Ross LaManna is a screenwriter best known for writing the spec script Rush Hour. He has served as the Chairman of the Undergraduate and Graduate Film Departments at ArtCenter College of Design since 2013. Ross recently sat down with Poster Child to talk about his favorite movie posters.
The following passages are paraphrased from a conversation with Ross.
Metropolis
“I think this may be the oldest one on my list: Metropolis. I just love it–and it is so “Art deco in your face” and it just couldn’t scream that era more loudly than you know, and obviously that you know that images from the movie. But it’s just they just they went for it, you know. It’s basically fine art, you know. I mean, that’s it’s one of those posters that you could frame that and consider it fine art. And I feel like, even if people haven’t seen the movie, they’ve probably haven’t seen the poster. It’s very recognizable and it’s very iconic now. “
The Godfather
“This is kind of the inverse of the last . I love the poster for The Godfather. The art for the poster came from the book. What I love about it is that they didn’t just show guys with Tommy guns and hats and old cars–they didn’t go for the gangster thing–they went for something that is thematically a huge part of the story: who’s pulling the strings? Nobody would ever do a poster like that now, because they would figure “well, no one understands what the is.” It is it about puppets, you know. They would never do it. And they had, I mean, obviously the godfather was a cultural phenomenon, and so they had a lot of leeway. Because it was already in people’s heads. Everybody knew about it. I just I love that poster because it’s just so subtle, you know, but it’s still about the movie.”
Alien
“There are many reasons why I love this poster so much–I mean, you’ve just got that. You know the egg, and the light coming out of it, and it’s so we don’t know what the hell is going on. This poster has, in my opinion, the greatest tagline of all time, which is “in space, no one can hear you scream.” Whoever thought of that should have got a big bonus, because that’s genius. That doesn’t tell me what the movie is about–but it kinda tells me what the movie is about. You know, it’s a hard cause Scott said “you know, alien is a haunted house movie set in a spaceship.” And it’s just like it. Just so, I mean, I can’t praise it enough. It’s just so evocative. And you know it tells you in space. Okay, we know where you know we’re know where the egg is. Blah! Blah! Blah! But no one can hear you scream.
Now, you know that the the chest popping, scene really, Scott didn’t tell any of the cast that we’re gonna do that everything was like, very organic as far as reaction correct. That’s a great tactic, you know. It really is great idea. But it’s it’s just a wonderful movie it really holds up because it’s so modern, you know, and just is, the cinematography is beautiful even now, and just the leanness of it.”
The Exorcist
“[The Exorcist is] another notable poster that takes a very iconic image from the movie–Max von Sydow walking up to that townhouse, in the mist, at night. The image fills you with dread, and you don’t even know why. There’s no picture of the devil in there, the little girl throwing up, or anything like that. It’s just like ‘this guy has no idea what he’s in for... that like moment before disaster.
Jaws
“Okay, next on my list of favorites is Jaws. That’s an obvious one. It’s one that does tell you what the movie is about, perfectly, in one frame: girl swimming on the surface, big ass shark underneath about to have a snack. I thin k that was one where I think it was effective in kind of spelling it out for you. It’s like, you know, this is what you’re coming for... and this is what you’re getting. Again, another cultural phenomenon because of the book and a lot of press about the movie. So you know, they could have anything on that poster. They could have had a merry-go-round on it, and people would have gone to see it, but they didn’t clutter it up with, like Chief Brody on the beach, you know, and all this sort of but you know we’re gonna need a bigger boat, you know, and all. You know, Richard Dreyfus. They just said “Shark. Girl. We’re in.”
Pulp Fiction
“I love this poster because they dressed it up with all sorts of details. I mean, first you have Uma Thurman looking badass, smoking a cigarette, reading pulp fiction, and then she’s got a gun in front of her, and then they’ve made the whole thing look torn and beat up like an old paperback–and then they’ve got that great lettering. It’s witty–just all these details in there, that kind of tell you what the movie is about. But they’re really riffing on the expression pulp fiction and the idea of pulp fiction. Then, putting her front and cente–and I think it may be the only one where there’s an image of a character like a photo, like a photo of a character in there–But she just looks great, you know. She’s got the dark hair and everything, and she looks like trouble. I just think it’s a great poster. And, it’s another one where you see it all over the place. You see that poster up on people’s walls, you know, it is also like fine art. I think that’s kind of one of those ones, too, where if somebody were to make a movie that’s similar, they could never do a poster like again, because it would probably just look like they’re ripping off the movie rather than the actual books/genres. They had that idea, and you probably couldn’t do it again. They kind of planted their flag, and they just said, no one’s ever gonna touch this because it’ll just look like a bad rip off.
I could talk about movie posters all damn day...
I love them.
The Fly
“Be afraid. Be very afraid. It’s kind of a famous line. The poster for The Fly is fantastic because it’s basically he’s trying to event invent a thing where you can transport someone through space. You know they they know they’re here, and then they’re there. But he’s in there, and a fly gets in there with him–and so when he comes out the other end, he starts turning into a fly. So, the poster is basically that–super science fictiony-looking pod with light coming out of it. And on one side there’s a human arm coming out, and on the other side there’s the arm of a fly coming out. It’s effing genius. t’s just like it’s so weird, cause you sit there, and you should see if you can find that online. It’s a clean image–but as soon as you realize what you’re looking at, it’s like ‘Wait, that’s a dude’s arm...,’ and that’s it. You just get creeped out. It’s so subtle, but really cool. And it tells you what the movie is about, without telling you.”
The Empire Strikes Back
“Next up is Empire strikes back–but specifically the one where Han Solo and Princess Leia are in the gone with the wind pose. From what I’m told, that poster was not around for that long, because Billy D. Williams complained to Fox that he wasn’t in it and so they put another poster out. Obviously, everybody everybody knows what Star Wars is, but they just kind of gave you a little overview of what’s going to be in the movie. And I think they and they obviously hinted strongly at the romance. The background is like a wash, you know. It’s just like it’s like a blue. So it’s there’s some stars and everything. But then it’s almost like it’s unfinished. So it feels like a painting, you know, because it is. But I you know I just I love it that they didn’t eel like they needed to like square it off, and, you know, have something through the, you know, and so the the tie, all the you know the titles are sort of in something that’s pretty undefined. It just it feels very organic.”
E.T.
“E.T. is 9th–the poster with the two fingers touching each other. et’s glowing finger and the Kid’s finger. It’s a riff on the Sistine Chapel, obviously. But really, it’s about connection. Obviously, it tells you that there’s a extra terrestrial, and he’s got a little glowy finger–and it tells you there’s a kid in it. And it’s simple. I think it’s about the movies about the connection between the kid and and the alien, and so the posters about that, too.”
Anatomy of a Murder
“Finally, the list ends with the simpler version of anatomy of a murder, where it’s just a little broken apart, silhouette. I think it’s so clever, even though it’s literal, it works. Saul Bass pulled it off for sure. It’s almost like he’s a dress designer, making a dress for someone in the fifties, and you couldn’t wear that now. I don’t think anybody would make a poster like that now, but it was of its time. That movie was kind of controversial, because it’s spoke about certain things that wasn’t spoken of in movies at the time, and so they kept the poster simple. They didn’t give you any hint of what exatly was going to happen. It was just it was a murder story, and there’s a mystery to it which is, who’s the body, and that translates so well onto the poster.”