post movie posters done in a busy/claustrophobic caricature style from the 70s and 80s

like these:

http://i.imgur.com/S2B1s74.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/NQGmxtu.jpg

http://images.moviepostershop.com/cannonball-run-2-movie-poster-1984-1020248508.jpg

http://www.impawards.com/1982/posters/best_little_whorehouse_in_texas_xlg.jpg

http://www.moviegoods.com/Assets/product_images/1020/48575.1020.A.jpg

http://www.americanartarchives.com/davis,j_mad_world1963.jpg

sorry, I missed the '70s/'80s part

The Long Goodbye one is in the tradition of this, I guess, or of Mad magazine: (x-post, speaking of!)

http://images.wikia.com/its-a-mad-mad-mad-mad/images/1/1f/It

Double x-post, yikes!

Are there any posters in the last 15 years that are a throwback to this style?

http://meansheets.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/a-house-1-copy-enlarge.jpg

machete kills has a poster like this.

(in this tradition, that is)

Are there any posters in the last 15 years that are a throwback to this style?

― obie stompin' moby (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, October 25, 2013 12:15 PM (1 minute ago)

detroit rock city?

xp no caricatures though nm

detroit rock city?

― ᶓ͠סּᴥ͠סּᶔ ᶓͼ᷆ₓͼ᷇ᶔ (gr8080), Friday, October 25, 2013 1:18 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

!!! yes

and Mallrats!

FYI this movie owns:

http://i.imgur.com/DXdVv3Q.jpg

http://assets.fontsinuse.com/static/use-media-items/14/13101/full-972x1440/51e16f50/wet_hot_american_summer.jpeg

woah japanese take on this style:

http://i.imgur.com/yW1UCNL.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Kzo3Ryg.jpg

http://meansheets.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/american-graffiti.jpg?w=584

http://images.moviefanatic.com/iu/t_full/v1364991767/the-fish-that-saved-pittsburgh-poster.jpg

http://wrongsideoftheart.com/wp-content/gallery/posters-c/cooley_high_poster_02.jpg

http://wrongsideoftheart.com/wp-content/gallery/posters-s/slaughters_big_rip_off_poster_01.jpg

http://wrongsideoftheart.com/wp-content/gallery/posters-b/bamboo_gods_and_iron_men_poster_01.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/XacS5Ol.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/uSJJJqa.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ek6HzV8.jpg

pretty much half of all 70's movie posters.

http://i.imgur.com/Mnz5Z7Y.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/3lIx48u.jpg

http://adammcdaniel.com/RichardAmsel2.htm

http://i.imgur.com/Zo51FL9.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/9CXyAxn.jpg

http://www.filmonpaper.com/site/media/2011/05/ConquestofthePlanetoftheApes_B2_Japan-1-500x703.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/dDoCZ0T.jpg

I've never seen that Nashville poster upthread before! Altman's preferred poster artwork ended up on the soundtrack instead:

http://www.interviewmagazine.com/files/2009/08/04/img-nashville_105700420061.jpg

Came up on my Nashville image search:

http://attackofthekillerlibrarian.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/barrylyndon2.jpg?w=449&h=640

http://i.imgur.com/G70HDmh.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8d/California_split.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/yOdPW08.jpg

Every Bond movie of that period to thread...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/36/Live_and_Let_Die-_UK_cinema_poster.jpg

http://wpc.556e.edgecastcdn.net/80556E/img.news/NExYbO1rjwxqAF_1_1.jpg

http://www.impawards.com/1978/posters/california_suite.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0c/The_Man_with_the_Golden_Gun_-_UK_cinema_poster.jpg
Wikipedia's alt text:
A man in a dinner jacket holding a pistol is in the centre of the picture. Various scenes and images surround him, including two women in bikinis, a midget with a pistol, a car stunt and explosions. At the bottom right, oversized and pointing towards the man in the dinner jacket, is a golden gun, with a hand holding a bullet, about to load the gun. The top of the picture has the words "ROGER MOORE as JAMES BOND 007". At the bottom are the words "THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN"

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lschmxxO8P1r13zreo1_400.jpg

Charltonem Hestonem

http://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/11/MPW-5611

http://www.filmbrain.com/photos/uncategorized/crackers2.jpg

http://blogintomystery.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/heavymetalmoebiusb.jpg?w=367&h=500

http://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/77/MPW-38847

http://www.authortonypiazza.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Freebie-Poster.jpg

https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/film-poster/4/0/7/0/3/7/407037-american-tickler-0-1000-0-1500-crop.jpg?v=1f0b883638

American Tickler, 1977

I just happened across the Jack Davis poster for 1973's "Long Goodbye" (seen at the top of the thread) while web surfing the other day; and it struck me how that "MAD Movie Parody" presentation is the perfect way of representing Altman's filmmaking style - an ensemble cast of weirdos crammed all over the frame, with a bunch of interwoven speech bubbles depicting how they all tend to speak over one another

otm. I went to a show of Davis's art, after Elvis Telecom mentioned it on the "i go to new york" thread, and his penciled draft for that poster was a beauty to behold.

Wow, what an experience!

Altman's one of the few non-acting directors I know of who appeared in the poster (Hitchcock and Stephen King are the others I know of)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c2/Bride_Hard_poster.jpg/250px-Bride_Hard_poster.jpg

Bride Hard, 2025

Not a movie poster but it could be

https://www.instagram.com/p/DBEteZWiMdt/?img_index=1&igsh=Njh4YWFmMDBkeDNp

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjkwMTMzODUyMl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNzg0MTM1MjE@._V1_.jpg

Sky Devils, 1932

Poster looks more recent tho

I know--I did a double-take, and then I double-checked!

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZDU4ZDNkNDQtYTNjNy00MzdkLTk3YWYtOGI4ZjExMTNlODMyL2ltYWdlL2ltYWdlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUyNDk2ODc@._V1_.jpg

Cottonpickin' Chickenpickers (1967)

seems that sky devils poster was a 1979 rerelease.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZjM2NDVjYWMtNzkzZi00ZWU2LThkYmEtODhmNjFhNjNkNTc3L2ltYWdlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzc5MjA3OA@@._V1_.jpg

Up Your Alley (1971)

https://bandsaboutmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/jamief__stitches1.jpg

Stitches (1985)

https://cdn.posteritati.com/posters/000/000/005/302/the-hospital-sm-web.jpg

The Hospital, 1971

Different format, same art:

https://media-cache.cinematerial.com/p/500x/cbsi4fd7/the-hospital-movie-poster.jpg?v=1456727761

https://www.cinelinx.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Jaws-4K-50.jpg

That blu-ray sleeve makes it look like the cast are underwater, looking away guiltily while the shark gobbles up Susan Backlinie

1968 but...

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZmQyYjZiMjktMWVmNi00OTA3LTg3ZmEtNTFmYjRhZDRlZWMxXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg

One from Brazil...

https://images.app.goo.gl/GJbe6vBbojGfXmrN9

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNzgyNDM4MTY5MV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwMzc1MDA5._V1_.jpg

Harper Valley PTA, 1978

Soundtrack:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91tmQvYaYML.jpg

Harvey Kurtzman?

...and Will Elder. Both initials are bottom left.

Ah! Though I recognised the style but could not see the trademark WEHK

So what changed this? Why did all the character actors get dropped from movie poster design? By the time of Ghostbusters, you start to see even some ensemble comedy posters pared down to the main stars, and with action/caper/adventure movies it's even more focused. Back to the Future is just Fox. And almost no posters have white backgrounds. Like, 1987's Adventures in Babysitting would have had the whacky collage a few years earlier. Did agents for stars start demanding their clients get all the poster real estate?

Probably. Also, by the '80s trailers and TV spots had become more important modes of promotion, and the use of photography over illustrations trickled down from that. Also the need for utilitarian images that could work both on posters and on small VHS/BetaMax covers.

VHS box does seem like a key one I hadn't thought of before. More generally, 80s design aesthetics tended to be brighter, flatter, starker; compare children's book covers for the same title from the 60s/70s and the 80s/90s, and I think you'd find an analogous shift. Album covers, band photos, fashion... I can imagine that all the fine-lined detail of the these posters may have tested badly with Gen-X teens who saw it as the graphical equivalent of macrame and wood paneling.

You need only see a bunch of hackneyed, unfunny z-level comedies with these kinds of posters/VHS art to associate the style with hackneyed, unfunny z-level comedies, and I think viewers/consumers have only gron more and more canny about stuff like this.

Which reminds me - my favorite unfunny, z-level artifact of the era, Record City (RIP Ruth Buzzi).

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/b2yTA8BmmgZHYCqHOkw23v5klB8.jpg

HAHA I HATE THAT MOVIE Rick Dees as "Koko The Gorilla"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFRhADWKZRY

Thats my clip btw lol

it's not so-bad-its-good, its totally lame. But I find it fascinating to think I lived in a world that would make Record City, last blast of vaudeville ethnic stereotype comedy, along with post-pill sex jokes, and set in a shop where disco and new wave were new things.

I see abundance in 1970s visual media as part of the cultural surround. Abundance speaks of hedonism and freedom amd relative prosperity. It is a permission space we inherited from hippies reacting against gray-suit conformity. Free to be you and me etc.

Once groovy Haight-Ashbury abundant
color and busy-ness faded into the burnt-orange look of your stoner uncle's depressing den, this look became embarrassing and cleaner minimalist became a sign of cool - neon and pastel, Nagel, Miami Vice.

yes! very nice way to put it. also of course goes with the Reagan-era revenge of conformity, etc.

A (probably obvious) thought: the golden age of the cartoony poster style coincides with the peak of Mad magazine's circulation and influence on the culture.

I recently saw the exhibit "Timeless Mucha" at the Phillips Collection; the show traces the connection from Art Nouveau and Mucha specifically (all visual filigree, unbound hair, luscious vegetation) to 70s psychedelic poster art and Dead albums.

You can get the idea here

https://artsandculture.google.com/story/mucha-hippies-and-revolution-mucha-foundation/1AUR_gz5fWXjZw?hl=en

And I guess why stop there, there is always a dialectic between restraint and abundance (between "less is more" and "less is a bore"), between small-c classical and small-r romantic tendencies. Between the Apollonian and the Dionysian. These pendulum swings may be in response to something social, political, or economic.

Often technology and what you can do with it catches up with what artists want to say. In particular, look at how advances in lithography and 4-color process printing coincide with the economic conditions that permit posters to even be a THING.

Just like in Belle Epoque Paris, you needed a certain level of population density and foot traffic to necessitate poster art, plus a populace willing to be influenced by poster art.

Movie posters, too, only make sense in a world with a certain level of
personal mobility and disposable income. Do we make our decision to see or not see a movie based on how informative its poster is, or whether it invokes a brand? In 1978 a busy poster might have been the best way to communicate what one could expect from the movie. Hijinks! Carol Burnett! Burt Reynolds! A gorilla! Boobies!

I agree that not too long later a franchise superhero movie sequel might be advertised only by a silhouette, a logo, a roman numeral, and a release date. What is the movie about? The letters BFM III 01.01.10 and a mask with ears tells us all we need to know: it's gonna be Christian Bale (or whoever) dressed up as some kind of creature, I dunno Broody Fox Man, and it's the third movie like that. No Harvey Korman! Or Chevy Corvette! Required.

In parallel, much print advertising shifts from prose paragraphs listing the virtues of the product ("and that's why more doctors recommend Sparky(tm) brand asbestos suppositories!") ... to a page of negative space surrounding one work I a stately typeface: Chanel. Coke.

A _brand_ has already done its sales work elsewhere, via marketing and PR; the ad is just to make sure you remember to close the deal that your subconscious has already agreed to without you knowing.

* one word in a stately typeface

great posts, YMP.

Thanks, Doc. Key texts influencing my thinking include:

1. John Wanamaker's saying that half of your advertising budget is wasted (you just don't know which half), and the rise of formative / evaluative research intended to combat that perception

2. Tracy Flick's speech in "Election" about why Coca-Cola advertises

3. The Father of Spin, a kinda frightening biography of Edward Bernays

4. My brief foray in advertising / PR, just enough to be dangerous, when I worked for a disciple of Bill Novelli, one of the founders of what is now called social marketing. You know "Soup is good food"? She came up with that.

Seconded, booming posts, and I really enjoyed that online exhibit you linked to. I don't think I ever even heard of Mucha(!) but you can be damned sure I am familiar with all those poster styles and have had many of them scattered around my walls for much of my life

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMDZjODRhY2QtNzkwZC00ZjE4LWE1YWUtY2NhMDAyNTVjNjhkXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_.jpg

America (1986)

(scans tiny list of names for "Bronson Pinchot," in vain)

But with the semi-mythical Zack Norman!

https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/film-poster/1/3/6/5/2/2/136522-sitting-ducks-0-2000-0-3000-crop.jpg?v=96f560e5c6

Sitting Ducks (1980)

Zack Norman again!

https://resizing.flixster.com/fwXZEEHUUAdQ65eiQA_5APBRb4M=/fit-in/352x330/v2/https://resizing.flixster.com/-XZAfHZM39UwaGJIFWKAE8fS0ak=/v3/t/assets/p182_p_v13_aa.jpg

distant memories of resenting that that movie was rated R, preventing this young Mad Magazine fan from partaking.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZTNkNzdjYWUtNjgxYy00MmU1LWJjYTEtMjVmNTE4MjU3N2I2XkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg

Going Berzerk (1983)

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZjA1YzJmZWYtOWU3YS00MjUyLThkMjAtMDgzZGE0OTM0N2Q2XkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg

Basic Training (1985)

Basic Training (a.k.a. Up the Military) is a 1985 sex comedy film by Andrew Sugerman. It is often considered to be one of the worst films of 1985.