A Poster Is Worth…

Iconic Movie Posters

An aspect of film that many people may not notice is publicity. Getting the audience to get up and drive to the movie theatre is half the battle, while the other half is creating something entertaining enough to hold their attention for a couple of hours. And one of the most common techniques that film makers have used, besides the movie trailer, is the movie poster. Give them an image that captures their attentions and makes them wonder “what’s this movie about?”

Throughout film history ever film has had a movie poster created for it. But there are a small few whose movie posters have turned into iconic images. People see the image and automatically think of that film. They don’t even need the film title on it to know what movie it is talking about. In a way they have become a form of art and some are as recognizable to movie lovers as the Mona Lisa is to art lovers.

Below are, in my opinion, the four most famous and identifiable movie posters in film history. Due to length restrictions of any blog, all of the iconic images from movie poster cannot be listed. Therefore this compilation of movie posters is incomplete but satisfactory enough to prove how these images hold the essence of the films they portray.

Silence of the Lambs

This movie poster is as strange and queer as the film it publicizes. It shows the face of actress Jodie Foster, who stars in the film. The decision to make her face black and white, but keep her eyes in color may seem bizarre, however in a way it makes perfect sense. As a police detective, she uses her eyes to look for clues throughout her case. Furthermore the orange-brown color with the blue fits beautifully as two complimentary colors. The death dead hawk moth that fits over her mouth is meant to signify a number of things. The covering of her mouth fits perfectly with the “silence” in Silence of the Lambs. Furthermore the moths play an important part in her character’s discovery of her target who has been abducting young women.Lastly death head hawk moths have a strange but very natural formation on their backs which resembles a skull. This promotes a very uneasy feeling in the viewer, making them realize this is a scary film. Another part of the poster that many people may not realize is the actual skull on the moth’s head in the poster. It is not a natural formation in this case, but actually a minimized version of a painting by Salvador Dali. The picture is of naked women bodies that are laid out to form a skull. This is to signify the women that Buffalo Bill killed for their skin.

Almost Famous

The film Almost Famous can easily be recognized with this iconic poster. It shows the face of Kate Hudson, who plays the character Penny Lane in the film. Her face was chosen, even if she is not the main character of the film, because she personified the magic and freedom of the rock music era in the 60s and 70s. This can be seen throughout the film as she wanders with the band as a sort of musical muse. In the glasses that she wears can be seen an image. This image is of a rock concert, and more importantly the image of Russell, the lead guitar player. This image in her glasses is meant to not only show the audience the rock and roll band, named Stillwater, that this movie follows, but also shows Penny Lane’s eyes resting on Russell. Russell and she have a love affair throughout the film and as it dies, so do the wild and fun times that the band has together.

Pulp Fiction

It can be argued that this image not only holds a place in iconic movie posters, but also holds a place is iconic images as a whole. This film and the following image of Mia Wallace on a bed hold a special place in film history. Ask any movie lover about Pulp Fiction and they will probably mention this famous picture. The image of Mrs. Mia Wallace on a bed is meant to show the seductive nature of the film. She has a harsh expression on her face showing the violence and callous killing that takes place throughout the film. She is also a personification of Quentin Tarantino’s wild and almost humorous reality where hit men are cool and a quarter pounder is called a royal with cheese. The items in front of her on the bed are just as important as she is herself. The gun by her shows that this film is not only sexy, it is bloody. And it’s true, as guns are just as numerous in this film as characters. The cigarettes are another iconic image that Tarantino uses throughout his films. Furthermore the cigarettes that lie in front of Mia are Tarantino’s special and fictional brand called Red Apples. He uses them in almost every one of his films. Last but not least is the book that Mia has her hand on. The entire film that Tarantino has created is meant to harken back to the style of pulp fiction books. All of his films, not just Pulp Fiction, get their blood and energy from pop culture and in this case, pulp fiction carries the film through its gun shots and adrenaline needles.

American Beauty

If you asked someone what the movie American Beauty is about, their answer would most always be “it’s about beauty.” And what is more beautiful than the female body, or a flower? But it means more than that, I promise. When the main character, Lester Burnham, first meets the girl of his dreams, he is immediately smitten with her. She changes his life completely for her and her perfect body. It is her stomach that appears on the movie poster, showing Lester’s lust and the sexiness that she exudes as a character. The purpose of the rose can be seen in the film itself. When Lester first sees her, he envisions rose petals coming out of her chest. When he fantasizes about her, she is always covered in rose petals. The roses show up in many scenes of the film, even if we may not realize it. To Lester, the roses symbolize sex and lust. It isn’t until later in the film that we realize they may mean something else: innocence.

The Stories in Film

Story within a Story

Metaphors and symbolism are not just realms meant for the written or visual art form; films have a tendency to dabble in these areas as well, and in a beautiful way. There are symbols that show up within a film and are meant to signify something – in Shawshank Redemption, Andy Defresne’s posters could symbolize freedom or in American Beauty, the roses that Lester Burnham sees are symbolic of lust and passion—or there are metaphors that are there to give the film a deeper meaning – in 2001: a Space Odyssey, the bone that the ape uses to kill another ape turns into a space station, showing how advances in technology can lead to violence and vice versa.

Another very useful tactic that books use, which has not been done often in film, is the concept of a story within a story. I’m not simply speaking of a character in the film telling a story, like Gordy’s story about Lardass in Stand By Me. A film can take its original story and add in a story within it that ties back into the original story. Confusing, I know, but if done correctly, the film can be given new dimensions. And no other film does this better, in my experience with film, than A Little Princess.

The Two Little Princesses

The film, A Little Princess, is actually based on a book of the same name by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Though the film and book differ in many ways, the film actually takes on the literary task of symbolism and metaphor where the book does not. It tells about a young girl living in India named Sarah Crew. She is English and living with her father, who is a part of the English military. When World War I breaks out, her father must go to Germany to fight and she must go to a boarding school in New York City; it is the boarding school that her mother went to, however her mother died when she was very young and Sarah hardly remembers her.

Another important thing to know is that, while in India, Sarah knew an old woman named Maya

who told her an ancient story about a Princess and her Prince. Maya also told Sarah that all girls are princesses, no matter if they are rich or poor, beautiful or ugly.

When Sarah comes to the cold, draconian life-style of the boarding school which clashes very harshly with her free-spirited life in India, she is shocked to see that none of the girls at the school have any imagination or joy in stories. She begins telling them the story throughout the movie that Maya told her. The audience may begin to realize how perfectly the story fits with what is happening to Sarah.

The characters in her story, Prince Rama and Princess Sita, correspond perfectly with the characters of Sarah’s father and Sarah herself, showing that the film is actually about two little princess.

The Circle

In the story that Sarah tells, the prince and princess are sitting in the woods when the princess sees a deer that is hurt. She begs her prince to go help it and before he leaves, he draws a circle in the sand, saying if you stay within this circle nothing would harm her. This happens at the beginning of the film just before Sarah is sent to the boarding school where her father wishes her to stay so she will be safe. In this way, the circle could symbolize the school.

However the princess believes she hears her prince cry out and leaves her circle to go find him. As she searches she is trapped by an evil monster that takes her to his castle and locks her in a tower. In this way, it would seem that the circle symbolized India, and the monster was the war that separated her from her father, or perhaps the evil headmistress, Miss Minchin, who guarded the school, or tower, where she is forced to stay.

To further the symbolism even more, when Sarah hears that her father has died during the war and she must live in the cold, damp tower of the boarding school as a servant, she draws a circle on the ground in chalk and lays in it, crying for her father.

The Yellow Smoke

According to Sarah’s story, the Prince Rama is killed after he saves the deer and before he can return to his Princess Sita. The monster that has kidnapped her sends out arrows that land into the ground around him and emit a thick yellow smoke. The smoke is poison and Rama dies in the woods.

After Sarah tells this park of the story to the girls, the film cuts to her father in the trenches of the war. He appears to be the only survivor, but as he makes his way through the trenches he sees his friend John is still alive, but barely. As he attempts to take John with him to get help, German planes drop mustard gas on them. The last we see of her father during this scene is when he passes out from the gas. In the next scene, Sarah is told her father is dead.

The yellow smoke that kills Rama is to correspond with the mustard gas that kills Sarah’s father. Furthermore her father dies trying to save his friend, just as Rama dies because he left to save the deer. This analogy between the smoke and mustard gas furthers the idea that the raging monster is actually symbolic of the war, as it separates Sarah from her father and attempts to kill her father/Rama.

The Deer and the Resurrection

After Sarah learns of her father’s death and all of her family’s money is taken by the English government, she is forced to live in the boarding school as a servant. She begins to give up on her dreams and imagination, even going so far as to declare that the magical stories she used to tell are “just stories.” The movie continues with Sarah and we do not return to Rama and Sita until she begins to feel the magic of India again. It is an Indian man who lives next door named Ram Dass who subtly begins to remind her of the fantasy she has forgotten. She begins telling her stories again, and tells about Rama’s resurrection.

The deer that Rama had saved comes to Rama’s body and lies down. It magically gives its life to Rama because he is indebted to him for saving his life. Rama lives again and Sarah’s stories come back alive with them. However, as all of this is going on, we learn that the Indian man who lives next door looks after an older man named Mr. Randolph. His son was John, the man that Sarah’s father tried to save. He learns that the man in John’s battalion is still alive and takes him in, at Ram Dass’ suggestion, because he wants to learn what happened to his own son. The man he takes in ends up being Sarah’s father, who is very much alive but suffers from amnesia.

The deer, or John, has brought Sarah’s father back to life and the magic of India, or the character Ram Dass, has brought Sarah and her father closer together. However Sarah’s father still has amnesia, and he and his daughter have yet to be reunited.

The Magic of India

Ram Dass’ character, which is meant to symbolize the magic of India, not only brings Sarah’s father closer to her, but it also helps him to remember who he is. He gives her father hints to his past by mentioning India to him. Finally, when Sarah and her father see each other and her father doesn’t recognize her, Ran Dass stares intently at him, forcing him to remember. The magic of India, which is something Sarah and her father remember from their past, reunites them in the end. An interesting side fact is that the director of this film, Alfonso Cuaron, actually had the actor who played Sarah’s father, Liam Cunningham, play Prince Rama as well.

We Three Kings of Film

Daniel Day-Lewis

The Method Actor

To call this Academy Award winning actor and film legend a method actor would be an understatement. Daniel Day-Lewis took the art of method acting, or a technique of acting in which an actor aspires to complete emotional identification with a part, to the next level. He is an actor that insists on becoming his character, never breaking focus or stepping out of his character’s mindset, even when the director yells cut. While filming the movie Gangs of New York, he insisted that all people on the set call him by his character name (Bill) even when the cameras weren’t running. He even called other actors by their character names off set, addressing Liam Neeson as “Priest Vallon” when he met him in the gym at their hotel.

His passion for his character is apparent especially onset while the cameras are rolling. While filming his Academy Award winning film, There Will Be Blood, he became so immersed that he almost actually hurt another actor. Paul Dano spoke of the climactic bowling alley scene in the film, where Daniel Day-Lewis’ character began attacking Paul Dano’s character. Dano said, “”They [the bowling balls Day- Lewis was throwing at him] start flying and I realize he’s getting into it. Then a ball bounces up and hits me in the leg, and I’m thinking: ‘OK, those are heavy; this is getting serious – I’d better duck.'”

Despite the fact that it did not win any Academy Awards, Daniel Day-Lewis’ finest film, in my opinion, would have to be In The Name of the Father, where he tells the true and tragic story of a man who is wrongfully imprisoned for many years by the British Government. Daniel Day-Lewis actually spent three nights in a cold prison so he could see the real living conditions that Gerry Conlon dealt with. He even instructed those on the set to be rude to him, battering him, and dumping cold water on him so he could understand the abuse his character dealt with.

Some may call his tactics strange or even insane, but his ability to delve into the character has not gone unnoticed. His has been praised as possibly on of the greatest actors of our time and has delivered nothing but spectacular performances in all of his films. (1)

Robert Downey, Jr.

The Prodigal Son

As the son of a famous director, it was no surprise to anyone that Robert Downey Jr. found his way into the films. What was shocking is how he slipped out. While beginning his film career, Downey Jr. was arrested twice, once in 1997 and again in 1999, for offenses related to drug charges. He was then fired from a show he was working on for his drug use and then spent the next year in a rehab. Some considered this the early end of his acting career. After all, it’s difficult to come back from a fall like that.

But Robert Downey Jr. proved them all wrong. He continued his acting career, doing films such as The Wonder Boys (2000) and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005). But he blew the fans away when he began his binge of films from 2008 to present, starring in films such as Iron Man, Tropic Thunder, The Soloist, Sherlock Holmes, and Due Date. Within a span of a few years, Robert Downey Jr. wasn’t only back on the map, he was taking over the map. It was a film comeback that would stand out in history. The prodigal son has returned.

His perhaps most impressive performance would have to be his comedic, Downey-esque adaptation of the legendary Sherlock Holmes in the film of the same name. He wasn’t playing Sherlock Holmes in that film; he was playing Robert Downey Jr. playing Sherlock Holmes. His genius and quick dialogue was Holmes, but the humor and style was all Robert Downey, Jr. Though it may not be the best representation of Holmes, he was still able to charm audience members and Sherlock Holmes fans into loving him. (2)

Brad Pitt

The Pretty Boy

Some people will scoff at my taste when I tell them that Brad Pitt is my third favorite actor. Really? The pretty boy who was in Troy? The one who married Angelina and adopted tons of babies? But Brad Pitt has never ceased to impress me in his films, especially the most recent. And I would argue that the directors are beginning to see that as well.

Fight Club, Snatch, Ocean’s Eleven, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Burn After Reading, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Inglorious Basterds… ever film was done nothing but prove to me that he is just an actor that is good a wheat he does. And his versatility is phenomenal. An Irish, gypsey Boxer, secret agent, possibly-gay gym fanatic, Nazi-killing Lieutenant, and the list goes on and on.

And Brad Pitt doesn’t let his fame get in the way. It can be difficult for actors that are very much in the lime light to perform; people begin to see the actor as a person because they keep covering the front pages of every magazine, and have trouble seeing the character they are portraying. But when I watch Fight Club, I don’t see Brad Pitt starting a fighting club and ranting about anti-materialism, I see Tyler Durden. And when I watch Inglorious Basterds, I don’t see Brad Pitt beating the shit out of Nazis, I see Lt. Aldo Raine. And the directing community has begun to realize that he can add to the film with his great ability to be flexible. Even The Cohen Brothers and Quentin Tarantino, who are very particular about the actors that they use, have taken him in to use him for their quirky and legendary characters. He may be a pretty boy, but he’s a pretty boy who knows what he’s doing.