Word: backdrop
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...legacy of the Kennedy sister Rosemary, who has lived for decades in a Catholic care facility in Wisconsin. Born mildly retarded in 1918, she was made much more so after her father made the questionable decision to subject her to a prefrontal lobotomy. With that episode as a constant backdrop, even the best-intentioned Kennedy efforts on behalf of the mentally disabled will seem partly an attempt to reconcile with a past the family cannot undo. But what may have started as something like a penance long ago is now one of the family's most useful devotions...
More than two dozen American airmen shot down over North Vietnam tell the stories of their captivity; interviewed in front of a black backdrop, they speak without a trace of swagger or even ego (unheard of in a gang of fighter pilots). The men are understated, even serene. Their stories of torture and endurance--one was imprisoned for 8 1/2 years--are intercut with newsreels and astonishing black-and-white propaganda footage that the Academy Award-winning husband-and-wife team of Freida Lee Mock and Terry Sanders found in Vietnamese archives in Hanoi...
...BACKDROP...
...will need to display that hidden side if Israelis are to unite behind a renewed peace process. Washington, eager for a foreign policy success before Clinton leaves office, especially against the grim backdrop of Kosovo, will urge the parties to speed toward new agreements. Barak wants agreements too, but on his terms. He has pledged to withdraw Israeli forces from south Lebanon within a year, but he rejects the notion of a unilateral pullout. He is ready to do a deal with Syria on returning the Golan Heights but hangs tough on demilitarization and full normalization of ties...
...scrolling words of the famous opening to Episode IV marked the beginning of the famous Star Wars Trilogy. Against the backdrop of a rebellion against an evil galactic Empire, the conflict between the Light and Dark sides of the Force is epitomized by the characters that have become a part of our cultural identity: Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader, etc. Star Wars reflects and explores several fundamental themes of human nature, including loyalty, honor, adherence to right and perseverance against wrong. After The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, the Star Wars phenomenon continued to grow...