title: American Idiot

text: After finishing the music for the album, the band decided that the artwork needed to reflect the themes on the record, likening the change of image to a political campaign. Armstrong recalled, "We wanted to be firing on all cylinders. Everything from the aesthetic to the music to the look. Just everything." Green Day drew inspiration from Chinese communist propaganda art the band saw in art galleries on Melrose Avenue and recruited artist Chris Bilheimer, who had designed the art for the previous records "Nimrod" and "International Superhits!" to create the cover. The band aimed for the cover to be "at once uniform and powerful". The album's artwork—"a Posada-stark print of a heart-shaped hand grenade gripped in a blood-soaked fist"—is representative of its political content. After listening to the new music on his computer, Bilheimer took note of the lyric "And she's holding on my heart like a hand grenade" from "She's a Rebel". Influenced by artist Saul Bass's poster for the 1955 drama film "The Man with the Golden Arm", Bilheimer created an upstretched arm holding a red heart-shaped grenade. Although he felt that red is the "most overused color in graphic design", he felt that the "immediate" qualities of the color deemed it appropriate for use on the cover. He explained, "I'm sure there's psychological theories of it being the same color of blood and therefore has the powers of life and death... And as a designer I always feel it's kind of a cop-out, so I never used it before. But there was no way you couldn't use it on this cover."


title: American Idiot

text: The band also underwent "a significant image change," and they began wearing black and red uniforms onstage. Armstrong considered it a natural extension of his showmanship, which began in his childhood.


title: American Idiot

text: "American Idiot" received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 79, based on 26 reviews. According to AllMusic, it earned Green Day "easily the best reviewed album of their career." The website's editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine praised the album as either "a collection of great songs" or as a whole, writing that, "in its musical muscle and sweeping, politically charged narrative, it's something of a masterpiece". "Pitchfork" deemed it "ambitious" and successful in getting across its message, while "keep[ing] its mood and method deliberately, tenaciously, and angrily on point". "NME" characterized it as "an onslaught of varied and marvellously good tunes presented in an unexpectedly inventive way." "Q" called the album "a powerful work, noble in both intent and execution." "The New York Times" commended Green Day for trumping "any pretension with melody and sheer fervor". "Chicago Sun-Times" critic Jim DeRogatis wrote that the band had successfully "hit upon an actual 'adult' style of pop punk", while "USA Today"s Edna Gundersen wrote that they had steered away from the "cartoonish" qualities of their previous work in favor of more mature, politically oriented themes.


title: American Idiot

text: "Entertainment Weekly" said that despite being based on a musical theater concept "that periodically makes no sense", Green Day "makes the journey entertaining enough". It described some of the songs as forgettable, though, arguing the album focuses more on lyrics than music. "Rolling Stone" said the album could have been, and was, a mess, but that the "individual tunes are tough and punchy enough to work on their own". "The Guardian" called "American Idiot" a mess—"but a vivid, splashy, even courageous mess". "Slant Magazine" described it as a "pompous, overwrought," but nonetheless "glorious concept album". "Uncut" was more critical and wrote in a mixed review that although the album was heavily politically focused, "slam-dancing is still possible". In a negative review, Robert Christgau of "The Village Voice" called the album a "dud" and asserted that Armstrong's lyrics eschew "sociopolitical content" for "the emotional travails of two clueless punks—one passive, one aggressive, both projections of the auteur", adding that "there's no economics, no race, hardly any compassion."


title: American Idiot

text: Ian Winwood of "Kerrang!" called it a "modern day masterpiece". Josh Tyrangiel of "Time" said, "For an album that bemoans the state of the union, it is irresistibly buoyant."


title: American Idiot

text: In 2005, "American Idiot" won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album and was nominated in six other categories including Album of the Year. The album helped Green Day win seven of the eight awards it was nominated for at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards; the "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" video won six of those awards. A year later, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year. In 2009, "Kerrang!" named "American Idiot" the best album of the decade, "NME" ranked it number 60 in a similar list, and "Rolling Stone" ranked it 22nd. "Rolling Stone" also listed "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and "American Idiot" among the 100 best songs of the 2000s, at number 65 and 47 respectively. In 2005, the album was ranked number 420 in "Rock Hard" magazine's book of "The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time".


title: American Idiot

text: In 2012, the album was ranked number 225 on "Rolling Stone"'s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.


title: American Idiot

text: "American Idiot" became Green Day's first number one album in the United States, selling 267,000 copies in its first week of release, their biggest opening sales week. The album became 2005's fourth-highest seller, moving over 3.4 million units. "American Idiot" remained in the top 10 of the "Billboard" 200 upwards of a year following its release, staying on the chart for 101 weeks. The album has been certified six times platinum status in the United States. The album also debuted at number 1 in the UK, selling 89,385 copies in the first week.


title: American Idiot

text: In 2005, commenting on the success "American Idiot" brought the band, Samuel Bayer, director of all of "American Idiot"'s music videos, stated "The Billie Joe that I work with now is not the same guy that walked onto the "American Idiot" set a year ago. Now, he's a "rock star." They were famous. They had done big stuff. But it's transcended that. But he hasn't changed. And they haven't changed. They're three friends who love one another." Courtney Love also commented on the success of the band, stating "Billie Joe looks absolutely beautiful. You know how when people get super A-list, their face gets prettier? I think it's perception. It's something that happens in your subconscious". At the time of "American Idiot"s release, the album was not sold in Wal-Mart due to its explicit content.


title: American Idiot

text: As of 2014, "American Idiot" has sold 6.2 million albums in the United States, making it second to "Dookie" within their catalogue. Worldwide, its sales are estimated at 16 million copies.


title: American Idiot

text: Touring in support of the album began in the US, where the band performed in conservative stronghold states like Texas, Tennessee, and Georgia. The group headlined arenas that were only "60 to 75 percent full" and were often booed for performing songs from the album. Armstrong often chanted "Fuck George W. Bush!" Jonah Weiner of "Blender" likened the band's live performances of the time to an "anti-Bush rally." Armstrong admitted that they did "everything to piss people off," including wearing a Bush mask onstage in weeks preceding the election.


title: American Idiot

text: The European tour sold 175,000 tickets in less than an hour. In April, the band began a one-month US arena tour. The band soon began playing stadiums, performing at New Jersey's Giants Stadium, San Francisco's SBC Park, and Los Angeles' Home Depot Center between September and October 2005.


title: American Idiot

text: Jon Pareles of "The New York Times" deemed it "both a harbinger and a beneficiary of the Bush administration's plummeting approval, selling steadily through 2005 as the response to Hurricane Katrina and the protracted war in Iraq turned much of the country against the government." "Wake Me Up When September Ends" became symbolic during various events such as the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; one online blogger paired the song with television coverage of the disaster, creating a viral video.


title: American Idiot

text: Ian Winwood of "Kerrang!" said that the album pushed rock music back into the mainstream. "American Idiot" was a career comeback for Green Day, and their unexpected maturation "stunned the music industry." In 2020 Rolling Stone placed the album at 248 on their list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".


title: American Idiot

text: In late 2005, DJ Party Ben and producer Team9, under the shared alias Dean Gray (a spoonerism of "Green Day"), released an online-only mash-up version of the album—called "American Edit". This became a cause célèbre when a cease and desist order was served by Green Day's record label. Tracks include "American Edit", "Dr. Who on Holiday", "Novocaine Rhapsody", and "Boulevard of Broken Songs." Billie Joe Armstrong later stated that he heard one of the songs on the radio and "enjoyed it."


title: American Idiot

text: An "American Idiot" stage musical adaptation premiered at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in September 2009. The musical was a collaboration between Green Day and director Michael Mayer. Green Day did not appear in the production, but the show featured an onstage band. The production transferred to Broadway at the St. James Theatre, and opened in April 2010. The show received mixed reviews from critics, but received a rave review from "The New York Times". The show features all of the songs from the album "American Idiot", including B-sides, as well as songs from Green Day's follow-up album, "21st Century Breakdown". Armstrong appeared in the Broadway production as St. Jimmy multiple times. With his return in 2011, the show grossed over $1 million.


title: American Idiot

text: "American Idiot" won two Tony Awards: Best Scenic Design of a Musical for Christine Jones and Best Lighting Design of a Musical for Kevin Adams. It also received a nomination for Best Musical. The Broadway production closed in April 2011, after 27 previews and 421 regular performances. The first national tour started in late 2011. A documentary regarding the musical, titled "Broadway Idiot", was released in 2013.


title: American Idiot

text: Billie Joe Armstrong had at one point, prior to its release, suggested the album would make good material for an adapted feature film. Shortly after the album was released, there was speculation that "American Idiot" might be made into a film. In an interview with VH1, Armstrong said, "We've definitely been talking about someone writing a script for it, and there's been a few different names that have been thrown at us. It sounds really exciting, but for right now it's just talk." Armstrong later stated that filming would begin in 2006, stressing, "We want to see how it turns out first so that it doesn't suck." On June 1, 2006, Armstrong announced in an interview with MTV that the movie was "definitely unfolding" and that "every single week there's more ideas about doing a film for "American Idiot", and it's definitely going to happen". In the summer of 2010, when asked by Virgin Radio if the film was "true, a lie, or a mystery", Tré Cool responded by saying that it was "a true mystery".


title: American Idiot

text: In April 2011, production company Playtone optioned the musical to develop a film version, and Universal Pictures began initial negotiations to distribute it. Michael Mayer, who directed the Broadway production, was named as director. Dustin Lance Black was initially hired to adapt the musical. Billie Joe Armstrong was asked to star as St. Jimmy, and the film was proposed for a 2013 release. Armstrong later posted on his Twitter account that he had not "totally committed" to the role but was interested in it.


title: American Idiot

text: In July 2013, Mayer reported that the film adaptation was still happening, but production had not been scheduled due to "Hollywood bullshit". In March 2014, playwright Rolin Jones told the "Hartford Courant" that he was writing a new screenplay for the film. Comparing it to the musical, Jones said, "The idea is to get it a little dirtier and a little nastier and translate it into visual terms. There's not going to be a lot of dialogue and it probably should be a little shorter, too. After that, it just takes its 'movie time' in getting done". He expected to finish the script by the end of the month.


title: American Idiot

text: In October 2016, in an interview with "NME", Armstrong revealed that the film was now being made at HBO and the script was getting rewrites. He confirmed he would reprise his Broadway role as St. Jimmy. In November 2016, Armstrong stated that the film was "going to be a lot different from the musical. It's kind of, more surreal but I think there's going to be parts of it that might offend people – which is good. I think it's a good time to offend people. I think there's just going to be a lot of imagery that we couldn't pull off in the musical in the stage version. You know, I don't want to give away too much, but it will be shocking in a way which makes you think."


title: American Idiot

text: In February 2020, Billie Joe Armstrong revealed to "NME" that plans for the film adaptation of "American Idiot" have been "pretty much scrapped", without providing any more details as to the reason.


title: American Idiot

text: Heart Like a Hand Grenade is a 2015 film featuring Green Day during the recording of "American Idiot". It was directed by John Roecker and filmed over the process of fifteen months between 2003 and 2004. It is a documentary about the songwriting and recording process of the album.


title: American Idiot

text: The film had a limited, one night release in Hollywood at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre on March 25, 2009, to a crowd of more than 400 people.


title: American Idiot

text: On July 15, 2014, director John Roecker announced on his Facebook page that the film would be released to the public. On May 18, 2015, Roecker mentioned on his personal Facebook page that the sound mix was done and that the movie was in Warner Brothers' hands: "I am happy to announce that "Heart Like A Hand Grenade: The Making of American Idiot" is finished. Sound mix done and now off to Warner Brothers. I want to thank Scott Gawlik and Dylan Melody for their amazing talent and making this film incredible. Also thank you Chris Dugan for creating an "American Idiot" overture the one I wanted 11 years ago!"


title: American Idiot

text: On June 12, 2015, director John Roecker confirmed on his Facebook page that Warner Brothers had a release date/period for the film: "Deal with Warners is Done! Praise Satan! See you in September. "Heart Like A Hand Grenade: The Making of American Idiot" teaser coming soon. I want to thank my brothers Dylan Melody, Dean Gonzalez, Scott Gawlik for making my film how I envisioned it. Eleven years but it has been worth it...you will not be disappointed this film is the shit."


title: American Idiot

text: "Heart Like a Hand Grenade" made its world premiere on October 8, 2015, at the 38th Mill Valley Film Festival, and it was released to theaters in the US the following week. It received a worldwide release on November 11, and it was available on DVD and digital release on November 13.


title: Bob Mortimer

text: Robert Renwick Mortimer (born 23 May 1959) is an English comedian, podcast presenter and actor. He is known for his work with Vic Reeves as part of their Vic and Bob comedy double act, and more recently the "" series with comedian Paul Whitehouse. He has also appeared on panel shows such as "Would I Lie to You?" and "Taskmaster".


title: Bob Mortimer

text: Mortimer was raised with three brothers in the Linthorpe area of Middlesbrough. His father, a biscuit salesman, died in a car crash when Mortimer was seven. At around the same time, Mortimer accidentally burnt down his family's home with a stray firework.


title: Bob Mortimer

text: Mortimer attended King's Manor School on the site of Acklam Hall in Acklam, Middlesbrough. His schoolmates included Ali Brownlee, who would go on to become a sports presenter on BBC Tees.


title: Bob Mortimer

text: He had trials for local professional football club Middlesbrough, and although he was not able to join the club as a professional due to arthritis, he still supports them. He left school with three A-levels and went on to study law at the universities of Sussex and Leicester. There, Mortimer became involved in political causes and the punk movement, starting a band called Dog Dirt. After leaving university with an LLM in Welfare Law, Mortimer moved to London and became a solicitor for Southwark Council. He then moved to a private practice in Peckham, where his work with Public Health Act cases regarding cockroach infestation of council properties led to a local paper dubbing Mortimer "The Cockroach King". According to his autobiography, he was mugged in Peckham by a former client, who apologised after recognising him, and continued to represent the client.


title: Bob Mortimer

text: In 1986, Mortimer went to the Goldsmith's Tavern in New Cross, London, to see a new show by the comedian Vic Reeves. Mortimer was impressed by the performance, particularly the character Tappy Lappy, which was Reeves attempting to tap dance while wearing a Bryan Ferry mask and planks on his feet. Mortimer approached Reeves after the show, and the two began writing material for the next week's show together. They also became good friends and formed a band, the Potter's Wheel. Mortimer began to perform on the show, which was christened "Vic Reeves Big Night Out", creating such characters as the Singing Lawyer, Graham Lister, Judge Nutmeg and the Man With the Stick.


title: Bob Mortimer

text: The show became successful in South London and eventually outgrew Goldsmith's Tavern, moving in 1988 to the Albany Empire in Deptford. Mortimer soon became an integral part of the performance, providing him with a weekly break from his legal work, which had begun to disillusion him.


title: Bob Mortimer

text: Reeves and Mortimer made their television debut on the short-lived 1989 comedy chat show "One Hour with Jonathan Ross", in the game show segment known as "Knock down ginger". Later that year, the duo made their first television pilot together, "Vic Reeves Big Night Out". The television show remained true to the nightclub act's variety show format. Mortimer took a 10-week break from his legal job to film the series and never returned.


title: Bob Mortimer

text: The two later created a one-off pilot for a sitcom called "The Weekenders" in 1992, followed by the sketch show "The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer" in 1993, and "Shooting Stars", a comedy panel show that first aired in December 1993. After being commissioned, "Shooting Stars" ran for five series between 1995 and 2002, with a special anniversary edition broadcast in December 2008. A sixth series was broadcast in late 2009, followed by a seventh series in mid-2010, and an eighth in 2011.


title: Bob Mortimer

text: In 1999, Reeves and Mortimer appeared in a second sketch show called "Bang Bang, It's Reeves and Mortimer". A year later, Mortimer played the part of Jeff Randall in "Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased)", opposite Reeves as Marty Hopkirk and Emilia Fox as Jeannie Hurst.


title: Bob Mortimer

text: In 2003, Mortimer and Reeves were listed in "The Observer" as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. In a 2005 poll to find the "Comedians' Comedian", the duo were voted the 9th greatest comedy act of all time by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.


title: Bob Mortimer

text: In 2004, Mortimer and Reeves wrote and starred in "Catterick", a six-episode surreal comedy about an ex-soldier, Carl, who returns home from Cyprus to join his brother Chris, who has agreed to help find Carl's son. Cast included Reece Shearsmith, Matt Lucas, Morwenna Banks, Tim Healy, Mark Benton and Charlie Higson.


title: Bob Mortimer

text: On 17 November 2007, Mortimer appeared as Reeves' hairdresser, Carl, in the weekly radio sketch show on BBC Radio 2 entitled "Vic Reeves' House Arrest".


title: Bob Mortimer

text: On 27 February 2008, Reeves announced that he and Mortimer were working together on a new sitcom about superheroes who get their powers through a malfunctioning telegraph pole.


title: Bob Mortimer

text: In November 2013, Reeves and Mortimer filmed episodes of a new BBC sitcom, "House of Fools", also featuring Matt Berry (as Beef), Morgana Robinson (as Julie), and Dan Skinner (as Bosh).


title: Bob Mortimer

text: In October 2015 the pair cancelled the first leg of their live tour, "25 Year of Reeves and Mortimer: The Poignant Moments", after Mortimer underwent an emergency triple heart bypass.


title: Bob Mortimer

text: On 29 December 2017, Mortimer and Reeves starred in a relaunch and new singular episode of their comedy "Big Night Out" for the BBC. The show has been remade and subsequently renamed to "Vic and Bob's Big Night Out". The episode remained true to the classic Big Night Out formula and was composed of various comedy songs, skits, characters and sketches. This was the first time the Big Night Out series had featured Mortimer's name in the title. A full series of "Vic and Bob's Big Night Out" began on BBC Four in November 2018.


title: Bob Mortimer

text: Mortimer suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, which gives him great pain when he is stressed, especially before making a television series or embarking on a tour. On those occasions, he controls the illness with steroids. In October 2015, it was revealed that he was recovering from a triple bypass surgery which led to the cancellation of the first leg of the Reeves and Mortimer 25 years tour.


title: Bob Mortimer

text: Mortimer married his partner of 22 years, Lisa Matthews, in October 2015, 30 minutes prior to receiving his heart surgery (after getting permission from the registrar to move the date forward). The couple have two sons, Harry and Tom.


title: Bob Mortimer

text: He is a lifelong fan of Middlesbrough Football Club and the rock group Free. During his appearance on "Desert Island Discs", Mortimer revealed that the first 30 years of his life were defined by a crippling shyness, which only began to alleviate after his initial television success. He also reflected on how his father's early death had shaped his personality, despite not realising how far this event had affected him as a child.


title: Balaclava (clothing)

text: A balaclava, also known as a balaclava helmet or ski mask, is a form of cloth headgear designed to expose only part of the face, usually the eyes and mouth. Depending on style and how it is worn, only the eyes, mouth and nose, or just the front of the face are unprotected. Versions with enough of a full face opening may be rolled into a hat to cover the crown of the head or folded down as a collar around the neck.


title: Balaclava (clothing)

text: Similar styles of headgear were known in the 19th century as the "Uhlan cap" worn by Polish and Prussian soldiers, and the "Templar cap" worn by outdoor sports enthusiasts.


title: Balaclava (clothing)

text: The name comes from their use at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War of 1854, referring to the town near Sevastopol in the Crimea, where British troops there wore knitted headgear to keep warm. Handmade balaclavas were sent over to the British troops to help protect them from the bitter cold weather. British troops required this aid, as their own supplies (warm clothing, weatherproof quarters, and food) never arrived in time. According to Richard Rutt in his "History of Handknitting", the name "balaclava helmet" was not used during the war but appears much later, in 1881.


title: Balaclava (clothing)

text: Thin Balaclavas can be used under motorcycle or snowmobile helmets for warmth in cool or winter conditions.


title: Balaclava (clothing)

text: Many skiers, snowboarders, cyclists, and runners wear balaclavas in cold weather for warmth. They protect the head, face, and neck from wind and low temperatures and can fit easily under helmets. These sports balaclavas can be full balaclavas, which cover the entire head leaving only the eyes uncovered, or half-balaclavas, which leave the forehead free, but cover most of the head. Key elements of sports balaclavas are that they are warm, windproof, and moisture-wicking.


title: Balaclava (clothing)

text: Race drivers in Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile sanctioned events must wear balaclavas made of fire-retardant material underneath their crash helmets. In racing events, hill-climbs, special stages of rallies and selective sections of cross-country events entered on the International Sporting Calendar, all drivers and co-drivers must wear overalls as well as gloves (optional for co-drivers), long underwear, a balaclava, and shoes homologated to the FIA 8856-2000 standard.


title: Balaclava (clothing)

text: Balaclavas are in certain contexts associated with criminality as gang members have used them to conceal their identity. In 2004, police in Prestwich, England, began demanding that people on the street remove their balaclavas, describing the garment as "extremely threatening". In 2012, police in Kent confiscated a copy of the "War on Terror" board game partly because of the inclusion of a balaclava, stating "could be used to conceal someone's identity or could be used in the course of a criminal act."


title: Balaclava (clothing)

text: In the South Asia, balaclavas are commonly referred to as monkey caps because of their typical earth tone colours, and the fact that they blot out most human facial features. Monkey caps sometimes have a small, decorative, woollen pom-pom on top. They are commonly worn by troops on Himalayan duty for protection from the cold.


title: Balaclava (clothing)

text: The United States Marine Corps has recently begun issuing balaclavas with hinged face guards as part of the Flame Resistant Organizational Gear program.


title: Balaclava (clothing)

text: In the Soviet Union, the balaclava became a part of standard OMON (special police task force) uniform as early as the Perestroyka years of the late 1980s. The original intent was to protect the identity of the officers to avoid intimidation from organized crime. Because of increased problems with organized crime of the 1990s, TV shots of armed men in black balaclavas became common. Armed Russian police commonly conduct raids and searches of white-collar premises (typically in Moscow) while wearing balaclavas. Such raids have therefore come to be known in Russia as "maski shows", an allusion to a popular comic TV show of the 1990s.


title: Balaclava (clothing)

text: Balaclavas are often used by police battling drug cartels and gangs in Latin America to conceal their identity and protect their families.


title: The Practice

text: The Practice is an American legal drama television series created by David E. Kelley centering on partners and associates at a Boston law firm. The show ran for eight seasons on ABC, from March 4, 1997, to May 16, 2004. It won an Emmy in 1998 and 1999 for Outstanding Drama Series, and spawned the spin-off series "Boston Legal", which ran for five more seasons (from 2004 to 2008).


title: The Practice

text: Conflict between legal ethics and personal morality was a recurring theme with light comedy being occasionally present. Kelley claimed that he conceived the show as something of a rebuttal to "L.A. Law" and its romanticized treatment of the American legal system and legal proceedings.


title: The Practice

text: In season 1, Robert Donnell and Associates features Bobby Donnell as the sole senior partner. Ellenor Frutt, Eugene Young and Lindsay Dole are his associates. Rebecca Washington is the firm's receptionist. Later, Jimmy Berluti is hired as an associate.


title: The Practice

text: In season 2, Eugene, Lindsay and Ellenor become partners. Robert Donnell and Associates becomes Donnell, Young, Dole and Frutt. Helen Gamble, an assistant district attorney, becomes regularly entangled in the cases and personal lives of the employees of the firm.


title: The Practice

text: In season 3, Rebecca Washington, who had been attending law school in secret, becomes an associate after passing the bar exam. Lucy Hatcher is then hired as the new receptionist.


title: The Practice

text: In season 4, Assistant District Attorney Richard Bay, like Helen, becomes a frequent ally and opponent of Donnell, Young, Dole and Frutt.


title: The Practice

text: In season 5, Lucy becomes a rape crisis counselor in addition to her job as the firm's receptionist. Richard Bay is later assassinated after refusing to throw a murder trial.


title: The Practice

text: In season 6, Assistant District Attorney Alan Lowe becomes an antagonist of the firm for a short period of time.


title: The Practice

text: In season 7, Lindsay leaves Donnell, Young, Dole and Frutt to start a new law firm with Claire Wyatt. To fill the void left by Lindsay, Jamie Stringer is hired as an associate. Bobby later leaves the firm.


title: The Practice

text: In season 8, Donnell, Young, Dole and Frutt has been renamed to Young, Frutt and Berluti. Eugene has taken Bobby's place as a senior partner. Lucy has left the firm to become a full-time rape crisis counselor. Rebecca has also left the firm for unknown reasons. Helen is no longer present at the firm's cases. Tara Wilson is hired as a paralegal, and Alan Shore becomes an associate. After firing Alan and Tara – as well as being sued by the former – Young, Frutt and Berluti dissolve. Eugene then becomes a judge. Ellenor focuses her attention on motherhood. Jimmy and Jamie begin a new firm. Alan and Tara are hired by another firm known as Crane, Poole and Schmidt.


title: The Practice

text: The series holds the Emmy Awards record for most wins in the Guest Actor and Actress categories for a single series, as well as most nominations in those categories. Emmys went to John Larroquette, Edward Herrmann, James Whitmore, Beah Richards, Michael Emerson, Charles S. Dutton, Alfre Woodard, Sharon Stone and William Shatner. In addition, Tony Danza, Paul Dooley, Henry Winkler, Marlee Matlin, René Auberjonois and Betty White were nominated but did not win. Larroquette, who won for his guest appearance during the second season, was nominated again for an episode from the sixth season, but did not win. The series won the Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for five consecutive years (from 1998 to 2002).


title: The Practice

text: By the end of the seventh season, faced with sagging ratings, ABC conditioned the show's renewal on a drastic budget reduction. As a result, Dylan McDermott, Kelli Williams, Lara Flynn Boyle, Chyler Leigh, Marla Sokoloff, and LisaGay Hamilton were fired as regulars. McDermott and Sokoloff reappeared as special guest stars and a recurring character respectively in the eighth season. The addition of James Spader and Rhona Mitra to the cast somewhat revived the ratings as Spader went on to win an Emmy for his appearance. However, ABC announced that "The Practice" would not return for a ninth season on March 11, 2004. Instead, Kelley would create a new spin-off series called "Boston Legal" which starred Spader, Mitra, Lake Bell and William Shatner.


title: The Practice

text: Additionally, Bobby Donnell (Dylan McDermott) appears in the "Ally McBeal" season 1 finale "These Are the Days", while Lara Flynn Boyle and Michael Badalucco each make cameos in "Making Spirits Bright" and "I Know Him by Heart".


title: The Practice

text: Lara Flynn Boyle had an uncredited guest appearance as a rebuttal witness, opposite of guest star Heather Locklear's character in the season 5 episode "Tom Dooley".


title: The Practice

text: "The Practice", Volume 1, was released as a four-disc DVD set in North America on June 12, 2007. The set includes all six episodes of season 1 and the first seven episodes of season 2. It also includes a featurette, "Setting Up The Practice". The set was also released in Region 4 on June 6, 2007 and in Region 2 on June 29, 2008.


title: The Practice

text: On January 3, 2014, it was announced that Shout! Factory had acquired the rights to the series in Region 1 and would release the final season on DVD on April 15, 2014.


title: The Practice

text: In 2012, Medium Rare Entertainment acquired the rights to the series in Region 2 and released the first and second seasons on DVD in the United Kingdom on February 27, 2012.


title: The Practice

text: In 2014, StudioCanal released the first and second seasons over three volumes in Germany with German and English audio. The third, fourth, and eighth seasons have also been released in 2016 with plans to release the fifth and sixth at a later date.


title: The Practice

text: In March 2019, all seasons and episodes of "The Practice" were released on the streaming service Amazon Prime Video. By 2021, seasons 1–8 became available on the streaming service Hulu.


title: The Practice

text: "Note: Each US network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps." The first two seasons include the household rating. Seasons 4 and 5 reached the top 10 rankings.


title: The Practice

text: The exposure from its January 30, 2000, post-Super Bowl episode (attracting 23.8 million viewers) plus their weekly lead-in from early 2000 to mid-2001, the then mega-hit "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire", helped the series reach its ratings peak.


title: The Deuce (TV series)

text: The Deuce is an American drama television series created by David Simon and George Pelecanos, set in New York City during the 1970s and 1980s. The series' pilot began filming in October 2015 and was commissioned in January 2016. It is broadcast by HBO in the United States and premiered on September 10, 2017. HBO made the pilot available through its video-on-demand services and affiliates on August 25, 2017.


title: The Deuce (TV series)

text: "The Deuce" features a large ensemble cast including James Franco playing twins and Maggie Gyllenhaal as an ambitious sex worker who becomes a film director. It tells the story of the Golden Age of Porn, the legalization and rise of the porn industry in New York City that began in the 1970s. Themes explored include government and police corruption, the violence of the drug epidemic, and the real-estate booms and busts that coincided with the change. The show's title is derived from the nickname for 42nd Street between Seventh Avenue and Eighth Avenue.


title: The Deuce (TV series)

text: On September 19, 2017, HBO renewed the series for a second season, which premiered on September 9, 2018. On September 20, 2018, HBO renewed the series for a third and final season, which premiered on September 9, 2019. The series concluded on October 28, 2019, after three seasons and 25 episodes.


title: The Deuce (TV series)

text: Set during the 1970s and 1980s in New York, the violence of the drug epidemic is worsening. Twin brothers Vincent and Frankie Martino become fronts for the Mafia while operating out of Times Square, which is also the home of Eileen "Candy" Merrell, a street-level prostitute who exits the dangers of the street by entering the now-legal emerging porn industry as an actress and director. The first season takes place from 1971 to 1972, while the second season jumps five years ahead to 1977 with the season concluding in the summer of 1978. The third season takes place from 1984 to 1985.


title: The Deuce (TV series)

text: "The Deuce" was envisioned as a three-season series by creators David Simon and George Pelecanos, with each season taking place in a different time period during the rise of the porn industry in New York City during the 1970s and 80s.


title: The Deuce (TV series)

text: Marc Henry Johnson, an assistant locations manager on "Treme", introduced Simon and Pelecanos to a man in New York who told them vivid accounts from his stint as a mob front for bars and massage parlors in 1970s Manhattan. "The characters were so rich, and that's what it all comes down to", said Pelecanos. Inspired by these stories, the producers set out to present a fictional account of the era. "Some of it happened", said Simon. "Some of it didn't happen. Some of it might have happened. But all of it could have happened."


title: The Deuce (TV series)

text: After suggestions from cast member Emily Meade, the series brought on Alicia Rodis as an intimacy coordinator, to help the actors during sex scenes, making sure they all felt safe and nobody was distressed. Meade explained, "It's just mind boggling to me I've never been on set with an intimacy coordinator before; it felt so natural and so necessary. It's crazy it took to 2018 for sexuality to be treated with the same sensitivity and vulnerability as violence, or animals or children. I hope it gets to a point where it's not a choice, it's necessity, just like stunt coordinators, or a chaperone for children and animals."


title: The Deuce (TV series)

text: Clarke Peters, who played Lester Freamon in "The Wire" (which David Simon created), guest stars in the season 1 finale as "Ace", a former pimp and C.C.'s mentor. Photographer Nan Goldin made a cameo appearance in a season 2 episode. She has worked in the same post-Stonewall era of New York city displayed in the series. Co-creator and executive producer George Pelecanos appears as a bar patron in season 3, episode 6.


title: The Deuce (TV series)

text: "The Deuce" has received critical acclaim. On Metacritic, the first season has a score of 85 out of 100 based on 35 reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 93% approval rating with an average rating of 8.67 out of 10 based on 89 reviews. The site's critical consensus is, ""The Deuce" again demonstrates David Simon's masterful grasp of urban grit, while never losing detailed sight of its colorful characters." Daniel Fienberg of "The Hollywood Reporter" gave it a highly positive review, praising its ensemble cast, and wrote in conclusion, "Simon and Pelecanos are just beginning to put the machinery of "The Deuce" into motion in these eight episodes. As an opening act, the show's first season is substantive, provocative and entertaining." Charles Bramesco of "The Guardian" gave it a five star review and wrote, "Simon has created his most accessible work of humanism to date, and he's done so without sacrificing his loftier ambitions of societal critique."


title: The Deuce (TV series)

text: The second season received continued critical acclaim. On Metacritic, it has a score of 86 out of 100 based on 13 reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 99% approval rating with an average rating of 8.4 out of 10 based on 37 reviews. The site's critical consensus is, ""The Deuce"s excellent character-driven drama returns with even more immersive world-building and a welcome focus on its leading ladies, carried by a tour de force performance from Maggie Gyllenhaal." Allison Shoemaker for "RogerEbert.com" gave it a highly positive review, and wrote "Simon and Pelecanos seem to have hit their stride with this particular story, expertly balancing character-driven storytelling with a wide-angle view of the social, economic, political, cultural, sexual, and gendered dynamics of the era."


title: The Deuce (TV series)

text: The third season received continued critical acclaim. On Metacritic, it has a score of 79 out of 100 based on 6 reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an 88% approval rating with an average rating of 8.82 out of 10 based on 17 reviews. The site's critical consensus is, "Visually rich and utterly human, what narrative stream "The Deuce" loses in its final season is more than made up for in its depth of character and world building." Ben Travers of "IndieWire" gave it an "A−" grade and praised the series' world-building, writing, ""The Deuce" is one of the most impressive examples in recent memory. He further wrote, "In terms of sheer artistic value, these touches can't be praised highly enough. [...] It's a stunning, transportive experience each and every episode."


title: The Deuce (TV series)

text: The premiere episode received 830,000 viewers on HBO for its initial airing and an additional 342,000 viewers for its encore later that night, on September 10, 2017. The episode was previously made available online through on-demand and HBO Go on August 25 and received 1.1 million viewers. Cumulatively, through all platforms, the episode received 2.2 million viewers.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: The "Star Wars" sequel trilogy is the third trilogy of the main "Star Wars" franchise, an American space opera created by George Lucas. It is produced by Lucasfilm Ltd. and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The trilogy consists of episodes "VII" through "IX", chronologically following the prequel trilogy ("Episodes I"–"III"; 1999–2005) and the original trilogy ("Episodes IV"–"VI"; 1977–1983), serving as the final act of the "Skywalker saga". Lucas had planned a sequel trilogy as early as 1976, but canceled it by 1981. He produced only the first six episodes, and for a time described these as comprising the complete story. The sequel trilogy concept was revived when the Walt Disney Company entered negotiations to acquire Lucasfilm in 2011. Lucas produced new story treatments, but these were largely discarded. Both the acquisition and plans to produce the trilogy were announced in late 2012.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: The first installment, "The Force Awakens", was released on December 18, 2015, after a 10-year hiatus between the prequel and sequel trilogies. It was directed by J. J. Abrams who the screenplay with Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt. Original trilogy cast members including Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher reprised their roles, alongside franchise newcomers Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, and Oscar Isaac. The second installment, "The Last Jedi", was released on December 15, 2017, with Rian Johnson as screenwriter and director, and most of the cast returning. The final installment, "The Rise of Skywalker", was released on December 20, 2019. It was directed by Abrams, who it with Chris Terrio.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: The trilogy follows a 19-year-old woman named Rey, and the plight of the Resistance against the First Order, which has risen from the fallen Galactic Empire. Rey learns the ways of the Force under Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa while searching for her parents (who mysteriously abandoned her as a child), and confronts Kylo Ren—the son of Leia and Han Solo, nephew of Luke, and grandson of Anakin Skywalker—who has fallen to the dark side. The first two films received positive reviews from critics, while the third received mixed reviews. The trilogy grossed over $4.4 billion at the box office worldwide, with each film surpassing $1 billion worldwide.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: According to Mark Hamill, who plays Luke Skywalker, "Star Wars" creator George Lucas told him in 1976 that he planned three or four "Star Wars" trilogies. Lucas suggested that Hamill could have a cameo role in "Episode IX", which he imagined filming by 2011. A "Time" magazine story in March 1978, quoting Lucas, stated there would be ten "Star Wars" films after "The Empire Strikes Back". Gary Kurtz, the producer of the first two films, was aware of proposed story elements for "Episode VII" to "Episode IX" before 1980. At the time of the release of "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980), Lucas said there were seven further "Star Wars" films he wanted to make. He said he had "twelve-page outlines" for those films. In an interview with Jim Steranko in "Prevue" magazine published in late 1980, Lucas described how the expansive scope of "Star Wars" had started with an overlong screenplay:


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: By the time of "Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back"s release, Lucas had written story treatments for all nine "Star Wars" episodes. In 1999, Kurtz revealed a brief outline of these treatments:


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: In late 1980, Lucas stated that he had "titles and ten-page story outlines for each of" the nine episodes. In an interview the same magazine, Gary Kurtz explained that the total number of films or their content might change as they were produced. Lucas similarly stated in an interview with "Starlog" magazine in September 1981 that he had the nine-film series plotted, but:


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: As part of his biographical research on George Lucas in the early 1980s, Lucas allowed author Dale Pollock to read the plot outlines of a 12-film saga on the condition of signing a confidentiality agreement. Pollock said these sequel trilogy drafts would "involve Luke Skywalker in his 30s and 40s" and that they would be "The three most exciting stories ... They had propulsive action, really interesting new worlds, new characters." Lucas's plans were drastically changed after "The Empire Strikes Back" was released, owing to the stress of producing the first three films as well as pressure from his wife, Marcia, to step back from this kind of filmmaking. By 1981, Lucas had decided to make only one "Star Wars" trilogy.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: According to Gary Kurtz, details of elements from the discarded sequel trilogy which were incorporated into "Return of the Jedi" include:


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: Through the 1980s, Lucas variously hinted at plot elements from his abandoned sequel trilogy, which he said would have revolved around moral and philosophical problems, including distinguishing right from wrong, justice, confrontation, and passing on what you have learned. Ideas which seem to have been used in Disney's sequel trilogy include:


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: Timothy Zahn, who wrote the "Legends" non-canonical Thrawn trilogy of novels, was interviewed about the sequel trilogy after its development by Disney was announced in 2012. He confirmed that it was never meant to be based on his Thrawn trilogy nor the rest of the Expanded Universe, and said that he had been briefed years before on Lucas's plans for the sequels:


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: The original idea as I understood it—and Lucas changes his mind off and on, so it may not be what he's thinking right now—but it was going to be three generations. You'd have the original trilogy, then go back to Luke's father and find out what happened to him, and if there was another seventh, eighth, or ninth film, it would be Luke's children.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: In 1992, Lucas announced his intentions to produce a prequel trilogy. When asked, he would frequently repeat that he had no plans to make the sequel trilogy and that he would not allow other directors to make it. At a press conference for the 1997 Special Edition of the original trilogy, Lucas stated, "I don't have scripts [for the sequel trilogy]. The only notion on that was, wouldn't it be fun to get all the actors to come back when they're 60 or 70 years old and make three more about them as old people." Also in 1997, he said: "The whole story has six episodes... If I ever went beyond that, it would be something that was made up. I really don't have any notion other than, 'Gee, it would be interesting to do Luke Skywalker later on.' It wouldn't be part of the main story, but a sequel to this thing." He further stated, "When you see it in six parts, you'll understand. It really ends at part six."


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: On the possibility of someone else making "Star Wars" films, Lucas said, "Probably not, it's my thing." In August 1999, at a press conference to discuss "The Phantom Menace", Lucas described the "nine-year commitment" required to make a "Star Wars" trilogy. In 2002, he said: "Basically what I said as a joke was, 'Maybe when Harrison and Carrie are in their 70s, we'll come back and do another version.' The thing I didn't realize then, and that I do realize now very clearly, is that not only would they be in their 70s, but "I" would be in my 70s too." He reiterated, "Ultimately, the saga will be six films, a 12-hour story. Then people can watch all six films together as they were intended to be seen."


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: In 2007, Lucas described making the films at that age as "an idea that seemed amusing at the time, but doesn't seem realistic now", and suggested that "off-the-cuff" comments he had made in earlier years had been misconstrued as absolute statements. In 2008, after all six films had been released, Lucas said: "The movies were the story of Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker, and when Luke saves the galaxy and redeems his father, that's where that story ends." In another 2008 interview, Lucas ruled out anybody else making "Star Wars" films, and added that the Expanded Universe did not line up with his vision. Asked if he wanted new "Star Wars" films to be made after his death, he said: "I've left pretty explicit instructions for there not to be any more features. There will definitely be no "Episodes VII"–"IX". That's because there isn't any story. ... The "Star Wars" story is really the tragedy of Darth Vader. That is the story."


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: In May 2011, Lucas was in Orlando, Florida, to celebrate the opening of Star Tours – The Adventures Continue at Walt Disney World. He was invited to breakfast by Disney CEO Bob Iger, who asked Lucas if he would be willing to sell his company to Disney. Lucas had begun to consider retiring, but was not ready to do so at that time. Lucas considered directing "Episode VII" for a May 2015 release and then selling his company, but decided to leave the franchise in the hands of other filmmakers, announcing in January 2012 that he would step away from making blockbuster films.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: In early 2012, after being disappointed by the weak performance of "Red Tails", Lucas announced to "The New York Times" that he was planning to retire. While he was in New York, he asked Kathleen Kennedy to lunch. He asked if she would be a at Lucasfilm with him, with the intention of transferring leadership entirely to her after about a year. She began working for him on June 1, 2012; Lucas soon proposed that they work together on the sequel trilogy. They brought in Michael Arndt to write a draft of "Episode VII" based on Lucas's synopsis. "Star Wars" screenwriting veteran Lawrence Kasdan was hired to support Arndt. After making an appearance at "Star Wars" Celebration VI in late August, Lucas took Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher to lunch and asked if they would be willing to reprise their roles for the new films. They agreed, as did Harrison Ford after being promised that Han Solo would be given meaningful closure.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: Details of his sequel trilogy treatments included the conclusion of the Skywalker family's story, with its third generation being portrayed in their twenties. Lucas hoped to explain concepts he had imagined when he originally drafted his saga in the 1970s. Most specifically he revealed the "symbiotic relationships" between the Jedi, the Force, midi-chlorians (microscopic lifeforms, first mentioned onscreen in 1999's "The Phantom Menace"), and the Whills (all-powerful creatures first mentioned in the title of the original outline of "Star Wars", "Journal of the Whills"):


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: [The next three "Star Wars" films] were going to get into a microbiotic world. But there's this world of creatures that operate differently than we do. I call them the Whills. And the Whills are the ones who actually control the universe. They feed off the Force. Back in the day, I used to say ultimately what this means is we were just cars, vehicles, for the Whills to travel around in. We're vessels for them. And the conduit is the midi-chlorians. The midi-chlorians are the ones that communicate with the Whills. The Whills, in a general sense, they are the Force. ... But it's about symbiotic relationships. I think, personally, one of the core values we should have in the world, and kids should be taught, is ecology, to understand that we all are connected. (Lucas, 2018)


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: By June 2012, Lucas had agreed to sell his company, provided that Kennedy would replace him as president of Lucasfilm. Iger agreed, while insisting that Disney would have final say over future movies. Lucas's final stipulations before the sale in late 2012 were that his story treatments would be used and that the number of Disney employees who could read them would be limited. Lucas gave Kennedy the final draft of his story treatments during the October 2012 sale. The same month, the Disney sale and production of the sequel trilogy, as well as a 2015 release date for a new film, were announced to the public. Lucas stated, "I always said I wasn't going to do any more, and that's true, because I'm not going to do any more. But that doesn't mean I'm unwilling to turn it over to Kathy to do more." Both plot outlines, the one written in the 1980s and the one written in the early 2010s, were given to Iger around the time that Disney acquired Lucasfilm.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: In January 2013, Lucas held the first story briefing about the as-yet untitled "Episode VII" at Skywalker Ranch. Related concepts stemming from these early briefings include the following story elements:


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: In an interview published in 2020, Lucas says he decided not to work on the trilogy because he was "about to have a daughter" at the time and decided to "enjoy life for a while." He also detailed more of his story treatments:


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: In April 2014, it was announced that "In order to give maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers and also preserve an element of surprise and discovery for the audience, Star Wars Episodes VII-IX will not tell the same story told in the post-Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe." The announcement stated that the only existing Star Wars material that would be considered part of the new canon, would be "Episodes I–VI" along with and series.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: In 2015, Lucas revealed (to his disappointment) that his outlines had been discarded in order to "make something for the fans". "Episode VII" writer and director J. J. Abrams later revealed that the same year, Disney had given him a mandate to discard Lucas's story and "start from scratch".


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: Bob Iger's memoirs, published in 2019, recount that Lucas was upset after hearing the plot of "The Force Awakens" in meetings, specifically about elements that were derivative of the original 1977 film. Lucas felt betrayed by Iger and Abrams because they discarded some of his sequel trilogy ideas.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: "" writer and director Rian Johnson's initial response to the script of "The Force Awakens" included the suggestion of minor adjustments to the ending. According to Abrams, these improved the movie and made it line up more with "The Last Jedi". Abrams intended for BB-8 to help Rey search for Luke, which Johnson changed to R2-D2 (due to his being Luke's droid, as well as BB-8 belonging to Poe and not knowing Luke). Additionally, Abrams' ending featured Rey finding Luke lifting rocks with the Force, which was changed due to Johnson's plot of Luke having disconnected himself from the Force. Johnson implied that his portrayal of the Force in "The Last Jedi" was influenced by the "Mortis trilogy" of episodes from "The Clone Wars", which he had rewatched early in the writing process on the advice of "The Clone Wars" supervising director Dave Filoni. He also stated that he considered including Lando Calrissian in the film, possibly giving him the role of new character DJ (Benicio del Toro), but did not because it would have meant Lando betraying the characters without redemption. Abrams credited "The Last Jedi" with influencing him to be more daring on "The Rise of Skywalker".


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: Some reports indicate that, contrary to popular belief, some plot points across the trilogy were planned in advance. The idea of Luke Skywalker living on an island following his failure to stop the murder of his Jedi students and then training an apprentice who would help him overcome his self-doubt was first pitched by George Lucas in 2013 during creative meetings between himself and Lucasfilm as part of story discussions for "Episode VII" (these ideas would later be used in "The Last Jedi"). Several plot points of "The Rise of Skywalker" were pitched in an early 2014 story meeting between Lucasfilm executives (including Dave Filoni, Pablo Hidalgo, Doug Chiang, John Knoll, and Kiri Hart) after the plot of "The Force Awakens" had been finalized, including the notion of Leia as a mentor figure to Rey, Leia breaking through to her son Ben Solo (Kylo Ren), and the notion of Rey as "the Skywalker" of the trilogy by metaphor rather than blood connection. The return of Emperor Palpatine in "Episode IX" was planned as far back as the earliest development phase of the trilogy. Similarly, Abrams hinted that Palpatine being Rey's grandfather was an early idea he and Lawrence Kasdan had while working on "The Force Awakens", although Daisy Ridley later claimed that ideas for Rey's lineage changed throughout filming of "".


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: Unlike the previous two trilogies, whose films were released approximately three years apart ahead of Memorial Day weekend, the sequel films were released two years apart from each other in December. "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" was released on December 18, 2015, and introduces the 19-year-old orphan, Rey, who is drawn into the conflict between the Resistance and the First Order, a ruthless military faction commanded by Kylo Ren—the son of Leia Organa and Han Solo. In "The Last Jedi", released on December 15, 2017, Rey is trained by Luke Skywalker, the last living Jedi, while again facing Ren and the First Order. "The Rise of Skywalker" was released on December 20, 2019, and features the conclusion of the age-old conflict between the Jedi and Sith, with Rey confronting the resurrected Emperor Palpatine.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: About 30 years after the destruction of the second Death Star, Luke Skywalker has vanished. The remnants of the Empire have become the First Order, which seeks to destroy Luke and the New Republic. The First Order is opposed by the Resistance, led by General Leia Organa. On the planet Jakku, Resistance pilot Poe Dameron obtains a map to Luke's location, but he is captured by First Order commander Kylo Ren—the son of Leia and Han Solo. Poe's droid escapes with the map and encounters a scavenger named Rey. Rey and team up with a defecting stormtrooper, Finn, along with Han Solo and Chewbacca, to deliver the map to the Resistance.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: "Episode VII" began pre-production on October 30, 2012. The screenplay for the film was originally set to be written by Michael Arndt, but time management and creative differences contributed to his departure from the project. On January 25, 2013, J. J. Abrams was officially announced as "Episode VII"s director and producer, along with producer Bryan Burk and Bad Robot Productions. John Williams was hired to compose the music for the entire sequel trilogy. In October, it was announced that writing duties would be taken over by Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan, co-writer of "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi".


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: George Lucas was set to provide Abrams with advice as a creative consultant; however, Lucas had no involvement, with his representative stating that he "ideally would love not to see any footage until he walks into the theater next December. He has never been able to be surprised by a "Star Wars" film before and he said he was looking forward to it." Production began in April 2014; it was released on December 18, 2015. In the US, the film received a PG-13 rating "for sci-fi action violence" and an M rating In Australia, the second "Star Wars" film to receive that classification after "".


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: The film broke opening weekend box office records in North America with $248 million ($39 million more than previous record holder "Jurassic World") and totals of $529 million worldwide, the largest opening ever. The film set another new record by becoming the first movie to break the $1 billion mark in box office sales in just 12 days. It is currently the highest-grossing film of all time in North America and the fourth highest-grossing film worldwide, unadjusted for inflation.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: After finding Luke Skywalker in self-imposed exile, Rey attempts to convince him to teach her the ways of the Force. She also seeks answers about her past and the conflict between Luke and his nephew Ben Solo (now Kylo Ren). Unbeknownst to Luke, Rey starts using the Force to communicate with Kylo. Meanwhile, Leia leads the Resistance as they are pursued by the First Order, led by Supreme Leader Snoke. Rey leaves Luke in an attempt to redeem Kylo and achieve peace. After Kylo kills Snoke, Rey is forced to choose between ruling the galaxy with him, or helping the outnumbered Resistance survive.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: On November 20, 2012, "The Hollywood Reporter" reported that Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg would write and produce Episodes "VIII" and "IX", but were later confirmed to be writing standalone films. On June 20, 2014, "Looper" director Rian Johnson was announced as the writer and director of "Episode VIII"; he confirmed in August that he would direct. On March 12, 2015, Lucasfilm announced that Johnson would direct "Episode VIII" with Ram Bergman as producer.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: In March 2015, Oscar Isaac confirmed he would reprise his role as Poe Dameron in "Episode VIII". In July, it was reported that Benicio del Toro was being considered for a villain; he later confirmed that he had been cast. In September, it was reported that Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tatiana Maslany, Gina Rodriguez, Olivia Cooke, and Bel Powley were on the shortlist for two separate parts. Jimmy Vee was cast as R2-D2, succeeding Kenny Baker, who would die the next year. Some pre-production filming took place in September 2015 on the island of Skellig Michael, Ireland to take advantage of better weather conditions. Abrams revealed that the film's script was completed in a November 2015 interview with "Wired". In December, Hamill, Isaac, Christie, and Boyega were confirmed to reprise their roles as Luke Skywalker, Poe Dameron, Captain Phasma, and Finn, respectively. Kennedy announced at the December 17 London premiere of "The Force Awakens" that most of its cast would return for "Episode VIII".


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: On January 20, 2016, Lucasfilm and Disney announced that the release of the film would be delayed from May to December 2017. Three days later, the release date of December 15, 2017 was confirmed, as well as the title "Star Wars: The Last Jedi". Principal photography began in February 2016; additional filming took place in Dubrovnik from March 9 to March 16, as well as in Ireland in May. Principal photography wrapped in July 2016. Carrie Fisher died on December 27, 2016, but had completed filming her role as Leia. Much of the filming took place at Pinewood Studios near London. Kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman were the producers and J. J. Abrams executive produced.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: "The Rise of Skywalker" is the final film of the Skywalker saga, featuring a climactic clash between the Resistance and the First Order, and the Jedi and the Sith. The film is set a year following "The Last Jedi" and depicts the return of Palpatine, who has been secretly controlling the First Order from the Sith planet Exegol. Palpatine orders Kylo Ren to find and kill Rey, who is revealed to be Palpatine's granddaughter. Palpatine unveils an armada of Star Destroyers to reclaim the galaxy. Rey and the Resistance learn of Palpatine's return and embark on a quest to find him. They eventually locate Exegol; Rey confronts Palpatine, while the Resistance attack Palpatine's fleet.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: In June 2014, Johnson was announced as writing a story treatment for "Episode IX", but later stated he had not been involved with writing the film. In August 2015, Colin Trevorrow was announced as the director of "Episode IX," and he, with Derek Connolly, began writing a script draft secretly titled "". Many elements from that draft survived into the actual film. In February 2016, Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed that pre-production of "Episode IX" had begun.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: Following the death of Carrie Fisher in late December 2016, media outlets speculated on whether her role would be recast for "Episode IX" and whether the absence of her character would affect the film's plot. A few weeks later, Lucasfilm stated that they would not digitally recreate Fisher's performance for the film. In April 2017, Kathleen Kennedy stated that Fisher would not be in "Episode IX", but it was later announced that Fisher would in fact appear using unreleased footage from "The Force Awakens". In August, it was reported that Jack Thorne would rewrite the script.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: In September 2017, Lucasfilm announced that Trevorrow had stepped down as director, and a week later, it was announced that J. J. Abrams would return to direct "Episode IX". He the script with Chris Terrio, in addition to producing the film through Bad Robot Productions with Kennedy and Michelle Rejwan. Disney had originally scheduled the film's release for December 2019, in keeping with the previous two sequel trilogy films, but then moved it up to May 24, a time of the year more common to the first six "Star Wars" episodes. However, after Abrams' return, its release date was moved back to December.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: On January 10, 2018, it was reported that John Williams will return to compose and conduct the music for "Episode IX". The next month, Williams announced that it would be the last "Star Wars" film music he would compose.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: On July 6, 2018, it was reported that Keri Russell was in early talks for a role in "Episode IX". On July 9, "The Hollywood Reporter" reported that Billy Dee Williams was confirmed to reprise the role of Lando Calrissian. On July 27, the official casting announcement was made, including the return of Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong'o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, Billie Lourd, Mark Hamill, and Anthony Daniels, with Naomi Ackie and Richard E. Grant joining the cast. The same announcement confirmed Williams' return and that Carrie Fisher would posthumously portray Leia Organa using unreleased footage from "The Force Awakens". Lucasfilm also initially had plans to include unseen footage of Fisher from "The Last Jedi", but it was ultimately not used in the film. It was announced later the same day that Russell had joined the cast. On April 12, at the 2019 Star Wars Celebration, the title for "Episode IX" was confirmed to be "The Rise of Skywalker." Principal photography began on August 1, 2018, and wrapped on February 15, 2019. "The Rise of Skywalker" was released in the United States on December 20, 2019.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: According to J. J. Abrams and Chris Terrio, the trilogy's core theme is about learning from the previous generation, akin to the Americans in the War of 1812, who preserved what was fought for in the American Revolutionary War. On the inspiration for the First Order formed "from the ashes of the Empire", Abrams spoke of conversations the writers had about how the Nazis could have escaped to Argentina after World War II and "started working together again."


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: "Polygon" considers that "The Last Jedi"s portrayal of Luke Skywalker as a pacifist Jedi master reflects the Jedi's beliefs as being inspired by the Buddhist religion due to the character's inner conflict towards using a lightsaber and seeing it as a weapon of destruction. "The Last Jedi" features scenes recalling Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon" (1950), utilizing the Rashomon effect when Luke tells Rey that he considered murdering his nephew, Ben Solo, due to sensing his inevitable fall to the dark side. Later, Kylo recounts his perspective, which prompts Luke to tell a third, combined perspective of the event.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: According to Adam Driver, Kylo Ren is "morally justified in doing what he thinks is right". "The Rise of Skywalker" depicts Kylo Ren having his helmet repaired following its destruction in "The Last Jedi". Abrams compared the fractured mask to "Kintsugi", a Japanese ceramic art of repairing broken pottery which accentuates the breakage. While the helmet obscures his vulnerabilities in "The Force Awakens", its fractured form in "The Rise of Skywalker" instead communicates the fractured nature of his character. Kylo overcomes and kills his father in "The Force Awakens" before reconciling with his memory of him in "The Rise of Skywalker"; according to Terrio, this reconciliation represents the "Atonement with the Father" stage of the hero's journey, which the "Star Wars" films are heavily patterned on.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: Rey's journey mirrors that of Anakin and Luke in the prequel and original trilogies. The final scene of "The Last Jedi" depicts servant children playing with a toy of Luke, with one boy using the Force to grab a broom. According to "Inverse", this symbolizes that "the Force can be found in people with humble beginnings." A writer for the same website interprets the end of "The Rise of Skywalker" as seeing Rey "bury the past" and rejecting "any power her grandfather held over her" in a completion of the hero's journey.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: Unlike the previous trilogies, the sequel trilogy experienced diminishing box office returns with each succeeding film. Nevertheless, it is the highest-grossing trilogy overall, with "The Force Awakens" ranking as the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: George Lucas agreed with critics who considered "The Force Awakens" too derivative of the original trilogy. In an interview with Charlie Rose, Lucas likened his decision to sell Lucasfilm to Disney to a divorce, and outlined the creative differences between him and the producers of "The Force Awakens". Lucas described the previous six "Star Wars" films as his "children" and defended his vision for them, while criticizing "The Force Awakens" for having a "retro feel", saying: "I worked very hard to make them completely different, with different planets, with different spaceships ... to make it new." Lucas also likened Disney to "white slavers", which drew some criticism. He subsequently apologized for this remark. In 2016, responding to the complaints of derivativeness, Abrams said, "What was important for me was introducing brand new characters using relationships that were embracing the history that we know to tell a story that is new – to go backwards to go forwards". The same year, the Disney-produced "Star Wars" anthology film "Rogue One" was released, and it was reported that Lucas liked it more than "The Force Awakens". In 2017, Lucas described the sequel "The Last Jedi" as "beautifully made".


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: Marcia Lucas, George Lucas's ex-wife, who was an editor of all three original films and won an Oscar for her work on the first, criticized the Disney sequels in an interview with J. W. Rinzler for his posthumous final book, "Howard Kazanjian: A Producer's Life". She stated that Kennedy and Abrams "don't get" the franchise, particularly criticizing the deaths of Han and Luke, as well as the lack of an explanation for Rey's powers.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: The sequel trilogy has received a generally positive reception from critics, being collectively lauded for its emotional weight, lead performances, and visual effects (including the focus on practical effects). However, several have criticized it for being derivative of the original trilogy. Individually, praise has been directed at "The Force Awakens" for embracing the spirit of the original trilogy, and "The Last Jedi" for its direction and willingness to take risks. In contrast, "The Rise of Skywalker" received criticism for its perceived retconning of the plot, characterization, and themes of "The Last Jedi", attributed to appeasing a segment of the fanbase to which the film had .


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: Retrospectively, critics and publications have labelled the fan response to the sequel trilogy as divisive, particularly as a result of the final two installments. Some have commented on the apparent lack of planning for the trilogy's overarching story, feeling that the films appear inconsistent and contradictory from the differing visions of directors J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson; the latter was alleged to have been given complete creative control for "The Last Jedi". "CNBC" and "Paste Magazine" disagreed with the decision not to use a showrunner to helm the trilogy. Several publications described the result as a "mess".


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: In addition to a vast campaign of tie-in media including adaptations and the Journey to "Star Wars" publishing campaign (released in anticipation of each film), a number of other spin-offs have been released, altogether fleshing out characters and story elements from the trilogy (including some which were cut from it) and tying into earlier eras.


title: Star Wars sequel trilogy

text: Some sources have pointed out that streaming series "The Mandalorian" and its spin-offs will likely set up the events of the sequel trilogy. In November 2021, Kathleen Kennedy revealed that Lucasfilm creatives had been having conversations regarding the future of the trilogy's characters.


title: Judith Butler

text: Judith Pamela Butler (born February 24, 1956) is an American philosopher and gender theorist whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminism, queer theory, and literary theory. In 1993, Butler began teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, where they have served, beginning in 1998, as the Maxine Elliot Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Program of Critical Theory. They are also the Hannah Arendt Chair at the European Graduate School.


title: Judith Butler

text: Butler is best known for their books "Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity" (1990) and "Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex" (1993), in which they challenge conventional notions of gender and develop their theory of gender performativity. This theory has had a major influence on feminist and queer scholarship. Their work is often studied and debated in film studies courses emphasizing gender studies and performativity in discourse.


title: Judith Butler

text: Butler has spoken on many contemporary political issues, including Israeli politics and in support of LGBT rights.


title: Judith Butler

text: Judith Butler was born on February 24, 1956, in Cleveland, Ohio, to a family of Hungarian-Jewish and Russian-Jewish descent. Most of their maternal grandmother's family perished in the Holocaust. Butler's parents were practicing Reform Jews. Their mother was raised Orthodox, eventually becoming Conservative and then Reform, while their father was raised Reform. As a child and teenager, Butler attended both Hebrew school and special classes on Jewish ethics, where they received their "first training in philosophy". Butler stated in a 2010 interview with "Haaretz" that they began the ethics classes at the age of 14 and that they were created as a form of punishment by Butler's Hebrew school's Rabbi because they were "too talkative in class". Butler also stated that they were "thrilled" by the idea of these tutorials, and when asked what they wanted to study in these special sessions, they responded with three questions preoccupying them at the time: "Why was Spinoza excommunicated from the synagogue? Could German Idealism be held accountable for Nazism? And how was one to understand existential theology, including the work of Martin Buber?"


title: Judith Butler

text: Butler attended Bennington College before transferring to Yale University, where they studied philosophy and received a Bachelor of Arts in 1978 and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1984. They spent one academic year at Heidelberg University as a Fulbright Scholar. Butler taught at Wesleyan University, George Washington University, and Johns Hopkins University before joining University of California, Berkeley, in 1993. In 2002, they held the Spinoza Chair of Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. In addition, they joined the department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University as Wun Tsun Tam Mellon Visiting Professor of the Humanities in the spring semesters of 2012, 2013 and 2014 with the option of remaining as full-time faculty.


title: Judith Butler

text: Butler serves on the editorial or advisory board of several academic journals, including "", "JAC: A Journal of Rhetoric, Culture, and Politics" and "Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society."


title: Judith Butler

text: In the essay "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory" Judith Butler proposes that gender is performative. Because gender identity is established through behavior, there is a possibility to construct different genders via different behaviors.


title: Judith Butler

text: "Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity" was first published in 1990, selling over 100,000 copies internationally, in multiple languages. "Gender Trouble" discusses the works of Sigmund Freud, Simone de Beauvoir, Julia Kristeva, Jacques Lacan, Luce Irigaray, Monique Wittig, Jacques Derrida, and Michel Foucault.


title: Judith Butler

text: Butler offers a critique of the terms "gender" and "sex" as they have been used by feminists. Butler argues that feminism made a mistake in trying to make "women" a discrete, ahistorical group with common characteristics. Butler writes that this approach reinforces the binary view of gender relations. Butler believes that feminists should not try to define "women" and they also believe that feminists should "focus on providing an account of how power functions and shapes our understandings of womanhood not only in the society at large but also within the feminist movement." Finally, Butler aims to break the supposed links between sex and gender so that gender and desire can be "flexible, free floating and not caused by other stable factors". The idea of identity as free and flexible and gender as a performance, not an essence, has been one of the foundations of queer theory.


title: Judith Butler

text: Butler's contribution to "Inside/Out: Lesbian Theories, Gay Theories" is a collection of writings of gay and lesbian social theorists. Butler argues that no transparent revelation is afforded by the terms "gay" or "lesbian" yet there is a political imperative to do so. Butler employs "the concepts of play/performance, drag, and imitation to describe the formation of gender and sexuality as continually created subjectivities always at risk of dissolution from non-performance."


title: Judith Butler

text: "Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex"" seeks to clear up readings and supposed misreadings of performativity that view the enactment of sex/gender as a daily choice. Butler emphasizes the role of repetition in performativity, making use of Derrida's theory of iterability, which is a form of citationality:


title: Judith Butler

text: Performativity cannot be understood outside of a process of iterability, a regularized and constrained repetition of norms. And this repetition is not performed "by" a subject; this repetition is what enables a subject and constitutes the temporal condition for the subject. This iterability implies that 'performance' is not a singular 'act' or event, but a ritualized production, a ritual reiterated under and through constraint, under and through the force of prohibition and taboo, with the threat of ostracism and even death controlling and compelling the shape of the production, but not, I will insist, determining it fully in advance.


title: Judith Butler

text: In "Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative", Butler surveys the problems of hate speech and censorship. They argue that censorship is difficult to evaluate, and that in some cases it may be useful or even necessary, while in others it may be worse than tolerance.


title: Judith Butler

text: Butler argues that hate speech exists retrospectively, only after being declared such by state authorities. In this way, the state reserves for itself the power to define hate speech and, conversely, the limits of acceptable discourse. In this connection, Butler criticizes feminist legal scholar Catharine MacKinnon's argument against pornography for its unquestioning acceptance of the state's power to censor.


title: Judith Butler

text: Deploying Foucault's argument from the first volume of "The History of Sexuality", Butler claims that any attempt at censorship, legal or otherwise, necessarily propagates the very language it seeks to forbid. As Foucault argues, for example, the strict sexual mores of 19th-century Western Europe did nothing but amplify the discourse of sexuality they sought to control. Extending this argument using Derrida and Lacan, Butler claims that censorship is primitive to language, and that the linguistic "I" is a mere effect of an originary censorship. In this way, Butler questions the possibility of any genuinely oppositional discourse; "If speech depends upon censorship, then the principle that one might seek to oppose is at once the formative principle of oppositional speech".


title: Judith Butler

text: "Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence" opens a new line in Judith Butler's work that has had a great impact on their subsequent thought, especially on books like "Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable?" (2009) or "Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly" (2015), as well as on other contemporary thinkers. In this book, Butler deals with issues of precarity, vulnerability, grief and contemporary political violence in the face of the War on terror and the realities of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and similar detention centers. Drawing on Foucault, they characterize the form of power at work in these places of "indefinite detention" as a convergence of sovereignty and governmentality. The "state of exception" deployed here is in fact more complex than the one pointed out by Agamben in his "Homo Sacer", since the government is in a more ambiguous relation to law —it may comply with it or suspend it, depending on its interests, and this is itself a tool of the state to produce its own sovereignty. Butler also points towards problems in international law treatises like the Geneva Conventions. In practice, these only protect people who belong to (or act in the name of) a recognized state, and therefore are helpless in situations of abuse toward stateless people, people who do not enjoy a recognized citizenship or people who are labelled "terrorists", and therefore understood as acting on their own behalf as irrational "killing machines" that need to be held captive due to their "dangerousness".


title: Judith Butler

text: Butler also writes here on vulnerability and precariousness as intrinsic to the human condition. This is due to our inevitable interdependency from other precarious subjects, who are never really "complete" or autonomous but instead always "dispossessed" on the Other. This is manifested in shared experiences like grief and loss, that can form the basis for a recognition of our shared human (vulnerable) condition. However, not every loss can be mourned in the same way, and in fact not every life can be conceived of as such (as situated in a condition common to ours). Through a critical engagement with Levinas, they will explore how certain representations prevent lives from being considered worthy of being lived or taken into account, precluding the mourning of certain Others, and with that the recognition of them and their losses as equally human. This preoccupation with the dignifying or dehumanizing role of practices of framing and representations will constitute one of the central elements of "Frames of War" (2009).


title: Judith Butler

text: "Undoing Gender" collects Butler's reflections on gender, sex, sexuality, psychoanalysis and the medical treatment of intersex people for a more general readership than many of their other books. Butler revisits and refines their notion of performativity and focuses on the question of undoing "restrictively normative conceptions of sexual and gendered life".


title: Judith Butler

text: Butler discusses how gender is performed without one being conscious of it, but says that it does not mean this performativity is "automatic or mechanical". They argue that we have desires that do not originate from our personhood, but rather, from social norms. The writer also debates our notions of "human" and "less-than-human" and how these culturally imposed ideas can keep one from having a "viable life" as the biggest concerns are usually about whether a person will be accepted if their desires differ from normality. Butler states that one may feel the need of being recognized in order to live, but that at the same time, the conditions to be recognized make life "unlivable". The writer proposes an interrogation of such conditions so that people who resist them may have more possibilities of living.


title: Judith Butler

text: In Butler's discussion of intersex issues and people, Butler addresses the case of David Reimer, a person whose sex was medically reassigned from male to female after a botched circumcision at eight months of age. Reimer was "made" female by doctors, but later in life identified as "really" male, married and became a stepfather to his wife's three children, and went on to tell his story in "", which he wrote with John Colapinto. Reimer died by suicide in 2004.


title: Judith Butler

text: In "Giving an Account of Oneself", Butler develops an ethics based on the opacity of the subject to itself; in other words, the limits of self-knowledge. Primarily borrowing from Theodor Adorno, Michel Foucault, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean Laplanche, Adriana Cavarero and Emmanuel Levinas, Butler develops a theory of the formation of the subject. Butler theorizes the subject in relation to the social – a community of others and their norms – which is beyond the control of the subject it forms, as precisely the very condition of that subject's formation, the resources by which the subject becomes recognizably human, a grammatical "I", in the first place.


title: Judith Butler

text: Butler accepts the claim that if the subject is opaque to itself the limitations of its free ethical responsibility and obligations are due to the limits of narrative, presuppositions of language and projection.


title: Judith Butler

text: Instead Butler argues for an ethics based precisely on the limits of self-knowledge as the limits of responsibility itself. Any concept of responsibility which demands the full transparency of the self to itself, an entirely accountable self, necessarily does violence to the opacity which marks the constitution of the self it addresses. The scene of address by which responsibility is enabled is always already a relation between subjects who are variably opaque to themselves and to each other. The ethics that Butler envisions is therefore one in which the responsible self knows the limits of its knowing, recognizes the limits of its capacity to give an account of itself to others, and respects those limits as symptomatically human. To take seriously one's opacity to oneself in ethical deliberation means then to critically interrogate the social world in which one comes to be human in the first place and which remains precisely that which one cannot know about oneself. In this way, Butler locates social and political critique at the core of ethical practice.


title: Judith Butler

text: In "Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly", Butler discusses the power of public gatherings, considering what they signify and how they work. They use this framework to analyze the power and possibilities of protests, such as the Black Lives Matter protests regarding the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner in 2014.


title: Judith Butler

text: In "The Force of Nonviolence: An Ethico-Political Bind", Butler connects the ideologies of nonviolence and the political struggle for social equality. They review the traditional understanding of "nonviolence," stating that it "is often misunderstood as a passive practice that emanates from a calm region of the soul, or as an individualist ethical relation to existing forms of power." Instead of this understanding, Butler argues that "nonviolence is an ethical position found in the midst of the political field."


title: Judith Butler

text: Butler's work has been influential in feminist and queer theory, cultural studies, and continental philosophy. Yet their contribution to a range of other disciplines—such as psychoanalysis, literary, film, and performance studies as well as visual arts—has also been significant. Their theory of gender performativity as well as their conception of "critically queer" have not only transformed understandings of gender and queer identity in the academic world, but have shaped and mobilized various kinds of political activism, particularly queer activism, across the globe. “Doing gender” as a theory has also gained additional attention through its resonance with the postmodernist thesis of philosopher Judith Butler that gender is a “performance”(Butler, 1). Butler's work has also entered into contemporary debates on the teaching of gender, gay parenting, and the depathologization of transgender people. Before election to the papacy, Pope Benedict XVI wrote several pages challenging Butler's arguments on gender. In several countries, Butler became the symbol of the destruction of traditional gender roles for reactionary movements. This was particularly the case in France during the anti-gay marriage protests. Bruno Perreau has written that Butler was literally depicted as an "antichrist", both because of their gender and their Jewish identity, the fear of minority politics and critical studies being expressed through fantasies of a corrupted body.


title: Judith Butler

text: Some academics and political activists maintain that Butler's radical departure from the sex/gender dichotomy and Butler's non-essentialist conception of gender—along with their insistence that power helps form the subject—revolutionized feminist and queer praxis, thought, and studies. Darin Barney of McGill University wrote that:


title: Judith Butler

text: In 1998, Denis Dutton's journal "Philosophy and Literature" awarded Butler first prize in its fourth annual "Bad Writing Competition", which set out to "celebrate bad writing from the most stylistically lamentable passages found in scholarly books and articles." Butler's unwitting entry, which ran in a 1997 issue of the scholarly journal "Diacritics", ran thus:


title: Judith Butler

text: Some critics have accused Butler of elitism due to their difficult prose style, while others claim that Butler reduces gender to "discourse" or promotes a form of gender voluntarism. Susan Bordo, for example, has argued that Butler reduces gender to language and has contended that the body is a major part of gender, in opposition to Butler's conception of gender as performative. A particularly vocal critic has been feminist Martha Nussbaum, who has argued that Butler misreads J. L. Austin's idea of performative utterance, makes erroneous legal claims, forecloses an essential site of resistance by repudiating pre-cultural agency, and provides no "normative theory of social justice and human dignity." Finally, Nancy Fraser's critique of Butler was part of a famous exchange between the two theorists. Fraser has suggested that Butler's focus on performativity distances them from "everyday ways of talking and thinking about ourselves. ... Why should we use such a self-distancing idiom?"


title: Judith Butler

text: Butler responded to criticisms of their prose in the preface to the 1999 edition of their book, "Gender Trouble."


title: Judith Butler

text: —have criticised Judith Butler's "Undoing Gender" for under-emphasizing the intersectional aspects of gender-based violence. For example, Timothy Laurie notes that Butler's use of phrases like "gender politics" and "gender violence" in relation to assaults on transgender individuals in the United States can "[scour] a landscape filled with class and labour relations, racialised urban stratification, and complex interactions between sexual identity, sexual practices and sex work", and produce instead "a clean surface on which struggles over 'the human' are imagined to play out".


title: Judith Butler

text: German feminist Alice Schwarzer speaks of Butler's "radical intellectual games" that would not change how society classifies and treats a woman; thus, by eliminating female and male identity Butler would have abolished the discourse about sexism in the queer community. Schwarzer also accuses Butler of remaining silent about the oppression of women and homosexuals in the Islamic world, while readily exercising their right to same-sex-marriage in the United States; instead, Butler would sweepingly defend Islam, including Islamism, from critics.


title: Judith Butler

text: Much of Butler's early political activism centered around queer and feminist issues, and they served, for a period of time, as the chair of the board of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. Over the years, Butler has been particularly active in the gay and lesbian rights, feminist, and anti-war movements. They have also written and spoken out on issues ranging from affirmative action and gay marriage to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the prisoners detained at Guantanamo Bay. More recently, Butler has been active in the Occupy movement and has publicly expressed support for a version of the 2005 BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) campaign against Israel. They emphasize that Israel does not and should not be taken to represent all Jews or Jewish opinion, and has criticized the weaponization of the figure of the victim by zionism, which risks banalization of antisemitism.


title: Judith Butler

text: On September 7, 2006, Butler participated in a faculty-organized teach-in against the 2006 Lebanon War at the University of California, Berkeley. Another widely publicized moment occurred in June 2010, when Butler refused the Civil Courage Award (Zivilcouragepreis) of the Christopher Street Day (CSD) Parade in Berlin, Germany at the award ceremony. They cited racist comments on the part of organizers and a general failure of CSD organizations to distance themselves from racism in general and from anti-Muslim excuses for war more specifically. Criticizing the event's commercialism, Butler went on to name several groups that they commended as stronger opponents of "homophobia, transphobia, sexism, racism, and militarism".


title: Judith Butler

text: In October 2011, Butler attended Occupy Wall Street and, in reference to calls for clarification of the protesters' demands, they said:


title: Judith Butler

text: People have asked, so what are the demands? What are the demands all of these people are making? Either they say there are no demands and that leaves your critics confused, or they say that the demands for social equality and economic justice are impossible demands. And the impossible demands, they say, are just not practical. If hope is an impossible demand, then we demand the impossible – that the right to shelter, food and employment are impossible demands, then we demand the impossible. If it is impossible to demand that those who profit from the recession redistribute their wealth and cease their greed, then yes, we demand the impossible.


title: Judith Butler

text: Butler is an executive member of FFIPP – Educational Network for Human Rights in Israel/Palestine. They are also a member of the advisory board of Jewish Voice for Peace. In mainstream US politics, they expressed support for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.


title: Judith Butler

text: When Butler received the 2012 Adorno Prize, the prize committee came under attack from Israel's Ambassador to Germany Yakov Hadas-Handelsman; the director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's office in Jerusalem, Efraim Zuroff; and the German Central Council of Jews. They were upset at Butler's selection because of Butler's remarks about Israel and specifically Butler's "calls for a boycott against Israel". Butler responded saying that "[Butler] did not take attacks from German Jewish leaders personally". Rather, they wrote, the attacks are "directed against everyone who is critical against Israel and its current policies".


title: Judith Butler

text: In a letter to the "Mondoweiss" website, Butler asserted that they developed strong ethical views on the basis of Jewish philosophical thought and that it is "blatantly untrue, absurd, and painful for anyone to argue that those who formulate a criticism of the State of Israel is anti-Semitic or, if Jewish, self-hating".


title: Judith Butler

text: Butler was criticized for statements they had made about Hamas and Hezbollah. Butler was accused of describing them as "social movements that are progressive, that are on the Left, that are part of a global Left." They were accused of defending "Hezbollah and Hamas as progressive organizations" and supporting their tactics.


title: Judith Butler

text: Butler responded to these criticisms by stating that their remarks on Hamas and Hezbollah were taken completely out of context and, in so doing, their established views on non-violence were contradicted and misrepresented. Butler describes the origin of their remarks on Hamas and Hezbollah in the following way: