Don’t let snobs tell you anything different, movie posters are just as valid of an artform as anything that hangs in a museum. If you think about it, the art of trying to still an inherently visual medium through a static image is an absolutely thankless task — one with fraught with problems on how to properly translate the complexity of a film to a motionless picture. These days it seems like Hollywood has thrown in the towel entirely on creating great poster art, with generic and lazy photo montages used to promote most films. Gone are the masterful designs from the likes of Saul Bass, Richard Amsel and Drew Struzan (the latter of whom still occasionally comes out of retirement to show the current establishment how things are done).
Film fans have spent countless hours debating what the most “artistic” poster ever made is (it’s Bass’ jaw-dropping one sheet for Vertigo, right?), but such things are so subjective. As are favorites. My personal favorite movie poster is for The Empire Strikes Back, as I feel it beautifully conveys the adventure, excitement and romance of the film. But the flick is also one of my all-time favorites, so automatically I am biased here.
For this Open Thread, I want you to tell us what some of your favorite movie posters are. More than that though, share your thoughts on why these works of art have stayed with you over the years. They may be created for reason of commerce, but the value in some of these posters is priceless nonetheless.