User:Sirdog/ArticleDev/Lord of War

My tasks

• Ensure all instances of 2 or more citations back-to-back follow in numerical order.

Feedback from Lankyant

• Move image of Viktor Bout to the section about him
  •  Done
• Reference the caption
  • ? - Done, I think? He might have meant to have the prose reference in the caption, in which case... that would require a bit of work.
• Add photos of the cast, such as Nicholas Cage
  • Not sure Adding a photo of Nicholas Cage seems redundant when the release poster is functionally the same. I could use photos of the other cast members, I suppose. Will need to look at other articles.
• Add information regarding BFI listing the scene as the top 10 opening credits of the 21st century
  •  Declined GA reviewer does not concur that the inclusion of the BFI listicle is appropriate.
• In the cast list, link Liberia in first instance and then President of Liberia in the other
  •  Done
• Link Non-governmental organization
  •  Done

GA review by TompaDompa

Material pulled directly from Talk:Lord of War/GA1. Templates added by me.

General comments

• The article could in general do with a thorough copyediting to improve prose quality, particularly in the "Plot" section. The WP:Guild of Copyeditors could perhaps help with this, if you don't feel up to it yourself. You could also ask for advice on how to write plot section, specifically, at WT:FILM.
  •  ToDo
• The article relies fairly heavily on interviews and the "making of" documentary. Articles should ideally use sources further removed from the subject than that.
  •  Not possible Aside from going to a local library, searching high and low - including with TWL - does not produce sourcing further removed than reviews. Unfortunately.
• Apart from the "Critical reception" subsection, the article is rather thin.
  • Received
• The structure is a bit unintuitive to me at times. I might suggest turning to WT:FILM for advice on this (as well as reading MOS:FILM).
  • Received

Lead

• The budget in the infobox is unsourced.
  •  Done Added sourcing
• Taking place in the early 1980s – the film takes place over a much longer stretch of time than that. The dissolution of the Soviet Union is a major plot point.
  •  Done I'm fully satisfied with how it reads now, barring input from others
• Securing funding for the film was difficult as it was pitched shortly before the Iraq War, resulting in many American studios being unwilling to take it on. As a result, funding was achieved through debt taken on with Citibank West, the VIP3 German tax fund, and foreign sales. All remaining costs were paid by French producer Philippe Rousselet. – this seems disproportionately detailed for the WP:LEAD.
  •  Done Material removed from lead.
• Review aggregators Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of over 62%, indicating "generally favorable reviews" – this is not correct. Neither gave it over 62%. The Rotten Tomatoes score is 62%, and the Metacritic score is 62 out of 100 (not strictly speaking a percentage). The "generally favorable reviews" part only applies to Metacritic.
  •  Done Material removed from lead.
• The Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes, and Cinemascore ratings are rather dubious to include in the lead.
  •  Done Material removed from lead.
• Amnesty International endorsed it for highlighting the danger of an uncontrolled global arms trade. – that the film does so is an opinion, and this phrasing puts that opinion in WP:WikiVoice (that is to say, this phrasing results in Wikipedia agreeing with Amnesty rather than just reporting what they said). This recurs in the body.
  •  Done Rephrased to make clear it is the opinion of Amnesty and not Wikipedia
• There are five paragraphs in the lead, two of which are single-sentence paragraphs.
  •  Partly done Paragraphs reduced to 3, but still feels slightly awkward. Will revisit.

Plot

• This section is rather heavy on links. Not all of them are necessary.
  •  Done Links are fairly thin now, and I feel I can make a good faith argument for the ones that currently remain
• Ava follows him one day, unaware that Interpol is following her, and they both discover the shipping container that holds his arms-dealing office. – "they both"? Ava is a person whereas Interpol is an organization.
  •  Done Rewritten

Production

• The idea for Lord of War originated prior to 2004 when an agent of the Creative Artists Agency gave Philippe Rousselet the script – surely the starting point should be the writing of the script?
  •  Done
• The idea for Lord of War originated prior to 2004 when an agent of the Creative Artists Agency gave Philippe Rousselet the script – this is the first time Rousselet is mentioned after the lead. The reader should be informed who he is (and the name should be linked).
  •  Done
• The idea for Lord of War originated prior to 2004 when an agent of the Creative Artists Agency gave Philippe Rousselet the script – this wording is ambiguous. Is it "originated prior to [2004 when an agent] [...]" or "originated [prior to 2004] when an agent [...]"? In other words, was the script given to Rousselet in 2004 or prior to 2004 (the rest of the paragraph makes it clear that it has to be the latter as it was before the start of the Iraq War, which began in 2003, but the reader shouldn't have to do the mental legwork of figuring that out).
  •  Done
• but could not find an American studio that would take it on, as it was right before the beginning of the Iraq War – should probably explain why that made them unwilling to do so.
  •  Done Context provided
• An additional setback was that scenes in the script were written to occur in up to 13 different countries – that's not a setback; a setback is unexpected. I might describe it as a complicating factor, perhaps.
  •  Done
• as the expected expenses increased, Section 48 laws disqualified the film from making use of it – I'm going to go out on a limb and say most readers will not be sufficiently familiar with the relevant laws to understand what this means.
  •  Done Found it! Added content to provide context.
• As with Rousselet, Amir Mokri should be introduced and linked at first mention.
  •  Done Material mentioning Amir was ultimately removed
• Amir Mokri made it a point to have the camera move as Yuri moved, in reference to Yuri's constant travelling as an arms dealer. – this is interesting, but it seems a bit out of place in this section and shouldn't have an entire separate paragraph devoted to it.
  •  Done
• The "Yuri Orlov inspiration" subsection seems a bit out of place here.
  •  ToDo
• Using a photograph of a living person in handcuffs should probably be avoided when there are other options available.
  •  Done Changed image
• Screen Rant is a barely-reliable low-quality source that should really only be used for straightforward statements of fact within its area of competency (entertainment, roughly speaking), and then only if no better source can be used instead. It should never be used for anything controversial, WP:BLP material, or any kind of analysis.
  •  Done Removed as a source; remaining RS sources were sufficient anyway
• In 2015, the National Security Archive reported that Yuri was primarily based on Sarkis Soghanalian, an Armenian-Lebanese arms dealer. – what the source says is "he was an inspiration for Nicholas Cage's character Yuri Orlov in the 2005 film, Lord of War", a significantly weaker statement.
  •  Done Rephrased

Release

• Avoid "internationally" when you mean "outside the US and Canada". See MOS:DOMESTIC.
  •  Done Rephrased
• Giving details about the opening weekend in the US and Canada but no information about any other territories apart from the combined gross in all of them is a pretty clear example of WP:Systemic bias.
  •  Done
• The "Critical reception" subsection is rather heavy on verbatim quotes. It would probably be better to paraphrase and summarize a bit more than is done currently.
  •  Done
• listed by the British Film Institute as an inspired opening sequence of the 21st century – the BFI is generally speaking a good source to use, but a listicle like this is not really.
  •  Done Removed material
• Comic Book Resources is similar in quality to Screen Rant, and what I said about the latter above also applies to the former. This article might be an exception as a review seeing as the author is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, but I would avoid using it unless it makes some valuable point that no other source makes.
  •  Done As mentioned, I could have made an argument to keep it, but the reception section is already so beefed up I don't think anything worthwhile is lost by removing it. So, removed.
• Shortly after the film released Amnesty International, a non-governmental organization focusing on human rights, endorsed the film for illustrating the danger of international arms trade when left unchecked. – I don't think this counts as an accolade, exactly.
  •  Done I believe it fits well in "Critical reception" as of now

Home media

• I am not convinced dvdsreleasedates.com counts as a reliable source.
  •  Done Section removed until better sourcing can be found

Sequel

• was scheduled to begin filming in the fall of 2023. It was delayed by eight months – it should be made more clear whether it was delayed eight months to the fall of 2023 or from the fall of 2023.
  •  Done Entirety of relevant material removed due to, upon further review, being a WP:FAIL
• Linking to the more general strike action rather than the more specific 2023 Writers Guild of America strike and 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike is a bit odd.
  •  Done Entirety of relevant material removed; see above
• Cage is returning – we can say that he is reported to be, or that he will (reportedly) be, but not that he is until the movie has entered production.
  •  Done Rephrased

Notes / Research

Historical Accuracy

• Interpol does not have agents which can cross national borders to make arrests

Production

• Music info

Theme

References