title: International Cricket Council

text: The Council failed to achieve consensus among the cricket-playing nations – as of June 2012 – on the universal application of an Umpire's Decision Review System, due to opposition by BCCI. It will continue to be applied subject to mutual agreement of the playing countries. In July 2012, ICC decided to send a delegation to show the ball tracking research done by Dr Ed Rosten, an expert on computer vision and technology, to BCCI to remove the scepticism about the use of DRS technology.


title: International Cricket Council

text: Two further regional bodies were disestablished following the creation of the African Cricket Association:


title: International Cricket Council

text: The ICC Player Rankings are a widely followed system of rankings for international cricketers based on their recent performances.


title: International Cricket Council

text: The ICC in association with Commonwealth Games Federation and International Olympic Committee also conducts Twenty20 Cricket Tournament for Women in Commonwealth Games.


title: International Cricket Council

text: The ICC organizes qualifying tournaments for various international main events for lower tanked teams mostly including the associate members.


title: International Cricket Council

text: The ICC has instituted the ICC Awards to recognize and honor the best international cricket players of the previous 12 months. The inaugural ICC Awards ceremony was held on 7 September 2004, in London. In 2020, ICC announced a special one-off edition, the ICC Awards of the Decade to honor the best performers and performances in the last 10 years.


title: International Cricket Council

text: The ICC has also had to deal with drugs and bribery scandals involving top cricketers. Following the corruption scandals by cricketers connected with the legal and illegal bookmaking markets, the ICC set up an Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) in 2000 under the retired Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police, Lord Condon. Among the corruption on which they have reported was that of former South African captain Hansie Cronje who had accepted substantial sums of money from an Indian bookmaker for under-performing or ensuring that certain matches had a pre-determined result. Similarly, the former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja were investigated, found guilty of match-fixing, and banned from playing cricket (for life and for five years, respectively). The ACSU continues to monitor and investigate any reports of corruption in cricket and protocols have been introduced, which for example prohibit the use of mobile telephones in dressing rooms.


title: International Cricket Council

text: Prior to the 2007 Cricket World Cup ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed warned against any corruption and said that the ICC would be vigilant and intolerant against it.


title: International Cricket Council

text: Following a scandal that occurred during the 2010 Pakistan tour of England, 3 Pakistani players, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif and Salman Butt were found to be guilty of spot-fixing, and were banned for 5 years, 7 years and 10 years respectively. On 3 November 2011, jail terms were handed down of 30 months for Butt, one year for Asif, six months for Amir and two years eight months for Majeed, the sports agent that facilitated the bribes.


title: International Cricket Council

text: In 2018, an investigation by Aljazeera revealed match-fixing in Sri-Lanka, India, England, Australia and other cricket playing nations. The ICC launched an investigation corcerning the report.


title: International Cricket Council

text: The ICC Global Cricket Academy (GCA) is located at Dubai Sports City in the United Arab Emirates. The GCA's facilities include two ovals, each with 10 turf pitches, outdoor turf and synthetic practice facilities, indoor practice facilities including hawk eye technology and a cricket-specific gymnasium. Rod Marsh has been appointed as the academy's Director of Coaching. The opening, originally planned for 2008, took place in 2010.


title: International Cricket Council

text: The International Cricket Council telecasts a weekly program on television called ICC Cricket World. It is produced by Sportsbrand.


title: International Cricket Council

text: It is a weekly 30-minute program providing the latest cricket news, recent cricket action including all Test and One-Day International matches, as well as off-field features and interviews.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: The Brothers Karamazov (, "Brat'ya Karamazovy", ), also translated as The Karamazov Brothers, is the last novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky spent nearly two years writing "The Brothers Karamazov", which was published as a serial in "The Russian Messenger" from January 1879 to November 1880. Dostoevsky died less than four months after its publication.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Set in 19th-century Russia, "The Brothers Karamazov" is a passionate philosophical novel that enters deeply into questions of God, free will, and morality. It is a theological drama dealing with problems of faith, doubt, and reason in the context of a modernizing Russia, with a plot that revolves around the subject of patricide. Dostoevsky composed much of the novel in Staraya Russa, which inspired the main setting. It has been acclaimed as one of the supreme achievements in world literature.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Although Dostoevsky began his first notes for "The Brothers Karamazov" in April 1878, the novel incorporated elements and themes from an earlier unfinished project he had begun in 1869 entitled "The Life of a Great Sinner". Another unfinished project, "Drama in Tobolsk" (Драма. В Тобольске), is considered to be the first draft of the first chapter of "The Brothers Karamazov". Dated 13 September 1874, it tells of a fictional murder in Staraya Russa committed by a "praporshchik" named Dmitry Ilynskov (based on a real soldier from Omsk), who is thought to have murdered his father. It goes on to note that the father's body was suddenly discovered in a pit under a house. The similarly unfinished "Sorokoviny" (Сороковины), dated 1 August 1875, is reflected in book IX, chapter 3–5 and book XI, chapter nine.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: In the October 1877 "Writer's Diary" article "To the Reader", Dostoevsky mentions a "literary work that has imperceptibly and involuntarily been taking shape within me over these two years of publishing the "Diary"." The "Diary" covered a multitude of themes and issues, some of which would be explored in greater depth in "The Brothers Karamazov". These include patricide, law and order, and a variety of social problems.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: The writing of "The Brothers Karamazov" was altered by a personal tragedy: in May 1878, Dostoevsky's 3-year-old son Alyosha died of epilepsy, a condition inherited from his father. The novelist's grief is apparent throughout the book. Dostoevsky named the hero Alyosha, as well as imbuing him with qualities that he sought and most admired. His loss is also reflected in the story of Captain Snegiryov and his young son Ilyusha.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: The death of his son brought Dostoevsky to the Optina Monastery later that year. There he found inspiration for several aspects of "The Brothers Karamazov", though at the time he intended to write a novel about childhood instead. Parts of the biographical section of Zosima's life are based on "The Life of the Elder Leonid", a text he found at Optina and copied "almost word for word."


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Fyodor Pavlovich, a 55-year-old sensualist and buffoon, is the father of three sons—Dmitri, Ivan and Alexei—from two marriages. He is rumored to have also fathered an illegitimate son, Pavel Fyodorovich Smerdyakov, whom he employs as his servant. Fyodor Pavlovich takes no interest in any of his sons, who are, as a result, raised apart from each other and their father. The relationship between Fyodor and his adult sons drives much of the plot in the novel.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Dmitri Fyodorovich (often referred to as Mitya) is Fyodor Karamazov's eldest son and the only offspring of his first marriage, with Adelaida Ivanovna Miusov. Dmitri is considered to be a sensualist, like his father, and regularly indulges in champagne-drinking and carousing. Dmitri is brought into contact with his family when he finds himself in need of his inheritance, which he believes is being withheld by his father. He was engaged to be married to Katerina Ivanovna, but breaks that off after falling in love with Grushenka. Dmitri's relationship with his father is the most volatile of the brothers, escalating to violence as he and his father begin fighting over his inheritance and Grushenka. While he maintains a relationship with Ivan, he is closest to his younger brother Alyosha, referring to him as his "cherub".


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: The character of Dmitri was initially inspired by a convict, D.I. Ilyinsky, whom Dostoevsky met while in prison in Siberia. Ilyinsky, who is described in Dostoevsky's memoir-novel "Notes from the House of the Dead" as "always in the liveliest, merriest spirits", was in prison for murdering his father in order to obtain his inheritance, although he always steadfastly maintained his innocence. He was later freed after another man confessed to the crime.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Ivan Fyodorovich (sometimes also referred to as Vanya) is the 24-year-old middle son, and the first from Fyodor Pavlovich's second marriage. Ivan is reserved and aloof, but also intellectually brilliant. His dictum "if there is no God, everything is lawful" is a recurring motif in the novel. At first, Ivan seems not to have much time for his brother Alyosha, but later their bond and mutual affection deepens. He finds his father repulsive, and also has a strong antipathy towards Dmitri. Fyodor Pavlovich tells Alyosha that he fears Ivan more than he fears Dmitri. Ivan falls in love with Katerina Ivanovna, but their intimacy develops in the shadow of her prior connection to Dmitri, and her ambivalence is a source of torment to him.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Some of the most memorable and acclaimed passages of the novel involve Ivan, including the chapters "Rebellion" and "The Grand Inquisitor" from Book V, and the three conversations with Smerdyakov and the subsequent chapter "Ivan's nightmare of the devil" in Book XI. Book V, entitled "Pro and Contra", is primarily about "the inner debate taking place in Ivan between his recognition of the moral sublimity of the Christian ideal and his outrage against a universe of pain and suffering." Ivan's rejection of God is posited in terms of the Christian value of compassion—the value that Dostoevsky himself (through the character of Prince Myshkin in "The Idiot") called "the chief and perhaps the only law of all human existence." Thus Ivan's rejection of God is justified by the very principle at the heart of Christianity. For Ivan the absurdity of all human history is proven by the senselessness of the suffering of children: if reason or rationality is the measure, God's world "cannot" be accepted. All the examples Ivan gives of horrors perpetrated against children were taken by Dostoevsky from actual newspaper accounts and historical sources.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Alexei Fyodorovich (often referred to as Alyosha) is, at age 20, the youngest of the brothers. He is the second child of Fyodor Pavlovich's second wife, Sofya Ivanovna, and is thus Ivan's full brother. The narrator identifies him as the hero of the novel in the opening chapter, as does the author in the preface. At the outset of the events, Alyosha is a novice in the local Russian Orthodox monastery. His faith is in contrast to his brother Ivan's atheism. The Elder, Father Zosima, who is a father figure and spiritual guide to Alyosha throughout the book, sends him into the world, where he becomes involved with the extreme personalities and fraught relationships in his family and elsewhere. At all times he acts as a compassionate and insightful peace maker, and is loved by virtually everyone.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: In creating the character of Alyosha, Dostoevsky was in large part addressing himself to the contemporary Russian radical youth, as a positive alternative to the atheistic approach to justice and attainment of the good. Alyosha embodies the same aspiration to a society governed by goodness and compassion that is contained in the Socialist ideal, but not divorced from faith in God, from faith in the immortality of the soul in God, or from the Orthodox Christian tradition in Russia.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Pavel Fyodorovich Smerdyakov is the son of "Reeking Lizaveta", a mute woman of the street who died alone giving birth to the child in Fyodor Pavlovich's bathhouse: the name "Smerdyakov" means "son of the reeking one". He is rumored to be the illegitimate son of Fyodor Pavlovich. He was brought up by Fyodor Pavlovich's trusted servant Grigory Vasilievich and his wife Marfa. Grigory tutored him and attempted to give him religious instruction, but Smerdyakov responded with ingratitude and derision. On one occasion Grigory had struck him violently across the face: a week later Smerdyakov had his first epileptic seizure. The narrator notes that as a child, Smerdyakov was fond of hanging cats and giving them ritualistic burials. Grigory told him: "You're not human. You're the spawn of the mildew on the bathhouse wall, that's who you are"—a remark for which Smerdyakov never forgave him. Smerdyakov becomes part of the Karamazov household as a servant, working as Fyodor Pavlovich's lackey and cook. Generally contemptuous of others, Smerdyakov admires Ivan and shares his atheism. Despite his evident shrewdness, other characters—particularly Ivan, Dimitri and Fyodor Pavlovich—underestimate his intelligence.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Agrafena Alexandrovna Svetlova, usually referred to as 'Grushenka', is a beautiful and fiery 22-year-old woman with an uncanny charm for men. In her youth she was jilted by a Polish officer and subsequently came under the protection of a tyrannical miser. The episode leaves Grushenka with an urge for independence and control of her life. Grushenka inspires complete admiration and lust in both Fyodor and Dmitri Karamazov. Their rivalry for her affection becomes the main focus of their conflict, a state of affairs that Grushenka is happy to take advantage of for her own satisfaction and amusement. Belatedly, she realizes that she truly loves Dimitri, and becomes ashamed of her cruelty. Her growing friendship with Alyosha leads her toward a path of spiritual redemption, and hidden qualities of gentleness and generosity emerge, though her fiery temper and pride remain intact.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Katerina Ivanovna (sometimes referred to as Katya) is Dmitri's beautiful fiancée, despite his open forays with Grushenka. Her engagement to Dmitri is chiefly a matter of pride on both their parts, Dmitri having bailed her father out of a debt. Katerina is extremely proud and seeks to act as a noble martyr. Because of this, she cannot bring herself to act on her love for Ivan, and constantly creates moral barriers between him and herself.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Father Zosima is an Elder and spiritual advisor ("starets") in the town monastery and Alyosha's teacher. He is something of a celebrity among the townspeople for his reputed prophetic and healing abilities. His spiritual status inspires both admiration and jealousy among his fellow monks. Zosima provides a refutation to Ivan's atheistic arguments and helps to explain Alyosha's character. Zosima's teachings shape the way Alyosha deals with the young boys he meets in the Ilyusha storyline.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Dostoevsky's intent with the character of Zosima (as with Alyosha) was to portray the Church as a positive social ideal. The character was to some extent based on Father Ambrose of the Optina Monastery, who Dostoevsky had met on a visit to the monastery in 1878. For Zosima's teachings in Book VI, "The Russian Monk", Dostoevsky wrote that the prototype is taken from certain teachings of Tikhon of Zadonsk and "the naïveté of style from the monk Parfeny's book of wanderings". The style and tone in Book VI, where Zosima narrates, is markedly different from the rest of the novel. V. L. Komarovich suggests that the rhythm of the prose is "a departure from all the norms of modern syntax, and at the same time imparts to the entire narration a special, emotional colouring of ceremonial and ideal tranquility."


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Ilyusha (sometimes called Ilyushechka) is a local schoolboy, and the central figure of a crucial subplot in the novel. Dimitri assaults and humiliates his father, the impoverished officer Captain Snegiryov, who has been hired by Fyodor Pavlovich to threaten Dmitri over his debts, and the Snegiryov family is brought to shame as a result.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: The opening of the novel introduces the Karamazov family and relates the story of their distant and recent past. The details of Fyodor Pavlovich's two marriages, as well as his indifference to the upbringing of his three children, is chronicled. The narrator also establishes the widely varying personalities of the three brothers and the circumstances that have led to their return to their father's town. The first book concludes by describing the mysterious Eastern Orthodox tradition of the Elders. Alyosha has become devoted to the Elder at the local monastery.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Book Two begins as the Karamazov family arrives at the monastery so that the Elder Zosima can act as a mediator between Dmitri and his father in their dispute over the inheritance. It was the father's idea, apparently as a joke, to have the meeting take place in such a holy place in the presence of the famous Elder. Fyodor Pavlovich's deliberately insulting and provocative behaviour destroys any chance of conciliation, and the meeting only results in intensified hatred and a scandal. This book also contains a scene in which the Elder Zosima consoles a woman mourning the death of her three-year-old son. The poor woman's grief parallels Dostoevsky's own tragedy at the loss of his young son Alyosha.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: The third book provides more details of the love triangle among Fyodor Pavlovich, his son Dmitri, and Grushenka. Dmitri hides near his father's home to see if Grushenka will arrive. His personality is explored in a long conversation with Alyosha. Later that evening, Dmitri bursts into his father's house and assaults him. As he leaves, he threatens to come back and kill him. This book also introduces Smerdyakov and his origins, as well as the story of his mother, Lizaveta Smerdyashchaya. At the conclusion of this book, Alyosha is witness to Grushenka's humiliation of Dmitri's betrothed Katerina Ivanovna.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: This section introduces a side story which resurfaces in more detail later in the novel. It begins with Alyosha observing a group of schoolboys throwing rocks at one of their sickly peers named Ilyusha. When Alyosha admonishes the boys and tries to help, Ilyusha bites Alyosha's finger. It is later learned that Ilyusha's father, a former staff-captain named Snegiryov, was assaulted by Dmitri, who dragged him by the beard out of a bar. Alyosha soon learns of the further hardships present in the Snegiryov household and offers the former staff captain money as an apology for his brother and to help Snegiryov's ailing wife and children. After initially accepting the money with joy, Snegiryov throws it to the ground and stomps it into the mud, before running back into his home.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Here, the rationalist and nihilistic ideology that permeated Russia at this time is defended and espoused by Ivan Karamazov while meeting his brother Alyosha at a restaurant. In the chapter titled "Rebellion", Ivan proclaims that he rejects the world that God has created because it is built on a foundation of suffering. In perhaps the most famous chapter in the novel, "The Grand Inquisitor", Ivan narrates to Alyosha his imagined poem that describes an encounter between a leader from the Spanish Inquisition and Jesus, who has made his return to Earth. The opposition between reason and faith is dramatised and symbolised in a forceful monologue of the Grand Inquisitor who, having ordered the arrest of Jesus, visits him in prison at night.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Why hast Thou come now to hinder us? For Thou hast come to hinder us, and Thou knowest that...We are working not with Thee but with him [Satan]...We took from him what Thou didst reject with scorn, that last gift he offered Thee, showing Thee all the kingdoms of the earth. We took from him Rome and the sword of Caesar, and proclaimed ourselves sole rulers of the earth...We shall triumph and shall be Caesars, and then we shall plan the universal happiness of man.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: The Grand Inquisitor accuses Jesus of having inflicted on humankind the "burden" of free will. At the end of the Grand Inquisitor's lengthy arguments, Jesus silently steps forward and kisses the old man on the lips. The Inquisitor, stunned and moved, tells him he must never come there again, and lets him out. Alyosha, after hearing the story, goes to Ivan and kisses him softly on the lips. Ivan shouts with delight. The brothers part with mutual affection and respect.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: The sixth book relates the life and history of the Elder Zosima as he lies near death in his cell. Zosima explains that he found his faith in his rebellious youth, after an unforgivable action toward his trusted servant, consequently deciding to become a monk. Zosima preaches people must forgive others by acknowledging their own sins and guilt before others. He explains that no sin is isolated, making everyone responsible for their neighbor's sins. Zosima represents a philosophy that responds to Ivan's, which had challenged God's creation in the previous book.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: The book begins immediately following the death of Zosima. It is a commonly held perception in the town and the monastery that true holy men's bodies are incorrupt, i.e., they do not succumb to putrefaction. Thus, the expectation concerning the Elder Zosima is that his deceased body will not decompose. It therefore comes as a great shock that Zosima's body not only decays, but begins the process almost immediately following his death. Within the first day, the smell is already unbearable. For many this calls into question their previous respect and admiration for Zosima. Alyosha is particularly devastated by the sullying of Zosima's name due to nothing more than the corruption of his dead body. One of Alyosha's companions in the monastery—Rakitin—uses Alyosha's vulnerability to set up a meeting between him and Grushenka. However, instead of Alyosha becoming corrupted, he acquires new faith and hope from Grushenka, while Grushenka's troubled mind begins the path of spiritual redemption through his influence: they become close friends. The book ends with the spiritual regeneration of Alyosha as he embraces and kisses the earth outside the monastery (echoing, perhaps, Zosima's last earthly act before his death) and cries convulsively. Renewed, he goes back out into the world, as his Elder instructed.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: This section deals primarily with Dmitri's wild and distraught pursuit of money for the purpose of running away with Grushenka. Dmitri owes money to his fiancée Katerina Ivanovna, and will believe himself to be a thief if he does not find the money to pay her back before embarking on his quest for Grushenka. Dmitri approaches Grushenka's benefactor, Samsonov, who sends him to a neighboring town on a fabricated promise of a business deal. All the while Dmitri is petrified that Grushenka may go to his father and marry him because of his wealth and lavish promises. When Dmitri returns from his failed dealing in the neighboring town, he escorts Grushenka to her benefactor's home, but later discovers that she has deceived him and left early. Furious, he runs to his father's home with a brass pestle in his hand, and spies on him from the window. He takes the pestle from his pocket. There is a discontinuity in the action, and Dmitri is suddenly running from his father's property. The servant Gregory tries to stop him, yelling "Parricide!", but Dmitri hits him in the head with the pestle. Dmitri, thinking that he has killed the old man, tries to attend to the wound with his handkerchief, but gives up and runs away.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Dmitri is next seen in a daze on the street, covered in blood, with a pile of money in his hand. He soon learns that Grushenka's former betrothed has returned and taken her to a nearby lodge. Upon learning this, Dmitri loads a cart with food and wine and pays for a huge orgy to finally confront Grushenka in the presence of her old flame, intending all the while to kill himself at dawn. The "first and rightful lover" is a boorish Pole who cheats the party at a game of cards. When his deception is revealed, he flees, and Grushenka soon reveals to Dmitri that she really is in love with him. The party rages on, and just as Dmitri and Grushenka are making plans to marry, the police enter the lodge and inform Dmitri that he is under arrest for the murder of his father.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Book Nine introduces the details of Fyodor Pavlovich's murder and describes the interrogation of Dmitri, who vigorously maintains his innocence. The alleged motive for the crime is robbery. Dmitri was known to have been completely destitute earlier that evening, but is suddenly seen with thousands of rubles shortly after his father's murder. Meanwhile, the three thousand rubles that Fyodor Pavlovich had set aside for Grushenka has disappeared. Dmitri explains that the money he spent that evening came from three thousand rubles that Katerina Ivanovna gave him to send to her sister. He spent half that at his first meeting with Grushenka—another drunken orgy—and sewed up the rest in a cloth, intending to give it back to Katerina Ivanovna. The investigators are not convinced by this. All of the evidence points toward Dmitri; the only other person in the house at the time of the murder, apart from Gregory and his wife, was Smerdyakov, who was incapacitated due to an epileptic seizure he suffered the day before. As a result of the overwhelming evidence against him, Dmitri is formally charged with the murder and taken away to prison to await trial.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: "Boys" continues the story of the schoolboys and Ilyusha last referred to in Book Four. The book begins with the introduction of the young boy Kolya Krasotkin. Kolya is a brilliant boy who proclaims his atheism, socialism, and beliefs in the ideas of Europe. Dostoevsky uses Kolya's beliefs, especially in a conversation with Alyosha, to satirize his Westernizer critics by putting their words and beliefs in the mouth of a young boy who doesn't really understand what he is talking about. Kolya is bored with life and constantly torments his mother by putting himself in danger. As part of a prank Kolya lies between railroad tracks as a train passes over and becomes something of a legend for the feat. All the other boys look up to Kolya, especially Ilyusha. Since the narrative left Ilyusha in Book Four, his illness has progressively worsened and the doctor states that he will not recover. Kolya and Ilyusha had a falling out over Ilyusha's maltreatment of a local dog: Ilyusha had fed it a piece of bread in which he had placed a pin, at the bidding of Smerdyakov. But thanks to Alyosha's intervention the other schoolboys have gradually reconciled with Ilyusha, and Kolya soon joins them at his bedside. It is here that Kolya first meets Alyosha and begins to reassess his nihilist beliefs.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Book Eleven chronicles Ivan Fyodorovich's influence on those around him and his descent into madness. It is in this book that Ivan meets three times with Smerdyakov, desperately seeking to solve the riddle of the murder and whether Smerdyakov, and consequently he himself, had anything to do with it. In the final meeting Smerdyakov confesses that he had faked the fit, murdered Fyodor Pavlovich, and stolen the money, which he presents to Ivan. Smerdyakov expresses disbelief at Ivan's professed ignorance and surprise. Smerdyakov claims that Ivan was complicit in the murder by telling Smerdyakov when he would be leaving Fyodor Pavlovich's house, and more importantly by instilling in Smerdyakov the belief that, in a world without God, "everything is permitted." The book ends with Ivan having a hallucination in which he is visited by the devil, in the form of an idle and parasitic former 'gentleman', who torments him by personifying and caricaturing his thoughts and ideas. The nightmare is interrupted by a knocking at the window: it is Alyosha, who has come to inform him that Smerdyakov has hanged himself. Although the Devil disappears, Ivan remains in a delirium and converses irrationally. Alyosha is shocked at his brother's condition and tries to pacify him, but Ivan's raving becomes increasingly incoherent. Eventually he falls into a deep sleep.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: This book details the trial of Dmitri Karamazov for the murder of his father. The courtroom drama is sharply satirized by Dostoevsky. The men in the crowd are presented as resentful and spiteful, and the women as irrationally drawn to the romanticism of Dmitri's love triangle with Katerina and Grushenka. Ivan's madness takes its final hold over him and he is carried away from the courtroom after his attempt to give evidence about Smerdyakov descends into incomprehensible raving. The turning point in the trial is Katerina's damning testimony. Shocked by Ivan's madness, she passionately defends him and abandons her 'honourable' approach to Dimitri. She produces a letter drunkenly written by Dmitri saying that he would kill his father. The section concludes with lengthy and impassioned closing remarks from the prosecutor and the defence counsel and the verdict that Dmitri is guilty.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: The final section opens with discussion of a plan developed for Dmitri's escape from his sentence of twenty years of hard labor in Siberia. The plan is never fully described, but it seems to involve Ivan and Katerina bribing some guards. Alyosha cautiously approves, because he feels that Dmitri is not emotionally ready to submit to such a harsh sentence, that he is innocent, and that no guards or officers would suffer for aiding the escape. Dmitri and Grushenka plan to escape to America and work the land there for several years, and then return to Russia under assumed American names, because they cannot imagine living without Russia. Dmitri begs for Katerina to visit him in the hospital, where he is recovering from an illness, before he is due to be taken away. When she does, Dmitri apologizes for having hurt her; she in turn apologizes for bringing up the implicating letter during the trial. They agree to love each other for that one moment, and say they will love each other forever, even though both now love other people. The novel concludes at Ilyusha's funeral, where Ilyusha's schoolboy friends listen to Alyosha's "Speech by the Stone". Alyosha promises to remember Kolya, Ilyusha, and all the boys and keep them close in his heart, even though he will have to leave them and may not see them again until many years have passed. He implores them to love each other and to always remember Ilyusha, and to keep his memory alive in their hearts, and to remember this moment at the stone when they were all together and they all loved each other. Alyosha then recounts the Christian promise that they will all be united one day after the Resurrection. In tears, the twelve boys promise Alyosha that they will keep each other in their memories forever. They join hands, and return to the Snegiryov household for the funeral dinner, chanting "Hurrah for Karamazov!"


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: One of the novel's central themes is the counterposition of the true spiritual meaning of the Orthodox Christian faith, particularly insofar as it is posited as the heart of Russian national identity and history, with the ideas and values emanating from the new doctrines of atheism, rationalism, socialism and nihilism. Not only were these ideas and values alien to Russia's spiritual heritage, they were, in Dostoevsky's opinion, actively working to destroy it, and moreover were becoming increasingly popular and influential, especially among Russia's youth. The theme had already been vividly depicted in all the earlier major novels, particularly "Demons", but in "The Brothers Karamazov" Dostoevsky artistically represents and counterposes the two antithetical worldviews in archetypal forms — the character of Ivan Fyodorovich and his legend of The Grand Inquisitor, and the characters of Alyosha and the Elder Zosima in their expression and embodiment of a "lived" Christian faith.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: The character of Ivan Fyodorovich, though he outwardly plays the role of devil's advocate, is inwardly far from being resolved in his atheism. A constantly reappearing motif in the novel is his proposition that without faith in immortality, there is no such thing as virtue, and that if there is no God, "everything" is permitted. When Zosima encounters the idea in the meeting at the monastery, he doesn't dispute it, but suggests to Ivan that since in all probability he doesn't believe in the immortality of his own soul, his thoughts must be a source of torment to him: "But the martyr likes sometimes to divert himself with his despair, as it were driven to it by despair itself. Meanwhile ... you divert yourself with magazine articles, and discussions in society, though you don't believe your own arguments, and with an aching heart mock at them inwardly... That question you have not answered, and it is your great grief, for it clamors for an answer." In his relations with Ivan, Alyosha consciously personifies the loving voice of faith that he knows lives in his brother's soul, in opposition to the mocking voice of doubt that ultimately becomes personified in the nightmare of the Devil. Alyosha says of Ivan "His mind is a prisoner of his soul. There is a great and unresolved thought in him. He is one of those who don't need millions, they just need to get a thought straight."


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Dostoevsky wrote to his editor that his intention with book V, "Pro and Contra", was to portray "the seed of the idea of destruction in our time in Russia among the young people uprooted from reality". This seed is depicted as: "the rejection not of God but of the meaning of His creation. Socialism has sprung from the denial of the meaning of historical reality and ended in a program of destruction and anarchism." In the chapter "Rebellion", the rationale behind Ivan's rejection of God's world is expounded in a long dialogue with Alyosha, in which he justifies his atheism on the grounds of the very principle—universal love and compassion—that is at the heart of the Christian faith. The unmitigated evil in the world, particularly as it relates to the suffering of children, is not something that "can" be accepted by a heart steeped in love, so Ivan feels bound in his conscience to "humbly return the ticket" to God. The idea of the refusal of love on the grounds of love is taken further in the subsequent "Legend of the Grand Inquisitor". In a long dialogue, in which the second participant (the returned Christ) remains silent for its entire duration, the Inquisitor rejects the freedom and spiritual beauty of Christ's teaching as being beyond the capability of earthly humanity, and affirms instead the bread-and-chains materialism derived from the Devil's Temptations as being the only realistic and truly compassionate basis for the government of men. The Legend is Ivan's confession of the struggle of "pro and contra" taking place within his own soul in relation to the problem of faith. According to Mikhail Bakhtin, "both the very form of its construction as The Grand Inquisitor's dialogue with Christ and at the same time with himself, and the very unexpectedness and duality of its finale, indicate an internally dialogic disintegration at its ideological core."


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: With Book VI, "The Russian Monk", Dostoevsky sought to provide the refutation of Ivan's negation of God, through the teachings of the dying Elder, Zosima. The dark world of the Inquisitor's reasoning is juxtaposed with the radiant, idyllically stylized communications of the dying Elder and Alyosha's renderings of his life and teachings. Zosima, though suffering and near death, unreservedly communicates his love for those around him, and recounts the stories of the crucial moments in his progress along the spiritual path. Alyosha records these accounts for posterity, as well as the Elder's teachings and discourses on various subjects, including: the significance of the Russian Monk; spiritual brotherhood between masters and servants; the impossibility of judging one's fellow creatures; Faith, Prayer, Love, and Contiguity with Other Worlds; and the spiritual meaning of 'hell' as the suffering of being unable to Love. Dostoevsky based Zosima's teachings on those of the 18th century Orthodox saint and spiritual writer Tikhon of Zadonsk, and constructed them around his own formulation of the essence of a true Christian faith: that all are responsible for all, and that "everyone is guilty before all and for everything, and "therefore" everyone is strong enough also to forgive everything for others". He was acutely aware of the difficulty of the artistic task he had set himself and of the incompatibility of the form and content of his "reply" with ordinary discourse and the everyday concerns of his contemporaries.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: "Dostoevsky could hear dialogic relationships everywhere, in all manifestations of conscious and intelligent human life. Where consciousness began, there dialogue began also. Only purely mechanistic relationships are not dialogic, and Dostoevsky categorically denied their importance for understanding and interpreting life and the acts of man."


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Throughout the novel, in the very nature of all the characters and their interactions, the freedom of the human personality is affirmed, in opposition to any form of deterministic reduction. The "physiologism" that is being attacked is identified in the repeated references to Claude Bernard, who becomes for Dimitri a despised symbol of the scientific reduction of the human soul to impersonal physiological processes. For Dimitri the word 'Bernard' becomes the most contemptuous of insults. References to Bernard are in part a response to Zola's theories about heredity and environment, gleaned from Bernard's ideas, which functioned as the ideological background to the "Les Rougon-Macquart" series of novels.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Though the affirmation of freedom and rejection of mechanistic psychology is most openly and forcefully expressed through the character of Dimitri, as a theme it pervades the entire novel and virtually all of Dostoevsky's other writings. Bakhtin discusses it in terms of what he calls the "unfinalizability" of Dostoevsky's characters. In Dostoevsky, a fundamental refusal to be wholly defined by an external source (another person, a social interpretation, an ideology, a system of 'knowledge', or anything at all that places a finalizing limit on the primordial freedom of the living soul, including even death) is at the heart of the character. He sees this quality as essential to the human being, to "being human", and in his most fiercely independent characters, such as Ivan and Dimitri in "The Brothers Karamazov", Raskolnikov in "Crime and Punishment", Nastasya Filippovna and Ippolit in "The Idiot", or the Underground man in "Notes From Underground", it is actively expressed in virtually all their words and deeds. According to Bakhtin, for Dostoevsky:A man never coincides with himself. One cannot apply the formula of identity A≡A. In Dostoevsky's artistic thinking the genuine life of the personality takes place at the point of non-coincidence between a man and himself, at his point of departure beyond the limits of all that he is as a material being – a being that can be spied on, defined, predicted apart from its own will, "at second hand". The genuine life of the personality is made available only through a "dialogic" penetration of that personality, during which it freely and reciprocally reveals itself.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Although written in the 19th century, "The Brothers Karamazov" displays a number of modern elements. Dostoevsky composed the book with a variety of literary techniques. Though privy to many of the thoughts and feelings of the protagonists, the narrator is a self-proclaimed writer; he discusses his own mannerisms and personal perceptions so often in the novel that he becomes a character. Through his descriptions, the narrator's voice merges imperceptibly into the tone of the people he is describing, often extending into the characters' most personal thoughts. There is no voice of authority in the story. In addition to the principal narrator, there are several sections narrated by other characters entirely, such as the story of The Grand Inquisitor and Zosima's confessions.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Dostoevsky uses individual styles of speech to express the inner personality of each person. For example, the attorney Fetyukovich (based on Vladimir Spasovich) is characterized by malapropisms (e.g. 'robbed' for 'stolen', and at one point declares possible suspects in the murder 'irresponsible' rather than innocent). Several plot digressions provide insight into other apparently minor characters. For example, the narrative in Book Six is almost entirely devoted to Zosima's biography, which contains a confession from a man whom he met many years before. Dostoevsky does not rely on a single source or a group of major characters to convey the themes of this book, but uses a variety of viewpoints, narratives and characters throughout.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: "The Brothers Karamazov" has had a deep influence on many public figures over the years for widely varying reasons. Admirers include scientists such as Albert Einstein, philosophers Ludwig Wittgenstein and Martin Heidegger, as well as writers such as Virginia Woolf, Cormac McCarthy, Kurt Vonnegut, Haruki Murakami, and Frederick Buechner.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: British writer C.P. Snow writes of Einstein's admiration for the novel: ""The Brothers Karamazov"—that for him in 1919 was the supreme summit of all literature. It remained so when I talked to him in 1937, and probably until the end of his life."


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Sigmund Freud called it "the most magnificent novel ever written" and was fascinated with what he saw as its Oedipal themes. In 1928 Freud published a paper titled "Dostoevsky and Parricide" in which he investigated Dostoevsky's own neuroses. Freud claimed that Dostoevsky's epilepsy was not a natural condition but instead a physical manifestation of the author's hidden guilt over his own father's death. According to Freud, Dostoevsky (and all other sons) wished for the death of his father because of latent desire for his mother; citing the fact that Dostoevsky's epileptic fits began at age 18, the year his father died. It followed that more obvious themes of patricide and guilt, especially in the form of the moral guilt illustrated by Ivan Karamazov, were further literary evidence of his theory.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Franz Kafka felt indebted to Dostoevsky and "The Brothers Karamazov" for its influence on his own work. Kafka called himself and Dostoevsky "blood relatives". Kafka felt immensely drawn to the hatred the brothers demonstrated toward their father in the novel, dealing with his version of the strained father-son relationship, such as he personally experienced, in many of his works (most explicitly in the short story "The Judgment").


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: [Leo] Tolstoy admired him but he thought that he had little artistic accomplishment or mind. Yet, as he said, 'he admired his heart', a criticism which contains a great deal of truth, for though his characters do act extravagantly, madly, almost, still their basis is firm enough underneath... "The Brothers Karamazov" ... made a deep impression on me ... he created some unforgettable scenes [detail]... Madness you may call it, but therein may be the secret of his genius... I prefer the word exaltation, exaltation which can merge into madness, perhaps. In fact all great men have had that vein in them; it was the source of their greatness; the reasonable man achieves nothing.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein is said to have read "The Brothers Karamazov" "so often he knew whole passages of it by heart". A copy of the novel was one of the few possessions Wittgenstein brought with him to the front during World War I.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Martin Heidegger identified Dostoevsky's thought as one of the most important sources for his early and best known book, "Being and Time". Of the two portraits Heidegger kept on the wall of his office, one was of Dostoevsky.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: According to philosopher Charles B. Guignon, the novel's most fascinating character, Ivan Karamazov, had by the middle of the twentieth century become the icon of existentialist rebellion in the writings of existentialist philosophers Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. Camus centered on a discussion of Ivan Karamazov's revolt in his 1951 book "Rebel". Ivan's poem "The Grand Inquisitor" is arguably one of the best-known passages in modern literature due to its ideas about human nature, freedom, power, authority, and religion, as well as for its fundamental ambiguity. A reference to the poem can be found in English novelist Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World Revisited" and American writer David Foster Wallace's novel "Infinite Jest".


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Nobel Prize laureate William Faulkner reread the book regularly, claiming it as his greatest literary inspiration next to Shakespeare's works and the Bible. He once wrote that he felt American literature had produced nothing yet great enough that might compare to Dostoyevsky's novel.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: In an essay on "The Brothers Karamazov," written after the Russian Revolution and the First World War, Nobel Prize-winning author Hermann Hesse described Dostoevsky as not a "poet" but a "prophet". British writer W. Somerset Maugham included the book in his list of ten greatest novels in the world.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Contemporary Turkish Nobel Prize-winning writer Orhan Pamuk said during a lecture in St. Petersburg that the first time he read "The Brothers Karamazov", his life was changed. He felt Dostoyevsky, through his storytelling, revealed completely unique insight into life and human nature.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: American philosophical novelist Walker Percy said in an interview:I suppose my model is nearly always Dostoevsky, who was a man of very strong convictions, but his characters illustrated and incarnated the most powerful themes and issues and trends of his day. I think maybe the greatest novel of all time is "The Brothers Karamazov" which...almost prophesies and prefigures everything—all the bloody mess and the issues of the 20th century.Pope Benedict XVI cited the book in the 2007 encyclical "Spe Salvi".


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had read Dostoevsky since his youth and considered the author as a great psychologist. His copy of "The Brothers Karamazov" reveals extensive highlights and notes in the margins that he made while reading the work, which have been studied and analyzed by multiple researchers. Russian president Vladimir Putin has described "The Brothers Karamazov" as one of his favorite books.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: According to Serbian state news agency Tanjug, Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić described Dostoevsky as his best-loved novelist, saying: ""The Brothers Karamazov" may be the best work of world literature." American First Lady Laura Bush has said she is an admirer of the novel.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Although "The Brothers Karamazov" has been translated from the original Russian into a number of languages, the novel's diverse array of distinct voices and literary techniques makes its translation difficult. Constance Garnett did the first English translation, in 1912.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: In 1958, David Magarshack and Manuel Komroff released translations of the novel, published respectively by Penguin and The New American Library of World Literature. In 1976, Ralph Matlaw thoroughly revised Garnett's work for his Norton Critical Edition volume. This in turn was the basis for Victor Terras' influential "A Karamazov Companion". Another translation is by Julius Katzer, published by Progress Publishers in 1981 and later re-printed by Raduga Publishers Moscow.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: In 1990 Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky released a new translation; it won a PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize in 1991 and garnered positive reviews from "The New York Times Book Review" and the Dostoevsky scholar Joseph Frank, who praised it for being the most faithful to Dostoevsky's original Russian.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: In "The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translations", academic Peter France comments on several translations of Dostoevsky's work. In regard to Constance Garnett's translations, he writes:


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: [Her] translations read easily...the basic meaning of the Russian text is accurately rendered on the whole. It is true, as critics such as Nikoliukin have demonstrated, that she shortens and simplifies, muting Dostoevsky's jarring contrasts, sacrificing his insistent rhythms and repetitions, toning down the Russian colouring, explaining and normalizing in all kinds of ways...Garnett shortens some of Dostoevsky's idiosyncrasy in order to produce an acceptable English text, but her versions were in many cases pioneering versions; decorous they may be, but they allowed this strange new voice to invade English literature and thus made it possible for later translators to go further in the search for more authentic voice.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: [I]t is not certain that Magarshack has worn as well as Garnett. He certainly corrects some of her errors; he also aims for a more up-to-date style which flows more easily in English...Being even more thoroughly englished than Garnett's, Magarshack's translations lack some of the excitement of the foreign.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: On Andrew R. MacAndrew's American version, he comments: "He translates fairly freely, altering details, rearranging, shortening and explaining the Russian to produce texts which lack a distinctive voice."


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: McDuff carries this literalism the furthest of any of the translators. In his "Brothers Karamazov" the odd, fussy tone of the narrator is well rendered in the preface...At times, indeed, the convoluted style might make the reader unfamiliar with Dostoevsky's Russian question the translator's command of English. More seriously, this literalism means that the dialogue is sometimes impossibly odd—and as a result rather dead...Such 'foreignizing' fidelity makes for difficult reading.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: Pevear and Volokhonsky, while they too stress the need to exhume the real, rough-edged Dostoevsky from the normalization practised by earlier translators, generally offer a rather more satisfactory compromise between the literal and the readable. In particular, their rendering of dialogue is often livelier and more colloquial than McDuff's...Elsewhere, it has to be said, the desire to replicate the vocabulary or syntax of the Russian results in unnecessary awkwardness and obscurity.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: In commenting on Ignat Avsey's translation, he writes: "His not entirely unprecedented choice of a more natural-sounding English formulation is symptomatic of his general desire to make his text English...His is an enjoyable version in the domesticating tradition."


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: A Russian 12-episode miniseries was produced in 2009, and is considered to be as close to the book as possible.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: The 2013 Japanese TV drama "Karamazov no Kyōdai" is an adaptation of the book set in modern-day Japan that was created by executive producer Sato Misato, screenwriters Ouka Shizuka and Takei Aya, and directors Tsuzuki Junichi, Murakami Shosuke, and Satō Genta.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: "The Grand Inquisitor" was adapted for British television as a one-hour drama titled "Inquisition". Starring Derek Jacobi as the inquisitor, it was first broadcast on Channel 5 on 22 December 2002.


title: The Brothers Karamazov

text: A 30-episode drama series named "Oulad El Moukhtar" ("Mokhtar's Sons") was produced by Nabil Ayouch for Al Aoula in 2020. The adaptation of the book is set in Morocco, with some aspects changed to resemble the local Moroccan culture.


title: Liga MX

text: The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football division in Mexico, holding 2 tournaments per year.


title: Liga MX

text: The league is considered the strongest in North America, and among the strongest in all of the Americas. According to the International Federation of Football History & Statistics, the league currently ranks 20th worldwide and was ranked as the 10th strongest league in the first decade of the 21st century (2001–2010). According to CONCACAF, the league – with an average attendance of 25,557 during the 2014–15 season – draws the largest crowds on average of any football league in the Americas and the third largest crowds of any professional sports league in North America, behind only the National Football League and Major League Baseball, and ahead of the Canadian Football League. It is also the fourth most attended football league in the world behind Germany's Bundesliga, England's Premier League and Spain's La Liga.


title: Liga MX

text: Of the 56 teams to have competed in the league, América has won the title 13 times, followed by Guadalajara (12), Toluca (10), Cruz Azul (9), León (8), Pachuca, UANL and UNAM (7).


title: Liga MX

text: Prior to the "Liga Mayor", there was no national football league in Mexico, and football competitions were held within relatively small geographical regions. The winners of the Primera Fuerza, a local league consisting of teams near and around Mexico City, was regarded as the then national competition although there were other regional leagues, such as in Veracruz, Liga Amateur de Puebla the Jalisco and the Bajío that had talented clubs. Many club owners were keen to remain amateur although they paid players under the table. The increasing interest in football would not thwart a unified professional football system in Mexico. The professional national league was established in 1943.


title: Liga MX

text: The Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación (F.M.F.) announcement of the nation's first professional league brought interest from many clubs to join. The F.M.F. announced that 10 clubs would form the Liga Mayor (Major League). The league was founded by six clubs from the Primera Fuerza of Mexico City, two clubs from the Liga Occidental, and two from the Liga Veracruzana.


title: Liga MX

text: Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, many small clubs faced economic difficulties which were attributed to the lack of international competition by Mexico's clubs and an unrewarding league format. Consequently, teams from Mexico that placed high in the league standings could not afford to participate in the overarching continental competitions, such as the Copa Libertadores.


title: Liga MX

text: The 1970 World Cup held in Mexico was the first World Cup televised on a grand scale. The season following the FIFA World Cup, the F.M.F. changed the league format and established a playoff phase to determine the national champion. This was done to regenerate interest and reward teams that placed fairly high in the standings.


title: Liga MX

text: The play-off, called the "Liguilla", was played using various formats to determine the champion. The most common format was a straight knock-out between the top eight teams in the table. At other times the league was divided into groups with the top two in each group, often as well as the best 3rd placed teams, qualifying for the play-offs and in some seasons the play-offs themselves involved teams playing in groups with the group winners playing off for the title. The format was changed from season to season to accommodate international club commitments and the schedule of the Mexico national team.


title: Liga MX

text: The change in the rules affected teams that traditionally dominated the table, as talented teams that had not performed well in the regular season were able to perform successfully in the play-offs (Cruz Azul in the 1970s, América in the 1980s, and Toluca in the 2000s).


title: Liga MX

text: Prior to the start of the 2012–13 season, the organization Liga MX / Ascenso MX was created to replace the Mexican Football Federation as the organizing body of the competition. The league also announced a rebranding, with the introduction of a new logo.


title: Liga MX

text: On 20 August 2018, it was announced that Liga MX would begin testing the use of video assistant referee technology. The initial test run will be conducted during under-20 matches played inside senior league stadiums, with live testing across senior Liga MX matches to take place during weeks 13 and 14 of the Apertura tournament. The league will, however, still need final approval from FIFA to fully implement the technology.


title: Liga MX

text: Liga MX uses a single table of 18 teams that play two annual tournaments resulting in two champions per season. The season opens with the "apertura" tournament (opening tournament- running from July to December) followed by the "clausura" (closing – running from January to May). This format matches other Latin American schedules and corresponds with FIFA's world footballing calendar, which "opens" in July/August and "closes" in April/May of the next year. The top 12 teams advance to the "liguilla" for each tournament, with the top 4 teams in the table at the end of the regular phase of the tournament qualifying directly to the liguilla, and the next 8 teams qualifying for the play-in round that determines the next 4 liguilla spots. If one team is in last place in the league's relegation table (see below), that team is replaced by the team that finished 13th in the tournament.


title: Liga MX

text: From 1996 to 2002, the league followed a two-tournament schedule with "invierno" (winter) and "verano" (summer) tournaments but from 2002 to 2011 the 18 teams were divided into three groups of six with the top two teams from each group and the two best third place teams qualified for the "liguilla". The teams played in the same group for each tournament. The qualification phase of the tournament lasted 17 weeks, with all teams playing each other once per tournament in a home and away series over both tournaments.


title: Liga MX

text: The "liguilla" (Spanish for "little league") is the play-off phase of the tournament. This phase starts with the qualifying round, with teams ranked 5–12 playing a single match hosted by the higher seed with the winner decided on the night. After this round, the four qualifying round advances to the quarterfinals against the 4 bye teams with the winner on aggregate-score progressing. The Champion team is awarded the First division trophy, and the runner up is awarded a smaller version of the trophy. The birth of "La liguilla" in 1970 modernized the league despite the disagreements between the traditionalists and the modernists. Clubs that were near bankruptcy were now better able to compete and generate profits.


title: Liga MX

text: Originally at the end of a season, after the "Apertura" and "Clausura" tournaments, one team is relegated to the next lower division, "Ascenso MX", and one team from that division is promoted and takes the place left open by the relegated team. Currently, the relegated team is determined by computing the points-per-game-played ratio for each team, considering all the games played by the team during the last three seasons (six tournaments). The team with the lowest ratio is relegated; if the team that is in last place in the relegation table is among the eight teams qualifying for the Liguilla at the end of the "Clausura" tournament, the 13th place team qualifies for the Liguilla instead. For teams recently promoted, only the games played since their promotion are considered (two or four tournaments). The team promoted from "Ascenso MX" is the winner of a two-leg match between the champions of the "Apertura" and "Clausura" tournaments of that division. If a team becomes the champion in both tournaments, it is automatically promoted.


title: Liga MX

text: Prior to the start of the 2017–18 season, the rules for relegation and promotion changed: if a team wins promotion but does not meet certain Liga MX requirements (e.g. stadium infrastructure and a youth team) the relegated Liga MX team of that season will be obligated to pay the prize money to the Ascenso MX team (MXN$120 million) for winning the promotion playoff, which should be utilized to fulfill necessary requirements for promotion within the next season, and remain in Ascenso MX, and the relegated Liga MX team will remain in the first division. However, if the relegated Liga MX team cannot distribute the prize money to the promoted Ascenso MX team, both teams will lose their right to play in Liga MX and must play in Ascenso MX the following season.


title: Liga MX

text: As of the 2018–19 season, only six teams met the full requirements to be promoted to Liga MX, those teams being Atlético San Luis, Atlante, Celaya, Juárez, Sinaloa, and UdeG.


title: Liga MX

text: On April 16, 2020, the Ascenso MX, the 2nd division of the Mexican football league system, was folded due to the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic as well as the lack of financial resources. Liga MX President Enrique Bonilla later announced during a video meeting with the club owners of the league that promotion and relegation would be suspended for five years. During the suspension, the Ascenso MX was replaced with the Liga de Expansión MX although no club from that league will be promoted to the Liga MX nor any Liga MX team that performs poorly will be relegated from the Liga MX for the time being.


title: Liga MX

text: Each year, four teams from Liga MX qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League, the premier North American club competition. Generally, the Apertura and Clausura champions and the Apertura and Clausura runners-up qualify and are placed in Pot 3. Should one or more teams reach the finals of both tournaments, Liga MX has implemented a formula for ensuring that two teams that qualify via the Apertura and two teams qualify via the Clausura:


title: Liga MX

text: All First Division clubs have the right to sell their own broadcast rights. Televisa, TV Azteca, Imagen Televisión, Claro Sports, Fox Sports, and ESPN have broadcasting rights in México, while ESPN Deportes, Fox Deportes, Univision, and Telemundo have the rights in the United States, with FS1/FS2 airing select matches with English commentary.


title: Liga MX

text: In previous years, when a team was relegated, the team that was promoted could only negotiate with the company holding the television rights of the relegated team. This agreement was canceled by Liga MX in 2012 when the promotion of Club León caused a television rights dispute with Televisa. Currently, Club León matches are broadcast in Mexico by Fox Sports and other online media sites, and in the United States by Univision (Telemundo from 2013–16).


title: Liga MX

text: Telelatino and Fox Sports World formerly hold broadcasting rights in Canada. From 2019–20 until 2021–22, OneSoccer broadcast the league for Canada viewers.


title: Liga MX

text: Fox Sports is the only network that holds rights to broadcast selected matches in United States and South America.


title: Liga MX

text: Additionally, Televisa-owned networks Sky Sports and TUDN hold exclusive broadcasting rights over selected matches throughout the regular season, although the majority of the most important ones are broadcast live on the national networks. The coverage also available for Central America viewers.


title: Liga MX

text: Most of the Saturday afternoon and evening matches broadcast by Televisa are shown primarily on Gala TV, though Saturday games played by Televisa's club America, are broadcast on Televisa's flagship network, Canal de las Estrellas. However, a blackout policy is usually applied in selected markets where affiliates are forced to air alternate programming during the matches, Sunday noon and afternoon games broadcast by Televisa are shown on Canal de las Estrellas. All of the games broadcast by TV Azteca on Saturday and Sunday are shown on Azteca 13; Friday's matches however are shown on Azteca 7. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (known in Mexico as "Fecha Doble" or "Double Date") matches picked by the national networks are shown on Canal 5 and Azteca 7 and the rest of the matches air on Sky Sports and TDN.


title: Liga MX

text: A recent rule, in effect since 2011, requires teams to play the final game of every season on Sunday during prime time, regardless of whether the team used to play local games in another timeslot, in order to capture more television audience during the game. This also prevents most playoff collusion, where one or both teams already in the "liguilla " put in lesser effort to lose or draw, in order to draw a more favorable opponent.


title: Liga MX

text: For the Apertura 2016, and the majority of the Clausura 2017, Guadalajara home matches in Mexico were not shown on over-the-air television or cable and satellite operators. Instead, they were exclusively shown on an internet streaming service called "Chivas TV". As of April 8, 2017, the matches are shown on both Televisa's Televisa Deportes Network (TDN) and "Chivas TV".


title: Liga MX

text: On February 13, 2017, it was announced Univision Deportes would live stream 46 games in English on Facebook in the United States.


title: Liga MX

text: After the Clausura 2017 season, Azteca América sold the rights of the Atlas, Morelia, Tijuana, and Veracruz matches to Univision. The network then held the rights of 17 of the 18 clubs, only missing recently promoted Lobos BUAP. In September 2017, Univision began airing Lobos BUAP's home matches, thus holding the rights to all 18 Liga MX teams through the end of the Clausura 2018 season.


title: Liga MX

text: In July 2017, Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN) announced it would show Liga MX matches involving Chilean players in Chile.


title: Liga MX

text: In October 2017, Fox Sports announced that it acquired the long-term exclusive Spanish-language rights to Tijuana and Santos Laguna home matches in the United States, Mexico, and the rest of Latin America starting in the Apertura 2018 and Apertura 2019 respectively, thus ending Univision's monopoly. The matches air on Fox Sports in the United States (via Fox Deportes) and the rest of Latin America (including Mexico and excluding Brazil).


title: Liga MX

text: On May 26, 2018, Fox Sports announced it acquired the rights of C.F. Monterrey's home matches in the United States and Latin America. The network announced the matches would be shown in the United States on Fox Deportes in Spanish as well as the Fox Sports family of networks in English.


title: Liga MX

text: As of the Apertura 2019 season, via a sublicense agreement with Univision, ESPN Deportes airs the majority of León, Necaxa, Pachuca, Querétaro, and UANL regular season home matches in the United States. The network also airs at least one home match of nine other clubs. Televisa also sublicenses one match per week to ESPN in Mexico and Central America.


title: Liga MX

text: On 15 July, 2021, OneFootball announced it would broadcast between two and five live matches as part of a deal covering the 2021/22 Liga MX season in selected international markets.


title: Liga MX

text: On 16 August, 2021, Eleven Sports announced it would broadcast the home Liga MX matches of C.D. Guadalajara for the 2021-22 season in more than 100 countries.


title: Liga MX

text: Up until its rebranding in 2012, the Liga MX did not have a title sponsor. In July 2013, league president Decio de María announced BBVA Bancomer as the official sponsor, with the goal of modernizing the league's image. De María also stated that the money generated from the sponsorship would be divided among the 18 clubs and to be invested in each club's youth teams. On 18 September 2015, the sponsorship deal was extended until 2019. On 18 June 2019, the league was renamed as Liga BBVA MX, adopting the new identity of the sponsor. On 4 July 2019, the sponsorship contract with BBVA was renewed until 2021.


title: Liga MX

text: Since 1986, Voit has been the official match ball manufacturer. In 2014, the contract was extended for four years.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: Superman (stylized as Superman: The Movie) is a 1978 superhero film based on the character by DC Comics. An international co-production between the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Panama and the United States, it was supervised by Alexander and Ilya Salkind, produced by their partner Pierre Spengler and written by Mario Puzo from a story by Puzo, and is the first installment in the Superman film series. Directed by Richard Donner, the film features an ensemble cast including Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Christopher Reeve, Jeff East, Margot Kidder, Glenn Ford, Phyllis Thaxter, Jackie Cooper, Trevor Howard, Marc McClure, Terence Stamp, Valerie Perrine, Ned Beatty, Jack O'Halloran, Maria Schell, and Sarah Douglas. It depicts the origin of Superman (Reeve), including his infancy as Kal-El of Krypton, son of Jor-El (Brando) and his youthful years in the rural town of Smallville. Disguised as reporter Clark Kent, he adopts a mild-mannered disposition in Metropolis and develops a romance with Lois Lane (Kidder) whilst battling the villainous Lex Luthor (Hackman).


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: Ilya had the idea of a Superman film in 1973 and after a difficult process with DC Comics, the Salkinds and Spengler bought the rights to the character the following year. Several directors, most notably Guy Hamilton, and screenwriters (Mario Puzo, David and Leslie Newman, and Robert Benton), were associated with the project before Richard Donner was hired to direct. Tom Mankiewicz was drafted in to rewrite the script and was given a "creative consultant" credit. It was decided to film both "Superman" and its sequel "Superman II" (1980) simultaneously, with principal photography beginning in March 1977 and ending in October 1978. Tensions arose between Donner and the producers, and a decision was made to stop filming the sequel, of which 75 percent had already been completed, and finish the first film.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: The most expensive film made up to that point, with a budget of $55 million, "Superman" was released in December 1978 to critical and financial success; its worldwide box office earnings of $300 million made it the second-highest-grossing release of the year. It received praise for Reeve's performance and John Williams' musical score, and was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Film Editing, Best Music (Original Score), and Best Sound, and received a Special Achievement Academy Award for Visual Effects. Groundbreaking in its use of special effects and science fiction/fantasy storytelling, the film's legacy presaged the mainstream popularity of Hollywood's superhero film franchises. In 2017, "Superman" was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress's National Film Registry.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: On the planet Krypton, Jor-El of the Kryptonian high council discovers that the planet will soon be destroyed when its red supergiant sun explodes. The other council members dismiss his claims. To save Kal-El, his infant son, Jor-El sends him in a spaceship to Earth, where his dense molecular structure will give him superhuman strength and other powers. Krypton, thereafter, is destroyed.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: The ship lands near Smallville, Kansas. Kal-El, now about three Earth years old, is found by Jonathan and Martha Kent, who are astonished when he lifts their truck. They decide to raise him as their own, naming him Clark after Martha's maiden name. Jonathan tells the boy that he must have been sent to Earth for "a reason".


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: After Jonathan's death from a heart attack, 18-year-old Clark hears a psychic "call" and discovers a glowing green crystal in the remains of his spacecraft. It compels him to travel to the Arctic where he uses the crystal to construct a Fortress of Solitude, which resembles the architecture of Krypton. Inside, a hologram of Jor-El explains Clark's true origins, and after twelve years of educating him on his reason for being sent to Earth and his powers, he leaves the Fortress wearing a blue and red suit with a red cape and the House of El family crest emblazoned on his chest. Becoming a reporter at the "Daily Planet" in Metropolis, Clark meets and develops a romantic attraction to coworker Lois Lane.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: Lois is involved in a helicopter mishap. Clark publicly uses his powers for the first time to save her, astonishing the crowd gathered below. He then thwarts a jewel thief attempting to scale the Solow Building, captures robbers fleeing police and depositing their getaway cabin cruiser on Wall Street, rescues a girl's cat from a tree, and saves Air Force One after a lightning strike destroys an engine. The "caped wonder" is an instant celebrity. Daily Planet boss Perry White wants the newspaper to find out more information about him. Superman visits Lois at her penthouse apartment the next night for an interview and takes her for a flight; Lois subsequently writes an article naming him "Superman".


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: Meanwhile, criminal genius Lex Luthor learns of a joint U.S. Army and U.S. Navy nuclear missile test. He buys hundreds of acres of empty desert land and reprograms the two missiles to detonate in the San Andreas Fault, with his assistant Otis accidentally programming the second missile coordinates incorrectly. Knowing Superman could stop his plan, Lex deduces that a recently discovered meteorite is from Krypton and is radioactive to Superman. After he and his accomplices Otis and Eve Teschmacher retrieve a piece of it, Luthor lures Superman to his underground lair and reveals his plan to cause everything west of the San Andreas Fault to sink into the Pacific Ocean, leaving Luthor's desert land as the new West Coast of the United States. Luthor then exposes him to the meteor piece's mineral, Kryptonite, which weakens Superman greatly as Luthor taunts him about the second missile which will detonate in Hackensack, New Jersey.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: Teschmacher is horrified that Luthor does not care that her mother lives in Hackensack. Luthor leaves Superman to die. Knowing he always keeps his word, Teschmacher helps Superman on the condition he will stop the eastbound missile first. After being freed, Superman diverts the eastbound missile into outer space, consequently preventing him from reaching the westbound missile before it explodes in the San Andreas Fault. Massive earthquakes erupt across California, damaging the Golden Gate Bridge and breaching the Hoover Dam. Superman mitigates the effects of the explosion by sealing the fault line.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: While Superman is busy saving others, Lois's car falls into a crevice from one of the aftershocks, trapping her as it fills with dirt and debris. She suffocates before Superman can reach her. Angered over failing to save her, Superman defies Jor-El's earlier warning not to manipulate human history, and instead heeds Jonathan's advice that he must be there for "a reason". He accelerates around Earth, traveling several minutes backward in time to prevent Lois's death while also undoing the damage caused by the missile and earthquake. After saving the West Coast, Superman delivers Luthor and Otis to prison before flying into the sunrise.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill have cameo appearances as the parents of Lois Lane in a deleted scene that was restored in later home media releases. Alyn and Neill portrayed Superman and Lois Lane in the film serials "Superman" (1948) and "Atom Man vs. Superman" (1950), and were the first actors to portray the characters onscreen in a live-action format. Neill reprised her role in the 1950s "Adventures of Superman" TV series.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: Larry Hagman and Rex Reed also make cameos; Hagman plays an army major in charge of a convoy that is transporting one of the missiles, and Reed plays himself as he meets Lois and Clark outside the "Daily Planet" headquarters.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: Ilya Salkind had first conceived the idea for a Superman film in late 1973. In November 1974, after a long, difficult process with DC Comics, the Superman film rights were purchased by Ilya, his father Alexander Salkind, and their partner Pierre Spengler. DC wanted a list of actors that were to be considered for Superman, and approved the producer's choices of Muhammad Ali, Al Pacino, James Caan, Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood and Dustin Hoffman. The filmmakers felt it was best to film "Superman" and "Superman II" back-to-back, and to make a negative pickup deal with Warner Bros. William Goldman was approached to write the screenplay, while Leigh Brackett was considered. Ilya hired Alfred Bester, who began writing a film treatment. Alexander felt, however, that Bester was not famous enough, so he hired Mario Puzo to write the screenplay at a $600,000 salary. Francis Ford Coppola, William Friedkin, Richard Lester (who later directed "Superman II" and "III"), Peter Yates, John Guillermin, Ronald Neame and Sam Peckinpah were in negotiations to direct. Peckinpah dropped out when he produced a gun during a meeting with Ilya. George Lucas turned down the offer because of his commitment to "Star Wars".


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: Ilya wanted to hire Steven Spielberg to direct, but Alexander was skeptical, feeling it was best to "wait until [Spielberg's] big fish opens." "Jaws" was very successful, prompting the producers to offer Spielberg the position, but by then Spielberg had already committed to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". Guy Hamilton was hired as director, while Puzo delivered his script for "Superman" and "Superman II" in July 1975. Jax-Ur appeared as one of General Zod's henchmen, with Clark Kent written as a television reporter. Dustin Hoffman, who was previously considered for Superman, turned down Lex Luthor.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: In early 1975, Brando signed on as Jor-El with a salary of $3.7 million and 11.75% of the box office gross profits, totaling $19 million. He horrified Salkind by proposing in their first meeting that Jor-El appear as a green suitcase or a bagel with Brando's voice, but Donner used flattery to persuade the actor to portray Jor-El himself. Brando hoped to use some of his salary for a proposed 13-part "Roots"-style miniseries on Native Americans in the United States. Brando had it in his contract to complete all of his scenes in twelve days. He also refused to memorize his dialogue, so cue cards were compiled across the set. Fellow Oscar winner Hackman was cast as Lex Luthor days later. The filmmakers made it a priority to shoot all of Brando's and Hackman's footage "because they would be committed to other films immediately." Though the Salkinds felt that Puzo had written a solid story for the two-part film, they deemed his scripts as "very heavy", and so hired Robert Benton and David Newman for rewrite work. Benton became too busy directing "The Late Show", so David's wife Leslie was brought in to help her husband finish writing duties. George MacDonald Fraser was later hired to do some work on the script, but he says he did little.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: Their script was submitted in July 1976, and had a camp tone, including a cameo appearance by Telly Savalas as his "Kojak" character. The scripts for "Superman" and "Superman II" were now at over 400 pages combined. Pre-production started at Cinecittà Studios in Rome, with sets starting construction and flying tests being unsuccessfully experimented. "In Italy", producer Ilya Salkind remembered, "we lost about $2 million [on flying tests]." Marlon Brando found out he could not film in Italy because of a warrant out for his arrest: a sexual-obscenity charge from "Last Tango in Paris". Production moved to England in late 1976, but Hamilton could not join because he was a tax exile. Hamilton left the project as he was also ill.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: Mark Robson was strongly considered and was in talks to direct, but after seeing "The Omen", the producers hired Richard Donner. Donner had previously been planning "" when he was hired in January 1977 for $1 million to direct "Superman" and "Superman II". Donner felt it was best to start from scratch. "They had prepared the picture for a year and not one bit was useful to me." Donner was dissatisfied with the campy script and brought in Tom Mankiewicz to perform a rewrite. According to Mankiewicz, "not a word from the Puzo script was used." "It was a well-written, but still a ridiculous script. It was 550 pages. I said, 'You can't shoot this screenplay because you'll be shooting for five years'", Donner continued. "That was literally a shooting script and they planned to shoot all 550 pages. You know, 110 pages is plenty for a script, so even for two features, that was way too much." Mankiewicz conceived having each Kryptonian family wear a crest resembling a different letter, justifying the 'S' on Superman's costume. The Writers Guild of America refused to credit Mankiewicz for his rewrites, so Donner gave him a creative consultant credit, much to the annoyance of the Guild.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: It was initially decided to first sign an A-list actor for Superman before Richard Donner was hired as director. Robert Redford was offered a large sum, but felt he was too famous. Burt Reynolds also turned down the role, while Sylvester Stallone was interested, but nothing ever came of it. Paul Newman was offered his choice of roles as Superman, Lex Luthor or Jor-El for $4 million, turning down all three roles.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: When it was next decided to cast an unknown actor, casting director Lynn Stalmaster first suggested Christopher Reeve, but Donner and the producers felt he was too young and skinny. Over 200 unknown actors auditioned for Superman.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: Olympic champion Caitlyn Jenner auditioned for the title role. Patrick Wayne was cast, but dropped out when his father John Wayne was diagnosed with stomach cancer.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: Both Neil Diamond and Arnold Schwarzenegger lobbied hard for the role, but were ignored. James Caan, James Brolin, Lyle Waggoner, Christopher Walken, Nick Nolte, Jon Voight, and Perry King were approached. Nolte wanted to play Superman as a Schizophrenic. Kris Kristofferson and Charles Bronson were also considered for the title role. Warren Beatty was offered the role but turned it down.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: "We found guys with fabulous physique who couldn't act or wonderful actors who did not look remotely like Superman", creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz remembered. The search became so desperate that producer Ilya Salkind's wife's dentist was screen tested.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: Stalmaster convinced Donner and Ilya to have Reeve screen test in February 1977. Reeve stunned the director and producers, but he was told to wear a "muscle suit" to produce the desired muscular physique. Reeve refused, undertaking a strict physical exercise regime headed by David Prowse. Prowse had wanted to portray Superman, but was denied an audition by the filmmakers because he was not American. Prowse also auditioned for Non. Reeve went from to during pre-production and filming. Reeve earned only $250,000 for both "Superman" and "Superman II", whilst his veteran co-stars received huge sums of money: $3.7 million for Brando and $2 million for Hackman for "Superman I". However, Reeve felt, ""Superman" brought me many opportunities, rather than closing a door in my face." Jeff East portrays teenage Clark Kent. East's lines were overdubbed by Reeve during post-production. "I was not happy about it because the producers never told me what they had in mind", East commented. "It was done without my permission but it turned out to be okay. Chris did a good job but it caused tension between us. We resolved our issues with each other years later." East also tore several thigh muscles when performing the stunt of racing alongside the train. He applied 3 to 4 hours of prosthetic makeup daily to facially resemble Reeve.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: Principal photography began on March 28, 1977, at Pinewood Studios for Krypton scenes, budgeted as the most expensive film ever made at that point. Since "Superman" was being shot simultaneously with "Superman II", filming lasted nineteen months, until October 1978. Filming was originally scheduled to last between seven and eight months, but problems arose during production. John Barry served as production designer, while Stuart Craig and Norman Reynolds worked as art directors. Derek Meddings and Les Bowie were credited as visual effects supervisors. Stuart Freeborn was the make-up artist, while Barry, David Tomblin, John Glen, David Lane, Robert Lynn and an uncredited Peter Duffell and André de Toth directed second unit scenes. Vic Armstrong was hired as the stunt coordinator and Reeve's stunt double; his wife Wendy Leech was Kidder's double. "Superman" was also the final complete film by cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth, who died during post-production while working on "Tess" for director Roman Polanski. The Fortress of Solitude was constructed at Shepperton Studios and at Pinewood's 007 Stage. Upon viewing the footage of Krypton, Warner Bros. decided to distribute in not only North America, but also in foreign countries. Due to complications and problems during filming, Warner Bros. also supplied $20 million and acquired television rights.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: New York City doubled for Metropolis, while the "New York Daily News" Building served as the location for the offices of the "Daily Planet". Brooklyn Heights was also used. Filming in New York lasted five weeks, during the time of the New York City blackout of 1977. Production moved to Alberta for scenes set in Smallville, with the cemetery scene filmed in the canyon of Beynon, Alberta, the high school football scenes at Barons, Alberta, and the Kent farm constructed at Blackie, Alberta. Brief filming also took place in Gallup, New Mexico; Lake Mead; and Grand Central Terminal. Director Donner had tensions with the Salkinds and Spengler concerning the escalating production budget and the shooting schedule. Creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz reflected, "Donner never got a budget or a schedule. He was constantly told he was way over schedule and budget. At one point he said, 'Why don't you just schedule the film for the next two days, and then I'll be nine months over?'" Richard Lester, who worked with the Salkinds on "The Three Musketeers" and "The Four Musketeers", was then brought in as a temporary co-producer to mediate the relationship between Donner and the Salkinds, who by now were refusing to talk to each other. With his relationship with Spengler, Donner remarked, "At one time if I'd seen him, I would have killed him."


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: Lester was offered producing credit but refused, going uncredited for his work. Salkind felt that bringing a second director onto the set meant there would be someone ready in the event that Donner could not fulfill his directing duties. "Being there all the time meant he [Lester] could take over", Salkind admitted. "[Donner] couldn't make up his mind on stuff." On Lester, Donner reflected, "He'd been suing the Salkinds for his money on "Three" and "Four Musketeers", which he'd never gotten. He won a lot of his lawsuits, but each time he sued the Salkinds in one country, they'd move to another, from Costa Rica to Panama to Switzerland. When I was hired, Lester told me, 'Don't do it. Don't work for them. I was told not to, but I did it. Now I'm telling you not to, but you'll probably do it and end up telling the next guy.' Lester came in as a 'go-between'. I didn't trust Lester, and I told him. He said, 'Believe me, I'm only doing it because they're paying me the money that they owe me from the lawsuit. I'll never come onto your set unless you ask me; I'll never go to your dailies. If I can help you in any way, call me."


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: It was decided to stop shooting "Superman II" and focus on finishing "Superman". Donner had already completed 75% of the sequel. The filmmakers took a risk: if "Superman" was a box office bomb, they would not finish "Superman II". The original climax for "Superman II" had General Zod, Ursa, and Non destroying the planet, with Superman time traveling to fix the damage.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: Donner commented, "I decided if "Superman" is a success, they're going to do a sequel. If it ain't a success, a cliffhanger ain't gonna bring them to see "Superman II"."


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: "Superman" contains large-scale visual effects sequences. The Golden Gate Bridge scale model stood long and tall. Other miniatures included the Krypton Council Dome and the Hoover Dam. Slow motion was used to simulate the vast amount of water for the Hoover Dam destruction. The Fortress of Solitude was a combination of a full-scale set and matte paintings. The car crashes on the Golden Gate Bridge were a mixture of models and stunt drivers on a disused runway. Young Clark Kent's long-distance football punt was executed with a wooden football loaded into an air blaster placed in the ground. The Superman costume was to be a much darker blue, but the use of blue screen made it transparent.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: As detailed in the "Superman: The Movie" DVD special effects documentary 'The Magic Behind The Cape', presented by optical effects supervisor Roy Field, in the end, three techniques were used to achieve the flying effects.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: For landings and take-offs, wire flying riggings were devised and used. On location, these were suspended from tower cranes, whereas in the studio elaborate rigs were suspended from the studio ceilings. Some of the wire-flying work was quite audacious—the penultimate shot where Superman flies out of the prison yard, for example. Although stuntmen were used, Reeve did much of the work himself, and was suspended as high as in the air. Counterweights and pulleys were typically used to achieve flying movement, rather than electronic or motorized devices. The thin wires used to suspend Reeve were typically removed from the film in post-production using rotoscope techniques, although this wasn't necessary in all shots (in certain lighting conditions or when Superman is very distant in the frame, the wires were more or less imperceptible).


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: For stationary shots where Superman is seen flying toward or away from the camera, blue screen matte techniques were used. Reeve would be photographed suspended against a blue screen. While a special device made his cape flap to give the illusion of movement, the actor himself would remain stationary (save for banking his body). Instead, the camera would use a mixture of long zoom-ins and zoom-outs and dolly in/dolly outs to cause him to become larger or smaller in the frame. The blue background would then be photochemically removed and Reeve's isolated image would be 'inserted' into a matted area of a background plate shot. The zoom-ins or zoom-outs would give the appearance of flying away or toward the contents of the background plate. The disparity in lighting and color between the matted image and the background plate, the occasional presence of black matte lines (where the matte area and the matted image—in this case, Superman—do not exactly match up), and the slightly unconvincing impression of movement achieved through the use of zoom lenses is characteristic of these shots.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: Where the shot is tracking with Superman as he flies (such as in the Superman and Lois Metropolis flying sequence), front projection was used. This involved photographing the actors suspended in front of a background image dimly projected from the front onto a special screen made by 3M that would reflect light back directly into a combined camera/projector. The result was a very clear and intense photographic reproduction of both the actors and the background plate, with far less image deterioration or lighting problems than occur with rear projection.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: A technique was developed that combined the front projection effect with specially designed zoom lenses. The illusion of movement was created by zooming in on Reeve while making the front projected image appear to recede. For scenes where Superman interacts with other people or objects while in flight, Reeve and actors were put in a variety of rigging equipment with careful lighting and photography. This also led to the creation of the Zoptic system.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: The highly reflective costumes worn by the Kryptonians are made of the same 3M material used for the front projection screens and were the result of an accident during Superman flying tests. "We noticed the material lit up on its own", Donner explained. "We tore the material into tiny pieces and glued it on the costumes, designing a front projection effect for each camera. There was a little light on each camera, and it would project into a mirror, bounce out in front of the lens, hit the costume, [and] millions of little glass beads would light up and bring the image back into the camera."


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: Jerry Goldsmith, who scored Donner's "The Omen", was originally set to compose "Superman". Portions of Jerry Goldsmith's work from "Planet of the Apes" were used in "Superman"'s teaser trailer. He dropped out over scheduling conflicts, and John Williams was hired. Williams conducted the London Symphony Orchestra to record the soundtrack. The music was one of the last pieces to come into place. Williams' "Theme from Superman (Main Title)" was released as a single, reaching #81 on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot 100 and #69 "Cash Box". Williams liked that the film did not take itself too seriously and that it had a theatrical camp feel to it.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: Kidder was supposed to sing "Can You Read My Mind?", the lyrics to which were written by Leslie Bricusse, but Donner disliked it and changed it to a composition accompanied by a voiceover. Maureen McGovern eventually recorded the single, "Can You Read My Mind?" in 1979, although the song did not appear on the film soundtrack. It became a mid-chart hit on the "Billboard" Hot 100 that year (#52), spending three weeks at number five on the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart, as well as making lesser appearances on the corresponding Canadian charts. It was also a very minor hit on the U.S. Country chart, reaching #93. Both Williams' and McGovern's singles contained theme music from the score. The score earned John Williams an Academy Award nomination, but he lost to Giorgio Moroder's score for "Midnight Express".


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: The soundtrack was originally released as a 2-LP set in December 1978, and the same recording was issued on CD for the first time in 1987 (with the tracks "Growing Up" and "Lex Luthor's Lair" omitted to fit the recording onto one disc).


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: A re-recording of the score, conducted by John Debney and performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, was released by Varese Sarabande records in 1998. In 2000, an expanded edition of the original score was released on a 2-CD set by Rhino Records.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: In February 2008, Film Score Monthly released an 8-CD boxed set titled "Superman: The Music", including a newly restored complete score on the first two discs, as well as alternates and source cues on disc 8. As part of the film's 40th anniversary in February 2019, La-La Land Records released the fully expanded restoration of Williams' score on a 3-disc set, including the previously issued alternates and source music.


title: Superman (1978 film)

text: "Superman" is divided into three basic sections, each having a distinct theme and visual style. The first segment, set on Krypton, is meant to be typical of science fiction films, but also lays the groundwork for an analogy that emerges in the relationship between Jor-El and Kal-El. The second segment, set in Smallville, is reminiscent of 1950s films, and its small-town atmosphere is meant to evoke a Norman Rockwell painting. The third (and largest) segment, set mostly in Metropolis, was an attempt to present the superhero story with as much realism as possible (what Donner called "verisimilitude"), relying on traditional cinematic drama and using only subtle humor instead of a campy approach.