Rhetorical Analysis

The purpose of movie poster designers is to draw the attention of the public and make them want to see that movie. Different cultures around the world are going to be attracted to different things.

Each poster gives you a different sense of the movie. In the first poster it looks as though the man wants the woman and she is refusing him, and then on the left-hand side of the poster you can see half of the man’s face and he looks very angry, perhaps indicating that he is upset that she does not want him. This first poster gives you the feeling that the movie is going to be about this man that wants the woman but she does not share the desire for him, and that perhaps he turns violent because as you can see in the poster he is forcing himself on her and she is trying to back away. The people in this poster are very bright against the black background so that you notice them, and then there is an angry face in the red part to the left that really draws you in. The face in the red really makes you feel as though the movie is going to be a scary film.

The second poster gives you a whole different feeling on what you think the movie is going to be about. In this poster there is a photograph of a man and woman hugging each other and then in the background there is a picture of a man covering a woman’s mouth as to keep her quiet. This poster makes you feel as though the man and woman are lovers and perhaps they are running away from something. Also in this poster the names of the actors are much bigger than in the other three, this may be because the actors are much more well-known in the United States and people might be likely to see this movie because of the actors. The colors of this poster are very bright and catch your eye so that you actually look at the poster and in turn make you want to see this movie.

In the third poster there is a big skull in the middle of the poster, the skull gives you the feeling that this movie might be a horror movie. There is also a bull’s eye in the middle of the forehead indicating that perhaps someone gets shot in the head and there is also what looks like finger prints on the chest which could make it seem as though it is a murder mystery movie. In this poster Hitchcock’s name is very big, perhaps indicating that he is well-known in this country. The colors on this poster are not very eye catching besides the bull’s eye in the middle of the forehead. Perhaps the designer wanted us to focus on this bull’s eye because the person had something wrong with their brain or they get shot in the head.

The fourth poster is a picture of a man and woman kissing on the front of the poster and in the background the man is carrying the woman out of the water. This poster makes you think that this movie is going to be a romance movie. Perhaps the man saved her from drowning and then they fell in love. In the picture with them kissing the woman is glancing to the side perhaps indicating that she is watching for someone, perhaps a husband or boyfriend because she may be in another relationship. The colors of this poster are very bright and inviting which gives you the feeling that this is going to be a feel good kind of movie with a happy ending.

All of these movie posters are very different and they all make you feel differently about what the movie is going to be about. If it was not known that these were all posters for one movie a person could assume that they were all for completely different movies. This show how differently societies look at posters and what attracts them to certain things.