Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of anti-communist films

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The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete‎. Despite this result, most participants were open to this article being recreated but a new version must include criteria that show what aspects justifies a film's presence on the list along with some reliable sources discussing this possible genre of movie. Liz Read! Talk! 21:49, 23 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

List of anti-communist films[edit]

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List of anti-communist films (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log | edits since nomination)
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Largely subjective list with various WP:SYNTH issues. Much of the list is unsourced, and even looking at some of the other sources, I think it's hard to prescribe a political ideology to many films, or that it's "anti-communist", particularly with the breadth of the term "communist". Some of these are historical films that depicted particular communist regimes in a negative light, like The Killing Fields, The Lives of Others, while others are fiction that happen to use communist regimes as the villains, like From Russia with Love and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but are not necessarily political films that oppose this ideology. I mean, The Death of Stalin was an incredible satire of Soviet leadership, but I wouldn't call it "anti-communist." This list does not have objective enough inclusion criteria to be appropriate for Wikipedia. Reywas92Talk 22:18, 9 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

  1. Invasion USA: Essays on Anti-Communist Movies of the 1950s and 1960s. (2017). United States: McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers.
  2. https://guides.lib.uw.edu/c.php?g=341346&p=2303736
  3. https://spyscape.com/article/10-red-scare-spy-movies-from-a-wild-era-of-anti-communist-hysteria
  4. https://ajges.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40856-016-0009-7
  5. https://www.nationalreview.com/2015/08/best-anti-communist-movies-50s/
  6. https://www.popcultureshelf.com/invasion-usa-anti-communist-movies-of-the-1950s-and-1960s-b-david-j-hogan-2017/
  7. https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/06/hollywoods_anticommunist_movies.html
etc., etc.
What’s more, in my view, this may even be a case of a list that can prove much clearer and less prone to endless debates than a category would be, because you can organize the films in sections and explain why the films are included. If sources commenting on this ideology in the film exist for those films, obviously.-My, oh my! (Mushy Yank) 21:13, 11 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Liz Read! Talk! 22:38, 16 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

  • Weak Delete - I don't doubt that there are anti-communist films that are notable enough for Wikipedia, but so far most of those I've checked seem to be included because they villainize the Soviet Union/Russia/Russians or are otherwise Cold War films. As happens every time something like this comes up, it gets thorny trying to separate communism from an example of its implementation, but for the sake of defining a film (what we're doing here), it doesn't seem like they should be conflated. — Rhododendrites talk \\ 02:27, 17 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
    This is a good point, and we actually already have a similar list that even provides context: Culture_during_the_Cold_War#Cinema. Maybe some of the items in Mushy Yank's sources can be added there. Those are decent sources but I'm still concerned about combining Cold War/Red Scare films with those about other countries or made in other eras. Reywas92Talk 05:15, 17 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep Listing films by genre, topic or common content is completly standard.★Trekker (talk) 18:50, 17 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
    The films listed are not the same genre, topic, or common content. It is a synthesized list of films with different genres, different topics, and different content. They just depict in some way different communist countries. Reywas92Talk 17:02, 18 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
  • Delete I don't see any valid scope or criteria to keep this article. ScriptKKiddie (talk) 02:57, 19 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
  • Delete per nom. Hopefully we don't have List of anti-capitalist films. Pranesh Ravikumar (talk) 05:17, 22 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
  • Delete I think it's a potentially notable topic, but the current article fails WP:SYNTH. I have no problem with a new article if it somehow passes LISTN and if inclusion criteria becomes clearer and justified in a column next to each film - such as comments by the director. SportingFlyer T·C 15:15, 22 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
  • Delete. Criterion is too wide and arbitrary for a constructive list. Suitskvarts (talk) 07:46, 23 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
  • Delete fails NLIST because the list is simply endless; conflates negative depictions of communism (eg Rambo II) with films that are ideologically anti-communist (eg Rio Bravo); SYNTH because none of the sources discuss the contents of the list as a group. Certainly Anticommunism in US film is a notable topic worthy of an article, but unfortunately this list is not. Regards, --Goldsztajn (talk) 08:53, 23 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.
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