I asked the question the other day on Twitter what everybody’s favourite movie posters of all time were and I got some fantastic answers, I also discovered some really inspirational poster designs.
So for the record:
My top five movie posters*
*subject to change
1. Batman / Ghostbusters
In fairness I am cheating a little with choice number one but it’s not because I’m just trying to sneak an extra poster into the list. I actually love these posters for the exact same reason and it would be downright crazy to have them take up two spots on the list.
The sheer iconic simplicity.
The original teaser poster for Ghostbusters was simply the Ghostbusters symbol, backwards interestingly enough, I’m told it is because the ‘no or anti’ symbol wasn’t widespread in use in the USA so the distributors didn’t realise that it was the wrong way around. In fairness I have my doubts over this being true. But the key thing here is that symbol makes you want to know more and but not giving more you make an audience want to find out who ya gonna call.
The Batman poster comes off the secrecy surrounding the Batman production, you could have easily had an action packed poster with explosions and Jokers and Batmobiles, but rather than give anything away we have the single most important element of the film, really of the whole character which is the bat symbol.
It is mind numbingly awesome and created a giant bat craze in 1989. Of course it was also designed to separate it from the campy feel of the 60s Batman as well and you are under no misconception, this is a new updated Batman!
2. Jaws
Screw that, I’m not going into the water.
A giant scary f$%@ing huge shark eating people in the ocean. Thank you, mission accomplished.
I like the whole concept of the poster, it captures the vulnerability of swimming in the ocean and not knowing what is underneath those waves. The shark is in no way in proportion, for this Jaws film at least but it still works.
I actually possibly like the follow up poster more but only because I think the idea of selling tickets to a picture because you were too scared to watch it from behind your hands over your eyes is a clever marketing idea plus I like the crispness of no black around the edges.
A quick note about the wonderful typeface used for the Jaws logo… umm, it’s wonderful.
3. Escape from New York
The Escape from New York poster is really put together well in a visual sense, being slanted, the light on our heroes running, the chase and the fact that the city itself overwhelms the smaller figures. It has great imagery, even though you never see the Statue of Liberty’s head strewn across a city street in the actual film here it just evokes the imagery of where New York is at the time of this film, it is kind of cool that years later they would pay homage to this poster in the film Cloverfield by actually depicting the unseen scene.
The title also jumps out of the poster which you obviously want, I think I like the poster more the more I examine it!
4. Independence Day
You can say what you want about the film, I know a lot of people give it grief and complain about all of its problems but even these people have to admit it had one of the best advertising campaigns for a movie ever.
Even in Toowoomba where I was living at the time it was released they had custom TV ads proclaiming that we should take a look at Toowoomba cause it could be our last.
I just love the snappy “Earth, take a good look, could be your last” tag-line with a picture of the Earth and the beginning of the giant mothership at the top of the poster as it gives that oppressive overwhelming feeling.
It again does what a really good poster is supposed to do and sets the tone for the film, ID4 is not a serious film, it’s a ride.
I thought I might just mention that I like most of the other ID4 posters as well that all serve to show how powerful the aliens are… if only they had installed Nortons.
5. Darkman
A lot of people mistakenly think that Darkman is based on a comic book character when in fact it isn’t. Darkman was an original character developed for the movie. The film captures the comic book and pulp feel so well and this poster is just a great comic book cover of the character, a perfect hero shot of a not so perfect hero (oh did you see that little spot of writing, that was gold, nominate me for something right now!).
I love the pose and it is kind of neat that it actually features in the film (the setting not the pose). John Alvin (the artist) has done some amazing work over the years but I like this one the most.
Special note: I also LOVE the work of Drew Struzan who for some reason just doesn’t have a poster on here but really needs to get a special mention as his posters are very awesome.
So what are your favourite posters of all time?
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