Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Benito Mussolini

Benito Mussolini[edit]

Original - Summarizing the circumstances of Mussolini's death, it shows the execution of Mussolini and part of his dismembered leg at the end.

Reason: My first FPC nom ever, but I think this meets the criteria. Although it's a bit grainy, it adds a lot of value to the article in question.
Articles this image appears in: Benito Mussolini
Creator: Universal City Studios, uploaded by Movieevery

Support as nominator --Maxim (☎) 18:20, 19 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Comment A "fitting" end indeed, but I don't know how glorious. Do others interpret this as the actual execution of Mussolini, or a representative example of similar executions? The wording in the video seemed ambiguous to me. "Just as these pictures show the trial previously of other key fascists and collaborators... and in this manner he died." I think I would support if it shows his actual execution, but I think it's of considerably less historical value if it's just a news report about the execution. Fletcher (talk) 21:05, 19 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose per the last point raised by Fletcher. Clegs (talk) 21:47, 19 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Conditional support if suitably captioned. This is wartime propaganda as well as a report about an execution and it's essential to distinguish both functions. This is highly encyclopedic. For our purposes as an encyclopedia, the appropriate way to present this is as an example of how the wartime American public was informed about the execution. Durova^Charge! 22:06, 19 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Would something like "An example of American propaganda during the Second World War, it summarizes Benito Mussolini's death. At the end, part of Mussolini's execution by firing squad is shown, as well as his dismembered leg hanging off a wall." be better? Maxim (☎) 02:05, 20 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Calling it propaganda would need sourcing... and, while it may be... it's very typical of war news footage I've seen during the time... and I even mean wars that didn't prominently involve the U.S. (e.g. Suez crisis). It might be more a sign of the times. But, we need a good caption... gren グレン 03:57, 20 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How about calling it an American newsreel and giving the date? That's not OR, and any intelligent reader is going to infer that a wartime document from a warring nation isn't going to be a neutral document. We have a WWI FPC and nobody stepped up during FPC to object This is non-neutral; it's asking young men to risk their lives because of a trumpet? Well, it's a recruitment poster. 'Nuff said. Durova^Charge! 17:03, 20 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

"A World War II American newsreel, made around May 1945, summarizes Benito Mussolini's death. At the end, part of Mussolini's execution by firing squad is shown, as well as his dismembered leg hanging off a wall." I tweaked my last attempt a bit. Maxim (☎) 18:54, 20 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Could do with slightly better syntax, but addresses the concerns. I'll go with that. Durova^Charge! 20:23, 20 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose for lack of interest in fact checking. On further review I think I was being very charitable in my earlier comment. For one, I think the narrator goes out of his way to note we are seeing only stock footage of trials and executions, and not Mussolini's actual execution or his dismembered leg. Second, there is historical controversy surrounding execution, but many accounts have Walter Audisio executing Mussolini and his gf Clara Petacci privately, not in front of a firing squad, though a group of his compatriots were later executed that way. Third, there are recognizable photos of Mussolini strung up on a girder after his execution, which you might expect to see in the film, but don't. Fourth, I don't see evidence he was dismembered. There appear to be many accounts that his corpse was beaten and mutilated after he was strung up, so you'd think someone would mention he was also cut into pieces, but I don't see this, suggesting that perhaps he was not cut into pieces, and that perhaps that leg belonged to someone else. Yes, it may draw in eyeballs to say this was Mussolini, but if it ain't him, it ain't him. Fletcher (talk) 21:03, 20 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose The news reel is misleading and doesn’t even come close to factually portraying what happened. Mussolini and his mistress were spirited out of a nondescript house by a handful of partisans at night and summarily executed at night in front of a stone wall. The video depicts a more formal looking firing squad that has the appearance of being an official governmental act. Both their bodies, along with those of some others were strung up at a gas station and were beaten by the crowd. Mussolini did not loose his leg—as the video depicts—though his skull was so shattered into utter rubble, the coroner had to *mush* it into shape to obtain a recognizable appearance of Mussolini for pictures. Greg L (talk) 03:43, 23 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Not promoted MER-C 09:46, 26 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]