Movie Poster Review

American Gangster

In this ad for the film American Gangster, we see two main characters, Denzel Washington dressed in black, and Russell Crowe, dressed in white. Washington, dressed in black and brandishing a gun is being cast as the villain by these two facts. Crowe, dressed in white and revealing a badge at his belt, is contrasted with this image and visually cast as the hero cop, or good guy. Both men’s heads are slightly out of frame at the top of the picture, giving the sense that their stories perhaps are bigger than themselves…that they are another pairing in a long line of epic battles between good and evil. The placement of the two men as just off center to the right and left gives the sense of a middle line running down the poster, and the red slash at midscreen where the title appears, gives another linear element creating the composition of the poster elements.

American Gangster is the one of the latest films in the tradition of Hollywood gangster flicks. As such, the design of the poster needs to immediately signal to a potential ticket-buyer the film’s membership in this elite group. How would one do this? Well, for starters, make sure to control your color palette to mainly black, white and red. The black and white will signify the seriousness of the world your characters live in: right or wrong, life or death. A hint of red will allude to the violence of the character’s world, and the type of action and malice the viewer can expect in the theater. This technique, along with a strong middle dividing line between good and evil, was also used nicely in the poster for Scarface:

Scarface

The controlled black, red and white color palette–with some variation–has been used in many gangster movie posters, which is why it was a good choice for branding American Gangster as the next in a line of many: