The All-Time Top 10 Movie Posters (one man’s opinion) – #1 JAWS, #2 CHINATOWN, #3 THE DARK KNIGHT
by Steve MasonOver the weekend, I was pondering why the low budget, standard genre pic The Haunting in Connecticut (Lionsgate) has become a nifty little box office hit. The film added almost $9.5M over the weekend for a new 10-day cume of $37M, and the only conclusion I have been able to reach is that it’s all about the poster.
Creepy, right? I have not seen Haunting and will probably wait for DVD or pay cable, but that is a weird, startling, attention-grabbing image. As a movie junkie, I love good movie art. The best movie posters are evocative. They capture what a movie is all about without giving away the mystery. There are certain movie posters that instantly put me back in that theatre experiencing the film for the very first time. The best movie posters are not just promotional tools. They stand as a work of art on their own. These are my favorites, buit it is by no means a definitive list. Feel free to add your favorites (and subtract any of mine).
#1 – JAWS
I saw this all-time classic as a 9-year-old on opening day, and saw it a second time at the Saturday matinee. To this day, I am afraid to swim in the ocean. That shark is always there in my imagination. The poster is literal, but haunting.
#2 – CHINATOWN
This is truly a work of art. The smoke shrouding the ultimate mystery of Evelyn Mulwray, and the stylized version of Jake Gittes (played by Jack Nicholson), the hard-boiled detective who unravels it all.
#3 – THE DARK KNIGHT
Impossible to separate Heath Ledger’s death from his remarkable interpretation of The Joker. This is an amazing image. In 30 years, I will look at this poster and immediately feel the impact of Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece.
#4 – BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S
You can almost hear Audrey Hepburn warbling “Moon River” at the sight of this iconic poster. Every woman wanted to be her and every man wanted to be with her.
#5 – SECRETARY
The 2002 cult classic about a sadomasochistic relationship between a demanding lawyer (James Spader) and a submissive secretary (Maggie Gyllenhaal). The movie is an under-appreciated gem. The poster may be even better.
#6 – UNFORGIVEN
This is my favorite poster made for Clint Eastwood’s masterful revisionist Western. Simple. Classic. Tells you everything you need to know about Clint’s Bill Munny character.
#7 – AMERICAN BEAUTY
A beautiful image that suggests the perversity that lies just beneath the surface of the suburban neighborhood created by screenwriter Alan Ball and director Sam Mendes.
#8 – SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
“You will let me know when those lambs stop screaming, won’t you?” You can almost hear Dr. Hannibal Lecter say it. The Death’s-head moth “lodged” in Clarice Starling’s throat. Brilliant image.
#9 – VERTIGO
An ode to acrophobia as Detective Scottie Ferguson (as played by Jimmy Stewart) battles his fear of heights while becoming obsessed with Madeleine Elster (the stunning Kim Novak). This kaleidoscopic design immediately brings the strains of Bernard Hermann’s amazing score into my head.
#10 – PULP FICTION
Uma Thurman as Mia Wallace in all her swagger. Yes, she does wind up with a sharpie circle on her chest and a shot of adrenaline, but the whole gritty movie is captured with this image.
HONORABLE MENTION
- in no particular order -
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
SWEENEY TODD
MEAN STREETS
AMADEUS
GONE WITH THE WIND
METROPOLIS
KING KONG (1939 Fay Wray version)
CLOVERFIELD
THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
Steve Mason is on Facebook and now also on Twitter@LAMase.
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37 Comments
Caddyshack — "Some people just don't belong."
No Country for Old Men
You've got a nice mix of bests and favourites in there (don't deny the distinction! It needs to be made!).
Some other bests:
Rosemary's Baby, Man With The Golden Arm, Phantom Menace teaser, Chelsea Girls, Breakfast Club, Lost Highway (there's two great ones, both different), the Japanese posters for almost every film ever.
And my favourite of the past few years: Ken Park.
Oh Larry Clark, you're incorrigible.
"Badlands"
"In 1959 a lot of people were killing time. Kit and Holly were killing people."
How does that 1939 version of "King Kong" compare to the 1933 version? I'm sure even it is better than the 1976 and the 2005 versions, sight unseen.
I'm a big fan of the posters for "The Year of Living Dangerously" and "Blade Runner"
These are all excellent, but there are two here that I love that you missed.
"Gone with the Wind" has an iconic poster, everyone can recognize it and for good reason.
Another, more contempoary one (could've made your honorable mentions, especially since you had "Pulp Fiction" on there) that I love is two-for-one poster of "Grindhouse"- half of it devoted to "Planet Terror", the other to "Death Proof". I think that the poster will be iconic years from now, like the one for "Pulp Fiction" is for today.
You know what, just thought of another one. "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"- it's so odd and peculiar to look at, but at the same time, it's amazing in its own way.
Mustn't forget the poster for WHERE EAGLES DARE featuring explosive action and heroic renderings of Clint Eastwood, Mary Ure and Richard Burton over the classic ad-copy: 'One weekend Major Smith, Lieutenant Schaeffer, and a beautiful blond named Mary decided to win World War II.'
And while you're at it, leave room for THE WILD BUNCH one-sheet showing its doomed heroes striding purposefully toward one last, tragic showdown next to the tagline: 'Unchanged men in a changing land. Out of step. Out of place. And desperately out of time…' Just brilliant.
Oh, and check out these OTHER taglines from Sam Peckinpah's western masterpiece (they're both winners): 'The land had changed. They hadn't. The earth had cooled. They couldn't.'… And… 'Nine men who came too late and stayed too long… '
The "Silence of the Lambs" poster reminds me of the "Election "
poster. Matthew Broderick is trapped in Reese Witherspoon's mouth.
An odd poster for a quircky movie.
And now for some bad posters. 'Cracked' assembled this fine collection of movie posters from overseas..
http://www.cracked.com/article_16990_lost-in-tran...
Gotta love the "Easy Rider" poster and film. The poster for "Almost Famous" is good too….but only because I read the blog for "Private Benjamin" the other day and have always thought Goldie Hawn is a complete FOX.
"The Exorcist"
Stop2think, you are absolutely right. The eerieness of the movie poster really captures the whole movie. IMHO it is truly the greatest movie poster of all time.
The Alien poster with the single egg scared me more than the Jaws poster.
One of the worst things Hollywood EVER did (and it's a long list) is pretend the posters just painted themselves (remember painted posters). So, to the best of my ability, here are the artists who did your tops.
Roger Kastel: Jaws
Chinatown: Jim Pearsall
Breakfast at Tiffany's: Robert McGinnis
Vertigo: Saul Bass
Recommend: AmericanArtArchives.com
Greatest movie poster ever…. "40 Year Old Virgin"
Raiders of the Lost Ark.
E.T.
Bladerunner.
Basically anything by Dru Struzan or Richard Amsel.
Great choices. I vote for "40 Year Old Virigin's" poster. Simple. Comical. Effective. They had no star to promote, but they used an image which said it all.
Movie posters … nearly as exciting as a trailer when done right.
I agree with Jaws as #1
I would also like to add:
Star Wars: A new Hope
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Metropolis
Let the Right One In
Other classic movie posters, in my opinion, were Return of the Jedi, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Blazing Saddles, and Tootsie. I thought those movies lived up to the hype, unlike some others that had good posters, but the movies were lousy and/or over-rated, (American Beauty and Pulp Fiction). Again, just my opinion.
You beat me to it. Alien always leaps to mind when I think of favorite movie posters.
Trudat.
And John Alvin (Bladerunner)
Has anyone ever noticed in the Silence of the Lambs poster that the Death's head on the back of the moth is comprised of naked women? Tick, tock, Clarice.
Great call on Dry Struzan, Larry. I have a couple autographed by him.
I LOVE the one Requiem For A Dream one with the two wide shots on top and bottom. One image is a person on a pier, and the other is a closeup of an eyeball. It really captures the isolation and frenzy that has to come with addiction.
On my walls are posters from Lawrence of Arabia, On the Waterfront, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Superman (You will believe a man can fly), Raiders of the Lost Ark, We Were Soldiers, Green Berets (French), and Black Hawk Down, and all the Star Wars films.
Beauty and the Beast… this one is in my top ten…
http://www.movieposter.com/poster/A70-8828/Beauty...
Movie posters? Whatever happened to them? The one's today are so ugly and so lame and so unimaginative.
Most are just pictures of the star's a big head or face. Just look at any recent movie's with Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, etc. it's usually just a picture of them. Back in the day they were art and evoked as sense of wow I want to see that, just look at some of the old "B" Sci Fi horror posters most of the art work was better than the movie but it still made you want to go see the movie. The Haunting is the worst movie poster I have seen in a long time. Is the kid throwing up a branch?
Breakfast at Tiffany's artist, Robert McGinnis, also did many of the early James Bond posters, including the humerous Casino Royale. http://www.impawards.com/1967/posters/casino_roya... How about the Illustrated Man? http://www.moviegoods.com/movie_product_static.as...
Bad Link
And Bob Peak (Apocalypse Now, Star Treks I-VI, Superman, etc.) http://www.bobpeak.com/index.html
And Bob Peak (Apocalypse Now, Star Treks I-VI, Superman, etc.)
http://www.bobpeak.com/index.html
Star Wars
The Empire Strikes Back
The Exorcist
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Giant
Metropolis
A couple of personal favorites: "The Iron Giant", great use of color and evokes the feelings of the 50's sci-fi movies; and the "Akira" poster from the re-release. I love the look of motorcycle on this poster for a classic anime flick.
My favorite is "Food of the Gods." It's a crappy movie, but I've loved the poster ever since I picked it up cheap at a comic book convention. It's so wonderfully lurid.
"Cloverfield"?
Please. No.
The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
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