Movie Poster

THE JANITOR Film Poster:

"The Janitor"

Movie Poster

Movie: THE DARK KNIGHT

Poster:

 

The Dark Knight (2008)

This particular movie poster is for the movie The Dark Knight, the major blockbuster released in 2008.  The movie itself was amazing, and I think that this poster also is quite effective.  The poster is effective and sells the movie well.  In fact, I plan to watch the movie again after writing this post because this poster is making me want to do so.

The poster is effective because it instills fear into the viewer.  If not fear, then it gives off a feeling of uneasiness.  There are many symbols and semiotics that create this uneasiness and fear in the viewers’ mind.  First off, to see a hero’s face in this state makes the viewer of the poster uneasy with the blood, the cards, the smile, and the knife.  The cards themselves show that the Joker is well involved with the plot, along with all the quotes written on Batman.  The cards create the shape of our hero, and the chaotic way it is taped together could represent the chaotic mind of the villain.  The knife, however, gives off the most fear, because the knife itself has blood on it.  We can infer from this that the blood-smile and the blood-stains were made by the knife, and the fact that it is on Batman means that Batman himself may be the main target.  There are also words all over Batman, most likely written by Joker (and most likely his thoughts).  These lines also epitomizes the twisted mind of the Joker, and how he has a plan to kill Batman.  The “ha ha…” that make up the Batman symbol illustrates how the Joker is mocking Batman and taking what he does as, well, a joke.

The elements and principles of design involved in this poster also helps to make it effective as well.  The lines and borders of the joker playing cards create the form of Batman.  This could represent an important idea that is revealed in the movie (although this is sort of a spoiler, but this post isn’t a review anyway), which is the idea that “Batman and Joker complete each other.”  Joker explains this during the movie, and how Batman “completes” the Joker.  Without Batman, Joker would be doing nothing with any worth, and he needs Batman for him to have any worth.  At the same time, he says how Batman is Batman because he is the Joker.  The villain completes the hero, and vice versa, and can be seen in this poster.  This adds to the principle of unity, because all the objects in the poster come together to create one entire idea.  Every object has its meaning and plays an important part in the overall theme and picture.  Aside from lines and form, there is also the emphasis of the color red.  The poster throughout has a dark tone, with the dark Batman and the desaturated colors of the playing cards.  These colors are coherent with the title: The DARK Knight.  However, the color red stands out boldly.  The red represents blood, but it draws attention because of its boldness compared to the rest of the poster.  It emphasizes the amount of blood shed that will be involved in the movie, and the knife helps to make the viewer understand that the main weapon will be this knife.

I wanted to turn the attention back to the phrases, and their relation to the picture itself.  The juxtaposition of the knife and the phrase “lets put a smile on that face” means that the Joker will most likely use that knife to carve a smile on the victim’s face (as he actually does in the film).  The phrase “why so serious?” is also written near the smile made from blood on Batman, also emphasizes that action.  He is going to carve the smile on his victim’s face because he doesn’t know why they are so serious.

Overall, I think this poster is a great poster.  It sells the movie well, and I think that part of its selling point is the conflict between the Joker and Batman.  It’s selling that it won’t center around Batman fully, but it will also focus on the Joker and his “plan” against Batman.  The poster is surrounded with mystery, fear, and uneasiness that makes viewers want to know more, which is what the artist wanted when he/she created this poster.

Now that I’m done, I will excuse myself because I am now going to go watch this movie.