger have made the film iconic". The taxicab scene took eleven hours to shoot and was heavily scripted, despite Brando fuelling the popular myth in his autobiography that the scene was improvised. Brando stated that seven takes were needed because Steiger could not stop crying, which Steiger found to be unfair and inaccurate. Though Steiger retained great respect for Brando as an actor, he disliked him as a person and frequently complained during the production of Brando's "predilection for leaving the set" immediately after shooting his scenes. Steiger later remarked: "We didn't get to know each other at all. He always flew solo and I haven't seen him since the film. I do resent him saying he's just a hooker, and that actors are whores". Steiger also responded unfavorably when he learned that Kazan had been awarded an honorary Oscar by the Academy in 1999. In a 1999 interview with "BBC News", Steiger said he probably would not have done "On the Waterfront" if he'd known at the time that Kazan had provided the House Un-American Activities Committee with names of performers suspected of being Communists.


title: Rod Steiger

text: Steiger played Jud Fry in the film version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "Oklahoma!" (1955), in which he performed his own singing. It was one of the biggest location film productions of the 1950s, shot near Nogales, Arizona with a crew of 325 people and some 70 trucks. Steiger portrayed a disturbed, emotionally isolated version of Jud, which television channel Turner Classic Movies (TCM) believed brought a "complexity to the character that went far beyond the stock musical villain". Steiger observed that James Dean, who auditioned for the role that went to Gordon MacRae, was a "nice kid absorbed by his own ego, so much so that it was destroying him", which he thought led to his death. Dean reportedly gave Steiger his prized copy of Ernest Hemingway's book "Death in the Afternoon", and had underlined every appearance of the word "death".


title: Rod Steiger

text: Later in 1955, Steiger played an obnoxious film tycoon, loosely based on Columbia boss Harry Cohn, opposite Jack Palance and Ida Lupino in Robert Aldrich's film noir "The Big Knife". Steiger bleached his hair for the part, sought inspiration for the role from Russian actor Vladimir Sokoloff, read a book about the Treblinka extermination camp to understand his character thoroughly, and visited the perfume department of a store in Beverly Hills, California, to try to understand his character's contempt for women. Steiger and Palance did not get along during the production, and in one scene Palance threw several record albums at Steiger in frustration, feeling that he was trying to steal the scene. Steiger earned critical acclaim later that year for a role as a prosecuting major in Otto Preminger's "The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell", alongside Gary Cooper and Charles Bickford.


title: Rod Steiger

text: Steiger portrayed the character "Pinky" in Columbia Pictures' western, "Jubal" (1956), which co-starred Glenn Ford and Ernest Borgnine. Steiger's character is a rancher, a "sneering baddie", who becomes jealous when his former mistress becomes attracted to Ford's character. Ford noted Steiger's deep commitment to method acting during production, considering him to be a "fine actor but a real strange fellow". Steiger disliked the experience and frequently clashed with director Delmer Daves, who was more favorable to Ford's lighthearted take on the film. Upon its release in April 1956, a writer for "Variety" was impressed with the "evil venom" displayed by his character, and remarked that there had not "been as hateful a screen heavy around in a long time".


title: Rod Steiger

text: In Mark Robson's "The Harder They Fall", Steiger played a crooked boxing promoter who hires a sports journalist (Humphrey Bogart in his last role). Steiger referred to Bogart as "a professional" who had "tremendous authority" during filming.


title: Rod Steiger

text: Steiger appeared in three films released in 1957. The first was John Farrow's film noir "The Unholy Wife", in which he played a wealthy Napa Valley vintner who marries a "femme fatale" named Phyllis (Diana Dors). In its original review of the film, "The New York Times" described Steiger's performance as "curious" further stating that the actor's voice modulation "ranges from Marlon Brando to Ronald Colman and back." During the production of Samuel Fuller's "Run of the Arrow", in which he played a confederate veteran who refuses to accept defeat following the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox at the end of the American Civil War, Steiger badly sprained his ankle before shooting one of the battle scenes and was unable to walk, let alone run. Fuller instead got one of the Native American extras to run in Steiger's place, which is why the scene was shot showing only the feet, instead of using close-ups. Steiger had researched the history behind the film and decided to play the character as an Irishman, becoming "the first Irish cowboy" as he put it. Later that year, Steiger took the lead role in the British thriller "Across the Bridge", in which he played a German conman with British citizenship who goes into hiding in Mexico after embezzling company funds. Film critic Dennis Schwartz stated that Steiger gave "one of his greatest performances".


title: Rod Steiger

text: Steiger portrayed a mastermind criminal seeking to obtain a $500,000 ransom, opposite James Mason and Inger Stevens, in Andrew L. Stone's "Cry Terror!" (1958) for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Paul Beckley of the "Herald Tribune" had thought Steiger "superbly laconic", but Dennis Schwartz dismissed the film as "an ill-conceived attempt" with "too many coincidences and contrived plot points to sustain interest". The following year, Steiger appeared with Claire Bloom (whom he later married) in a Fay and Michael Kanin stage production of Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film, "Rashomon", where he enacted the role of the bandit originally played by Toshiro Mifune. A major success, it was lauded by critics and nominated for three Tony awards. Robert Coleman of the "Daily Mirror" described Steiger's performance as "magnificently animalish", while Kenneth Tynan of "The New Yorker" thought the acting helped set new standards for Broadway. The same year, Steiger portrayed iconic mobster Al Capone in the film of the same name. Steiger was particularly keen on demonstrating the showiness of Capone, speaking thunderously, slinging a camel-hair coat over his shoulders and wearing his hat at a jaunty angle. The film, noted for its deglamorized portrayal of the subject, earned Steiger a Laurel Award for Best Male Dramatic Performance nomination. Though Hutchinson, author of "Rod Steiger: Memoirs of a friendship", perceived Steiger's portrayal of Capone to be more of a caricature, George Anastasia and Glen Macnow, authors of the book "The Ultimate Book of Gangster Movies", described it as one of the best screen portrayals of Capone.


title: Rod Steiger

text: Following the success of "Al Capone", Steiger played sophisticated thief Paul Mason, who masterminds a caper to steal $4 million in French francs from the underground vault of the casino of Monte Carlo, in the Henry Hathaway heist film "Seven Thieves" (1960). Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times" gave a positive review of the film, praising the "nerve-rackingly delicate plot" and the "most elaborate roles" of Steiger and his co-star, Edward G. Robinson. The following year, he took the part of a prison psychiatrist who tries to cure the psychological demons of Stuart Whitman's character in "The Mark". Steiger's performance was so convincing that, after the film was released, he received a call from a psychiatric institution asking him to attend one of their board meetings. "The Mark" was followed by a role in the European film production of "World in My Pocket" alongside Nadja Tiller. Steiger increasingly played in films in Italy and France during this period. Not only did he believe he had greater credibility and esteem as an actor in Europe, but he approved of the more relaxed filming schedule prevalent there at that time.


title: Rod Steiger

text: In 1962, Steiger appeared on Broadway in "Moby Dick—Rehearsed", at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, as well as playing a detective searching for a scientist's (Alan Ladd's) mugger in Philip Leacock's "13 West Street" for Columbia Pictures. Steiger played a small role of a destroyer commander among the large ensemble cast of "The Longest Day", which included John Wayne, Richard Todd, Robert Mitchum, Richard Burton, Sean Connery and Henry Fonda. According to co-star Richard Burton, Steiger had privately admitted to him that he was in financial trouble at the time and had a face lift, which Burton thought made him look like "one half of a naked ass-hole". The following year, Steiger played ruthless Neapolitan land developer and city councilman Edoardo Nottola, who uses his political power to make personal profit in a large scale suburban real estate deal, in Francesco Rosi's Italian production, "Hands over the City" (1963). According to biographer Francesco Bolzoni, Rosi had cast Steiger in the Italian language film because he had wanted "a rich interpreter of great capacity" in the part of the land developer.


title: Rod Steiger

text: Shortly after "Hands over the City", Steiger agreed to appear in another Italian film, "Time of Indifference" (1964), in which he starred opposite Claudia Cardinale and Shelley Winters. Though Steiger's powerful performance was unaffected, the production was marred by a dispute between director Francesco Maselli and producer Franco Cristaldi, with one wanting it to be a purely political film and the other wanting emphasis on the erotic subplot and his relationship with Cardinale. In Sidney Lumet's gritty drama "The Pawnbroker" (1964), Steiger played an embittered, emotionally withdrawn survivor of the Holocaust living in New York City. Richard Harland Smith of TCM notes that Steiger's career was waning at the time, and he had to "scramble for paying gigs for a decade" before getting this part. Steiger agreed to a reduced fee of $50,000. He read Edward Lewis Wallant's novel and the script many times to develop an intimate understanding of the character, and insisted on reducing his lines to make his character more realistic and alienated from society. Lumet noted that during the production Steiger had a tendency to be overly dramatic, stating: "Sure, Rod has weaknesses of rhetoric, but you can talk them through with him. I explained that this solitary Jew could not rise to heights of emotion; he had been hammered by life and by people. The faith he had to find was in other people, because God had betrayed him."


title: Rod Steiger

text: Steiger remarked of the film: "I think my best work is in "The Pawnbroker". The last scene, where I find the boy dead on the street. I think that's the highest moment, whatever it may be, with my talent." He drew upon inspiration for this climactic scene, in which he appears to show his frustration through a silent scream, from Picasso's "Guernica", which depicts war-ravaged villagers. Cecil Wilson of the "Daily Mail" wrote that Steiger's character "seems to encompass all the agony ever inflicted on man". Although the film attracted controversy and was accused of anti-Semitism, Steiger was widely acclaimed for his performance, which garnered him the prize for Best Actor at the Berlin International Film Festival and his second Best Actor nomination at the Oscars. Steiger was certain that he had produced an Oscar-winning performance; he was shocked when he lost to Lee Marvin.


title: Rod Steiger

text: In 1965, Steiger played an effeminate embalmer in Tony Richardson's comedy "The Loved One", about the funeral business in Los Angeles, based on the 1948 short satirical novel by Evelyn Waugh. His curly-haired appearance in the film was modeled on a bust of Apollo he once saw while meeting Richardson. Steiger offended Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times", who found his character repellent. His next role, as Komarovsky, a Russian politician and "villainous opportunist" who rapes Julie Christie's character in David Lean's "Doctor Zhivago" (1965), was one of his favorites. Steiger, one of only two Americans in the cast, was initially apprehensive about working with such great British actors as Ralph Richardson and Alec Guinness, and was pleased when the film was completed that he did not stand out as an American. The film was the biggest international box office draw of the 1960s, grossing $200 million worldwide. It has since been acclaimed as one of the greatest films ever made, and in 1998 was selected as the 39th best American film in the original AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list by the American Film Institute.


title: Rod Steiger

text: Steiger had intended returning to the stage, and had signed on to play the title character in Bertolt Brecht's "Galileo", at the Lincoln Center Repertory Company in April 1967, but the production was cancelled when he became ill. Steiger won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Chief of Police Bill Gillespie in "In the Heat of the Night", opposite Sidney Poitier. He played a Southern police chief searching for a murderer. Prejudiced against blacks, he jumps to the conclusion that the culprit is Virgil Tibbs (Poitier), an African-American man passing through town after visiting his mother, who later turns out to be an experienced homicide detective from Philadelphia. The film deals with the way the two men interact and join forces in solving the crime, as Steiger's Gillespie learns to greatly respect the black man he initially took to be a criminal. Steiger drew upon his experience in the Navy with a Southerner named "King", remembering his accent. Poitier considered Steiger and Spencer Tracy to have been the finest actors he had ever worked with, remarking in 1995, "He's so good he made me dig into bags I never knew I had." A. D. Murphy of "Variety" described Steiger's performance as "outstanding", writing: "Steiger's transformation from a diehard Dixie bigot to a man who learns to respect Poitier stands out in smooth comparison to the wandering solution of the murder." Steiger won a plethora of other awards, including a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, a Laurel Award and awards for Best Actor from the National Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Circle.


title: Rod Steiger

text: In 1968, Steiger played a serial killer opposite George Segal in Jack Smight's black comedy thriller "No Way to Treat a Lady". During the course of the film, he adopts various disguises, including those of an Irish priest, a New York City policeman, a German plumber, and a gay hairdresser, to avoid being identified, and to put his victims at ease, before strangling them and painting a pair of lips on their foreheads with garish red lipstick. The film and Steiger's performance were critically acclaimed, with Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" highlighting Steiger's "beautifully uninhibited performance as a hammy", and a writer for "Time Out" describing him as "brilliant as a sort of Boston strangler, son of a great actress who has left her boy with a mother fixation".


title: Rod Steiger

text: Later in 1968, Steiger played a repressed gay non-commissioned officer opposite John Phillip Law in John Flynn's "The Sergeant" for Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, which earned him the David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actor. Despite the award win, film critic Pauline Kael of "The New Yorker" was particularly critical of the casting of Steiger as a homosexual and felt that he was "totally outside his range", to which Steiger concurred that he was ineffective.


title: Rod Steiger

text: Steiger was cast as a short-tempered tattooed man with soon-to-be ex-wife Claire Bloom in the science fiction picture "The Illustrated Man" (1969). The film was a critical and commercial failure, and Ray Bradbury, who wrote the screenplay, said: "Rod was very good in it, but it wasn't a good film... the script was terrible". Steiger had better luck alongside Bloom later that year in Peter Hall's British drama "Three into Two Won't Go", playing an Irishman who cheats on his wife with a young hiker. It was entered into the Berlin International Film Festival and became the 19th most popular film at the UK box office in 1969.


title: Rod Steiger

text: Steiger was offered the title role in "Patton" (1970), but turned it down because he did not want to glorify war. The role was then given to George C. Scott, who won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance. Steiger called this refusal his "dumbest career move", remarking, "I got on my high horse. I thought I was a pacifist." Instead, he chose to portray Napoleon Bonaparte opposite Christopher Plummer in Sergei Bondarchuk's "Waterloo" (1970), a co-production between the Soviet Union and Italy. Anatoly Efros wrote: "I watched with extraordinary respect, no, that is not the right word, with enthusiasm, the acting of Rod Steiger in the role of Napoleon in Waterloo," while literary critic Daniel S. Burt describes Steiger's Napoleon as an "unusual interpretation", finding him less convincing than Plummer's Wellington.


title: Rod Steiger

text: In 1971, Steiger played a chauvinistic big game hunter, explorer and war hero opposite Susannah York in Mark Robson's "Happy Birthday, Wanda June", before agreeing to star alongside James Coburn as Mexican bandit Juan Miranda in Sergio Leone's "Duck, You Sucker!", which was alternatively titled "A Fistful of Dynamite". Leone was initially dissatisfied with his performance in that he played his character as a serious, Zapata-like figure. As a result, tension grew between Steiger and Leone, including one incident that ended with Steiger walking off during the filming of the scene where Juan's stagecoach is destroyed. After the film's completion, Leone and Steiger were content with the final result, and Steiger praised Leone for his skills as a director. Steiger auditioned for the role of Michael Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather" (1972), a film adaptation of Italian American author Mario Puzo's 1969 novel of the same name, but Puzo felt that Steiger was too old for the part and rejected him.


title: Rod Steiger

text: Steiger played a rural Tennessee patriarch and brother of Jeff Bridges, at odds with Robert Ryan's character, in "Lolly-Madonna XXX" (1973), which received mixed reviews. Later that year he was cast as the turban-wearing German officer Guenther von Lutz in Duccio Tessari's Italian war comedy "The Heroes", opposite Rod Taylor, and appeared as "foul-mouthed Sicilian mobster" Eugenio Giannini opposite Gian Maria Volonté's Lucky Luciano in Francesco Rosi's film of the same name.


title: Rod Steiger

text: In 1975, Steiger portrayed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in Carlo Lizzani's "Last Days of Mussolini", which received a positive critical reception. He appeared in Claude Chabrol's French picture "Innocents with Dirty Hands", playing the role of Louis Wormser, the wealthy alcoholic husband of Romy Schneider's character Julie Wormser. It was poorly received by critics, and Steiger found the director, whom he had admired, a bitter disappointment. He was highly critical of Chabrol's lack of communication and aloofness from the production, and preference for playing chess on set instead of talking through scenes. Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" dismissed it as "little more than a soap opera", writing: "The performances are of a piece—uniformly atrocious. Mr. Steiger surpasses his own earlier records for lumbering busyness. Within his first few minutes on screen he (1) gets drunk, (2) whines, (3) pleads for understanding, (4) weeps and (5) goes to bed alone."


title: Rod Steiger

text: Later that year, Steiger starred as an Irish Republican Army terrorist who plans to blow up the Houses of Parliament in Don Sharp's British thriller "Hennessy". John Simon of "New York Magazine" wrote: "This fellow Hennessy, as played by Rod Steiger, is about as interesting and likable as a Guy Fawkes dummy."


title: Rod Steiger

text: The following year, Steiger portrayed the comic actor W. C. Fields in an Arthur Hiller biopic, "W. C. Fields and Me", for Universal Pictures. The screenplay, which was based on a memoir by Carlotta Monti, who was Fields' mistress for the last 14 years of his life, was penned by Bob Merrill. Steiger read extensively about Fields in preparation for the role, and developed an encyclopaedic knowledge of his career and personal life. He concluded that he would base his characterization around his performance in "The Bank Dick" (1940) . One day, Fields' mistress Monti turned up on set, and watched the scene where he briefly thanks everybody. Nervous that she might not approve, he broke down in tears after Monti met him after the scene and fondly said "Woody, Woody, Woody, My Woody", a nickname used only by those very close to Fields. Despite the energy Steiger put into the picture, like the actor's previous recent films, it was poorly received by critics. Canby called it "dreadful" and described Steiger's portrayal of Fields as a "wax dummy of a character". Lucia Bozzola of "The New York Times" later referred to Steiger's portrayal of Fields as "superb", but noted that his Hollywood career had "undeniably fallen from his 1950s and '60s heights".


title: Rod Steiger

text: Steiger played Pontius Pilate in Franco Zeffirelli's TV miniseries "Jesus of Nazareth" (1977). Stacy Keach, who portrayed Barabbas, expressed his joy at the opportunity to work with Steiger, describing him as "generous and opinionated". In 1978, Steiger played a senator in Norman Jewison's "F.I.S.T.", opposite Sylvester Stallone, who played a Cleveland warehouse worker involved in the labor union leadership of the fictional organisation named Federation of Inter-State Truckers. "Love and Bullets", later that year, in which Steiger appeared as a mafia boss, was poorly received; Roger Ebert dismissed it as a "hopelessly confused hodgepodge of chases, killings, enigmatic meetings and separations, and insufferably overacted scenes by Steiger alternating with alarmingly underacted scenes by [Charles] Bronson". The following year, Steiger was cast as a general opposite Richard Burton and Robert Mitchum in Andrew V. McLaglen's war film "Breakthrough", set on the Western Front. In "The Amityville Horror" (1979), Steiger appeared as a disturbed priest, who is invited to perform an exorcism on a haunted house. Again Steiger was accused of overacting; Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" wrote: "Mr. Steiger bellows and weeps and overdoes absolutely everything. He won't even pick up the phone before it's rung 12 or 15 times." Pauline Kael thought that Steiger's "spiritual agony was enough to shatter the camera lens".