Monday 10 January 2011

Analysis of Goodfellas poster (1990)


The centre of the poster has the title of the film, it uses an old fashioned style font that looks simmilar to what was used in the 30's when the Mafia rose to prominence, which links to what the film is about, as well as the revealing its part of the gangster genre.
it has a tagline below the main title which says ''three decades of life in the Mafia'' which doesent leave any member of the audience in doubt as to what the film is about.
the images are of the three main characters, Joey, Henry and Jimmy, with the names of the actors emblazoned above their heads, the images are important as the actors are very well known and in one case iconic, Joey Peschi, and Ray Liotta are well known for their roles as gansgters portraying the mafia, and Robert De Nero is a cult actor who is iconic as his role as both an actor and an actor portraying a member of the mafia.
The way they are dressed shows the audience the stereotype of how the public belive the Mafia dress and act, it also slightly resembles how someone would attend a funeral, suggesting that the film could depict the fall of the Mafia.
It also shows violence could be in the film, this is further backed up by the actors in the way they are standing with serious looks on their face, the background shows a man who has been shot with a derby hat on suggesting that more violence is in the film, it also depicts a stereotype homage of the 1930's New York underwold where scenes like this were common especially as a result of hits by the Mafia.
It uses the simple black and white colour scheme as it is most well associated with the gangster genre, with films such as Casino (1993) and more notably the Godfather (1972) used a very simmilar colour scheme and genreal poster scheme.
I belive it creates a target audience of mainly males aged between 18-70 as the film can appeal to all ages but it doesent appear to have any particular interests for girls, there are no elements of romance on the poster, only violence and crime which are more aimed at men then women.
the big selling point for the audience is the image used along with the rolling block, the three actors are very well known especially for their roles as members of the mob, and the director Martin Scorcesse, who is a world renowned director with critical accliam, also the partership between robert de nero and martin scorcesse is world renowned with classic films such as Raging Bull(1988) and Taxi Driver(1976) the poster is an extrwmly well known and iconic poster and is sunonimus with the gangster genre.

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