The Beauty of 1980’s Rated R Action Movie Posters
Movie posters have been around for a very, very long time. In essence they are just picture advertisements for their movies. The movie posters for action movies during the 80’s, which was a widely varied time in itself, were influenced by many things. These things ranged from the Vietnam War, the war on drugs and also things like the glorification of these wars. Colors played a large part in these posters because they tried to get their intended audience to feel a certain way and make them perform a specific action. Movie posters try to get their audience to go out and buy tickets to the movie they advertise, the way that they are set up plays a very large part in whether this happens or not.
…show more content…
For this genre, there is a pretty much basic set of guidelines that each follows, I will explain it further down below. Let’s just jump right into the 80’s and what things may have affected the way these movie posters were made. The 80’s were practically a time of war. Wars were breaking out in just about every country in the world. The United States had just gotten out of the war in Vietnam and the question about whether or not the U.S.’s actions of entering in the first place were justified. There was also the war on drugs in the United States that was at its peak. This involved the U.S. government actively trying to stop drugs from entering the states. Another very large war that was going on was the Cold War. Tensions during this war were beyond anything before it due to the possibility of nuclear warfare breaking loose. There was also a great recession going on in the United States. An area known as the Rust Belt practically went from the industrial capital to a fairly barren wasteland. The first two examples I have, First Blood and Predator, were both heavily affected by these wars.
Both show a man who is holding a very large gun and looking very intensely at something in the distance. These both could imply that the men on the posters are at war with someone/something that is threatening their lives. In a way, these posters could be glorifying the Vietnam War by having these men portray America surviving the worst. I believe it’s more present with First Blood because of the setting around the main actor. He is in what appears to be a jungle/heavily wooded area. Vietnam was known for its very distinct land and how wooded it was. First Blood and Predator are fairly similar when being grouped by the characteristics I chose, i.e. they both feature a man with a large gun looking intensely into the distance. My third example, RoboCop, was more so affected by the war on drugs and the economic depression in the Rust Belt. RoboCop is set in Detroit, this can be determined by the police badge on the car that has the city’s name on it. This small detail helps the poster’s audience know what the context is and what the movie is about. Detroit was greatly affected by the recession in the 1980’s and it essentially became a
“jungle”. Moving on to who the intended audience is, we can draw some fairly specific people that the author was intending their work for. Firstly, the use of a super macho man holding a gun and looking intense implies that these posters are for people who are adrenaline based and people who are more brawns over brains. It could also be said that the people who aspire to be big and brawny are included in the audience. The colors present are more youthful, there aren’t very many simple or earthy colors. Bold colors like reds, blues, and even greens are used to capture more attention from a younger population. In general the intended audience can be summarized by thirteen to thirty year old American English speaking males who seek action. Next let’s move on to the characteristics that I chose to group these posters by. The primary thing that I wanted to make sure I included was color. Colors play a very large part in the way we perceive things and they practically always make us feel a certain way even if it is subliminal. These posters primarily use the color red for the things that it wants the audience to look at. This include things like the titles of the movies and the main actor’s name. This is done so that the audience can see the title of the movie as well as who the main actor is, but without taking away too much attention from the actor’s image on the poster. Background colors in these posters are selected to draw more attention to the main image and the text. Red is most commonly associated with anger and violence. These movie posters are trying to send the message that the situation presented for the main character is very hostile and that they are in some sort of trouble. This makes the audience wonder what is going on and it makes them feel ready for action. The use of the blue and other various cool colors in the posters for First Blood and RoboCop really help draw more attention to the main characters. With First Blood, the blueish color in the posters background makes not only the actor pop out, but also the text on the poster appear more prominently. The author was smart to use a contrasting color to red to make details appear much better than they would have if another color was used. Robo Cop’s use of the red in the background with the police light helps the blueness of the titular character’s armor stand out better, thus making him appear more in focus. The text that the author wants to draw attention to is done in white; this use of a minimalistic color just helps show that RoboCop is the main thing that is being looked at. Predator is a bit all over the place with colors. Behind the main actor is what appears to be a thermal image. The use of the colors green, red and yellow help keep the focus on the main actor while also making the audience wonder what situation would involve thermal images. Now let’s move on to the set of general guidelines that each one of these posters’ authors used. The real big thing that was present across the board with nearly every action movie poster form the 1980’s was a picture of the main actor. Typically the actor was cast into a situation that involved him having to give an aggressive look that showed he was ready to attack. This is seen in all three of my examples. The next thing that was common across all of these was the use of red. Red is, like mentioned above, associated with anger and violence. It is a bold color and it does a great job of attracting attention and making things stand out. The intended order of viewing that the authors used for these follows: first attention is given to the actor, then the audience moves to the text that is closest to the actor and finally the title of the movie, which is commonly found towards the bottom of the poster. The main thing that the authors of these posters wants the audience to do is go out and buy tickets to watch the movie. The use of specific colors and the way an actor looks can all help with this. They just have to follow the guidelines to make sure that they are being effective. Lastly let’s talk about what rhetorical strategies that the authors use in their work. The big one that doesn’t really ever come up in my three examples is ethos. There are no ways that it is present with the movie posters I have chosen. They more so focus on using logos and pathos. Logos is used because, in all three the main actor is in some situation that requires them to look intense. Since they have this look they have a weapon to defend themselves. Therefor logic is being used; there’s a situation that has the actor in a tough spot, he has a weapon in case anything happens. Pathos is used by having the colors reflect a certain emotion. The reds show anger and the actors make the audience wonder what is going on. Another big way that pathos is used is with the sub text. In the First Blood poster it says “This time he’s fighting for his life,” which makes the audience feel as if they are in a position to help. RoboCop says “Part Man, Part Machine, All Cop,” this makes the audience question what happened to make him only part man. Predator has “…It picked the wrong man to hunt,” which creates tension for the audience. They begin to wonder what is hunting the character and they want to find out if it really did pick the wrong person to go after. In general, pathos has more of an effect on the audience with these posters than any other rhetorical strategy. In conclusion, action movie posters from the 1980’s were influenced by many things. The 1980’s was a time of many wars and each of them influenced the way these posters were created. Specific colors chosen make the audience feel a specific way and they also grab attention for things that the author intended to be viewed. Movie posters in essence just try to get their intended audience to go out and buy tickets to watch the movies they represent. The method in which these posters are set up and what the audience looks at plays a very large role, thus a set of guidelines were created that all follow. Colors used and the way the actor looks all affected this.
The film Jindabyne, is a story about death, marriage, and race in an Australian town in New South Wales called Jindabyne. In the film, four men go fishing, and one of them discovers the dead body of a young indigenous girl. Instead of reporting what they found to the police immediately, they decide to stay and continue fishing. They decide that there is nothing they could do for her, so they tie her legs to a tree and continue with their fishing, reporting the death only when they return home. After they are done with their weekend of fishing and report the incident, conflict starts, as the men are criticized for not respecting the dead. Through the story of the town’s reaction to the four fishermen’s response to the dead girl, the movie shows Australia to be fragmented and divided over white-indigenous relations.
Students will never look at an ad the same way again after screening The Ad and the Ego, the first
When World War II broke out in 1939, many countries began using propaganda to strengthen support for the war. Countries battling in the war used propaganda to unite citizens and keep them focused on contributing to the war effort. During the World War II period, Great Britain and their allies; which included the United States and China, were one of the groups in the war that used various techniques and platforms in order to spread propaganda across their countries. One such platform that played a major role in the spread of propaganda was Britain and their allies’ use of posters to increase morale among people.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wall-Paper”, is a first-person narrative written in the style of a journal. It takes place during the nineteenth century and depicts the narrator’s time in a temporary home her husband has taken her to in hopes of providing a place to rest and recover from her “nervous depression”. Throughout the story, the narrator’s “nervous condition” worsens. She begins to obsess over the yellow wallpaper in her room to the point of insanity. She imagines a woman trapped within the patterns of the paper and spends her time watching and trying to free her. Gilman uses various literary elements throughout this piece, such as irony and symbolism, to portray it’s central themes of restrictive social norms
Posters were mainly used to sway public opinion. They were aimed at brainwashing society to think and act a certain way. Each poster was designed specificly for a particular community, playing upon the cultural norm. Since posters were rather inexpensive, they were not made to last, but were effectively used as a visual tool of propaganda. They were usually very graphic, therefore allowing even the illiterate to be swayed in the direction of the artists choosing.
Before the civil rights movement could begin, a few courageous individuals had to guide the way. Dr. Vernon Johns was one of those individuals. Dr. Vernon Johns was a pastor and civil rights activist in the 1920s. Johns became the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama in the late 1940s. During his time as a pastor, Johns preached many sermons on how African American people were being treated not only in the community but in society. Johns on multiple occasions upset his community through his ideas on social change. Through a sociologist perspective, many sociological concepts were displayed in The Vernon Johns Story. Some of those concepts included: ascribed status, conflict theory, deviant behavior, alienation, and
On my first reading of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper", I found the short story extremely well done and the author, successful at getting her idea across. Gilman's use of imagery and symbolism only adds to the reality of the nameless main character's sheltered life and slow progression into insanity or some might say, out of insanity.
Although both protagonists in the stories go through a psychological disorder that turns their lives upside down, they find ways to feel content once again. In Charlotte Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," a nervous wife, an overprotective husband, and a large, damp room covered in musty wallpaper all play important roles in driving the wife insane. Gilman's masterful use of not only the setting, both time and place, but also of first person point of view, allows the reader to process the woman's growing insanity. The narrator develops a very intimate relationship with the yellow wallpaper throughout the story, as it is her constant companion. Her initial reaction to it is a feeling of hatred; she dislikes the color and despises the pattern, but does not attribute anything peculiar to it. Two weeks into their stay she begins to project a sort of personality onto the paper, so she studies the pattern more closely, noticing for the first time “a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design” (Gilman). At this point, her madness is vague, but becoming more defined, because although the figure that she sees behind the pattern has no solid shape, she dwells on it and
As man developed more complex social systems, society placed more emphasis of childbearing. Over time, motherhood was raised to the status of “saintly”. This was certainly true in western cultures during the late 19th/early 20th century. Charlotte Perkins Gilman did not agree with the image of motherhood that society proposed to its members at the time. “Arguably ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ reveals women’s frustration in a culture that seemingly glorifies motherhood while it actually relegates women to nursery-prisons” (Bauer 65). Among the many other social commentaries contained within this story, is the symbolic use of the nursery as a prison for the main character.
“The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman tells the tale of a woman succumbing to madness following postpartum depression. First published in 1892, it stands out as a piece of early American feminist literature and it reflects 19th century society’s attitude towards women’s health -- both physical and mental. In the beginning of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator and her husband take vacation to the countryside to give the narrator some time to rest and recover. As the story progresses, the narrator becomes more and more bothered by the wallpaper in the room in which she is staying. At the end, the narrator finally loses it and her husband faints upon seeing how insane she has become.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s powerful story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, is about a woman who was driven to madness by her depression and controlling husband. The story is told by the wife, in first person, and is based on Gilman’s own life experience. Gilman suffered from post-partum depression after her daughter was born and was prescribed the “resting cure” which is resting and isolation. In the story, the narrator’s husband puts her in isolation because he believes that will cure her of her depression and breakdowns. He won’t let her do anything, so she turns to writing in her secret journal to try and cure her depression. Since she has nothing to do all day, she turns her attention to the yellow wallpaper in the room. She becomes obsessed with it and begins to see a woman trapped inside the pattern. The wallpaper dominates the narrator’s imagination and she becomes possessed and secretive about hiding her obsession with it. The narrator suspects the her husband and sister are aware of her obsession so she starts to destroy the wallpaper and goes into a frenzy trying to free the caged woman in the pattern of the wallpaper. The narrator becomes insane, thinking that she also came out of the wallpaper, and creeps around the room, and when her husband checks on her, he faints because of what she has become, and she continues to creep around the room, stepping over body.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, depicts a woman (herself) that is somewhat trapped within a room covered with yellow wall paper or trapped within the times? Is she trapped by the wall paper that symbolizes her illness or by her husband? Gilman was the protagonist of this story. She tells the story as she relates it to her own life dealing with depression and a marriage that proved to be prison within itself. Is the yellow wall paper contributing to her illness or is this something her husband uses to control her? “John is a physician and perhaps that is one of the reasons that I do not get well faster. But John, her husband who is a physician doesn’t feel that she is sick “ if a physician of high standings and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression-a slight hysterical tendency- what is one to do?” (pg. 648) You see he does not think I am sick.” John uses the fact that he is a physician to convince his wife that she
“The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins-Gilman explores the oppression of women in the nineteenth century and the constant limitation of their freedom, which many times led to their confinement. The short story illustrates male superiority and the restriction of a woman’s choice regarding her own life. The author’s diction created a horrific and creepy tone to illustrate the supernatural elements that serve as metaphors to disguise the true meaning of the story. Through the use of imagery, the reader can see that the narrator is living within a social class, so even though the author is trying to create a universal voice for all women that have been similar situations, it is not possible. This is not possible because there are many
Women's roles within society have changed drastically throughout history. Today, women assume relative equality in society with men; women have the right to vote, own property, get divorced, and hold the same jobs, among other things. Prior to 1919, however, women were dominated by the largely misogynistic society that existed in the United States; women did not have the right to vote and were not regarded as equal to men in marriage or otherwise (“woman suffrage”). The late nineteenth century in the United States was also a time when society viewed individuals with mental illnesses as “a threat to public safety” (Holtzman). Therefore, “people with mental illness were cared for by family members, who quietly attended to their needs in rural areas” (Holtzman). These are the conditions the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” was living within.
How do movies affect our brain? Is the movie culture directing our thoughts in a certain path? Do movies change our behavior? Do movies carry a certain message? Perhaps a warning? These are all questions that we don’t normally give much thought to when we watch a film. However, it is important to employ our critical thinking skills when we analyze a movie we just watched.