title: Medford, Oregon

text: The high volume of traffic on Interstate 5 led to the completion of a new north Medford interchange in 2006. The project, which cost about $36 million, improved traffic flow between I-5 and Crater Lake Highway. Further traffic problems identified in south Medford prompted the construction of another new interchange, costing $72 million. The project began in 2006 and was completed in 2010.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Since the 1990s, Medford has dedicated an appreciable amount of resources to urban renewal in an attempt to revitalize the downtown area. Several old buildings have been restored, including the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater and the Prohibition era Cooley-Neff Warehouse, now operating as Pallet Wine Company, an urban winery. Streets have been realigned, new sidewalks, traffic signals, and bicycle lanes were installed, and two new parking garages have been built. Downtown Medford also received a new library building to replace the historic Medford Carnegie Library and now boasts satellite campuses for both Rogue Community College and Southern Oregon University.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Economic problems in 2008 and 2009 put a hold on "The Commons" project, a collaboration between the city of Medford and Lithia Motors. The project, one of the largest undertaken in downtown in recent years, aims to provide more parking, recreation, and commerce to the area. Before the work stopped, the Greyhound Bus depot was moved and $850,000 was spent replacing water lines. The Commons is anchored by the new corporate headquarters of Lithia Motors, Inc. (NYSE: LAD). Included in The Commons are two public park blocks slated to be informal public gathering areas as well as an area for special events such as the farmer's market. Ground breaking for the project was April 22, 2011, with a Phase 1 completion date of 2012.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Medford is located approximately north of the northern California border at 42.3°N. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which, is land and is water. The Pacific Ocean is about west of the city, and is the nearest coast. The nearest river is the Rogue River (), and the nearest lake is Agate Lake ().


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Nearby cities include Grants Pass, Klamath Falls, Ashland, Roseburg, Redding (California), and Crescent City (California). Medford is from Salem, the capital of Oregon.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: The nearest interstate highway is I-5, which runs northwest–southeast through the center of the city. The nearest junctions with other interstate highways are with I-84 in Portland () and I-80 in Sacramento (). Medford also serves as a junction for Oregon Routes 99, 238, 62, and nearby 140 ().


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Medford is also situated in the remains of ancient volcanic flow areas as demonstrated by the Upper and Lower Table Rock lava formations and nearby Mount McLoughlin and Crater Lake, which is the remains of Mount Mazama. In the late spring/early summer the snow on the slopes of Mount McLoughlin melt away into a formation called the "angel wings," which Native American tribes interpreted as an osprey, an indicator of the beginning of salmon run.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Medford sits in a rain shadow between the Cascade Range and Siskiyou Mountains called the Rogue Valley. As such, most of the rain associated with the Pacific Northwest and Oregon in particular skips Medford, making it drier and sunnier than the Willamette Valley. Medford's climate is considerably warmer, both in summer and winter, than its latitude would suggest, with a Mediterranean climate (Köppen "Csa"). Summers are akin to Eastern Oregon, and winters resemble the coast. Here, summer sees an average of 57 afternoons over and eleven afternoons over . In August 1981, the high temperature reached over for four consecutive days, with two days reaching . Freezing temperatures occur on 69 mornings during an average year, and in some years there may be a day or two where the high stays at or below freezing; the average window for freezing temperatures is October 23 through April 23. The city is located in USDA hardiness zone 8. Medford also experiences temperature inversions in the winter which during its lumber mill days produced fog so thick that visibility could be reduced to less than five feet. These inversions can last for weeks; some suggest this is because the metropolitan area has one of the lowest average wind speeds of all American metropolitan areas. The heavy fog returns nearly every winter with the inversions lowering air quality for several months without relief.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Medford residents do experience snowfall during the winter months; however, due to the weather shadow effect it only averages and melts fairly quickly. In the past, the city has seen seasonal snowfall totals reach in 1955–1956. That season was also the wettest "rain year" with a total of ; this immediately followed the driest "rain year" since records started in 1911 from July 1954 to June 1955 when only was recorded. By far the wettest month has been December 1964 with ; no other month has had more than . The wettest day on record has been December 2, 1962 with .


title: Medford, Oregon

text: The lowest recorded temperature in Medford was on December 13, 1919, and the highest recorded temperature was on July 20, 1946, and June 28, 2021. There is significantly more diurnal temperature variation in summer than in winter, with the difference between December high and low average temperatures being only , but the difference between August high and low average temperatures is .


title: Medford, Oregon

text: The Census Bureau estimate for 2016 calculated an 8.9% growth in Medford since 2010 with 81,636 people in 29,751 households.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Through 2015, the Census Bureau estimates that there were 7,427 veterans and 7.3% foreign-born persons. Among persons aged 25 or more, 86.4% had a high school degree or higher and 23.7% had a bachelor's degree or higher. Of people 16 or older, 61% of people held employment, and the median income was $41,931 (in 2015 dollars).


title: Medford, Oregon

text: As of the census of 2010, there were 74,907 people, 30,079 households, and 19,072 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 32,430 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 86.0% White,1.5% Asian, 1.2% Native American, 0.9% African American, 0.5% Pacific Islander, 6.0% from other races, and 3.9% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 13.8% of the population.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: There were 30,079 households, of which 31.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.1% were married couples living together, 13.1% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.3% had a male householder with no wife present, and 36.6% were non-families. 28.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 2.98.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: The median age in the city was 37.9 years. 24.1% of residents were under the age of 18; 9% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 25.4% were from 25 to 44; 25.3% were from 45 to 64; and 16.2% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 48.4% male and 51.6% female.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Medford's economy is driven primarily by the health care industry. The two major medical centers in the city, Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center and Providence Medford Medical Center, employ over 2,000 people. As Medford is also a retirement destination, assisted living and senior services have become an important part of the economy.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: In the past, Medford's economy was fueled by agriculture (pears, peaches, viticulture grapes) and timber products. The largest direct marketer of fruits and food gifts in the United States, Harry and David Operations Corp., is based in Medford. It is the largest employer in Southern Oregon, with 1,700 year round and about 6,700 seasonal employees in the Medford area. The recreational legalization of OR marijuana in 2012 has been a special boon for area agriculture. Of the more than two million pounds of marijuana grown in the state each year, $2 million a month is sold from Medford area retailers. Lithia Motors, a Fortune 500 company and the 4th largest auto retailer in the U.S., has been headquartered in Medford since 1970 and was started in Ashland in 1946, named for a nearby springs.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Other companies located in the city include Benchmark Maps, Falcon Northwest, Pacific International Enterprises, and Tucker Sno-Cat. Medford and the surrounding area is home to the expanding Oregon wine industry, which includes the Rogue Valley AVA.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: The city's historic downtown has undergone an economic recovery in recent years, using a combination of public funds and private investment. The revitalization effort led to the renovation of underutilized downtown properties and to the construction of a new Lithia Motors headquarters building in the district, completed in 2012.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Hospitality company The Neuman Hotel Group, based in nearby Ashland, OR, took over management and ownership of a large downtown motel, The Red Lion, in 2014, that had fallen into disrepair. Neuman Hotel Group renovated the property and renamed it Inn At the Commons.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Medford has a council-manager style of government. The governing body of Medford consists of an elected mayor and eight city council members, two from each of four wards. The council hires a professional city manager to run the day-to-day operations of the city including the hiring of city staff.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: The current mayor of Medford is Randy Sparacino. He was elected in November 2020. The longest serving mayor was Gary Hale Wheeler. He was first elected mayor in November 2004 with 16,653 of 28,195 votes (59%), reelected in 2008 with 21,651 of 22,211 votes (97.5%), reelected again in 2012 with about 97 percent of the votes, and reelected again in 2016 with about 56 percent of the votes for a term ending in December 2020.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Wheeler is an optometrist with an office in Medford. Prior to his election, he spent thirteen years on the Medford Urban Renewal Agency Board and served in the US Army where he also practiced optometry.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Medford municipal code divides the city into four wards, each represented by two city council members. Every biennium, one member from each ward is elected to serve a four-year term, creating an overlap where half of the eight-member council remains in office while the other half must campaign for reelection.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: The city manager position is held by Brian Sjothun, the former Medford Parks and Recreation Director.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: The oldest park in Medford, Alba Park is located at the intersection of Holly and Main in downtown Medford was deeded to the city by the railroad company in 1888. Known as "Library Park" after the 1911 construction of the Medford Carnegie Library, it was later renamed for Medford's sister city, Alba, Italy. The park contains a gazebo, a statue of a boy with two dogs surrounded by a fountain pool, and a Japanese gun from World War II.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: The annual Pear Blossom Run ends across the street from Alba Park at the Medford city hall, with an all-day fair conducted in the park itself.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Medford is the birthplace of Bear Creek Corporation, known around the world for its fruit-laden gift baskets, especially locally grown pears. Tours of the plant are open to the public.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: At nearly , this south Medford park is the second largest in the city (Prescott Park is the largest at 1,740 acres). Bear Creek Park is bordered on the west by Bear Creek and the Bear Creek Greenway. On the park grounds are four tennis courts, a skatepark, a dog park, an amphitheater, a large playground, a BMX track, and a community garden.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Since 1925, the property hosting Bear Creek Park has been used for several purposes. The first section was purchased from a resident of Medford named Mollie Keene. The town used it for incinerating garbage until 1939. After that, it spent 20 years as a girl scout day camp before seeing private ownership again for a few years. Concerns about pollution in the Bear Creek received media attention in 1963 and the city purchased more property. In 1988, a playground designed by Robert Leathers of New York was built.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: The Commons is a public park built in the city's historic downtown district adjacent to the Lithia Motors headquarters building. It has been used as a venue for community activities. It was completed in 2012.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: The cemetery, established in 1890, lies on just north of Bear Creek Park. The Parks and Recreation Department offers free tours of the cemetery.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: The Claire Hanley Arboretum was first planted in 1962 by Claire and Mary Hanley, two sisters raised on the historic "Michael Hanley Farmstead" along present-day Oregon Route 238. It is part of a larger agriculture research center belonging to the Oregon State University. Located on the grounds are species of the dogwood "cornus mas", the dove tree, and the Sorrel tree.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: The Medford Carnegie Library is a two-story library building located in downtown Medford. It was erected in 1911 thanks to a gift from Andrew Carnegie, but was vacated in 2004 after a new library building was constructed near the Rogue Community College extension campus, also in downtown Medford. Currently, there are plans to use the building for class reunions, public meetings, and for annexing some city offices from the neighboring City Hall building.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: One of Medford's most prominent landmarks, Roxy Ann Peak is a 30-million-year-old mountain located on the east side of the city. Its summit is above sea level. It was named for Roxy Ann Bowen, an early settler who lived in its foothills.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: A significant area of Roxy Ann Peak (including the summit) is enclosed in Medford's largest park, a protected area called Prescott Park. The land was set aside in the 1930s and named in honor of George J. Prescott, a police officer killed in the line of duty in 1933.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: The most commonly used trail on Roxy Ann Peak, part of Prescott Park, climbs about from the beginning of the footpath at the second gate to a height of about . The trail is about one-way, and provides a panoramic view of the Rogue Valley.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Finished in 1997 at the intersection of E. Main St and Central Ave in downtown Medford, Vogel Plaza has quickly become a center of activity for many local events. One such event is the annual Art in Bloom festival, which is held around Mother's Day each year. During the two-day festival, over 10,000 people attend and more than 75 artists showcase their work while surrounded by live entertainment, workshops, food, and children's activities.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Medford is served by Medford School District 549C and has two main high schools and an alternative high school: South Medford High School, North Medford High School, and Central Medford High School, respectively. In addition to the two public high schools, Medford has several private high schools. Two of the largest are St. Mary's School and Cascade Christian High School. In addition, there are 14 public elementary schools and two public middle schools, (Hedrick and McLoughlin). Medford 549C has over 13,000 students enrolled .


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Crossroads School is a private, alternative high school operating in Medford along with three others operated or affiliated with a church; Cascade Christian High School, St. Mary's High School, and Rogue Valley Adventist School. Grace Christian and Sacred Heart School are private elementary and middle schools in Medford.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: In 1997, Grants Pass-based Rogue Community College (RCC) completed construction on a seven-building campus spanning five blocks in downtown Medford. Nearby Ashland-based Southern Oregon University collaborated with Rogue in 2007 on the construction of an eighth building which will offer third- and fourth-year courses to students. Pacific Bible College, formerly named Dove Bible Institute, was founded in Medford in 1989.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: The Federal Bureau of Investigation publication "Crime in the United States" provides unranked statistical data from law enforcement agencies across the United States. The table to the right are statistics reported for the city of Medford for the years 2004 through 2007. The FBI data for 2017 ranks Medford as the most dangerous city in Oregon.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: As with any city that experiences rapid growth, Medford has seen a recent surge in gang activity and organized crime in the past decade.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Methamphetamine use is a problem in Medford and southern Oregon and is believed to play a role in numerous property crimes, including identity theft.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: The Medford Police Department has 103 sworn police officers supported by a staff of 33 civilian employees and 30 volunteers.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: The principal newspaper of Medford and Jackson County is the "Mail Tribune", which is owned by Rosebud Media. It began circulation in 1909 after a merger between the Medford-based "Mail" and the Ashland-based "Tribune". , an average of 37,000 copies of the "Mail Tribune" are in circulation each day.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: In addition to having several athletes who were famous natives or residents of the city, Medford played host to several professional sports teams since 1948. It was the home city for several professional baseball teams, most notably the Medford A's, later known as the Southern Oregon Timberjacks, of the Northwest League. They were a short-season single-A minor league baseball affiliate of the Oakland Athletics who played at historic Miles Field from 1979 to 1999 before relocating to Vancouver, British Columbia.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Medford also hosted a professional indoor football team from the National Indoor Football League known as the Southern Oregon Heat in 2001. They played in the Compton Arena at the Jackson County Expo Park.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Medford's Lava Lanes bowling alley previously hosted the PBA's Medford Open every January, which aired on ESPN, the last Open took place in 2009.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Medford is the home of a Junior A hockey team, the Southern Oregon Spartans, who plays their home games at The RRRink in south Medford.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Medford is host to the Medford Rogues, a collegiate wood bat baseball team, who plays their home games at Harry and David Field


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Each year, Medford hosts the Rogue Memorial Challenge on Memorial Day Weekend. This event is primarily based at US Cellular Community Sports Park, however uses fields across the city throughout the tournament.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Medford is home to Oregon's 3rd busiest airport, the Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport (airport code MFR). Over 1 million passengers use the airport annually, Medford airport has two asphalt runways which handle about sixty daily flights from five airlines. Medford's Airlines are Alaska Airlines (operated by Horizon Air), United Express, Delta Connection, United, American Airlines, and Allegiant Airlines.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: The greater Medford metro area has been served by Rogue Valley Transportation District (RVTD) since 1975. The bus system operates eight routes from Monday to Saturday, four of which travel to nearby cities Central Point, Jacksonville, Phoenix, Talent, Ashland, and White City. All routes connect at the Front Street Transfer Station, which since October 2008 has contained Medford's Greyhound Bus depot.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: There are no passenger trains that route through Medford. Amtrak trains serve nearby Klamath Falls. People in Medford can board the Southwest POINT Klamath Shuttle Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach (an intercity bus route) at the RVTD Front Street Transfer Station for a two and a half hour ride and guaranteed connection with Amtrak's "Coast Starlight" train at the Klamath Falls Amtrak Passenger Rail Station. The last direct service was provided by the Southern Pacific Railroad to Portland, ending in 1956.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: The nearby Rogue River was monitored for flooding at the former "Gold Ray Dam" site, a decommissioned and now removed hydroelectric dam built in 1906 near Gold Hill. The National Weather Service identifies as the flood level. At this depth, navigability between the Pacific Ocean and the Rogue Valley is limited. Even a small "handysize" freighter is unable to make the trip, and any ship hauling cargo to Medford would have to have a much smaller draw. Therefore, Medford does not have a nearby maritime port.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Shortly after the sister city program was established in 1960, Medford was paired up with Alba, Piedmont, Italy. The cities are apart and were paired based on 1960 similarities in population, geography, and climate.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: Every other year, both Alba and Medford take turns exchanging students. During March and April of one year, students from Medford's high schools will visit Alba and stay with host families. Likewise, Alba students will visit Medford every other year. Sixty-seven Medford students applied for the 2007 trip to Italy, but only 24 were selected.


title: Medford, Oregon

text: It was former mayor of Medford John W. Snider who selected Alba during his 1957–1962 term, making a satellite phone call to Alba's former mayor Osvaldo Cagnasso.


title: Line of Duty (film)

text: Line of Duty is a 2019 American action thriller film directed by Steven C. Miller and written by Jeremy Drysdale. It stars Aaron Eckhart, Courtney Eaton, Dina Meyer, Ben McKenzie and Giancarlo Esposito.


title: Line of Duty (film)

text: Frank Penny (Aaron Eckhart) is a disgraced cop looking for redemption. When the police chief's 11-year-old daughter is abducted, Frank goes rogue to try and save her. But to find the girl, Frank will need the help of Ava Brooks (Courtney Eaton), whose live-streaming news channel is broadcasting Frank's every move. While a city watches, Frank and Ava race against time and not only do they have to face every daring obstacle but also the abductor's brother who's out for revenge.


title: Line of Duty (film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 50 out of 100, based on reviews from 5 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Line of Duty (film)

text: Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "Fortunately, the new actioner directed by the prolific Steven C. Miller […] proves fast-paced enough to overcome its more ludicrous plot elements."


title: Honda Legend

text: The Honda Legend is a series of V6-engined executive cars/mid-size luxury sedans produced by Honda since 1985 which currently serves as its flagship vehicle. It is larger than the Honda Accord. It also provided the basis for the Acura Legend, RL and RLX — the successive flagship vehicles of Honda's luxury Acura division in North America from 1986 until 2020.


title: Honda Legend

text: The first-generation Legend, introduced to Japan on October 22, 1985, was the first production Honda vehicle to offer only a SOHC V6 engine worldwide. The introduction of the Legend also coincided with the launch of a new dealership sales channel in Japan, called "Honda Clio". The Legend was the result of a joint venture with Britain's Austin Rover Group called Project XX that started in November 1981 with the Austin Rover-Honda XX letter of intent signed by the two companies to replace the Rover SD1 and to provide a luxury vehicle for Honda, and was codenamed as HX. The Rover Company had a long established reputation as a luxury car maker in the United Kingdom and Europe, demonstrated with the Rover P5 and Rover P6, and Honda wanted to introduce a luxury car for the Japanese, European and North American markets. Rover also wanted to return to the American market when previously they had reportedly sold only 1,500 cars in 1971, and a brief return in 1980, selling 800 Rover SD1s by offering the Sterling which was also a result of the ARG-Honda partnership. The development work was carried out at Rover's Canley, Coventry plant and Honda's Tochigi Prefecture development centre. Design work concluded on the Legend in 1982, with a design patent being filed on September 27, 1982, at the Japan Patent Office under application number 1982-043493 and registered on September 19, 1984, under patent number 0640105.


title: Honda Legend

text: Honda and British Leyland/Rover agreed that Legends would be built at Cowley for the British market. However, few UK built Legends passed Honda's quality control standards, and many simply ended up being used as in-plant transport. In the end, only 4,409 Legends were built in the UK, from 1986 until 1988. All US-market Legends were built in Japan.


title: Honda Legend

text: Honda wanted to expand its model range above the Honda Accord, and offer a premium level sedan that would appeal to wealthy middle-aged customers who were the traditional buyers of the Toyota Crown, Mazda Luce and Nissan Cedric/Gloria. In 1981, Honda had introduced a luxury level version of the Accord, called the Honda Vigor, but realized that they needed to manufacture a larger, more exclusive sedan with similar dimensions to the Crown, Luce, Cedric and Gloria. When the Legend was introduced worldwide, the optional equipment list was minimal as commonly identified equipment regarded as luxury in nature was included as standard equipment, leaving the only option the choice between a manual or automatic transmission.


title: Honda Legend

text: The major mechanical difference between the Legend and the Toyota, Mazda and Nissan sedans was that the Legend was front-wheel drive, which Honda stated was "quite simply the most logical means to the ends the engineers desired: a true luxury car with a low, aerodynamic hood; a spacious interior with a nearly flat floor, and the superior traction that results from placing the engine and drivetrain transversely over the drive wheels." This provided the Legend with a front-end heavy 63/37 front to rear weight distribution ratio, similar to the NSU Ro 80. The ride was engineered to appeal towards the luxury car market and not necessarily towards the performance market, and the front to rear weight distribution ratio reflected this goal. Efforts to minimize torque steer were achieved by the half shafts and the angles of the joints at the ends of those shafts being equalized, helping the Legend to accelerate in a straight line.


title: Honda Legend

text: The Japanese-spec Legend was offered in three trim levels; the V6Xi with the 2.5 L C25A V6 engine, with the slightly shorter and narrower V6Gi and V6Zi using the 2.0 L C20A V6. The V6Gi had the same level of equipment and luxury features as the V6Xi, whereas the V6Zi had reduced content and a lower price. The V6 engines were available with electronic, multi-port sequential fuel injection Honda called Programmed Fuel Injection, or PGM-FI and a variable length intake manifold on the smaller 2.0 L V6. The larger 2.5 L engine was upgraded to the C27A 2.7 L displacement for model year 1988 and added the variable length intake manifold as a major engine improvement. The engine benefited from Honda's successes with its endeavors in Formula One racing in 1964, and Honda's F1 racing car, the Honda RA271. Transmission selections were either a four-speed automatic transaxle with a computer controlled lockup torque converter, or a five-speed manual transaxle.


title: Honda Legend

text: In order for the sedan to comply with Japanese vehicle size requirements and reduced tax liability, the car with the 2.0 L V6 was slightly shorter and narrower for Japanese buyers by reducing the extension of the front and rear bumper covers, and reducing the overall width to . This also offered an alternative to the traditional Crown and Cedric/Gloria customer base due to the sedan being in the smaller size classification and reduced tax liability but with a comparable level of luxury equipment found in the larger cars, and the same amount of interior space due to the front-wheel drive powertrain, with a wheelbase advantage of over the Cedric/Gloria and Crown. To address the issue of durability, the Legend was manufactured as a pillared sedan instead of a four-door hardtop, a body style still offered at the time by Toyota and Nissan on the Crown and Cedric/Gloria. The slightly smaller body style also allowed the Legend to compete with the upscale Toyota Cresta and Chaser and the Nissan Laurel.


title: Honda Legend

text: The Legend offered many Honda "firsts", such as a driver side airbag, vehicle speed sensitive power assist rack and pinon steering, anti-lock brakes, seat belt pre-tensioners with Emergency Locking Retractors (called E.L.R.), a choice of 100% wool or cloth moquette upholstery, and "TCS" Traction control, the first car to use traction control on a front-wheel drive vehicle. Attention was given to make sure the Legend was quiet, so Honda used computer simulation using NASTRAN, a stress analysis program created by NASA, helping the car achieve a drag coefficient of 0.32 and an interior noise level of 63 dB (measured while the vehicle was travelling at using a manual transmission in 5th gear), and by using triple seals around the tops of door openings.


title: Honda Legend

text: The Legend was introduced with a double wishbone suspension for the front wheels, and a modified Chapman strut with trailing arm rear suspension Honda called "RF (Reduced Friction) Strut Rear Suspension" with progressive rate rear coil springs that stiffen as they compress to combine smooth ride and good handling. The rear coil spring was separate from the strut and positioned so that vertical pressure was supported by the lower control arm. The term Reduced Friction referred to the minimizing of forces that create friction in the shock absorbers, providing more efficient damping for the full suspension stroke. The rear suspension was upgraded to double wishbone starting with the 1988 model year worldwide.


title: Honda Legend

text: Notable owners of the first generation Legend were Soichiro Honda the founder of Honda, Satoru Nakajima, Tyrrell Racing F1 driver in 1990, and Ayrton Senna. The Legend V6Xi was used as the pace car for the Suzuka Circuit for 1986.


title: Honda Legend

text: In October 1988, Honda upgraded the C20A V6 engine used exclusively in the KA5 series Legend with a variable geometry turbocharger, calling it the "Wing Turbo" in a Japanese TV commercial to address the modest power available from the previous engine with variable length intake manifold used in earlier models. The turbocharger compressor housing had four vanes made from heat resistant Inconel alloy surrounding the turbine wheel (on the inlet side of it) that would fluctuate based on engine load and transmission gearing above 2,000 rpm to allow for increased airflow into the engine as needed. The turbo compressor could generate as much as of boost, and was paired with a water cooled intercooler installed inside the intake plenum between the cylinder banks to produce net at 6000 rpm and a maximum torque of at 3,500 rpm. The turbo was installed not necessarily to make the engine more powerful, but rather to increase fuel efficiency and reduce emissions, as the Japanese pay a tax on the amount of emissions the car produces.


title: Honda Legend

text: According to an excerpt of "Automotive Engineering" in January 1989, "The movable wings are positive pressure- and vacuum-operated, their angle changes are controlled by an eight-bit 36-kilobyte computer that also manages fuel injection. Positive pressure to the wing actuator is supplied by the turbo's supercharge pressure, controlled by a frequency solenoid valve, and negative pressure is generated by intake vacuum and accumulated in a reservoir which is also solenoid controlled. The CPU is fed signals including boost pressure, intake temperature, coolant temperature, throttle opening, engine rpm, and vehicle speed. The Wing Turbo is not fitted with a conventional wastegate.


title: Honda Legend

text: On idling and steady-state cruising that do not require supercharging, the movable flags—or wings—which are fully opened, allow exhaust gas to enter the enlarged nozzle area and pass through the turbine smoothly with little resistance. At the beginning of full acceleration, the wings close fully, reducing the nozzle area through which accelerated gas enters and strikes the turbine blades forcefully, gaining boost quickly. When maximum boost is obtained, the movable wings begin to close gradually, until the vehicle reaches a desired cruising velocity whereby the wings open fully. The nozzle area varies continuously according to operating and load conditions."


title: Honda Legend

text: The turbo was installed just above the automatic transmission unit; a manual transmission was not offered. This engine was only offered in Japan using the more compact sedan body style, labeled as "2.0 Ti Exclusive" and "2.0 Ti". The engine was used for just two years, due to the introduction of the second generation Legend in 1990 with the much larger C32A V6, and as such Wing Turbo sedans are extremely rare. Much of the research on this engine contributed to the VTEC C30A V6 engine used in the 1990 Honda NSX. The Legend Turbo can be identified as by a "TURBO" badge attached to the front grille on the bottom right hand side and a "V6Ti" rear badge.


title: Honda Legend

text: The Honda Legend was introduced for the 1987 model year and was virtually identical in equipment offered and vehicle dimensions to the North American model, with one trim designation called the V6-2.5i. This means very few options were available other than the choice of transmission, and an air conditioning system identical to the North American version. The Europeans were offered an optional "Special Equipment Pack" that offered cruise control, aluminium alloy wheels, a driver's seat with power lumbar support, height, fore/aft and reclining adjusters, adjustable rear headrests, a 4-speaker stereo system provided by Philips and headlight wipers. Front and rear mud flaps were standard in undisclosed countries but not all. The radio volume control rocker switch and preset radio scan button installed on the instrument binnacle was not offered.


title: Honda Legend

text: The Legend Coupe was introduced February 6, 1987, with a larger displacement 2.7-liter V6 engine featuring a variable intake system for increased torque and a rear double wishbone suspension which wasn't available on the sedan until 1989 model year. Incidentally, the Japanese coupe was both longer and wider, which increased its tax liability, yet it had a shorter wheelbase by .


title: Honda Legend

text: Starting with the introduction of model year 1988, the trim level "Exclusive" was introduced, offering genuine wood trim provided by Tendo Mokko on the dashboard and center console with a very large selection of available wood type and hues to choose from, automatic headlights, headlight washer/wipers, separate rear passenger climate control, and chrome-plated power folding mirrors and door handles with infrared remote keyless entry. October 14, 1988 saw a minor restyle offered for the interior and dashboard, to provide a more luxurious appearance in comparison to the Nissan and Toyota uplevel sedans the Legend was competing with. Due to the success Honda had with the Legend, it served as an inspiration for many vehicles from multiple manufacturers, including the Subaru Legacy with which it shares many visual resemblances and dimensions both inside and out.


title: Honda Legend

text: The second generation model was introduced on October 24, 1990, and continued to offer both a sedan and coupé. The Rover 800 was not updated to the new platform, and instead continued with the old XX platform. In Japan, this Legend was also known as the "Super Legend" due to the much larger 3.2 C32A engine, which was now the only engine offered in the Legend. The Type I engine was rated at , and the Type II was rated at and included with the touring system. This Legend benefited from much of the research and testing done for Honda's new mid-engined high performance sports car, the Honda NSX, and the Legend was used as a test platform for new NSX technologies and research. Honda introduced a passenger side airbag on this model, and used off-set collision testing to improve collision performance and safety.


title: Honda Legend

text: Trim level designations were changed to "Alpha" for the top level vehicle, and "Beta" for the lower grade. No other trim levels were offered. The "Alpha" was very well equipped, offering ABS, leather or 100% wool moquette upholstery, projector beam headlights, and dual-zone air conditioning.


title: Honda Legend

text: The customer base served by the slightly smaller first generation Legend was now offered the completely revised CB5 series Honda Vigor and Honda Inspire sold at different Japanese Honda retail sales locations "Honda Clio" and "Honda Verno". The business practice of offering the previous generation Legend in two sizes so that it could comply with Japanese dimension and engine displacement regulations was ceded to the Inspire and Vigor, where both vehicles were offered in two versions so as to comply with the regulations, and offer Japanese buyers with more choices. The installation of the larger 3.2-litre engine obligated Japanese buyers for higher amounts of annual road tax over the smaller engines in the previous generation.


title: Honda Legend

text: The Japanese Domestic Market version of the 1990 Legend (second generation) was the second vehicle offered with a navigation system called the Electro Gyrocator (first being the 1981 Honda Accord and Vigor), although it was not satellite-based and instead relied on a gas gyroscope (Inertial navigation system). September 29, 1992 saw an upgrade to the "Alpha" trim level, called the Touring Series, which added the Honda Progressive Damper suspension system, and included upgraded calipers for the front and rear disc brakes, and increased the wheel size to 16 inches. A Luxman premium sound system was added to the options list. The prefectural police department of Aomori used "Beta" sedans with the Type II engine for traffic monitoring.


title: Honda Legend

text: The second-generation Legend was also manufactured by Daewoo in South Korea from 1994 to 1999 under the name of Daewoo Arcadia ( ), for the Korean market, replacing the Daewoo Imperial.


title: Honda Legend

text: It was named for the region in Greece called Arcadia, a region regarded in Greek mythology as a utopian garden.


title: Honda Legend

text: During this period, Honda had a loose alliance with Daewoo, and the Arcadia was larger than Hyundai Grandeur and Kia Potentia competitors. Daewoo Motors (GM Korea's predecessor) sold more than 800 vehicles. The Arcadia was essentially the base level Legend. At the time of the Arcadia's introduction, it had a large engine for a car in Korea, with a 220-horsepower V6 3.2 C32A, and the starting price was a high 41.9 million won. ABS, dual airbags, safety belt pre-tensioners, and the most advanced car safety features at the time, commensurate with a focus on protecting the passengers. Some of the features included driver's seat position memory function and front heated seats, push-button door opening and closing devices, automatic climate control air conditioning. After the acquisition of SsangYong by Daewoo, Daewoo cars entered with the Daewoo Chairman and remaining stock of Arcadia sedans were reduced in price, with the Arcadia ending production in December of that year.


title: Honda Legend

text: The third generation Legend appeared on October 26, 1995, continuing the Honda tradition of front-wheel drive, and increasing the engine displacement to 3.5 L with the horsepower remaining at . The actual Honda internal platform code for this vehicle is E-KA9.


title: Honda Legend

text: In an attempt by Honda to dispute the call for the Legend to be offered with a V8 to be considered an international premium level luxury car, this generation had a wheelbase that compared to the Infiniti Q45 at with a length at , and the Lexus LS at wheelbase and length. The Legend also had very similar dimensions to the front-wheel drive, V8 sedan Mitsubishi Proudia which was sold only in Japan. In Japan, the Legend continued to compete with the Toyota Crown, the Mitsubishi Debonair, the Mazda Luce, and the Nissan Cedric and Gloria at the executive sedan segment.


title: Honda Legend

text: The trim level "Exclusive" returned as the upper level car, with the standard grade vehicle known as "Euro", with the more performance tuned suspension.The wood trim used was more upscale for the "Exclusive" vehicle with a lower grade wood used on the "Euro". Both vehicles were very well equipped. The instruments used were simplified from previous versions, but 100% wool moquette upholstery was still offered, along with optional leather. Honda's internet-based navigation system Internavi was introduced with this generation on Japanese domestic vehicles. The Luxman premium sound system was still available. The styling was said to more closely resemble the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and a transponder key security system was offered. Starting with this generation, cabin air filters (also known as pollen filters) were installed as standard equipment and are located behind the glove compartment internationally.


title: Honda Legend

text: September 21, 1998 saw a minor styling change, with the front grille cutting into the front bumper, providing a more prominent front grille. Emphasis was increased on providing a luxurious sense of style, both inside and out. Side impact airbags now complemented the dual front airbags as standard equipment. The steering wheel can be automatically adjusted based on the position of the driver's seat, thereby optimizing a safe distance between the driver and the airbag installed in the steering wheel.


title: Honda Legend

text: September 24, 1999 saw the engine meet emission regulations to comply with California LEV requirements.


title: Honda Legend

text: June 19, 2003 saw the interior updated, and maple wood was offered for interior decoration. Electro-luminescent instruments were offered, as well as a higher grade of leather interior.


title: Honda Legend

text: The third-generation model was offered as a sedan only. A mid-term facelift came in 1999. The Legend went on sale in Australia starting with the 1997 model year.


title: Honda Legend

text: In the U.S. market, when the Legend coupe was discontinued, they were offered the Acura CL two-door coupé that was based on the American market Honda Accord coupé, so as to continue offering a premium vehicle in this niche.


title: Honda Legend

text: The swoopier, shorter fourth-generation Honda Legend was launched on October 7, 2004, and became Japan's Car of the Year for 2004–2005, marking the fourth time in five years that Honda has taken the award. Its reduced dimensions over the third generation model seem to suggest a return to what made the Legend so popular with the first generation, being a top level sedan that offered something different from its competitors. The 2011 model marks the 25th anniversary of Honda Legend production.


title: Honda Legend

text: In an attempt to address market driven requests that the Legend needed to be a rear-wheel drive sedan with a V8 engine, Honda introduced four-wheel drive technology on the Legend, called "Super Handling All-Wheel Drive" (SH-AWD), which earned Honda the Japan Car of the Year, and Mosuto 2005 Annual RJC technology of the Year award. This generation Legend is only available with the Super Handling All-Wheel Drive powertrain. Due to continuous product improvement efforts over past generations, the series CP3 North American Honda Accord (Honda Inspire in some markets) shares wheelbase, length, width and engine displacement almost exactly with this generation Legend, with a reduced price in many international markets. The Legend does have a higher level of standard features and optional equipment but not by much.


title: Honda Legend

text: Select-Shift was introduced on the 5-speed automatic transmission. The newly designed J35A 3.5 L V6 was changed from a 90 degree "V", in use since the first 1986 C25A V6 engine, to a 60 degree, and added VTEC to improve efficiency (M-TEC was added by the MUGEN division, called the "M1 package"). In a move echoing the many "firsts" introduced by the first generation Legend, the horsepower no longer complied with the self-imposed horsepower restrictions of the Japanese auto industry. The engine is capable of .


title: Honda Legend

text: Perhaps to accommodate the all-wheel drive setup, the engine was reoriented from a longitudinal installation used since 1990, to a transverse installation, which was the original orientation of the first generation model. Honda began to expand the Acura division into Mexico, Hong Kong and China. Plans to introduce the Acura brand in Japan haven't been formally announced, relying on speculation. This generation Legend shares large sedan duties with the Honda Inspire, known in North America as the Honda Accord starting with model year 2003 (series UC1) and continuing with the series CP3 sedan. September 15, 2005 saw a mild body restyle, which included a rear backup camera. The Akita and Kumamoto Prefectures adopted this Legend as the official car for local senior government officials.


title: Honda Legend

text: In the UK, the Legend is only offered in one trim, the EX. Buyers can also chose to pay extra for the ADAS (Advanced Driver Assist System) package. The ADAS package includes Honda's CMBS (Collison Mitigation Braking System), and LKAS (Lane Keeping Assist System).


title: Honda Legend

text: The Legend received a Mid-Model Change (MMC) for the 2009 model year. Among the usual upgrades, the Honda Legend offered some additional optional safety features, including Lane Keeping Assistance System (LKAS). The LKAS could actually make small steering adjustments to keep a car in lane so long as the radius of the turn was more than 220 meters, which was the legal minimum in Japan. The LKAS would relinquish control at the slightest steering input so the driver had control at all times. Intelligent Night Vision with the world's first pedestrian detection feature, and a standard pop-up hood for pedestrian safety.


title: Honda Legend

text: The night vision system uses a separate heads up type display projected on the center bottom of the windshield. The infrared cameras do not require a light source, and the software is able to detect human like figures, surround the image with a red box and give audible caution tones. The pop-up hood uses a series of sensors that can detect a pedestrian-like object being thrown onto the hood. An actuator will pop the hood up at the rear, close to the base of the windshield, 10 cm (4 inches) to help minimize pedestrian injuries, especially head trauma. All markets feature energy absorbing hood and fender supports and deformable windshield wiper pivots to minimize pedestrian injury. Honda's internet-based navigation system Internavi is standard equipment on Japanese domestic vehicles.


title: Honda Legend

text: In October 2010, it is reported that Brake Defect from Honda Legend were delivered to customers before the problem is discovered. Honda says that it doesn't know how many of its vehicles have suffered a faulty brake system. The U.S. Honda outfit says it will replace the faulty seal and, if leaking has occurred, the brake booster will be replaced as well. At least some owners in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries are likely affected. Honda told that no stop-sale is issued.


title: Honda Legend

text: In June 2012, Honda Japan announced the Legend and Inspire were to stop being produced at the Sayama, Saitama, Japan plant.


title: Honda Legend

text: The second-generation 2005 Acura RL appeared on "Car and Driver"s Ten Best list for 2005. The car also garnered a CNET.com "Editor's Choice" Award for Top Tech Car.


title: Honda Legend

text: The SH-AWD all-wheel drive system was lauded by "Popular Science" as one of the best automotive innovations of 2004, and earned the 2005 "Tech Car of the Year" from CNET.com. Subsequent moves by both Audi and BMW to design and market their own versions of torque vectoring all-wheel drive systems bear out the innovative nature of the SH-AWD design.


title: Honda Legend

text: While critically acclaimed, sales have not met expectations. Regarding sales of Japanese luxury flagships during the first six months of 2010, Acura has sold only 872 RLs, compared to 5,650 Lexus LS and 6,602 Infiniti M sedans. Enthusiasts and dealers said that the RL was not competitive because it is smaller, uses front-wheel drive, and lacks a V8 option, compared to its larger rivals in the mid-luxury segment that are rear-wheel drive and have a V8 available.


title: Honda Legend

text: Some have suggested that the initial price of the RL is perceived to be out of its bracket. As the new RL offered more features and performance than the base version of its luxury competitors (i.e., the base six-cylinder BMW 5 Series), Honda Japan suggested that it could charge more, though Honda Canada disagreed. The RL's initial MRSP was $69,500 CAD, more than the six-cylinder BMW 525i and close to that of the V8-powered BMW 545i. At the RL's price point, most consumers expected a V8, furthermore they did not perceive Acura as being on par with its German rivals and expected more value from the Japanese marque. The damage from Honda Japan's alleged hubris was done, perhaps giving the RL an unfavorable impression that could not be removed, even though Honda Canada has since reduced the RL's price. The UK magazine `Car` ran a Honda Legend on its long term fleet and rated the car for its performance, handling and acceleration but felt the styling was too anonymous. In 2009, the new generation of the Acura TL was released and it is expected to offer tough competition to the RL, as the TL has essentially the same engine (but with 5 more horsepower), the SH-AWD system, similar dimensions, and many of the RL's features for only $44,900 CAD.


title: Honda Legend

text: In October 2010, the Acura RL has been named as one of "Consumer Reports" most reliable cars, one of among 5 Honda models (Acura TL with front-wheel drive; Acura RL luxury car; Honda CR-V small SUV; Acura RDX small upscale SUV, and Honda Ridgeline compact pickup truck) named as most reliable in various categories.


title: Honda Legend

text: The fifth generation Legend was unveiled in Japan on November 10, 2014, and went on sale on February 20, 2015, it is near identical to the Acura RLX and only available in Sport Hybrid. The facelifted model was unveiled in Japan on October 2, 2017, and launched at the Tokyo Motor Show on October 27, 2017.


title: Honda Legend

text: The front fascia of the facelifted model is based from the facelifted RLX. It is equipped with HONDA Sensing which now includes Traffic Jam Assist (Congestion Driving Support Function) which support steering, acceleration, braking, and camera/sensor harmony when congested in traffic jams. The length grew to 5,032 mm, making it the longest Honda/Acura sedan to date, with length exceeding 5,000 mm.


title: Honda Legend

text: 2020 will be the final model year for the North American Acura RLX due to low sales, with no direct successor planned. However, the Legend continues to be produced in Japan, and is planned to receive an update by no later than March 2021.


title: Honda Legend

text: On March 5, 2021, Honda began lease sales in Japan of the all-new Legend equipped with "Honda SENSING Elite", which is a variation of Honda SENSING, a suite of advanced safety and driver-assistive technologies currently available for Honda vehicles around the world. One of the “elite” technologies is the “Traffic Jam Pilot” function, an advanced technology qualifying for Level 3 automated driving (conditional automated driving in limited area).


title: Honda Legend

text: In June 2021, it was announced that the Sayama plant that produces the Legend would be closed at the end of 2021 and the current car would not have a successor.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: A Matter of Life and Death is a 1946 British fantasy-romance film set in England during World War II.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: Written, produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the film stars David Niven, Roger Livesey, Raymond Massey, Kim Hunter and Marius Goring. The film was originally released in the United States under the title Stairway to Heaven, which derived from the film's most prominent special effect: a broad escalator linking Earth to the afterlife.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: In 1999, "A Matter of Life and Death" placed 20th on the British Film Institute's list of Best 100 British films. It ranked 90th in The Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time 2012 poll, regarded as the most authoritative in the world, and 78th in 2022.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: On 2 May 1945, Squadron Leader Peter Carter, an RAF pilot, is flying a badly damaged and burning Lancaster bomber over the English Channel, after a mission over Germany. Carter is expecting to die, after ordering his crew to bail out, without revealing to them that his own parachute has been destroyed. The only radio operator receiving him is June, at a USAAF base on the coast of England. For a few minutes Carter converses with June, before jumping from the Lancaster without a parachute.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: Peter should have died at that point, but Conductor 71, the guide sent to escort him to the Other World, misses him in the thick fog over the English Channel. The airman wakes up on a beach near June's base. At first, he assumes he is in the afterlife but, when a de Havilland Mosquito flies low overhead, discovers to his bewilderment that he is still alive.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: Peter meets June cycling back to her quarters after her night shift, and they fall in love. Conductor 71 (a French aristocrat guillotined in the Revolution) stops time to explain the situation, urging Peter to accept his death and accompany him to the Other World, but Peter demands an appeal. While Conductor 71 consults his superiors, Peter continues to live. Conductor 71 returns and informs him that he has been granted his appeal and has three days to prepare his case. He can choose a defence counsel from among all the people who have ever died, but he has difficulty picking one.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: Peter's visions are diagnosed by June's fascinated friend Doctor Reeves as a symptom of a brain injury—chronic adhesive arachnoiditis from a slight concussion two years earlier—and he is scheduled for surgery. Reeves is killed in a motorcycle accident while trying to find the ambulance that is to take Peter to the hospital. Reeves' death allows him to act as Peter's counsel.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: Reeves argues that, through no fault of his own, his client was given additional time on Earth and that, during that time, he has fallen in love and now has an earthly commitment that should take precedence over the afterlife's claim on him. The matter comes to a head—in parallel with Peter's brain surgery—before a celestial court; the camera zooms out from an amphitheatre to reveal that it is as large as a spiral galaxy. The prosecutor is American Abraham Farlan, who hates the British for making him the first casualty of the American Revolutionary War. Reeves challenges the composition of the jury, which is made up of representatives who are prejudiced against the British. In fairness, the jury is replaced by a multicultural mixture of modern Americans whose origins are as varied as those they replace.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: Reeves and Farlan both make comparisons with the other's nationality to support their positions. In the end, Reeves has June take the stand (Conductor 71 makes her fall asleep in the real world so she can testify) and prove that she genuinely loves Peter by telling her that the only way to save his life is to take his place, whereupon she steps onto the stairway to the Other World without hesitation and is carried away, leaving Peter behind. The stairway comes to an abrupt halt and June rushes back to Peter's open arms. As Reeves triumphantly explains, "... nothing is stronger than the law in the universe, but on Earth, nothing is stronger than love."


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: The jury rules in Peter's favour. The Judge shows Reeves and Farlan the new lifespan granted to the defendant; Reeves calls it "very generous", and Farlan jokingly complains, then agrees to it. The two then engage in supportive banter with one another, and against the stern Chief Recorder, who protests against the breach of law. The scene then shifts to the operating room, where the surgeon declares the operation a success.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: Goring was offered the role of the Conductor, but insisted that he wanted to play Peter instead; however, Powell and Pressburger were set on Niven playing the part, and eventually told Goring that the Conductor was his only choice: if he turned it down, they would approach Peter Ustinov to play the part.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: Powell and Pressburger went to Hollywood to cast the role of June with no possible actress in mind except, possibly, Betty Field, who was in a play in New York at the time. The suggestion of Kim Hunter came from Alfred Hitchcock, who had recently used her to read lines from behind the camera for Ingrid Bergman's screen test for "Spellbound". Hunter had stage experience and had been under contract to David O. Selznick for two years. Powell and Pressburger decided that she was right for the part almost immediately on their first meeting, and arranged with Selznick to use her.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: Michael Trubshawe was an old drinking buddy of Niven's and he was given a cameo in this picture by Niven.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: "A Matter of Life and Death" was filmed at D&P Studios and Denham Studios in Denham, Buckinghamshire, England, and on locations in Devon and Surrey. The beach scene was shot at Saunton Sands in Devon, and the village seen in the camera obscura was Shere in Surrey. Production took place from 2 September to 2 December 1945, used 29 sets, and cost an estimated £320,000, equivalent to £ in .


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: "A Matter of Life and Death" had an extensive pre-production period due to the complexity of the production: The huge escalator linking this world with the other, called "Operation Ethel" by the firm of engineers who constructed it under the aegis of the London Passenger Transport Board, took three months to make and cost £3,000, . "Ethel" had 106 steps, each wide, and was driven by a 12 hp engine. The full shot was completed by hanging miniatures. The noise of the machinery prevented recording the soundtrack liveall scenes with the escalator were dubbed in post-production.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: The decision to film the scenes of the Other World in black and white added to the complications. They were filmed in Three-strip Technicolor, but colour was not added during printing, giving a pearly hue to the black-and-white shots, a process cited in the screen credits as "Colour and Dye-Monochrome Processed in Technicolor". This reversed the effect in "The Wizard of Oz". Photographic dissolves between "Technicolor Dye-Monochrome" (the Other World) and Three-Strip Technicolor (Earth) are used several times during the film. There was a nine-month wait for film stock and Technicolor cameras because they were being used by the US Army to make training films. (As Conductor 71 remarks during an early transition, "One is starved for Technicolor up there.")


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: Other sequences also presented challenges, such as the stopped-action table-tennis game for which Hunter and Livesey were trained by champions Alan Brooke and Viktor Barna; the scene where Carter washes up on the beach, the first scene filmed, where cinematographer Jack Cardiff fogged up the camera lens with his breath to create the look he wanted; and the long, 25-minute trial sequence, which required a set with a long by high backcloth.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: "A Matter of Life and Death" was chosen for the first ever Royal Film Performance on 1 November 1946 at the Empire Theatre, in London. The performance was in aid of the Cinematograph Trade Benevolent Fund and £30,000 (£ in pounds) was raised. It then went into general release in the UK on 15 December 1946. The film subsequently had its US release in New York on 25 December 1946 under the name "Stairway to Heaven".


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: According to trade papers, the film was a "notable box office attraction" at British cinemas in 1947.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: Upon its premiere in New York City, Bosley Crowther said "the delicate charm, the adult humor and visual virtuosity of this Michael Powell—Emeric Pressburger film render it indisputably the best of a batch of Christmas shows...[T]he wit and agility of the producers, who also wrote and directed the job, is given range through the picture in countless delightful ways: in the use, for instance, of Technicolor to photograph the earthly scenes and sepia in which to vision the hygienic regions of the Beyond (so that the heavenly 'messenger', descending, is prompted to remark, 'Ah, how one is starved for Technicolor up there!'.)"


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: According to a 2006 book, "A spate of movies appeared just after the ending of the Second World War, including "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) and "Stairway to Heaven" (1946), perhaps tapping into so many people's experience of loss of loved ones and offering a kind of consolation."


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: In December 2017, a digitally restored version was shown in British Cinemas. Kevin Maher, writing in "The Times", said the restoration was "crisp" whilst describing the film as being a "definitive fantasy classic" and also as "essential viewing."


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: According to Powell in his "A Life in Movies", the United States was the only market in which the film's name was changed, except that most European countries used "A "Question" of Life and Death" rather than "A "Matter" of Life and Death". The American title was the idea of Arthur Krim and Robert Benjamin, two lawyers just starting out in the film business, who would be marketing the film in the US, and insisted that no film had ever done well there with the word "death" in the title. When Pressburger countered with the hit film "Death Takes a Holiday", their response was to point out that it succeeded because the very fact that Death was on holiday meant that there would be no death in the film.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: The film's narrative does not clarify whether Carter's visions are real, or hallucinatory. The fact that the same actor plays the celestial judge and the brain surgeon tends to indicate that they are a hallucination. To ensure that Carter's symptoms – including his visions – were consistent with the diagnosis and treatment depicted, the filmmakers read and integrated a significant amount of medical research, according to Diane Broadbent Friedman.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: Interpretations of Carter's visions of the "other world" as supernatural, within the context of the film's narrative, may be supported by elements of the plot. A key question, which is alluded to in the film's dialogue, concerns the unlikelihood of Carter surviving the fall from his aircraft. (Nevertheless, in a small number of historical cases, people have , without suffering serious injury or permanent disability.) Likewise, two scenes set in the other world take place without Carter, namely Trubshawe's arrival, and the prelude to the start of the trial. A third plot device, regarding a borrowed book, also seems to hint that the other world is real. However, these devices could all be explained as retrospective inventions of Carter's mind, while he is unconscious.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: The producers took pains never to refer to "the other world" as Heaven, as they felt that was restrictive. However, in the first minutes of the film, a very young Richard Attenborough appears as a dead airman registering in the "other world" and asking: "It's heaven, isn't it?" This is followed by the "other world" female attendant commenting to Flying Officer Trubshawe that some people might think it would be "heaven to be a clerk". An introductory title screen – repeated as the foreword to the 1946 novelisation by Eric Warman – contains an explicit statement, however: "This is the story of two worlds, the one we know and another which exists only in the mind of a young airman whose life and imagination have been violently shaped by war", but goes on to say "Any resemblance to any other world known or unknown is purely coincidental".


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: The architecture of the other world is noticeably modernist. It features a vast and open plan, with huge circular observation holes, beneath which the clouds of Earth can be seen. This vision was later the inspiration for the design of St.Paul's Bus Station, Walsall in 2000, by architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris. The film's amphitheatre court scene was rendered by BT in a TV advertisement c. 2002 as a metaphor for communication technology, especially the Internet.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: Lining the escalator are large statues (created by Eric Aumonier) of historically prominent men. A list of the names of the statues appears in Michael Powell's handwriting on pages 49 and 50 of the script.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: Many of these have in common a characteristic beyond their prominence in politics, art and philosophy: in 1945 most were believed to have had epilepsy – as did John Bunyan, who is seen in the film serving as the conductor for Dr Reeves.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: The film was originally suggested by a British government department to improve relations between the Americans in the UK and the British public, following Powell and Pressburger's contributions to this sphere in "A Canterbury Tale" two years earlier, though neither film received any government funding nor input on plot or production. There was a degree of public hostility towards American servicemen stationed in the UK prior to the D-Day invasion of Europe. They were viewed by some as latecomers to the war and as "overpaid, oversexed and over here" by a public that had suffered three years of bombing and rationing, with many of their own men fighting abroad. The premise of the film is a simple inversion: the British pilot gets the pretty American woman rather than the other way round, and the only national bigotry – against the British – is voiced by the first American casualty of the Revolutionary War. Raymond Massey, portraying an American, was a Canadian national at the time the film was made, but became a naturalised American citizen afterwards.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: David Niven was a fan of chess. Peter and June play chess while they await Dr Reeves. Then Conductor 71 "borrows" a chess book Peter has accidentally knocked off the table, Alekhine's "My Best Games of Chess". After the trial is won, Conductor 71 throws the book from the stairway; June finds it in his jacket pocket "to serve the 'was it a hallucination or did it really happen?' motif of the film", according to Mig Greengard. He also noted, "Lots of chess in movies past and present, but I can't recall another prominent appearance of a real chess book".


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: Ian Christie wrote, "the chess plot may also be of more significance than at first appears. The Conductor tries to tempt Peter by offering him the opportunity to pit his skill against the great chess masters; and he 'borrows' Alekhine's famous book, only to return it in an extraordinary transitional shot which introduces the final sequence of Peter waking up in hospital. As a token of Peter's life, the book tumbles from one photographic world to another within the same shot".


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: The film was twice adapted for the American CBS Radio series "Lux Radio Theatre", both with the title "Stairway to Heaven", starring Ray Milland on 27 October 1947 (episode 587) and featuring David Niven on 12 April 1955 (episode 918). The film was also adapted for the American NBC Radio series "Screen Director's Playhouse" series as "Stairway to Heaven", airing on 26 July 1951 and starring Robert Cummings and Julie Adams.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: An adaptation titled "Stairway to Heaven" aired as a live performance on the American television show "Robert Montgomery Presents" on 9 April 1951 on NBC, starring Richard Greene.


title: A Matter of Life and Death (film)

text: The film was adapted as the musical "Stairway to Heaven" at the King's Head in Islington in November 1994. It was also made into a play by the Kneehigh Theatre for performances at the National Theatre in London, premiering in May 2007.


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell is the sixth studio album by American rock singer Meat Loaf and was written and produced by Jim Steinman. It was released in September 1993, sixteen years after Meat Loaf's first solo album "Bat Out of Hell". The album reached number 1 in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. Five tracks were released as singles, including "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)", which reached number 1 in 28 countries.


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: The album was released by Virgin Records outside of North America, where it was released by MCA. The third part of the "Bat" trilogy, "", was released in 2006.


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: Like the first album of the trilogy, "Bat Out of Hell II" was a commercial success. It sold over 14 million copies worldwide.


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: In the midst of the success of "Bat Out of Hell", desperate for a follow-up, management and the record company put pressure on Steinman to stop touring in order to write a follow-up, provisionally titled "Renegade Angel". In a 1981 "BBC Rock Hour Special" interview, Jim Steinman recalls the writing process.


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: I started writing what I felt was "Bat Out of Hell part 2", definitely like "The Godfather part 1" and "part 2", that's how I saw it. I wanted to do a continuation and I wanted to do an album that went even further and that was more extreme, if possible, which a lot of people felt wasn't possible but I just wanted to see if I could make a record that was even more heroic because that's what I thought of it ... "Bat Out of Hell" to me was ultimately very heroic though it was funny ... and I wanted to do one that to me would be even more heroic and more epic and a little more operatic and passionate.


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: In a 1993 promotional interview for the album, Steinman reasserts the continuation of the "Bat" world. "I didn't call it "Bat Out of Hell II" just to identify with the first record. It really does feel like an extension of that... It was a chance to go back to that world and explore it deeper. It always seemed incomplete because I conceived it like a film, and what would you do without "Die Hard 2"?" Meat Loaf himself was more succinct. He told an interview at the time, "We called it "Bat Out of Hell II" 'cos that would help it sell shitloads."


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: Steinman rejoined Meat Loaf and the band for a live performance in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1978 with the intention of going through the songs for "Bat II" after the show. However, someone broke into their dressing rooms during the show and stole several possessions, including the new lyric book. Then, Meat Loaf lost his voice and was unable to record "Renegade Angel". Steinman says "he sounded literally like the little girl in "The Exorcist"... like a dragon trying to sing—it was a horrifying sound." Steinman "kept writing the music to "Bat Out of Hell part 2"... my sequel." Not being able to "bear for people not to hear those songs," Steinman recorded the album, retitled "Bad for Good", as a solo project, although Rory Dodd contributed lead vocals on some songs. Four songs from "Bad for Good" were included on "Bat Out of Hell II". In 1989, Steinman formed all-female vocal group Pandora's Box. The album, "Original Sin", was a commercial flop, but featured two songs which would also appear on "Bat II". However, according to Meat Loaf, one of them was written for him, saying that "Jim put 'It Just Won't Quit' on "Original Sin" without telling me. I could have strangled him."


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: By the time Meat Loaf set about finally recording "Bat II" in the early 1990s, the industry's enthusiasm for the project had waned. According to the artist's then manager, Tommy Manzi, in an interview with HitQuarters, "That project was considered a joke as far as the industry was concerned," and Manzi's management company Left Bank were "laughed at" for attempting to revive the fortunes of a well-established act rather than focus on "the next hip band".


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: After a series of financial and legal disputes during the 1980s, Steinman and Meat Loaf met at the singer's house in Connecticut at Christmas in either 1989 or 1990,<ref name="Meat Loaf/Dalton, p. 200"></ref> and sang "Bat Out of Hell" on piano. Steinman says that "working together again seemed like the cool thing to do."


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: Steinman gave Meat Loaf half the songs for the album, but refused to give him any more until he changed managers. The singer was being managed by Walter Winneck and George Gilbert, who Meat Loaf credits as being "honest guys" but, under Steinman's influence, thinks would be "incapable of dealing with the record companies" on "Bat II". On Steinman's recommendation, he hired Allen Kovac.


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: Recording of the album lasted from 1991 to 1993, first at Ocean Way Recording in Los Angeles, California, then at The Power Station in New York City, New York.


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: Many of the performers from the original album returned for the sequel. Roy Bittan performed keyboard and piano on most tracks, with Todd Rundgren, Ellen Foley, Rory Dodd and Kasim Sulton returning to provide background vocals. Meat Loaf and the musicians are credited as co-arrangers, and Bittan and long-term Steinman collaborator Steven Rinkoff are credited as associate producers. The album was mixed by David Thoener with the exception of the final track, which was mixed by Rinkoff.


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: According to Meat Loaf, he and Steinman had only one "big fight" throughout the album's production, which occurred during the mixing of "Life Is a Lemon". Production took a long time (see above), mainly because of the length of the songs. The singer says, "Jim's songs may be miniature operas, but they're always too long for radio." Steinman fought with Kovac over the edit of "I'd Do Anything for Love", with the manager advising that radio stations were unlikely to play anything over five minutes long.


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: Steinman had secured a contract with Meat Loaf's recording label MCA for Lorraine Crosby, a club singer from North East England whom he was managing. While visiting the company's recording studios on Sunset Boulevard, Crosby was asked to provide guide vocals for Meat Loaf, who was recording "I'd Do Anything for Love". Crosby recalls, "I went and sang it twice and I never thought anything more of it until six months later when I got a phone call saying, 'Would you mind if we used your vocals?'" Cher, Melissa Etheridge and Bonnie Tyler had been considered for the role. However, as Crosby had recorded her part as guide vocals, she did not receive any royalties from the song.


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: The album opens with "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)", a marathon twelve-minute opus which was edited for single release in some countries. The track begins with a guitar played to sound like a revving motorcycle, a reference to Todd Rundgren's contribution in the middle of "Bat Out of Hell". Each verse comprises two things that he would do for love, followed by one thing that he would not do. It is that latter parts of each chorus that is the "that" of the title. However, some people misunderstand the lyrics, claiming that the singer never identifies what the "that" is that he is unwilling to do, a confusion that Steinman predicted during production. The song combines stadium rock and ballad for much of its twelve minutes. However, near the end of the song, a female vocalist is introduced. Credited in the liner notes as Mrs. Loud, this part was sung by Lorraine Crosby. Some countries managed to play the opus from start to finish.


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: Rundgren points out that "the themes of the songs were darker." The second track, "Life is a Lemon and I Want My Money Back", demonstrates this pessimism. Several things are identified as "defective", including love, sex, gods, childhood and the future. AllMusic labels it "a stomping rocker that wraps serious feelings in a cryptically witty metaphor." Despite the pessimism, both AllMusic and Meat Loaf point out that "it is a funny song."


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: The third track, "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through", is a prayer to rock music, celebrating how it is always there to help you through troubled times. One of its lyrics is "You're never alone, 'cause you can put on the 'phones and let the drummer tell your heart what to do." The fourth track also has dark overtones. "It Just Won't Quit", Steinman explains, "is about the fact that there are some things you never shake off... That's love, I guess." "Out of the Frying Pan (And into the Fire)" is a more upbeat song.


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: The album's sixth track, "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are" is a three part narrative that uses pathetic fallacy, where the seasons (summer, winter and spring) reflect the atmosphere of the events being described, drawing "its inspiration from the singer's often-tragic childhood. The lyrics portray a man who has overcome tragedies in his life yet still feels haunted by their memory." Steinman says that it was "the hardest song to write and get across."


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: It's a very passionate song. It's really, I think maybe, the most passionate one on the record. I mean, I'm really proud of it because that's really one that goes over-the-top in the sense that it's got images—it has religious imagery of resurrection, it's got images of fertility and rebirth, it has really very good sexual images, images of cars—which I always like.


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: The track quotes lyrics from "Bat Out of Hell"'s "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" ("It was long ago and it was far away"), as does the next track, "Wasted Youth", a spoken word fantasy monologue (a remixed version of "Love and Death and an American Guitar" from Steinman's "Bad for Good" album). The 1977 song's opening line "I remember every [...] little thing as if it happened only yesterday. I was barely seventeen" opens this track also, but instead of being "barely dressed" the protagonist "once killed a boy with a Fender guitar." Influenced by The Doors, Steinman wanted to write a piece where "the rhythm wasn't coming from the drums so much as the voice—the rhythm of the spoken voice and the heartbeat behind it."


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: According to Steinman, "Good Girls Go to Heaven (Bad Girls Go Everywhere)" is a "teenage prayer". "Lost Boys and Golden Girls" is "Steinman's interpretation of the story of "Peter Pan"." The composer says that "Peter Pan" has "always been about my favorite story and I've always looked at it from the perspective that it's a great rock and roll myth because it's about—when you get right down to it—it's about a gang of lost boys who never grow up, who are going to be young forever and that's about as perfect an image for rock'n'roll as I can think of."


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: The cover art was illustrated by sci-fi/fantasy artist Michael Whelan, following the style of Richard Corben's cover for "Bat Out of Hell". It features the biker from the first cover flying on his motorcycle towards a giant bat perched on top of New York City's Chrysler Building, to which an angel is bound. Echoing the gravestones of the first cover, partially destroyed skyscrapers inhabit the lava landscape. Also like the first album, it features a 'Songs by Jim Steinman' credit, although smaller and located at the bottom of the cover.


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: As well as providing thematic consistency with the original, the repetition of iconography also acted as a vital marketing tool. The marketing of the album was documented in an episode of the 1995 BBC television programme "The Music Biz". Executives at Virgin Records thought that this was important to attract the target audience, who they believed no longer spent much time in record shops. They felt that similarities to the design of the first album, including Meat Loaf's name in Gothic typography, would entice consumers of the 1977 album to purchase this.


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: The booklet contains all of the lyrics to the songs, each accompanied by a small Whelan illustration, which were used as the respective single covers. There is a suggestion to "support Tibet House, an organization dedicated to the unique culture of the Tibetan people which has the potential to make a valuable contribution to the world at large".


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: Three tracks from the album were released as singles. "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" became a worldwide #1 hit from this album. The song reached #1 in the charts in 28 countries. It spent seven weeks atop the UK Singles Chart, making it the most successful single in the UK that year. Simultaneously, Meat Loaf released "Bat Out of Hell" as a single, which also made the top ten in the United Kingdom. Meat Loaf remained the last artist to have two top-ten UK singles at the same time until the Manic Street Preachers in 2001.


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through" reached #13 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, and #11 on the UK Singles Chart. The third single from the album, "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are", did less well when it was released in 1994, reaching #38 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and #26 in the United Kingdom. "Life Is a Lemon" peaked at #17 on the "Billboard" Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the United States.


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: Michael Bay directed three music videos from the album. "I'd Do Anything for Love" is based on "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Phantom of the Opera". "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through" features a runaway girl, played by Angelina Jolie. "Objects in the Rear View Mirror" illustrates the song's narrative. Featuring Robert Patrick, the video contained flying aircraft imagery that he would use in "Armageddon" and "Pearl Harbor".


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: In 1994, the three films were released as the VHS tape "Meat Loaf – Bat Out of Hell 2 – Picture Show", which also included alternate versions of "Paradise by the Dashboard Light", "Life Is a Lemon and I Want My Money Back" and "I'd Do Anything for Love", all featuring lead vocalist Patti Russo. They were included on a DVD in 2006 with the 'Collectors Edition' release of the album.


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: The album was a commercial hit, and has sold more than 14 million copies around the world. It was number one for one week in the US on the "Billboard" 200, the UK Albums Chart for eleven non-consecutive weeks, number one in Australia for four weeks, and eight weeks at number one in Canada. Meat Loaf won a Grammy Award for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance for "I'd Do Anything for Love" and received two Brit Awards nominations (Best International Male and Best Selling Single).


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: Despite its huge commercial success, critical reception was mixed. The specialist music press were generally positive. "Q" magazine proclaimed, "truly this... is the genuine follow-up to the most over-the-top rock album of all time." Like most critics, "Q" referred to the excesses of Steinman's style, citing the length of the songs ("Q" says that "Objects..." running for 10 minutes and 12 seconds is "not necessary"). Unlike the original, where the epic loud songs were "offset by the softness of stuff like 'Two Out of Three Ain't Bad'...even the ballads are Roman orgies of sound and fury." This, they say, means "the album's probable theme—the crushing effect growing up has on teenage dreams—seems to get lost among the thud and blunder." However, overall, "Q" is positive, concluding with the sentiment that "Ultimately, "Back Into Hell" may not trash its predecessor, but as a mad, crunching, stadium rock album, it's probably the best thing of its kind you'll hear this year."


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: Looking at how "Steinman's old-fashioned teen-dream rock 'n' roll fantasies" fits in with the music culture of 1993, "Kerrang!" suggests that it would not appeal to "Nirvana and Metallica fans, but there's an older generation of rockers out there who will, quite properly, worship this album." Their four-star review declares that "it is a work of genius, a ready made rock classic and arguably the last word in rock operas." In "The Tip Sheet", Jonathan King labelled it a "glorious, splendid album", celebrating Meat Loaf's "operatically gorgeous" voice and Steinman's "superb" songs, arrangements and production. "You'll be blown away. Better still you'll catch yourself openly laughing out loud at times with delight. You know what to expect yet it's constantly better, fresher and brighter than you hope. If they had a Mercury Music Prize for American albums, this would win it hands down."


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: In a 1999 documentary celebrating the original album, Meat Loaf says that "Bat Out of Hell" polarizes people: some hate it, and some worship it. The bombast did not meet some critics' approval. As with the first album, "Rolling Stone" gave the album a mixed review. They call it "harmless, low-octane operatic drivel" with "insufferably long Steinman compositions with equally long names". Non-specialist publications gave the most negative reviews. The "Fort Worth Star-Telegram" also referred to the length of the songs, in which Steinman "vomits up 75 minutes of endlessly repeated choruses". The newspaper branded it "the worst pop album of 1993". "The Des Moines Register" thought that the album was "wallowing in excess so gratuitous as to make Michael Bolton, by comparison, seem a master of understatement... Mountains of banshee-like wailing guitars! Thunderous drums! Herniated vocals! Profoundly stupid lyrics! Gack. This isn't pandering to the lowest common denominator—it's lowering the lowest common denominator."


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: Like the original, retrospective reviews have been appreciative. AllMusic appreciates the bombast and "the pseudo-operatic splendor of Jim Steinman's grandly cinematic songs." Responding to concerns about length and overstatement, they reply, "that's precisely the point of this album, and is also why it works so well. No other rock 'n' roller besides Meat Loaf could pull off the humor and theatricality of "Back Into Hell" and make it seem real. In that sense, it's a worthy successor to the original."


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: Alongside the original version a two disc special edition was released, containing a foldout poster and a bonus disc containing three live tracks, which can also be found as B-sides to the "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" singles.


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: This was produced by Meat Loaf and recorded and mixed by David Thoener. It was recorded in New York, NY in July 1993.


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: A two-disc "deluxe edition" was released by MCA on June 25, 2002. The first disc contains the remastered original album, while the second contains several radio edits and remixes. It was presented as a foldout double-disc set enhoused in a slipcase, with an extensive booklet with liner notes and rare photographs. AllMusic suggest that although the album deserves the attention, "the extra disc of material is [not] worth the time of anyone outside of fanatics... it doesn't really offer any revelations, curiosities, or an interesting listen for anybody else (and it may not be that interesting to those collectors, either)."


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: In 2006, a three disc collector's edition was released by Virgin/EMI. The first disc contains the original album remastered and the second a live version of the original "Bat Out of Hell" album plus "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)", compiled from the various B-sides from the album's singles.


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: The tracks were recorded live in New York during July 1993, except "For Crying Out Loud" which was recorded live in the United States in 1994. Live arrangements by Meat Loaf and the Neverland Express featuring Patti Russo as lead female vocalist. Tracks 1-6 and 8 were recorded and mixed by David Thoener, and the audio was remastered by Peter Mew with Nigel Reeve at Abbey Road Studios, London.


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: The final disc is a DVD containing all three of the Michael Bay videos, and a featurette with an interview with Meat Loaf and Steinman, with behind the scenes footage from the video shoot of "I'd Do Anything for Love".


title: Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell

text: "All sections were directed by Michael Bay and produced by Propaganda Films. DVD produced by Abbey Road Interactive."


title: The Osbournes

text: The Osbournes is an American reality television program featuring the domestic life of heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne and his family—his wife Sharon, their daughter Kelly, and their son Jack. The series premiered on MTV on March 5, 2002, and, in its first season, was cited as the most-viewed series ever on MTV. The final episode aired on March 21, 2005.


title: The Osbournes

text: In addition to heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne, the show features his wife and manager Sharon, and their children Jack and Kelly. The Osbournes have another daughter, Aimee, who refused to participate in the show and publicly criticized her parents for their antics on the show. In most family photos shown on the show, she is either absent or blurred. The series also followed the family as they dealt with major events such as Sharon's battle with cancer and the aftermath of an ATV accident that nearly killed Ozzy.


title: The Osbournes

text: The theme song for the show is a cover of Ozzy's song "Crazy Train" by Lewis Lamedica, done in a jazz-swing style reminiscent of Pat Boone.


title: The Osbournes

text: Concurrent with the success of the series, Kelly Osbourne launched a brief career as a singer, while Sharon Osbourne hosted "The Sharon Osbourne Show". The family also parodied their TV series during cameo appearances at awards shows and in the film "Austin Powers in Goldmember".


title: The Osbournes

text: Jack and Kelly's friend Robert made regular appearances on the show; Sharon took him in during the second season after his mother died of cancer. While a constant presence in front of the camera, few plots revolved around Robert and he had few lines. After the series ended, it was reported that the Osbournes had sent Robert back to Rhode Island to live with his father after spending a week at a psychiatric ward. The Osbournes were assumed to have adopted Robert, but Sharon Osbourne has denied this.


title: The Osbournes

text: Another person who makes recurring appearances on the show is Melinda, Sharon's executive assistant and nanny, who is also married to Ozzy's tour manager. She is often seen trying to get Jack out of bed while he berates and belittles her, telling her to "get a real job." Melinda is originally from Australia.


title: The Osbournes

text: Ozzy confirmed in an interview on BBC Radio 2 in May 2009 that he was "stoned during the entire filming of "The Osbournes"" and will not watch the episodes for this reason.


title: The Osbournes

text: Profanity was censored during MTV broadcasts of the series in the United States. In an interview, Ozzy stated that while he was happy that the Canadian broadcasts were uncensored, he preferred the censored version because the cursing was more noticeable due to the bleeps. The Canadian broadcasts on CTV and UK broadcasts on MTV and Channel 4 are uncensored. Some episodes were also aired uncensored to Australian audiences when shown on Network Ten. It is broadcast uncensored on MTV Australia.


title: The Osbournes

text: Jack and Kelly stated in an interview that some of the situations on the show, including the visit from the dog therapist, were arranged by MTV producers. Ozzy Osbourne's publicist denied that any reaction were staged.


title: The Osbournes

text: On November 30 and December 1, 2007, items belonging to the Osbournes and featured in the show were auctioned off to the public. The two-day event listed memorabilia as well as furnishings of the home. Bidders could bid through the Auction Network.


title: The Osbournes

text: In 2009, the Osbournes reunited for the debut of their new variety show "Osbournes Reloaded" for the Fox network. Produced by Fremantle Media North America, the series debuted on March 31, 2009, at 9:25PM ET/PT, following "American Idol". It consisted of sketches, stunts, celebrity cameos, music performances, and pretaped segments. The show was canceled after airing its first episode. On its debut, 26 Fox affiliates pre-empted or delayed the program due to its racy content, which the stations felt was more appropriate for older viewers.


title: The Osbournes

text: Since 2016, Ozzy and Jack have starred in "Ozzy & Jack's World Detour", a reality-series that initially aired on History before moving to A&E for its second season. On January 23, 2018, Jack revealed on his official Instagram page that the series had been picked up for a third season. The eight-episode third season premiered on A&E on June 13, 2018, with Jack's sister Kelly Osbourne joining the cast.


title: The Osbournes

text: In October 2015, Kelly Osbourne stated that she was open to the idea of a revival that was new and different, saying that "we did it on MTV and that had never been done before so if we're going to come back, we'd want to do it in a way that has never been done before either."


title: The Osbournes

text: Only seasons one and two (released in two sets as season two and two 1/2 or 2.5) have been released on DVD by Miramax Home Entertainment and Buena Vista Home Entertainment.


title: The Osbournes

text: "The Osbourne Family Album", a various artists compilation based on the show, was released in June 2002.


title: The Osbournes

text: As well as achieving the highest ratings in MTV history, "The Osbournes" won a 2002 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Program.


title: The Osbournes

text: The series aired on CTV in Canada, Channel 4 in the UK and MTV UK and Ireland in Ireland and the UK, VH1 India in India, RTÉ Two in Ireland, Network Ten and MTV Australia in Australia, TV2 Denmark, MTV Finland and Nelonen in Finland, MTV Latin America in Latin America, MTV Portugal in Portugal, TV2 in New Zealand, MTV Germany in Germany, MTV Ukraine in Ukraine, MTV Brasil in Brazil, MTV Italia in Italy, MTV Nederland in the Netherlands and MTV Europe.


title: Brianne Tju

text: Brianne Ashleigh Tju (; born June 14, 1998) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Riley Marra in the MTV series "Scream", Alex Portnoy in the Hulu series "Light as a Feather", Alexa in "", and Margot in "I Know What You Did Last Summer".


title: Brianne Tju

text: Tju was born and raised in Chino Hills, California. She graduated from Ruben S. Ayala High School and currently undergoes her studies at the California State University, Fullerton. She is the older sister of actress Haley Tju. She is of Chinese and Indonesian heritage.


title: Brianne Tju

text: In 2007, Tju made her television acting debut in the Disney Channel series "Cory in the House". Following on from her first role, Tju won other roles on a variety of TV shows and films including "Liv and Maddie", "Pass the Light", "Grey's Anatomy", "A.P. Bio" and "9-1-1".


title: Brianne Tju

text: In 2015, Tju starred in the recurring role of Riley Marra on the MTV slasher television series "Scream".