Movie Poster Analysis Essay

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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…

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

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