![]() | This article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
I'm removing the two references to the movie The Last Samurai stating that the Tom Cruise character is based on Ward. This is seems to be an example of the internet-as-echo-chamber. Most of these statements contain similar phrasing to - or explicitly reference - either this WP page or an unsourced factoid at the IMDB trivia page for the movie. Which, needless to say, is no more a primary source than we are.
It's easy to find articles online, however, where the principals describe the historical inspiration for the film (short answer: Japanese history).
While I recognize the superficial similarity between Ward and Cruise's Nathan Algren, this narrative theme is hardly new territory for Hollywood (white officer heroically leads less-pigmentally-challenged soldiers in exotic locale). There is no element of The Last Samurai's plot (that I know of) which seems drawn from any particular event in Ward's life.
The current WP article states that Cruise was involved in an abortive attempt to adapt the Carr book into a film prior to The Last Samurai. (It'd be great if this was sourced.) I find it easy to believe that if Cruise was interested in playing Ward he also might find the Algren role appealing - and even (pure speculation, here) that he'd been actively pushing for a similarly-themed screenplay that was unencumbered by whatever complications "The Foreign Devil" project had. But - for our purposes, this doesn't matter.
72.70.72.170 ( talk) 18:49, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
"As it is, he is remembered as one of China's greatest military heroes". I don't think many Chinese regard him (and also Gordon) as heroes. To majority Chinese, those guys are just agents of imperialism and ruthless butchers.
Wiki contributors are not valid and quotable sources for articles. - Tεx τ urε 18:24, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
"However, a certain Yankee trait of hypocrisy in the service of hard-nosed business interests was also held in esteem, or at the very least, politely left unacknowledged." This is A. not a sentance and B. also rather incendary in language. In refrence to this not being a sentance, where is the subject? 'a certain Yankee trait of hypocrisy'? no. 12.20.127.229 18:08, 7 December 2005 (UTC)
Large sections of this article seem to be taken directly from copyrighted sources, this article needs alot of work to bring it up to standards. Revision as of 06:41, 16 August 2005 is superior to the current version. 12.20.127.229 18:36, 7 December 2005 (UTC)
I deleted the speculation about subject's departure from schooling since it specifically states that no-one has any evidence about the truth. Also deleted comparison to Grant since it specifically states the men never met, were not really contemporaries (according to the text), and all they had in common were that they were former officers unhappily employed. There's too much of that going around to encyclopedic. rewinn 03:32, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
1. I think this article should go back to Start class, since the sources are of poor quality, the possibly high-quality sources are not easily verifiable, the citations are not wikified (and are specific enough to demand it). The article appeared in whole cloth | here based entirely on three dodgy online public-domain transcription sources, with no reference to the two printed works (Carr and Cahill). Gilding has since ensued.
2. Has anyone attempted a thorough wikification of all citations? If not, I will. I'd dearly like to see a copy of those damned books, though.
-- Lexein 05:05, 14 April 2007 (UTC)
Starting a new Talk section to record my work tracking down some sources here so that they can be cross-verified by other editors...
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 2 external links on Frederick Townsend Ward. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
This message was posted before February 2018.
After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than
regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors
have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the
RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{
source check}}
(last update: 5 June 2024).
Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot ( Report bug) 15:34, 9 September 2017 (UTC)
I have some questions about the reliability of the Carr source. Particularly, The Devil Soldier is described by Thomas A Breslin in this review as "revisionist biography" and that "Carr is increasingly less reliable the farther his story gets from Shanghai". Reviewed also here by "David G. Egler", Egler writes "Carr is highly biased in favor of his subject, his narrative is full of digressions, and the book contains no bibliography. Although some major sources are discussed in the text itself, the notes cite only direct quotations. However, the work is valuable for the military historian and for early modern Chinese history"
This doesn't seem to qualify as a reliable source for Wikipedia? The book only seems to be once, but isn't there a more reliable source for his date of death? X0n10ox ( talk) 03:07, 22 May 2024 (UTC)