Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Eric Bana

Eric Bana

Self-nomination: This article has come a long way from where it was a couple months ago. It has been greatly expanded, with references and citations and such. It received very little attention in peer review, but I think that this article is ready now, and I hope you agree. -- Underneath-it-All 03:59, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

• Comment. Is there any critical appraisal of his work? This should be included in a separate section. Otherwise, the article seems to be quite good. RyanGerbil10 (Drop on in!) 05:28, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks! I put critical appraisal within the body of the film career section of the article, so everything about that certain film is all in one section. -- Underneath-it-All 14:35, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Wow. I'm late. I change my vote to Support. RyanGerbil10(The people rejoice!) 03:34, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

• I would definitely suggest a lot more sources throughout. Statements like "The Castle was a critical and financial success, but its humour was not well received by audiences outside of Australia" definitely need a source (or two:)) . Mad Jack 05:41, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

I have added more sources throughout the entire article. -- Underneath-it-All 15:25, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

• Comment The following sentence is missing some information (which I assume is the $ symbol) but someone who knows should probably add it. The Castle was a surprise critical and financial success, earning 877,621 at the box office in Australia. JenLouise 02:30, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

I added the missing dollar sign. -- Underneath-it-All 03:26, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

• Comment Also alot of the phrasing is pretty bad (eg. Dominik had been working on the project for five years and had been having a difficult time finding an actor to portray Read. I'll go through and rephrase where I can, but it needs a serious look at. Specifically, the word had is way overused and sentences containing it could be better articulated.JenLouise 02:33, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

I changed the line to Dominik had been working on the project for five years, but was unable to find an actor to portray Read. I have also went through the article again and have fixed minor grammer and spelling errors. -- Underneath-it-All 03:38, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

• Comment This article is not geographically specific. Many financial figures are simply quoted as "$" but apparently at different places "$" means different things. See WP:NUM - I suggest writing [[United States dollar|US$]] and [[Australian dollar|AU$]] on first appearances and simply US$ and AU$ thereafter (no redundant wikilinks). TheGrappler 17:56, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

I have fixed this, but what about international money totals? I have stated the international box office gross for Troy but do not know what to put in front of it. Do I just leave it? -- Underneath-it-All 19:00, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

Well, if it's actually measured in US$, I think it would be a good idea to say so. Makes things less ambiguous. TheGrappler 11:52, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. I have fixed all the financial figures. -- Underneath-it-All 20:27, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

• Support Object—nice job with the article, but I've got a few questions:

• "for his impressions of his teachers, which he used to get himself out of trouble." Could this be expanded more?

Expanded a bit. Explained why he performed impressions and when he began to do them. -- Underneath-it-All 01:59, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

• "supporting himself by clearing tables". Was he not successful as a comedian?

Explained why he had to continue to clear tables. -- Underneath-it-All 01:59, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

• "which told the story of a Melbourne-based family's struggles". Not interesting. What kind of struggles? Could this be expanded somehow? If not, take it out.

Expanded the film's plot and why the family is stuggling. -- Underneath-it-All 01:59, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

• "Although the film received a limited release outside of Australia, Bana's performance was met with positive reviews." Not sure what this is trying to convey—is "limited release" a good thing or bad thing? How is it related to the type of reviews he received?

Reworded sentence to just say it was given a limited release outside of Australia. -- Underneath-it-All 01:59, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

• The subsections in "Personal life" are rather short. Can they be expanded at all?

I have expanded the interests section, but cannot really expand the section on his family life as he is a private man and not much is published about his personal life. -- Underneath-it-All 01:59, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

• Replace or remove the "Newspaper unknown" reference; that's scary.

I have replaced it with a reference with a magazine name. -- Underneath-it-All 01:59, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

• How were the three general references used? I'm a little confused about those.

The general references were for used in place of articles I could not source (ex. these articles did not have the newspaper they were published in etc.). These general sources are pretty reliable, as they have been used as his biographies on web sites such as IMDB and All Movie Guide. -- Underneath-it-All 01:59, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

• Do any books exist that could be used as sources? Any biographies of this guy yet?

Bana is not really well known outside of Australia and as far as I know, there hasn't been any biographies published about him. -- Underneath-it-All 01:59, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

This isn't far from FA status, just needs a few more touches. --Spangineer^es (háblame) 22:13, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

Supporting now. I don't suppose there's any way to get a free image. Thanks for making the fixes. --Spangineer^es (háblame) 13:45, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

I can try and see if I can find one. Thanks for your suggestions. I think they have improved the article greatly! -- Underneath-it-All 15:20, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

• Comments: The whole this needs a copyedit. A few specific comments:

1. His most popular films include Hulk, Troy (2004), and Munich (2005). -- how can that be the case is Hulk was a box office disaster?
2. What is an "audition tape"?

--ppm 16:04, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

I have made some changes to the article. While Bana did gain a lot of media exposure for Hulk and he is well known for his role, you are right in the fact that it was not one of his most popular films. I have changed this to Black Hawk Down. As for the last sentence, I have reworded it. -- Underneath-it-All 16:18, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

• Object. A citation spot check found issues(of varying severity) with 4 out of 5 footnotes checked (Results here). There seems to be a problem with statements being cited to sources related to but not directly supporting the statements in the article. --Robth^Talk 21:43, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

  I have now gone through the article and have checked every reference, fixing them and in some cases removing or reworking sentences. I have also addressed your concerns on the article's talk page. -- Underneath-it-All 22:59, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

  • Thanks. Looks much better. --Robth^Talk 17:10, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

• Is it important to have info on his children? Anyway, support, good article. - Ta bu shi da yu 16:00, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

Other biographies that were featured articles talked briefly about the subjects children, so that's why I included a bit on his children. -- Underneath-it-All 21:18, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

• Object—I'm sorry to have entered this page late. The entire text—not just the following examples—needs a run-through to weed out bad prose.
  • "featured skits, stand-up and celebrity guests but failed to attract a substantial audience and was cancelled due to low ratings after only eight episodes."—Comma required before "but" (more commas throughout the article would improve readability). Don't you mean that it "was cancelled after only eight episodes due to low ratings"?
  • "Bana was invited to perform on Steve Vizard's late night talk show, Tonight Live, making his television debut."—Better prose is required by the FA criterion 2a: "Bana was invited to make his television debut on Steve Vizard's late night talk show, Tonight Live."
  • "he was persuaded to try stand-up comedy while working as a barman at Melbourne's Castle Hotel."—What, he did the stand-up comedy act at the bar? Make it clear.
  • "Bana performs predominantly in leading roles in a variety of low-budget and major studio films, ranging from romantic comedies and drama to science fiction and action thrillers. His most popular films include Black Hawk Down, Troy (2004), and Munich (2005)."—Why not plain and simple: "Bana mostly performs"? Pick the group of three redundant words (and as well, we have "ranging from" in the subsequent clause). Can you possibly replace "include" with "are"? You're implying that there are other "most popular films" that you're not listing here.
  • "The two were married in 1997, after Bana proposed to her"—Not three? Just make it "They were married ...".

A copy-editor who is relatively unfamiliar with the text is needed—it will take about an hour. Please network to identify such a person. Tony 14:24, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

• Haha! I'm about to do the unthinkable and suggest that Tony's suggestion still contains redundant words: instead of "Bana was invited to make his television debut", why not "Bana made his television debut"? ;-) I'm working on doing a more thorough copyedit—I did the first level two section, and will hit the others tomorrow. Hopefully I'll catch the important stuff. --Spangineer^es (háblame) 02:29, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

I like it, Spangineer. Tony 03:35, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

• Well, it took longer than an hour, but I went through the whole thing and fixed it up a bit. One thing: "He recently finished filming Romulus, My Father in Australia." sounds like an afterthought. Hope the changes were helpful. --Spangineer^es (háblame) 20:19, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

• Obection withdrawn, but it makes you wonder why the nominator didn't organise help before nomination. Thanks to Spangineer. Tony 01:49, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

• Object. Seperating the "early life" and "personal life" sections at each end of the article makes the article flow poorly. It also contains very little about his comedy career, including only one sentence on his time as Full Frontal, which was the break that first brought him to nationwide fame. Rebecca 05:48, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

The article is a brief summary of Bana's career. Everything cannot be mentioned. How would you suggest expanding this section? Also, other Featured Articles on performers such as Diane Keaton, Uma Thurman and Katie Holmes have seperate sections on the performer's "early life" and "personal life". -- Underneath-it-All 14:39, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

I've crossed out my former objection, as while it is bad practice, I can't hold it against you for following earlier precedent. That said, it really does need more about his time on Full Frontal. This series launched him to national fame, and paved the way for his entire later career, and it is given only one sentence in this article - compared to his fleeting bit role in The Castle, which is given an entire paragraph. There should be plenty around from the time, although it may require some searching of newspaper archives (as, being in 1994-95, there probably isn't much online). Rebecca 01:15, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

I have added a small bit on where he got his character inspirations from, but other than that I am lacking info on this time in his life. Most biographies only include one quick sentence about his time on Full Frontal (such as his official bio on his managements website). Other articles (which I have looked up on http://www.ericbana-archives.com/ spend very little time discussing this period. -- Underneath-it-All 03:17, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

• Oppose, violates fair use criterion #3. Three "fair use" images in only 21k of text is two too many. User:Angr 06:26, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

I have removed an image. Now there are only two. -- Underneath-it-All 14:29, 8 August 2006 (UTC)