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From：Guernica (Picasso) - Wikipedia

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minerva_Protecting_Peace_from_Mars

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Minerva protecting Peace from Mars or Peace and War is a painting by Peter Paul Rubens. He produced it in London between 1629 and 1630, during a diplomatic mission from the Spanish Netherlands to Charles I of England. It is now in the National Gallery, London.

It shows Minerva (goddess of war, wisdom and crafts) fighting off Mars, with the nude figure of the goddess Pax (commonly known as "Peace" in English) in the centre.

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Minerva Protecting Peace from Mars - Wikipedia

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Minerva protecting Peace from Mars or Peace and War is a painting by Peter Paul Rubens. He produced it in London between 1629 and 1630, during a diplomatic mission from the Spanish Netherlands to Charles I of England. It is now in the National Gallery, London.

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Task1-Jiaye Jiang

Task2-Yang Fan

Task3-Natsinee Athithunchaiyaphong

Task5-Xinyue Fu

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From: Xinyue Fu's Portfolio

I once made a collection of works about stray cats and dogs, because there are a lot of stray dogs and cats in China, they don't have enough food and clean living places, so I think it is very meaningful to help them build a shelter base, calling for more people to pay attention to and adopt stray animals, but the shelter base must also be profitable, I analyzed it, considered various factors, through investigation, I think that the place for afternoon tea or light food is more suitable than other revenue methods, so I started my action plan: build a café. But through research and research, I took into account that some guests are very afraid of cats or dogs, or maybe they hate their smell. So I divided them into areas, guests can adopt and visit them, and I also built a pet supplies area next door, and customers adopted these stray cats and dogs, and they can buy pet supplies next to them, which is good for revenue.

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My hometown is Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, which is a city in southern China. The reason why I chose these two pictures is because they are a comparison between modern and ancient Nanchang. The twin towers on the left are modern Nanchang, high-rise buildings. But across the river, there is an ancient building that is one of the three famous buildings in Jiangnan, China. It is very famous and called Tengwang Pavilion. Right by the river. Ancient buildings and modern high-rise buildings face each other across the river, which is a collision of modernity and antiquity. So that's why I chose these two pictures.

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Comparison between my city before and now

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Comparison between my city before and now

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The black and white photo is from the past, and now there are tall buildings standing next to it, as well as the second largest Ferris wheel in Asia.

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Comparison between my city before and now

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Comparison between my city before and now

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This is Tengwang Pavilion, one of the three famous buildings in Jiangnan, China. It used to be across from a flat ground, but now high-rise buildings stand tall.

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Comparison between my city before and now

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Comparison between my city before and now

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This place is called Honggutan. It used to be a flat area that nobody went to, but now there are many commercial districts in Nanchang. Nowadays, high-rise buildings are towering.

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The painting is based on the killing of innocents during the bombing of Guernica, a Basque town in northern Spain, by fascist Nazis, the use of symbolic techniques and simple black, white, gray tricolor to create a gloomy and desolate atmosphere, played up the tragic color, the performance of the Fascist War to the human disaster.

A combination of cubism and surrealism, pain, suffering and bestiality: on the right, a woman raises her hand and falls from a burning house, while another woman rushes towards the centre, dragging her deformed leg; A mother on the left holds her dead child; on the ground there is the body of a soldier with a broken sword in his broken hand and a flower growing beside it. The frame is centered on a cow standing with its head raised and a horse roaring. The artist combines the figurative with the Cubism, and with the aid of geometric lines, the work achieves a close relationship between the internal structure of the form and the exciting visual art language, accused the fascist war of inhumane atrocities.

I once saw a very interesting statement，（Doyle，2008）The bull in Picasso’s art, as we have seen, had many meanings: the lusty animal, Spain, the noble bull fight opponent, and various incarnations of the Minotaur: erotic, destructive, wounded, blind. But the bull, sometimes in these guises, was also frequently a personal symbol for Picasso, often, Picasso the artist. And, among other interpretations, because art often condenses meanings, the changes in the bull–horse compositions as they emerged under Picasso’s hand could be considered a changing understanding of the role of the artist in the face of human catastrophe. Unlike the artist in the earlier Studio compositions and the bull in the early bull–horse compositions, the bull in the final mural no longer dominates the center. Picasso moved the bull to the side and put the catastrophe is at the center. The victims, not the bull, take up most of the space of the mural. Still, the bull has an important compositional role. These victims, both with their eyes and the strain of their bodies, appeal to the bull. The bull does not look at the scene, but stares out into space at us. The addition of the tile floor seems to bring the action, which took place outside, indoors. Could it, on one level EXPLORING THE CREATION OF PICASSO’S GUERNICA 447 of meaning, be the artist’s studio, reminiscent of his original idea for the mural? Or could it be a stage, as Arnheim (1992) and others suggested? In either case, we can speculate that, in the final mural, Picasso was again portraying the relation between art and life, the artist and his model, as he did in the Studio sketches, but ‘‘the model’’ is now a horrific bombing of his homeland, and its victims, no longer pose passively as Picasso’s models often did, but actively appeal to the bull. The bull–artist looks to the viewers—challenging them to remember, to feel, and to act.

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Anti-war: Minerva Protecting Peace from Mars 

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Anti-war: Minerva Protecting Peace from Mars 

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As far as I know, Rubens is not only an artist, but also works as a diplomat. Many of his works aspire to peace and beauty. This painting is said to have served as a peace envoy for Britain and Spain, first existing in London.

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The benefits of street art painting are mainly reflected in the following aspects:

Reflecting social issues

Low cost entrepreneurship

Personalized development

Cross border collaboration opportunities

Cultivate personal brand

Enriching the ways and meanings of using public spaces

The disadvantages of street art:

Destroy the public environment

Social unrest

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Source 1 (name/title):

Exploring the Creation of Picasso’s Guernica: Composition Studies, Chance, Metaphors, and Expertise

find reliable articles：

Brief description of source:

Creativity research journal

Bibliography entry：

Doyle, C. (2008) 'Exploring the Creation of Picasso's Guernica: Composition Studies, Chance, Metaphors, and Expertise' In: Creativity research journal 20 (4) pp.445–450. DOI:

10.1080/10400410802391918

Link：

Exploring the Creation of Picasso's Guernica: Composition Studies, Chance, ...: EBSCOhost (oclc.org)

Citation：

（Doyle，2008）

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Evaluation of the article-Exploring the Creation of Picasso’s Guernica: Composition Studies, Chance, Metaphors, and Expertise

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Evaluation of the article-Exploring the Creation of Picasso’s Guernica: Composition Studies, Chance, Metaphors, and Expertise

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It published in 2008. The information has been revised or updated. The information is out-of-date for my topic. The link works fine, I can find useful information on it.

The information relate to my topic and answer my problem clearly. The intended audience is every art researchers. The information at an appropriate level for me. I looked at a variety of sources before choosing this one, which is the most one. I would like to choose this source for a research paper.

The author is Charlotte Doyle. She has organizational affiliations. Her author organizational affiliation is Sarah Lawrence College. She is BA, Temple University. MA, PhD, University of Michigan. And she created The Creative Process: Stories from the Arts and Sciences, was published in 2022.  There exists contact information:

The publisher :Charlotte Doyle.

The address : Department of Psychology, Sarah Lawrence College, One Mead Way, Bronxville, NY 10708.

E-mail: cdoyle@slc.edu.

The source comes from the Creativity Research Journal. It exists the evidence to support the information. The information has been reviewed or referred. I evidenced any of the information in another source.

The language or tone seem free of emotion. There are no errors about the spelling, grammar and other typographical.

It is order to discuss and analysis the Picasso’s Guernica. The author make their intentions and purpose clear. The information, opinion and propaganda are true. The point of view seems objective and impartial.

It does not exist the political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, and personal biases.

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find reliable aricles：

Source 2 (name/title):

‘Yo lo vi’. Goya witnessing the disasters of war: an appeal to the sentiment of humanity

Brief description of source:

International review of the Red Cross (2005)

Bibliography entry：

Bouvier, P. (2011) ‘“Yo lo vi”. Goya witnessing the disasters of war: an appeal to the sentiment of humanity’, International Review of the Red Cross, 93(884), pp. 1107–1133.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1816383112000379

Citation:

（Bouvier，2011）

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Evaluation of the article-‘Yo lo vi’. Goya witnessing the disasters of war: an appeal to the sentiment of humanity

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Evaluation of the article-‘Yo lo vi’. Goya witnessing the disasters of war: an appeal to the sentiment of humanity

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It was released in December 2011, it hasn't been updated, it's out of date for my article, the link works fine, I can use it to look up information.

This information is relevant to my topic, which is about ANTI-WAR ACTIVISM. I think everyone who studies activism and anti-war is a target audience. The information is at the right level for me. I looked at various other sources before choosing this one. I would like to choose this article for my research.

Paul Bouvier is the author of this article, published by Cambridge University Press. The writer is a senior medical adviser with the International Committee of the Red Cross. He has the expertise to write this article. This article does not have the publisher's contact information and email address, this article has  DOI，you can query this article.

It comes from International review of the Red Cross (2005). The information supported by evidence. The information has been  refereed. I evidenced the another source. the language or tone seem no biased. There are no spelling, grammar, or other typographical errors.

The purpose of information is the importance of sympathy and solidarity. The author expressed his opinion clearly，and the information is fact. The point of view is objective and impartial. The political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal did not exist the biases.

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find reliable articles：

Source 3 (name/title):

TRANSNATIONAL ANTI-WAR ACTIVISM: SOLIDARITY, DIVERSITY AND THE INTERNET IN AUSTRALIA, BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES AFTER 9/11

Brief description of source:

Australian Journal of Political Science

Link：

https://doi.org/10.1080/10361140701842573

Bibliography entry：

Gillan, K. and Pickerill, J. (2008) ‘Transnational anti-war activism: Solidarity, diversity and the Internet in Australia, Britain and the United states after 9/11’, Australian Journal of Political Science, 43(1), pp. 59–78. DOI:10.1080/10361140701842573.https://doi.org/10.1080/10361140701842573

Citation：

（Gillan and Pickerill，2008）

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Evaluation of the article-TRANSNATIONAL ANTI-WAR ACTIVISM: SOLIDARITY, DIVERSITY AND THE INTERNET IN AUSTRALIA, BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES AFTER 9/11 

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Evaluation of the article-TRANSNATIONAL ANTI-WAR ACTIVISM: SOLIDARITY, DIVERSITY AND THE INTERNET IN AUSTRALIA, BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES AFTER 9/11 

# data[].attributes.body
It was published online in 2008.  The information is out-of-date for my topic. the link works fine, I can use it to look up information.

This information is relevant to my topic, which is about ANTI-WAR ACTIVISM. I think everyone who studies activism and anti-war is a target audience. The information is at the right level for me. I looked at various other sources before choosing this one. I would like to choose this article for my research.

Kevin Gillan and Jenny Pickerill are the authors of this article, published by Australian Journal of Political Science. The writers are Sociology, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester and Department of Geography, Leicester University respectively. This article does not have the publisher's contact information and email address, this article has DOI ，you can query this article.

It comes from Australian Journal of Political Science. The information supported by evidence. The information has been  refereed. I evidenced the another source. the language or tone seem no biased. There are no spelling, grammar, or other typographical errors.

The purpose of information is the analysis of the three Internets of anti-war conditions. The author expressed his opinion clearly，and the information is fact. The point of view is objective and impartial. The political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal did not exist the biases.

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"Blowin' in the Wind" by Bob Dylan: This iconic song became an anthem of the 1960s civil rights movement and anti-war protests, asking poignant questions about peace, freedom, and justice.

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" Blowin' in the Wind" is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962. It was released as a single and included on his albumThe Freewheelin' Bob Dylan in 1963. It has been described as a protest song and poses a series of rhetorical questions about peace, war, and freedom. The refrain "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind" has been described as "impenetrably ambiguous: either the answer is so obvious it is right in your face, or the answer is as intangible as the wind".

In 1994, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2004, it was ranked number 14 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Despite not charting when first released as a single, it has gained much radio airplay, ultimately peaking at #3 in France on the airplay chart.

Dylan originally wrote and performed a two-verse version of the song; its first public performance, at Gerde's Folk City on April 16, 1962, was recorded and circulated among Dylan collectors. Shortly after this performance, he added the middle verse to the song. Some published versions of the lyrics reverse the order of the second and third verses, apparently because Dylan simply appended the middle verse to his original manuscript, rather than writing out a new copy with the verses in proper order. The song was published for the first time in May 1962, in the sixth issue of , the magazine founded by Agnes 'Sis' Cunningham and Gordon Friesen and devoted to topical songs. The theme may have been taken from a passage in Woody Guthrie's autobiography, Bound for Glory, in which Guthrie compared his political sensibility to newspapers blowing in the winds of New York City streets and alleys. Dylan was certainly familiar with Guthrie's work; his reading of it had been a major turning point in his intellectual and political development.

In June 1962, the song was published in Sing Out!, accompanied by Dylan's comments:

There ain't too much I can say about this song except that the answer is blowing in the wind. It ain't in no book or movie or TV show or discussion group. Man, it's in the wind - and it's blowing in the wind. Too many of these hip people are telling me where the answer is but oh I won't believe that. I still say it's in the wind and just like a restless piece of paper it's got to come down some ... But the only trouble is that no one picks up the answer when it comes down so not too many people get to see and know ... and then it flies away. I still say that some of the biggest criminals are those that turn their heads away when they see wrong and know it's wrong. I'm only 21 years old and I know that there's been too many wars ... You people over 21, you're older and smarter.

Dylan recorded "Blowin' in the Wind" on July 9, 1962, for inclusion on his second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, released in May, 1963.

Bobby Darin recorded "Blowin' in the Wind" on July 30, 1962, for inclusion on his album, Golden Folk Hits, also released in 1963. Arranged by Walter Raim, there was Roger Mcguinn, Glen Campbell, James Burton, and Phil Ochs all on guitar, and singing harmony.

In his sleeve notes for The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991, John Bauldie wrote that Pete Seeger first identified the melody of "Blowin' in the Wind" as an adaptation of the old African-American spiritual " No More Auction Block/We Shall Overcome". According to Alan Lomax's The Folk Songs of North America, the song was sung by former slaves who fled to Nova Scotia after Britain abolished slavery in 1833. In 1978, Dylan acknowledged the source when he told journalist Marc Rowland: "'Blowin' in the Wind' has always been a spiritual. I took it off a song called 'No More Auction Block' - that's a spiritual and 'Blowin' in the Wind' follows the same feeling." Dylan's performance of "No More Auction Block" was recorded at the Gaslight Cafe in October 1962, and appeared on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991.

The critic Michael Gray suggested that the lyric is an example of Dylan's "quiet incorporation of Biblical rhetoric into his own", starting with a text from the Old Testament book of Ezekiel (12:1-2): "Son of Man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see and see not; they have ears to hear and hear not." which Dylan transforms into: "Yes' n' how many times must a man turn his head / Pretending he just doesn't see?" and "Yes'n' how many ears must one man have / Before he can hear people cry?"

"Blowin' in the Wind" has been described as an anthem of the civil rights movement. In Martin Scorsese's documentary on Dylan, No Direction Home, Mavis Staples expressed her astonishment on first hearing the song and said she could not understand how a young white man could write something that captured the frustration and aspirations of black people so powerfully. Sam Cooke was similarly deeply impressed by the song, incorporating it into his repertoire soon after its release (a version would be included on Sam Cooke at the Copa), and being inspired by it to write " A Change Is Gonna Come".

"Blowin' in the Wind" was first covered by the Chad Mitchell Trio, but their record company delayed release of the album containing it because the song included the word death, so the trio lost out to Peter, Paul and Mary, who were represented by Dylan's manager, Albert Grossman. The single sold 300,000 copies in the first week of release and made the song world-famous. On August 17, 1963, it reached number two on the pop chart, with sales exceeding one million copies. Peter Yarrow recalled that, when he told Dylan he would make more than $5,000 (equivalent to $50,000 in 2023) from the publishing rights, Dylan was speechless. Peter, Paul and Mary's version of the song also spent five weeks atop the easy listening chart.

The critic Andy Gill wrote,

"Blowin' in the Wind" marked a huge jump in Dylan's songwriting. Prior to this, efforts like "The Ballad of Donald White" and "The Death of Emmett Till" had been fairly simplistic bouts of reportage songwriting. "Blowin' in the Wind" was different: for the first time, Dylan discovered the effectiveness of moving from the particular to the general. Whereas "The Ballad of Donald White" would become completely redundant as soon as the eponymous criminal was executed, a song as vague as "Blowin' in the Wind" could be applied to just about any freedom issue. It remains the song with which Dylan's name is most inextricably linked, and safeguarded his reputation as a civil libertarian through any number of changes in style and attitude.

Dylan performed the song for the first time on television in the UK in January 1963, when he appeared in the BBC television play Madhouse on Castle Street. He also performed the song during his first national US television appearance, filmed in March 1963, a performance made available in 2005 on the DVD release of Martin Scorsese's PBS television documentary on Dylan, No Direction Home.

An allegation that the song was written by a high-school student named Lorre Wyatt (a member of Millburn High School's "Millburnaires" all-male folk band) and subsequently purchased or plagiarised by Dylan before he gained fame was reported in an article in magazine in November 1963. The plagiarism claim was eventually shown to be false.

The first line of the song ("How many roads must a man walk down?") is proposed as the " Ultimate Question" in the science fiction novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams.

In the 1994 film Forrest Gump, Jenny sings this song for a show in a strip club and is introduced as "Bobbi Dylan". The film's soundtrack album features Joan Baez's 1975 live recording of the song, from her 1976 album From Every Stage.

In 1975, the song was included as poetry in a high-school English textbook in Sri Lanka. The textbook caused controversy because it replaced Shakespeare's work with Dylan's.

During the protests against the Iraq War, commentators noted that protesters were resurrecting songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" rather than creating new ones.

The song has been embraced by many liberal churches, and in the 1960s and 1970s it was sung both in Catholic church "folk masses" and as a hymn in Protestant ones. In 1997, Bob Dylan performed three other songs at a Catholic church congress. Pope John Paul II, who was in attendance, told the crowd of some 300,000 young Italian Catholics that the answer was indeed "in the wind" - not in the wind that blew things away, but rather "in the wind of the spirit" that would lead them to Christ. In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI (who had also been in attendance) wrote that he was uncomfortable with music stars such as Dylan performing in a church environment. The Westboro Baptist Church has parodied the song.

In 2009, Dylan licensed the song to be used in an advertisement for the British consumer-owned Co-operative Group. The Co-op claimed that Dylan's decision was influenced by "the Co-op's high ethical guidelines regarding fair trade and the environment." The Co-op, which is owned by about 3 million consumers, also includes Britain's largest funeral parlour and farming business.

In Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, in the level "Temple of Bwahmanweewee", Beep-0 parodies this song.

Hip hop group Public Enemy reference it in their 2007 Dylan tribute song " Long and Whining Road": "Tears of rage left a friend blowing in the wind / But time is God, been back for ten years, and black again".

Certifications

Peter, Paul and Mary recording

The most commercially successful version is by folk music trio Peter, Paul and Mary, who released the song in June 1963, three weeks after The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan was issued. Albert Grossman, then managing both Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary, brought the trio the song which they promptly recorded (on a single take) and released. The trio's version, which was the title track of their third album, peaked at number 2 on the Billboard charts behind " Fingertips" by Stevie Wonder. The group's version also went to number one on the Middle-Road charts for five weeks. described it as "a medium-paced sailor's lament sung with feeling and authority by the folk trio."

In 1964 at the 6th Annual Grammy Awards, Peter, Paul & Mary won 2 Grammy's for "Blowin' in the Wind". Best Folk Recording & Best Performance By A Vocal Group. In 2003, Peter, Paul & Mary's version of "Blowin' in the Wind" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Chart performance

"Blowin' in the Wind" has been recorded by hundreds of other artists.

Marlene Dietrich recorded a German version of the song (titled "Die Antwort weiß ganz allein der Wind ") which peaked at number 32 in Germany chart.

Tore Lagergren wrote lyrics in Swedish, "Och vinden ger svar " ("and the wind gives answer"), which charted at Svensktoppen for two weeks in 1963, first as recorded by Otto, Berndt och Beppo, peaking at number 8 on October 12, and by Lars Lönndahl during November 9-15 with sixth & seventh position. Both were released on single A-sides in 1963. This version was also recorded by Sven-Ingvars as the B-side of the single "Du ska tro på mej ", released in March 1967. With these lyrics, the song also charted at Svensktoppen in 1970, with Michael med Salt och peppar.

In 1966, Stevie Wonder recorded his own version which became a top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as number one on the R&B charts. It reached #12 in Canada.

In 2022, Dylan sold a newly recorded version of the song, produced by T Bone Burnett, on a new "one of one" analogue format known as an "Ionic Original" disc. The disc was sold via Christie's auction house for $1.78 million.

Joan Baez and Dylan have recorded this song live numerous times, and Baez recorded her own version.

Gill, Andy (1999), Classic Bob Dylan: My Back Pages, Carlton, ISBN 1-85868-599-0

Gray, Michael (2006), The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, Continuum International, ISBN 0-8264-6933-7

Sounes, Howard (2001), Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan, Grove Press, ISBN 0-8021-1686-8

Williams, Richard (1992), Dylan: a man called alias, Bloomsbury, ISBN 0-7475-1084-9

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" Blowin' in the Wind" is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962. It was released as a single and included on his albumThe Freewheelin' Bob Dylan in 1963. It has been described as a protest song and poses a series of rhetorical questions about peace, war, and freedom.

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"Imagine" by John Lennon: Known for its hopeful vision of a world without barriers and conflict, this song has been embraced as a symbol of peace activism.

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" Imagine" is a song by the English rock musician John Lennon from his 1971 album of the same name. The best-selling single of his solo career, the lyrics encourage listeners to imagine a world of peace, without materialism, without borders separating nations and without religion. Shortly before his death, Lennon said that much of the song's lyrics and content came from his wife, Yoko Ono, and in 2017 she received cowriting credit.

Lennon and Ono co-produced the song with Phil Spector. Recording began at Lennon's home studio at Tittenhurst Park, England, in May 1971, with final overdubs taking place at the Record Plant, in New York City, during July. In October, Lennon released "Imagine" as a single in the United States, where it peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was first issued as a single in Britain in 1975, to promote the compilation Shaved Fish, and reached number six on the UK Singles Chart that year. It later topped the chart following Lennon's murder in 1980.

BMI named "Imagine" one of the 100 most performed songs of the 20th century. In 1999, it was ranked number 30 on the RIAA's list of the 365 " Songs of the Century", earned a Grammy Hall of Fame Award, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's " 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll". A 2002 UK survey conducted by the Guinness World Records British Hit Singles Book named it the second-best single of all time, while Rolling Stone ranked it number three in the 2004 list of " The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Since 2005, event organisers have played the song just before the New Year's Times Square Ball drops in New York City. In 2023, the song was selected for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

"Imagine" has sold more than 1.7 million copies in the UK. More than 200 artists have performed or covered the song, including Madonna, Stevie Wonder, Joan Baez, Lady Gaga, Elton John and Diana Ross. After "Imagine" was featured at the 2012 Summer Olympics, the song re-entered the UK Top 40, reaching number 18, and was presented as a theme song in the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics. The song remains controversial, as it has been since its release, over its request to imagine "no religion too".

Lennon's Steinway piano, on which he composed "Imagine", was bought by singer George Michael in 2000 to keep it in the UK.[7]

Several poems from Yoko Ono's 1964 book Grapefruit inspired Lennon to write the lyrics for "Imagine"-in particular, one which Capitol Records reproduced on the back cover of the original LP titled "Cloud Piece", reads: "Imagine the clouds dripping, dig a hole in your garden to put them in." Lennon later said the composition "should be credited as a Lennon/Ono song. A lot of it-the lyric and the concept-came from Yoko, but in those days I was a bit more selfish, a bit more macho, and I sort of omitted her contribution, but it was right out of Grapefruit." When asked about the song's meaning during a December 1980 interview with David Sheff for magazine, Lennon told Sheff that Dick Gregory had given Ono and him a Christian prayer book, which inspired him the concept behind "Imagine".

The concept of positive prayer ... If you can imagine a world at peace, with no denominations of religion-not without religion but without this my God-is-bigger-than-your-God thing-then it can be true ... the World Church called me once and asked, "Can we use the lyrics to 'Imagine' and just change it to 'Imagine one religion'?" That showed [me] they didn't understand it at all. It would defeat the whole purpose of the song, the whole idea.

With the combined influence of "Cloud Piece" and the prayer book given to him by Gregory, Lennon wrote what author John Blaney described as "a humanistic paean for the people". Blaney wrote, "Lennon contends that global harmony is within our reach, but only if we reject the mechanisms of social control that restrict human potential." Rolling Stone's David Fricke commented: "[Lennon] calls for a unity and equality built upon the complete elimination of modern social order: geopolitical borders, organised religion, [and] economic class."

Lennon stated: "'Imagine', which says: 'Imagine that there was no more religion, no more country, no more politics,' is virtually The Communist Manifesto, even though I'm not particularly a Communist and I do not belong to any movement." He told : "There is no real Communist state in the world; you must realise that. The Socialism I speak about ... [is] not the way some daft Russian might do it, or the Chinese might do it. That might suit them. Us, we should have a nice ... British socialism." Ono described the lyrical statement of "Imagine" as "just what John believed: that we are all one country, one world, one people." Rolling Stone described its lyrics as "22 lines of graceful, plain-spoken faith in the power of a world, united in purpose, to repair and change itself".

An original piano musical motif, later called "John's Piano Piece", close to the final one was created in January 1969 during the sessions. Lennon finished composing "Imagine" one morning in early 1971, on a Steinway piano, in a bedroom at his Tittenhurst Park estate in Ascot, Berkshire, England. Ono watched as he composed the melody, chord structure and almost all the lyrics, nearly completing the song in one brief writing session. Described as a piano ballad performed in the soft rock genre, the song is in the key of C major. Its 4-bar piano introduction begins with a C chord then moves to Cmaj7 before changing to F. Each repetition of this pattern is rounded with a short, distinctive piano riff that ascends chromatically from A to B. The 12-bar verses also follow this chord progression, with their last 4 bars moving from Am/E to Dm and Dm/C, finishing with G, G11 then G7, before resolving back to C. The 8-bar choruses progress from F to G to C, then Cmaj7 and E before ending on E7, a C chord substituted for E7 in the final bar. The 4-bar outro begins with F, then G, before resolving on C. With a duration of 3 minutes and 3 seconds and a time signature of 4/4, the song's tempo falls around 75 beats per minute.

A 1971 Billboard advertisement for "Imagine"

Lennon and Ono co-produced the song and album with Phil Spector, who commented on the track: "We knew what we were going to do ... It was going to be John making a political statement, but a very commercial one as well ... I always thought that 'Imagine' was like the national anthem." Lennon described his working arrangement with Ono and Spector: "Phil doesn't arrange or anything like that-[Ono] and Phil will just sit in the other room and shout comments like, 'Why don't you try this sound' or 'You're not playing the piano too well' ... I'll get the initial idea and ... we'll just find a sound from [there]."

Recording took place on 27 May 1971 at Ascot Sound Studios, Lennon's newly built home studio at Tittenhurst Park, with string overdubs taking place on 4 July 1971 at the Record Plant, in New York City. The sessions began during the late morning, running to just before dinner in the early evening. Lennon taught the musicians the chord progression and a working arrangement for "Imagine", rehearsing the song until he deemed the musicians ready to record. In his attempt to recreate Lennon's desired sound, Spector had some early tapings feature Lennon and Nicky Hopkins playing in different octaves on one piano. He also initially attempted to record the piano part with Lennon playing the white baby grand in the couple's all-white room. However, after having deemed the room's acoustics unsuitable, Spector abandoned the idea in favour of the superior environment of Lennon's home studio. They completed the session in minutes, recording three takes and choosing the second one for release. The finished recording featured Lennon on piano and vocal, Klaus Voormann on bass guitar, Alan White on drums and the Flux Fiddlers on strings. The string arrangement was written by Torrie Zito.

Issued by Apple Records in the United States in October 1971, "Imagine" became the best-selling single of Lennon's solo career. It peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number one in Canada on the national singles chart, remaining there for two weeks. Upon its release the song's lyrics upset some religious groups, particularly the line: "Imagine there's no heaven". When asked about the song during one of his final interviews, Lennon said he considered it to be as strong a composition as any he had written with the Beatles. He described the song's meaning and explicated its commercial appeal: " Anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic, but because it is sugarcoated it is accepted ... Now I understand what you have to do. Put your political message across with a little honey." In an open letter to Paul McCartney published in Melody Maker, Lennon said that "Imagine" was "' Working Class Hero' with sugar on it for conservatives like yourself". On 30 November 1971, the Imagine LP reached number one on the UK chart. It became the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed album of Lennon's solo career.

In 1972, Lennon and Ono released an 81-minute film to accompany the Imagine album which featured footage of the couple in their home, garden and the recording studio of their Berkshire property at Tittenhurst Park as well as in New York City. A full-length documentary rock video, the film's first scene features a shot of Lennon and Ono walking through a thick fog, arriving at their house as the song "Imagine" begins. Above the front door to their house is a sign that reads: "This Is Not Here", the title of Ono's then New York art show. The next scene shows Lennon sitting at a white grand piano in a dimly lit, all-white room. Ono gradually walks around opening shutters that allow in light, making the room brighter with the song's progression. At the song's conclusion, Ono sits beside Lennon at the piano; they gaze at one another, and then kiss briefly.

Several celebrities appeared in the film, including Andy Warhol, Fred Astaire, Jack Palance, Dick Cavett and George Harrison. Derided by critics as "the most expensive home movie of all time", it premiered to an American audience in 1972. In 1986, Zbigniew Rybczyński made a music video for the song, and in 1987, it won both the " Silver Lion" award for Best Clip at Cannes and the Festival Award at the Rio International Film Festival.

Released as a single in the United Kingdom in 1975 in conjunction with the album Shaved Fish, "Imagine" peaked at number six on the UK Singles Chart. The photograph on the sleeve was taken by May Pang in 1974. Following Lennon's murder in 1980, the single re-entered the UK chart, reaching number one, where it remained for four weeks in January 1981. "Imagine" was re-released as a single in the UK in 1988, peaking at number 45, and again in 1999, reaching number three. As of June 2013, it had sold over 1.64 million copies in the UK, making it Lennon's best-selling single there. In 1999, on National Poetry Day in the United Kingdom, the BBC announced that listeners had voted "Imagine" Britain's favourite song lyric. In 2003, it reached number 33 as the B-side to a re-release of " Happy Xmas (War Is Over)".

Rolling Stone described "Imagine" as Lennon's "greatest musical gift to the world", praising "the serene melody; the pillowy chord progression; [and] that beckoning, four-note [piano] figure". Robert Christgau called it "both a hymn for the Movement and a love song for his wife, celebrating a Yokoism and a Marcusianism simultaneously". Record World said it was "perhaps [Lennon's] most beautiful composition to date."

Included in several song polls, in 1999, BMI named it one of the top 100 most-performed songs of the 20th century. Also that year, it received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award and an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. "Imagine" ranked number 23 in the list of best-selling singles of all time in the UK, in 2000. In 2002, a UK survey conducted by the Guinness World Records British Hit Singles Book ranked it the second best single of all time behind Queen's " Bohemian Rhapsody". Gold Radio ranked the song number three on its "Gold's greatest 1000 hits" list.

Rolling Stone ranked "Imagine" number three on its list of " The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", describing it as "an enduring hymn of solace and promise that has carried us through extreme grief, from the shock of Lennon's own death in 1980 to the unspeakable horror of September 11. It is now impossible to imagine a world without 'Imagine', and we need it more than he ever dreamed." Despite that sentiment, Clear Channel Communications (now known today as iHeartMedia) included the song on its post-9/11 "do not play" list.

On 1 January 2005, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation named "Imagine" the greatest song in the past 100 years as voted by listeners on the show . The song ranked number 30 on the Recording Industry Association of America's list of the 365 Songs of the Century bearing the most historical significance. Virgin Radio conducted a UK favourite song survey in December 2005, and listeners voted "Imagine" number one. Australians selected it the greatest song of all time on the Nine Network's countdown show on 12 September 2006. They voted it eleventh in the youth radio network Triple J's Hottest 100 Of All Time on 11 July 2009.

Peace & Harmony, John Lennon Peace Monument in Liverpool

Former US President Jimmy Carter said, "in many countries around the world-my wife and I have visited about 125 countries-you hear John Lennon's song 'Imagine' used almost equally with national anthems." On 9 October 2010, which would have been Lennon's 70th birthday, the Liverpool Singing Choir performed "Imagine" along with other Lennon songs at the unveiling of the John Lennon Peace Monument in Chavasse Park, Liverpool. Beatles producer George Martin praised Lennon's solo work, singling out the composition: "My favourite song of all was 'Imagine'". Music critic Paul Du Noyer described "Imagine" as Lennon's "most revered" post-Beatles song. Authors Ben Urish and Ken Bielen called it "the most subversive pop song recorded to achieve classic status". Fricke commented: "'Imagine' is a subtly contentious song, Lennon's greatest combined achievement as a balladeer and agitator."

Urish and Bielen criticised the song's instrumental music as overly sentimental and melodramatic, comparing it to the music of the pre-rock era and describing the vocal melody as understated. According to Blaney, Lennon's lyrics describe hypothetical possibilities that offer no practical solutions; lyrics that are at times nebulous and contradictory, asking the listener to abandon political systems while encouraging one similar to communism. Author Chris Ingham indicated the hypocrisy in Lennon, the millionaire rock star living in a mansion, encouraging listeners to imagine living their lives without possessions, a sentiment that Elvis Costello echoed in his 1991 single " The Other Side of Summer". Others argue that Lennon intended the song's lyrics to inspire listeners to imagine if the world could live without possessions, not as an explicit call to give them up. Blaney commented: "Lennon knew he had nothing concrete to offer, so instead he offers a dream, a concept to be built upon."

Blaney considered the song to be "riddled with contradictions. Its hymn-like setting sits uncomfortably alongside its author's plea for us to envision a world without religion." Urish and Bielen described Lennon's "dream world" without a heaven or hell as a call to "make the best world we can here and now, since this is all this is or will be". In their opinion, "because we are asked merely to imagine-to play a 'what if' game, Lennon can escape the harshest criticisms". Former Beatle Ringo Starr defended the song's lyrics during a 1981 interview with Barbara Walters, stating: "[Lennon] said 'imagine', that's all. Just imagine it."

Stereogum contributors Timothy and Elizabeth Bracy did not include "Imagine" as one of Lennon's top 10 solo songs, saying "Lennon's astounding facility for writing instantly memorable hooks meets head on with his occasional weakness for pandering polemics on 'Imagine,' resulting in a tune that everyone can sing along with, even as many can't believe the trite silliness of the lyrics in question. This is yet more proof of Lennon's capacity as a master craftsman, but it doesn't necessarily make it a great song or one that has aged well outside of its vintage."

The morning after the November 2015 Paris attacks, German pianist Davide Martello brought a grand piano to the street out in front of the Bataclan, where 89 concertgoers had been shot dead the night before, and performed an instrumental version to honour the victims of the attacks; video of his performance went viral. This led Katy Waldman of to ponder why "Imagine" had become so frequently performed as a response to tragedy. In addition to its general popularity, she noted its musical simplicity, its key of C major, "the plainest and least complicated key, with no sharps or flats" aside from one passage with "a plaintive major seventh chord that allows a tiny bit of E minor into the tonic". That piano part, "gentle as a rocking chair", underpins lyrics that, Waldman says, "belongs to the tradition of hymns or spirituals that visualise a glorious afterlife without prophesising any immediate end to suffering on earth". This understanding is also compounded by the historical context of Lennon's own violent death, "remind[ing] us that the universe can run ramshod over idealistic people". Ultimately, the song "captures the fragility of our hope after a violent or destructive event ... [bu]t also reveals its tenacity".

In June 2017, the US National Music Publishers Association awarded "Imagine" a Centennial Song Award and recognised Lennon's desire to add Yoko Ono as a co-author of the song.

"Imagine" was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry in 2023.

Elton John performed the song regularly on his world tour in 1980, including at his free concert in Central Park, a few blocks away from Lennon's apartment in The Dakota. On 9 December 1980, the day after Lennon's murder, Queen performed "Imagine" as a tribute to him during their Wembley Arena show in London. In 1983, David Bowie performed it in Hong Kong during his Serious Moonlight Tour, on the third anniversary of Lennon's death. On 9 October 1990, more than one billion people listened to a broadcast of the song on what would have been Lennon's 50th birthday. Ratau Mike Makhalemele covered the song on an EP of Lennon covers in 1990. In 1991-92, Liza Minnelli performed the song in her show at Radio City Music Hall. Stevie Wonder gave his rendition of the song, with the Morehouse College Glee Club, during the closing ceremony of the 1996 Summer Olympics as a tribute to the victims of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing. In 2001, Neil Young performed it during the benefit concert America: A Tribute to Heroes. Madonna performed "Imagine" during the benefit Tsunami Aid: A Concert of Hope. Peter Gabriel performed the song during the 2006 Winter Olympics opening ceremony. Herman Cain, then the CEO of Godfather's Pizza, performed a parody of "Imagine", identified as "Imagine There's No Pizza", before the Omaha Press Club in 1991, which became a viral video when he ran for President of the United States 20 years later.

Strawberry Fields Memorial in Central Park to honour John Lennon with the word "Imagine" on it

Since 2005, "Imagine" has been played before the New Year's Eve ball drop at New York City's Times Square. Beginning in 2010, the song has been performed live; first by Taio Cruz, then in 2011 by CeeLo Green, in 2012 by Train, in 2013 by Melissa Etheridge, in 2014 by O.A.R., in 2015 by Jessie J, in 2016 by Rachel Platten, in 2017 by Andy Grammer, in 2018 by Bebe Rexha, in 2019 by X Ambassadors, in 2020 by Andra Day, in 2021 by KT Tunstall, in 2022 by Chelsea Cutler, and in 2023 by Paul Anka. However, Green received criticism for changing the lyric "and no religion too" to "and all religions true", resulting in an immediate backlash from fans who believed that he had disrespected Lennon's legacy by changing the lyrics of his most iconic song. Green defended the change by saying it meant to represent "a world [where you] could believe what [you] wanted". The event got media attention outside of the US, with Britain's The Guardian stating "Lennon's original lyrics don't praise pluralism or interchangeable religious truths-they damn them".

Numerous artists have recorded cover versions of "Imagine". Joan Baez included it on 1972's Come from the Shadows and Diana Ross recorded a version for her 1973 album, Touch Me in the Morning. In 1995, Blues Traveler recorded the song for the Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon album and Dave Matthews has performed the song live with them. American singer and guitarist Eva Cassidy recorded a version for her 2002 album of the same name; this version failed to reach the top 100 in the United Kingdom but peaked at number 35 on the UK Indie Chart. Dolly Parton recorded the song for her 2005 covers album Those Were the Days. David Archuleta reached number 36 in US and number 31 in Canada with his rendition. A cover version of the song, performed by Italian singer Marco Carta, entered the top 20 in Italy in 2009, peaking at number 13.

Seal, Pink, India.Arie, Jeff Beck, Konono Nº1, Oumou Sangaré and others recorded a version for Herbie Hancock's 2010 album The Imagine Project. In February 2011, the recording won a Grammy award for Best Pop Vocal Collaboration.

"Imagine" was performed as part of the closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics. Performed by the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Choir and the Liverpool Signing Choir, the choirs sang the first verse and accompanied Lennon's original vocals during the rest of the song. A cover performed by Emeli Sandé was also used by the BBC for a closing montage that ended its coverage. "Imagine" subsequently re-entered the UK Top 40, reaching number 18.

In 2014, to celebrate 25 years of UNICEF's Convention on the Rights of the Child, the organisation launched an initiative using the song. Performers including Ono, Hugh Jackman and ABBA announced the initiative at an event at the UN General Assembly in New York, with the intention of spreading the message that every voice matters. To do this, various celebrities and singers recorded cover versions of the song, which can be played on a downloadable app for people around the world to virtually sing with the celebrities and then share the videos on social media with related hashtags.

In 2015, American singer and songwriter Lady Gaga performed the song at the 2015 European Games opening ceremony. The song was played for 70,000 people in Baku, Azerbaijan, that served as host of the event. In 2018, the song was performed at the 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Pyeongchang ( South Korea). The same year Yoko Ono released a solo rendition of the song, the first since she received credit as co-writer.

In 2020, amid the first COVID-19 lockdowns, Gal Gadot and a number of other celebrities performed an online version of the song intended to raise morale in the face of the pandemic. The performance was poorly received by audiences, many of whom criticized it for being a tone-deaf message from a group of socialites and members of the international elite who were largely unaffected by the pandemic. In June 2020, actor Chris O'Dowd, who appeared in the online version of the song, said the criticisms of the project were "justified", referring to the video as "creative diarrhoea".

A pre-recorded version of the song performed by John Legend, Keith Urban, Alejandro Sanz and Angélique Kidjo, with musical arrangement by Hans Zimmer, was featured in the opening ceremony for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in July 2021, and another pre-recorded cover version again as a theme song in the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing in February 2022.

During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Lennon's son Julian Lennon for the first time covered his father's song, calling on world leaders and everyone who believes in the song's sentiment of hope and peace to stand up for refugees.

"Imagine" is performed every New Year's Eve in New York City, just before the countdown to midnight begins. This is a tradition dating back to 1986.

Du Noyer, Paul (1971). Imagine (Media notes). John Lennon. Capitol Records.

Ingham, Chris (2009). The Rough Guide to the Beatles (3rd ed.). Rough Guides. ISBN 978-1-84836-525-4.

Fricke, David (2012) [2002]. "The Making of 'Imagine'". In Wenner, Jann (ed.). John Lennon: The Ultimate Guide to His Life, Music, and Legend. Rolling Stone. ISBN 978-7-09-893419-6.

Sheff, David (1981). Golson, G. Barry (ed.). All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono (2000 ed.). St Martin's Griffin. ISBN 978-0-312-25464-3.

Wenner, Jann (2010) [2004]. 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. OCLC 641731526.

Yoko Ono, Phil Spector (Producers) (2000). Gimme Some Truth - The Making of John Lennon's "Imagine" (DVD). Capitol. ASIN B000AYELY2.

Andrew Solt (Director) (2005). Imagine: John Lennon (DVD). Warner Home Video. ASIN 6305847118.

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" Imagine" is a song by the English rock musician John Lennon from his 1971 album of the same name. The best-selling single of his solo career, the lyrics encourage listeners to imagine a world of peace, without materialism, without borders separating nations and without religion.

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Description：My theme is about anti-war activism. I think that is a important for everyone and that is a good topic.

Feelings：I think the progress is difficult. Because I must find useful information for me. And it must relate for my presentation in the future. But in my library I can find a lot of article about activism. In addtion，I find a lot about my theme.

Evaluation：I check whether it is reliability through the pdf that my tutor sent me. The three articles gain higher scores respectively. What is more, the contents are useful for my research.

Analysis: I think that is because my experience is not enough. So I felt the difficult.

Conclusion: Through this week's study, I learned how to check the reliability of the articles. And I know where I can find excellent the article.

Action plan：In the future，I will research more useful articles on reliable website.

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Paths of Glory (1957): Directed by Stanley Kubrick, this film is set during World War I and explores the unjust treatment of soldiers by their superiors. It criticizes the absurdity and futility of war.

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Paths of Glory is a 1957 American anti-war film co-written and directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on the novel of the same name by Humphrey Cobb, which was based on the Souain corporals affair during World War I. The film stars Kirk Douglas as Colonel Dax, the commanding officer of French soldiers who refuse to continue a suicidal attack, after which Dax attempts to defend them against charges of cowardice in a court-martial.

The film was co-produced through Douglas's film production company, Bryna Productions, and a joint venture between Stanley Kubrick and James B. Harris, Harris-Kubrick Pictures. In 1992, the film was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

In 1916, during World War I in Northern France, French Major General Georges Broulard orders his subordinate, Brigadier General Paul Mireau, to take the Anthill, a well-defended German position. Mireau refuses, citing the impossibility of success. However, when Broulard mentions a potential promotion, Mireau quickly convinces himself that the attack will succeed.

In the trenches, Mireau throws a private out of the regiment for showing signs of shell shock. Mireau leaves the planning of the attack to Colonel Dax, despite Dax's protests that the result will weaken the French Army.

Before the attack, drunken Lieutenant Roget leads a night-time scouting mission, sending one of his two men ahead. Overcome by fear while waiting for the man's return, Roget lobs a grenade, accidentally killing the scout. Corporal Paris, the other soldier on the mission, confronts Roget, who denies any wrongdoing and falsifies his report to Colonel Dax.

The next morning, the attack on the Anthill is a failure. Dax leads the first wave of soldiers over the top into no man's land under heavy rifle and machine gun fire. None of the men reach the German trenches, and B Company refuses to leave their trench after seeing that defeat. Mireau orders his artillery to open fire on them to force them onto the battlefield. The artillery commander refuses to fire without written confirmation of the order.

To deflect blame for the attack's failure, Mireau decides to court-martial 100 of the soldiers for cowardice. Broulard orders Mireau to reduce the number and Mireau arrives at three, one from each company. Corporal Paris is chosen because his commanding officer Roget wishes to keep him from testifying about what happened in the scouting mission. Private Ferol is picked by his commanding officer because he is a "social undesirable". Private Arnaud is chosen at random.

Dax, a criminal defense lawyer in civilian life, volunteers to defend the men at their court-martial. The trial, however, is a farce. There is no formal written indictment, a court stenographer is not present, and the court refuses to admit evidence that would support acquittal. In his closing statement, Dax angrily denounces the proceedings. Later, in a meeting with Broulard, Dax informs him that Mireau had ordered the artillery to fire onto French trenches to dislodge the soldiers refusing to attack. Nonetheless, the three are sentenced to death and shot by firing squad.

Following the executions, Broulard tells Mireau that he will be investigated for ordering artillery to fire on his own men. Mireau denounces this as a betrayal by his commanding officer. After Mireau leaves, Broulard then offers Mireau's command to Dax, assuming that Dax's attempts to stop the executions were a ploy to gain Mireau's job. Discovering that Dax was sincere, Broulard rebukes him for his idealism, but Dax in turn denounces Broulard's nihilism.

After the execution, some of Dax's soldiers are carousing at an inn. They become more subdued as they listen to and then join in with a captive German girl working as a barmaid and entertainer as she sings a sad German sentimental folk song, The Faithful Hussar. Dax leaves without informing the men that they have been ordered to return to the front and the continuing carnage of the trenches.

Kirk Douglas as Colonel Dax, commanding officer, 701st Infantry Regiment

Ralph Meeker as Corporal Philippe Paris, 701st Infantry Regiment

Adolphe Menjou as Major General Georges Broulard, corps commander

George Macready as Brigadier General Paul Mireau, divisional commander

Wayne Morris as Lieutenant Roget, company commander, 701st Infantry Regiment

Richard Anderson as Major Saint-Auban, Mireau's aide de camp

Joe Turkel as Private Pierre Arnaud, 701st Infantry Regiment (credited as Joseph Turkel)

Christiane Kubrick as German singer (credited as Susanne Christian)

Jerry Hausner as café proprietor

Peter Capell as president of the court martial (and narrator)

Emile Meyer as Father Duprée

Bert Freed as Staff Sergeant Boulanger, 701st Infantry Regiment

Kem Dibbs as Private Lejeune, 701st Infantry Regiment

Timothy Carey as Private Maurice Ferol, 701st Infantry Regiment

Fred Bell as shell-shocked soldier

John Stein as Captain Rousseau, artillery battery commander

Harold Benedict as Captain Nichols, artillery liaison officer

James B. Harris as soldier in attack (uncredited)

The title of Cobb's novel came from the ninth stanza of Thomas Gray's poem " Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" (1751).

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Awaits alike th'inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

The book was a minor success when published in 1935, retelling the true-life affair of four French soldiers who were executed to set an example to the rest of the troops. The novel was adapted to the stage the same year by Sidney Howard, World War I veteran and scriptwriter of Gone with the Wind. The play was a flop on Broadway because of its harsh anti-war scenes that alienated the audience. Nonetheless, Howard continued to believe in the relevance of the subject matter and thought it should be made into a film, writing, "It seems to me that our motion picture industry must feel something of a sacred obligation to make the picture." Fulfilling Howard's "sacred obligation", Stanley Kubrick decided to adapt it to the screen after he remembered reading the book when he was younger. Kubrick and his partners purchased the film rights from Cobb's widow for $10,000.

Gray's stanza reflects Kubrick's feelings about war as well, and that becomes clear in the narrative of the film - a long battle for something with such an unimportant name as the "Ant Hill". Some of Kubrick's unrealized projects contained themes of war as well. Kubrick once told a New York Times journalist that

Man isn't a noble savage, he's an ignoble savage. He is irrational, brutal, weak, silly, unable to be objective about anything where his own interests are involved - that about sums it up. I'm interested in the brutal and violent nature of man because it's a true picture of him. And any attempt to create social institutions on a false view of the nature of man is probably doomed to failure.

Paths of Glory is based loosely on the true story of the Souain corporals affair when four French soldiers were executed in 1915 during World War I under General Géraud Réveilhac for failure to follow orders. The soldiers were exonerated posthumously in 1934. The novel is about the French execution of innocent men to strengthen others' resolve to fight. The French Army did carry out military executions for cowardice, as did most of the other major participants, excluding the United States of America and Australia. The United States sentenced 24 soldiers to death for cowardice, but the sentences were never carried out. However, a significant point in the film is the practice of selecting individuals at random and executing them as a punishment for the sins of the whole group. This is similar to the Roman practice of decimation, which was rarely used by the French Army in World War I.

Kubrick said of his decision to make a war film: "One of the attractions of a war or crime story is that it provides an almost unique opportunity to contrast an individual or our contemporary society with a solid framework of accepted value, which the audience becomes fully aware of, and which can be used as a counterpoint to a human, individual, emotional situation. Further, war acts as a kind of hothouse for forced, quick breeding of attitudes and feelings. Attitudes crystallise and come out into the open. Conflict is natural, when it would in a less critical situation have to be introduced almost as a contrivance, and would thus appear forced or, even worse, false."

Although Kubrick's previous film The Killing had failed at the box office, it had managed to land on several critical top-ten lists for the year. Dore Schary, then head of production at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, liked the film and hired Kubrick and Harris to develop film stories from MGM's slush pile of scripts and purchased novels. Finding nothing they liked, Kubrick remembered reading Cobb's book at the age of 14 and the "great impact" it had upon him and suggested it as their next project. Schary strongly doubted the commercial success of the story, which had already been turned down by every other major studio.

After Schary was fired by MGM in a major shake-up, Kubrick and Harris managed to interest Kirk Douglas in a script version that Kubrick had done with Calder Willingham. After reading the script, Kirk Douglas was impressed and managed to get an advance for a $1 million budget from United Artists to help produce the film. Of the roughly $1 million budget, more than a third was allocated to Kirk Douglas' salary. Prior to the involvement of Douglas and his Bryna Production Company, no studio had showed interest in the seemingly noncommercial subject matter and filming in black and white. MGM rejected the idea of the film based on fears that the film would be unfavourable to European distributors and audiences. United Artists agreed to back it with Douglas as the star.

Kubrick eventually hired Calder Willingham to work on the script of Paths of Glory (1957), of which Jim Thompson had written earlier drafts. The specific contributions by Kubrick, Thompson, and Willingham to the final script were disputed, and the matter went to arbitration with the Writers' Guild. Willingham claimed that Thompson had minimal involvement in the final script of the film, claiming responsibility for 99 percent of Paths of Glory for himself and that Thompson had not written any of the dialogue. When Thompson's draft screenplay was compared to the final film, it was clear that Thompson had written seven scenes, including the reconnaissance mission and the scene with soldiers the night before their executions by firing squad. In the end, the Writers' Guild attributed the script in the order of Kubrick, Willingham and then Thompson.

Parts of the screenplay were taken from Cobb's work verbatim. However, Kubrick made several changes to the narrative of the novel in his adaptation, most notably his shift of focus to Colonel Dax, as opposed to Paris, Ferol and Arnaud as in the novel. One speculated addition is when General Mireau says "show me a patriot, and I'll show you an honest man", and Colonel Dax responds that Samuel Johnson once said: "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel".

Primarily, Kubrick and Thompson had added a happy ending to the film to make the film more commercial to the general public, where the men's lives are saved from execution at the last minute by the general. However, these changes were reversed back more closely to the original novel at the demand of Kirk Douglas. On the Criterion Collection Blu-ray, James B. Harris claims to have gotten this ending past distributors by sending the entire script instead of just the reversed ending, in the knowledge that those distributors would not read through the whole script again. After viewing the film, United Artists was happy with the changes and left the ending as it is.[citation needed ]

Kubrick on the set of Paths of Glory (1957 publicity photo)

Production took place entirely in Bavaria, Germany, especially at the Schleissheim Palace near Munich. Timothy Carey was fired during production. He was reportedly extremely difficult to work with, even to the extent of faking his own kidnapping, holding up the whole production. He was replaced in the scenes remaining to be shot with a double. The film cost slightly less than $1 million and just about broke even.

Due to having three years' military training, around 600 German police officers were used as extras for soldiers. The last scenes filmed were those that take place on the battlefield. For the construction of the battlefield, Kubrick hired 5,000 square yards (0.4 hectares) of land from a local farmer. It took Kubrick a month to set up the filming of the assault, arranging props and tearing up the field to look like a war zone. For the filming of the battle sequence, the battlefield was divided into five regions where explosive charges were specifically placed. This made it easier for Kubrick to film the dying of extras as he split the extras into five groups, one for each of the regions, and each man would die in his own zone by an explosion that was near him.

An early critical test of Kubrick's obsession with control on the set came during the making of Paths of Glory. As recalled by Kirk Douglas:

He made the veteran actor Adolphe Menjou do the same scene 17 times. "That was my best reading." Menjou announced. "I think we can break for lunch now." It was well past the usual lunch time but Kubrick said he wanted another take. Menjou went into an absolute fury. In front of Douglas and the entire crew he blasted off on what he claimed was Kubrick's dubious parentage and made several other unprintable references to Kubrick's relative greenness in the art of directing actors. Kubrick merely listened calmly and after Menjou had spluttered to an uncomplimentary conclusion said quietly: "All right, let's try the scene once more." With utter docility, Menjou went back to work. "Stanley instinctively knew what to do," Douglas says.

The only female character in the film, the woman who sings " The Faithful Hussar", is portrayed by German actress Christiane Harlan (credited in the film as Susanne Christian). She and Kubrick later married; the couple remained together until his death in 1999. It was on set that they originally had met.

Paths of Glory employs both camera-work and audio cues to create a sense of realism, thus making it easier for the audience to sympathise with the plight of the accused soldiers. In the beginning of the film a snare drum plays, and the music is reminiscent of war era newsreels. During the battle sequences, the camera keeps pace with the soldiers but in other ways, the shots look like old trench warfare footage from World War I. The film's choice of black and white further emphasises its similarity to the actual newsreels of the conflict.

Kubrick's vision of war was far bleaker than that of some other films of the era, which also influenced the director's choice to shoot the picture in black and white. The visuals also allow the audience to see the difference between "life in the trenches" and "life in the command". From the opulent mansion of the high-ranking officers, the audience notices wide shots from the exterior and the interior. The viewer misses nothing; every decadent piece of furniture, jewelry or bauble that the senior officers have, in sharp contrast to the trenches where the shots are much tighter. Close ups and point-of-view shots (e.g. from Colonel Dax's perspective) are cramped and tight, suffocating for the audience. Switching to a shot in front of Dax's person, e.g. a walking shot, the audience becomes much like the other soldiers accompanying him in the trenches, feeling stuck and trapped in the confined and dangerous space.

The musical score by Gerald Fried makes extensive use of percussion instruments, specifically military drums.

Kubrick used sound, or the lack thereof, to build tension and suspense in the film, particularly towards the beginning when the three soldiers are given orders to check on the Anthill. This scene is in silence, with no use of diegetic/non-diegetic sound, working well to add depth and rawness. Much of what the viewer can hear throughout the film is explosions in the distance and the sound of a whistle being blown, further adding to the overall documentary style of the film. The lack of a big bold score gives no suggestion of heroism to the plot of the film, and the sounds of people dying are a common trope associated with Stanley Kubrick's films. The song towards the ending happens within the narrative. In the tavern with the French soldiers of Dax's regiment, a young woman sings a traditional German folk song of that era, "Der treue Husar". With Kubrick's use of mise-en-scene, the audience is able to see the German woman's performance bring the men to tears through various close-ups and angles. The troopers begin to hum and eventually sing along to the tune in an expression of their basic humanity. Paths of Glory later ends in the same way it began with the familiar snare/drum roll used in the opening, indicative of a lack of change throughout the film. Kubrick's use of sounds and song functions as a kind of narration for the audience, linking each sound to a later or earlier scene in the film.

The film had its "world premiere" in Munich, Germany, on November 1, 1957. A month and a half before that event, on September 18, a special screening of Kubrick's production was also presented in Munich, but then to a very select audience. Frank Gordon, reporting from the Bavarian capital for the widely read New York trade paper , describes the earlier presentation in the paper's September 27 issue:

Munich, Sept. 18.
Three hundred specially invited local VIPs, Army brass, Radio Free Europe staffers, German stage and film luminaries mingled with Kirk Douglas, Janet Leigh, Tony Curtis and Ernest Borgnine to see a "not for review" showing of Jim Harris' Munich-filmed "Paths of Glory."...Douglas, who stars in "Paths," is presently shooting his own Bryna-produced " Vikings" in this city's Geiselgasteig studios. "Vikings" co-stars Curtis, Borgnine, and Leigh....A World War I action story, ["Paths"] will be released through United Artists. Also a Bryna production, it was directed by Stanley (" The Killing") Kubrick.

In the United States, the picture was not officially released nationwide until January 1958, although it was shown in two major cities prior to that: in Los Angeles, California at the Fine Arts Theatre on December 20, 1957, and then five days later, on Christmas Day, in New York City at the Victoria Theatre. The American trade journal Motion Picture Daily explained at the time that "Paths" was being shown in those cities before the end of 1957 to ensure the film would qualify for nominations for the next Academy Award ceremonies, which were to be held on March 26, 1958.

Assessments vary with regard to the film's ultimate success at the box office, with some sources citing it as a modest financial success and others noting that it only managed to recoup most, if not all, of its production costs. The film did, however, earn Kubrick widespread critical acclaim, while it also generated widespread controversy, especially in Europe.

Although the film did not receive a single nomination for the Academy Awards of 1958, it was nominated for and collected several international awards. Those awards and many positive reviews from film critics further enhanced Kubrick's already growing reputation. The film was nominated for a BAFTA Award under the category Best Film but lost to The Bridge on the River Kwai. The production also received in Finland the Jussi Awards' Diploma of Merit, was nominated for a Writers' Guild of America Award in 1959, and won the prestigious Grand Prix of the Belgian Film Critics Association. Kubrick himself received on February 17, 1959, in Rome the Italian critics' Silver Ribbon, an award recognizing him as "the best foreign director of 1958 for his movie 'Paths of Glory'."

On its release, the film's anti-military tone was subject to severe public criticism and governmental censorship.

In France, both active and retired personnel from the French military vehemently criticized the film-and its portrayal of the French Army-after it was released in Belgium. The French government placed enormous pressure on United Artists (the European distributor) not to release the film in France. The film was eventually shown in France in 1975 when anti-war attitudes were more acceptable.

The film was withdrawn from the Berlin Film Festival to avoid straining relations with France. It was then not shown in Germany until two years after its theatrical release in the United States.

In Spain, the fascist government of Francisco Franco objected to the film. It was not shown there until 1986, 11 years after Franco's death.

The Swiss government banned any presentations of the film until 1970 on the grounds that it was "incontestably offensive" to France, its judicial system and its army.

The film was banned in all United States military establishments, both at home and overseas, due to its content.

Reviews in the United States, 1957-1958

Despite the film's harsh reception in Europe by various governments, French war veterans, and media outlets, in the months after the motion picture's initial screenings in the United States, reactions to Kubrick's production featured in American newspapers and trade publications were generally positive. Nevertheless, perceived deficiencies in the film's structure and content were expressed by some of the nation's leading reviewers in 1957 and 1958.

In his December 26, 1957, review for The New York Times, Bosley Crowther credits Kubrick for creating a visually "terrific", highly intense picture. In particular, Crowther draws attention to the story's execution scene, which he describes as "one of the most craftily directed and emotionally lacerating that we have ever seen." He does, though, also identify two "troubling flaws" that he saw in the film, one being within the "realm of technique", the other within the "realm of significance":

We feel that Mr. Kubrick - and Mr. Douglas - have made a damaging mistake in playing it in colloquial English, with American accents and attitudes, while studiously making it look as much as possible like a document of the French Army in World War I. The illusion of reality is blown completely whenever anyone talks....
As for the picture's significance, it comes to an inconclusive point. Its demonstration of injustice is like an exhibit in a bottle in a medical museum. It is grotesque, appalling, nauseating - but so framed and isolated that, when you come away, you are left with the feeling that you have been witness to nothing more than a horribly freakish incident.

The absence of any spoken French or suitably accented English dialogue in a highly focused portrayal of French soldiers continued to be a point of debate in American critical analysis of Paths of Glory. Philip K. Scheuer, who wrote about films for the Los Angeles Times from the 1920s to 1967, was another reviewer who addressed the issue again in the newspaper's January 16, 1958, edition. In a follow-up discussion about the "controversial war picture", in a commentary subtitled "Question of Foreign Accents Raised by 'Paths of Glory'", Scheuer cites the style of speech used in the film and the screenplay's "weak" ending as two reasons he omitted the production from his "selection of 1957's best". Like Bosley Crowther, he found the " linguistic" aspects of the dialogue wholly distracting. "In 'Paths'", Scheuer writes, "the actors all...employ ordinary colloquial English - much of it, I felt, delivered badly - although Adolph Menjou, being of French descent, did convey a certain quality of Frenchness," adding, "The others were simply Hollywood types."

The overriding tone of the motion picture also evoked comments about the picture's marketability, namely its scant appeal to a very large segment of moviegoers. "Grim" is the word that frequently appears in contemporary reviews of the film, an adjective understandably applied given the story's brutal subject matter, and a word still commonly used even in complimentary assessments by critics. In its March 18, 1958 edition, the Chicago Daily Tribune summarizes the release as "a grim, forceful story, presented in blunt, unvarnished fashion, entirely lacking in the customary cliches, deftly directed." Whitney Williams, a critic for , previewed the film six weeks before it opened at the Fine Arts Theatre in Los Angeles. In his review, which was published on November 20, 1957, Williams anticipates limited interest as well as limited box-office revenue for the picture:

"Paths of Glory" is a starkly realistic recital of French army politics in 1916 during World War I. While the subject is well handled and enacted in a series of outstanding characterizations, it seems dated and makes for grim screen fare. Even with the Kirk Douglas star name to spark its chances, outlook is spotty at best and will need all the hard selling United Artists, which is distributing the Bryna production, can muster.

Harrison's Reports, an independent and advertisement-free film review journal in 1957, agreed with Variety's critic and in November expressed doubts too that the "World War I melodrama" would be successful commercially after its general release in January 1958. "Just how it will fare at the box-office is a matter of conjecture", Harrison's stated, characterizing its central theme as "a grim and unpleasant study of man's inhumanity toward man".

Edwin S. Schallert, a fellow critic of Philip Scheuer at the Los Angeles Times, also attended the film's first screening in Los Angeles on December 20, 1957. The following day the newspaper published Schallert's evaluation, which begins by classifying Paths of Glory as "A minor contribution but an interesting one to the war effort on the screen". Next he describes the drama's storyline in some detail before addressing specifically the film's final scene, which he found odd and disconnected in its presentation so soon after "the grim gray execution". "Susanne Christian", Schallert writes, "is seen as the German girl forced to sing to a huge body of [French] troops right at the end of the picture - a peculiar sort of payoff for the miscarriage of justice to which the whole gathering of men seems to be oblivious." He then concludes, "'Paths of Glory' is a commendably sincere picture, very well told for the most part, though it does not fulfill itself in the best screen and entertainment terms. It is practically like a documentary."

The review in Harrison's Reports addressed the ending as well, maintaining that it was the "picture's one weak spot", was "difficult to understand", and "leaves one with a feeling that it is inconclusive". The journal then offered its own interpretation of the final scenes. From Harrison's perspective, as Colonel Dax is returning to his quarters after his confrontations with his superior officers, "he notices his soldiers enjoying themselves in a cafe. It disgusts him to think that they had so quickly forgotten their executed comrades, but he compassionately realizes that life must go on." Whitney Williams in Variety also commented about the film's finale, noting that it "ends so abruptly [the] audience is left with a feeling of incompletion."

Other assorted critics in newspapers and trade publications viewed the film's ending and the production's significance cinematically far differently than the cited critics at the Los Angeles Times or the reviewers for Harrison's Reports and Variety. Richard Gertner of the New York-based trade paper Motion Picture Daily was one of them. He, unlike Edwin Schallert, did not see Paths of Glory as a "minor contribution" to the genre of wartime portrayals. Nor did he find its closing scenes "peculiar"; but instead, "poignant". After viewing what he termed "a brilliant and arresting film" only a few weeks after its world premiere in Munich, Gertner highly recommended it to his readers, many of whom were theater owners. He then advised those motion picture "exhibitors" not to misjudge the film's content in advance:

Technically, this is a war picture, but any exhibitor who promotes it as just another action film will be making a serious mistake. Its exciting battle scenes and the suspense of a subsequent court martial assure it of appeal in that market. But it also has deeper and stronger elements under the surface that will attract customers who like strong drama....Just as exciting as the physical events are the ideas about war and men that Kubrick trenchantly puts across - about military discipline, the [fallibility] of those who carry it out and the futility of attempting to fight [it]. These are timeless ideas - relevant to any war. Let us hasten to add, however, that this is no "message" picture. The theme is implicit to the story and the characters.

Finally, in contrast to Philip Scheuer's omission of the production from his "selection of 1957's best", Gertner ends his appraisal emphatically: "No doubt about it - 'Paths of Glory' is one of the strongest dramas of the year."

In spite of issues being raised in various reviews about the film's manner of dialogue, its anticipated marketing challenges, and its ending, in the United States in 1957 and 1958 there was near universal admiration expressed for the directorial abilities and technical expertise that the 29-year-old Kubrick exhibited in the production. Jay Carmody - the drama critic for The Evening Star in Washington, D.C., and winner of the Screen Directors Guild's "Critic of the Year" award for 1956 - commended Kubrick for directing a "film with sting" and doing so with "chilling incisiveness". At the New York Herald Tribune, critic William Zinsser judges the film to be "outstanding" in his December 26, 1957 review and describes Kubrick's direction and editing as first-rate. "His scenes", Zinsser observes, "are vivid and well composed, and he knows the art of cutting - the scenes make their point, with economy and bite, and move on." Even at this relatively early stage in Kubrick's career directing feature films, he had already gained a reputation in the motion picture industry for commanding all aspects of his projects and being, as one colleague described him, "'meticulous with everything, from scripting to editing'". What is notably missing, however, from Zinsser's comments or in other contemporary reviews about the quality of the production's "cutting" are any allusions to Eva Kroll, the film's credited editor, and to her contributions in helping to construct or at least refine the end product.

More than three decades after the release of Paths of Glory, American director Robert Zemeckis paid homage to the film with the 1991 Tales from the Crypt episode "Yellow". The episode was an adaptation of the 1952 Shock SuspenStories story, "Yellow!", about a U.S. Army colonel whose son, a lieutenant, exhibits cowardice and is sentenced to face the firing squad. The father makes the son falsely believe that the firing squad will be firing blanks, so that the son will not exhibit cowardice before his execution. Zemeckis cast Kirk Douglas and his son Eric Douglas in the father and son roles.

David Simon, creator of the critically acclaimed television series (2002-2008), has said that Paths of Glory was a key influence on the HBO crime drama. The influence of the film comes in its depiction of the tribulations of "middle management", in the form of Dax's unsuccessful attempt to protect his troops against the inhumane ambitions of his superiors, which in turn influenced The Wire  's depiction of various institutions acting against individuals.

Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert added the film to his "Great Movies" list on February 25, 2005. Years earlier, on a 1987 episode of the televised film review series At the Movies, critic Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune debated with co-host Ebert about the respective merits of several Kubrick productions. Siskel in their discussions declared Paths of Glory to be "a near perfect film," one that in his opinion was surpassed in overall quality only by Kubrick's dark comedy Dr. Strangelove.

An indication of the film's enduring popularity can be found on the American review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. As of 2022, the film holds a 96% rating based on 75 reviews with an average rating of 9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, " Paths of Glory is a transcendentally humane war movie from Stanley Kubrick, with impressive, protracted battle sequences and a knock-out ending." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 90 out of 100 based on reviews from 18 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

In 1992, the film was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In October and November 2004 the film was shown at the London Film Festival by the British Film Institute. It was carefully remastered over a period of several years; the original film elements were found to be damaged. However, with the aid of several modern digital studios in Los Angeles the film was completely restored and remastered for modern cinema. In addition, Stanley Kubrick's widow Christiane (who also appears in the closing scene as the German singer) made a guest appearance at the start of the performance.

MGM released the VHS format on July 21, 1997, followed by the DVD version on June 29, 1999. The Criterion Collection's first release of the film was for a Laserdisc release in 1989. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray by The Criterion Collection with a high-definition digital transfer on October 26, 2010. Eureka released a UK Region B Blu-Ray in 2016 as part of its Masters of Cinema line.

In 2022, Kino Lorber have detailed their upcoming 4K Blu-ray release of the film, restored from the original camera negative. This release also features an audio commentary by critic Tim Lucas. This edition was released on August 23, 2022.

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Paths of Glory is a 1957 American anti-war film co-written and directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on the novel of the same name by Humphrey Cobb, which was based on the Souain corporals affair during World War I.

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Stop Loss (2008): Directed by Kimberly Peirce, this drama follows a soldier who is involuntarily recalled to serve in Iraq after completing his tour of duty, highlighting the challenges faced by returning veterans.

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Stop-Loss is a 2008 American war drama film directed by Kimberly Peirce and starring Ryan Phillippe, Channing Tatum, Abbie Cornish and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as young soldiers whose experience in the Iraq War leaves them psychologically shattered. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures and produced by MTV Films. The film received mixed reviews, and earned less than half of its $25 million production budget at the box office. The title refers to the U.S. government's controversial stop-loss policy, which allows the government to extend the term of duty of soldiers who have already served their contracted number of years of service.

U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Brandon King leads a squad stationed in Tikrit during the Iraq War. The film begins with footage from the tour of the squad, explaining they have 28 days before returning to the United States. While on duty at a checkpoint, the squad hears gunshots, after which a car speeds past filled with insurgents, one of whom fires an AK-47 at them. King's men jump into their Humvees and follow the insurgents into an alley. When the soldiers get out of their vehicles, the insurgents ambush them from rooftops.

As the firefight ensues, a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) is discharged, destroying one of the Humvees, killing two soldiers inside. Shortly after, another RPG is discharged, exploding an Iraqi vehicle. Squad member PFC Tommy Burgess is unfortunately near the vehicle when the RPG is discharged but another soldier, Pvt. Rico Rodriguez, dives on Burgess and saves him. This is at the expense of severely wounding Pvt. Rodriguez. Shortly after, fellow squad member Paul "Preacher" Colston, a close friend of Tommy, is shot in the neck and jaw in front of Tommy, and is killed instantly.

Later, when Staff Sergeant King enters a house to help injured long-time friend and squad member Sgt. Steve Shriver, he discovers that he had accidentally killed several Iraqi civilians by throwing a grenade to kill an insurgent in a room, unaware of any civilians present in the area. Brandon is visibly shocked and the ambush ends with three soldiers killed.

Upon returning to their Texas hometown of Brazos, Brandon and Steve are decorated with the Bronze Star and Purple Heart in a solemn ceremony. A U.S. Senator takes Brandon aside after the ceremony and offers to help Brandon in any way he can. That night, Steve shows the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. He gets drunk and digs a foxhole in his front yard, and strikes his fiancée Michelle in the face. When Brandon comes over to check on Steve, he is unable to get through to him. Tommy drives over drunk after his wife has kicked him out.

The next day, Brandon suggests that they all go to the "ranch", a small forest cabin located outside of town. The men pass the time by drinking and watching Tommy shoot his wedding gifts, after their friend Shorty reads the cards. Upon hearing the commotion, a hungover Steve awakens and shoots the cards to silence them and to show his skills in sniping. The next day, Brandon, Tommy and Steve report to their military base. When Brandon arrives expecting to be discharged, he is unexpectedly ordered back to active duty in Iraq, based on the military's controversial stop-loss policy, which required soldiers who had fulfilled their required tours of duty to return to the war. He refuses to comply and goes AWOL, becoming a deserter.

Michelle sympathizes with Brandon's refusal and offers to travel with him to Washington, D.C. to see the Senator who offered to assist Brandon earlier. During a multi-day drive to Washington, D.C., Brandon calls the Senator's office and is told that because he is now a fugitive, the Senator is not interested in seeing him. Brandon and Michelle also visit the family of Paul "Preacher" Colson, one of the three soldiers under Brandon's command killed in the alley ambush and encounter another AWOL soldier who recommends a lawyer to help arrange forged discharge documents so he could establish a new identity in Canada.

They also visit Rico Rodriguez, a soldier who was blinded, lost his right arm and leg, and sustained facial burns from saving Tommy from a rocket-propelled grenade, previously during the ambush in Iraq. After Michelle phones Steve to tell him of their exact location, he arrives in uniform to take Brandon back, and tells Michelle he has volunteered to return to Iraq. Brandon refuses to return and Michelle is furious with Steve for re-enlisting and ends their relationship. Brandon and Michelle finally reach New York City and meet with the lawyer, who gives Brandon forged papers and a passport which would allow him to flee to Canada in exchange for payment of $1,000. Tommy, who is depressed after being discharged from the army, commits suicide, Brandon returns to visit Tommy's grave immediately after the funeral, only to end up in a dispute with Steve, ultimately turning into a physical battle ending with Brandon leaving the cemetery and Steve weeping.

Brandon, his mother and Michelle drive to the Mexican border, but Brandon ultimately decides that he does not want to abandon everything that he has ever known. He also tells his mother and Michelle that if he goes to Mexico he'll never really be able to leave the war behind him. The final scene depicts a busload of soldiers, including Brandon and Steve, returning to the war.

Principal photography began in August 2006 in Morocco and various locations in Texas - Austin, Lockhart, San Antonio and Uhland.

The film was released on DVD on July 8, 2008.

Rotten Tomatoes reports a 64% approval rating, based on 143 reviews, with an average rating of 6.27/10 and the consensus: " Stop-Loss is sincere and complex, and features strong performances, even if it tries to cover too much ground." Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 61 out of 100, based on 35 reviews. The film was one of a string of films about the Iraq War released in the 2006-2009 period with titles such as;Home of the Brave by Irwin Winkler, Lions for Lambs by Robert Redford, by Gavin Hood, by Brian De Palma, In the Valley of Elah by Paul Haggis and The Messenger by Oren Moverman, all of which fared poorly at the box office and all of which, besides In the Valley of Elah and The Messenger, received middling critical reviews. James Berardinelli described the film as "preachy, simplistic and uninteresting", and cited it as no more effective than the other recent Iraq war films in attempting to tell a story with the "basic premise" that "War is hell, the U.S. government is deceitful, and soldiers are being irrevocably damaged." Peter Travers felt that Stop Loss "touches greatness" despite what he called "a curse hanging over it", and "has the juice to break the jinx."

The film was a box office bomb. In its opening weekend, it grossed a mere $4.5 million in 1,291 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #8 at the box office. As of June 17, 2008, it has grossed a total of $10.9 million in the U.S. and Canada and over $16,000 in other territories. The film had an estimated budget of $25 million and only grossed $11 million worldwide, less than half of its budget.

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Stop-Loss is a 2008 American war drama film directed by Kimberly Peirce and starring Ryan Phillippe, Channing Tatum, Abbie Cornish and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as young soldiers whose experience in the Iraq War leaves them psychologically shattered.