post movie posters done in a busy/claustrophobic caricature style from the 70s and 80s

http://i.imgur.com/sk8ZdVN.png

http://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/117/MPW-58968

Don Knotts must hold the record for appearing in this type of poster.

http://images.moviepostershop.com/200-motels-movie-poster-1971-1020144185.jpg

if i was a skilled illustrator and a few thousand tumblr followers, i'd do a series of posters in this style for movies from the period that never had one.

just imagining:

apocalypse now
the shining
dune
cocoon
close encounters
blue velvet
caligula

lol

It is sort of amazing that Caligula didn't have one of these.

hahaa, i was thinking of the same idea, how great these would be applied to the 'wrong' movies - but unfortunately it requires a lot more talent and time than wacky photoshoppery...

Close Encounters a great pick because it's in some sense a "road" movie so the S-shaped line of cartoon people chasing their way down the poster would work out great. Anything with a big cast basically works.

Also funny how the bodies get bigger and the style more realistic based on how many of the stars are considered sex symbols. The all-male middle-aged comedian revues seem to be populated entirely by grinning gnomes, but Goldie Hawn is always legible.

I'm picturing a tiny animation of Malcolm McDowell fisting some poor soldier in a corner of the poster.

There must be people on tumblr who do commissions, right? I don't think I die happy without seeing that Blue Velvet poster now I've heard the idea.

A lot of these films had Mad magazine spoofs drawn in this kind of style, right? I guess someone could photoshop them into posters.

After a great deal of browsing, I feel confident in saying this style basically petered out by 1982 or so. There are stragglers, but it's really apparent when you see a poster for something like Screwballs or this one for Smokey and the Bandit III, which is still cartoony but really not the same kind of thing:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d2/Sandbpart3.jpg

This is where I wonder again what really killed this off. It can't just be the "easier to photo-collage" angle I suggested above, because clearly people were still doing lots of fully hand-illustrated posters for ages after this.

Starting to think "Carter-era" as mentioned above is really dead-on, notwithstanding precedents like It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

When did contracts start requiring that the star's face be a certain % of the poster?

Bought a dollar VHS of The Cannonball Run inspired by this thread. Ugggggggh. We gave up after fifteen minutes.

http://i.imgur.com/3nJQs6V.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/8GElLMT.jpg

^^Good one. The bottom one is the art on my dvd, which has since been replaced by this:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51b6ATnCRLL.jpg

Russ Meyer didn't use this style enough

Image NSFW

http://www.favouritefilm.com/acatalog/BEYONDTHEVALLEYFRENCH.jpg

The latter inspired this:
http://th09.deviantart.net/fs71/300W/i/2010/244/0/1/ultravixens_by_claudia_r-d2xruq2.jpg

It's amazing how much the middle Night Shift poster makes me want to see the movie. The DVD cover of course has an opposite effect of similar strength.

http://www.moviegoods.com/large_detail.asp?http://www.moviegoods.com//Assets/product_images/1020/554549.1020.A.jpg

Grisso reminded me of this 1987 poster:

http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/7181/amazonwomenonthemooneh1.jpg

saw these two IRL tonite, for sale at a record store (both jack davis):

http://i.imgur.com/7Vknrzr.png

http://i.imgur.com/H6cKxuk.png

God, SDJR was in like, half of these.

http://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/99/MPW-49596

A friend just posted this one to her Facebook. Pretty fucking compelling cast, there.

Zalman King!

woah zalman king's first producer and writer credits

http://images.moviepostershop.com/the-bingo-long-traveling-all-stars-and-motor-kings-movie-poster-1976-1020314381.jpg

Thrifted this one today. I have high hopes, though to be honest I would only like to laugh and have excitement.

American Hustle needed a poster like those ITT.

wolf of wall street too

Or "Argo", with an angry elbows-flailing Khomeini caricature up in the corner

http://www.filmlinks4u.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Madhouse-1990-%E2%80%93-Hollywood-Movie-Watch-Online.jpg

from 1990! This must be one of the last examples of this sort of style, surely?

whoever it was up-thread who said that these posters all make you want to watch the movies despite knowing they're mostly terrible was otm.
has anyone seen 'First Family'? A film starring Gilda Radner and Bob Newhart can't be totally worthless, right?

watching the trailers for some of these films on youtube is interesting, the voiceovers are giving the same kind of 'this movie is totally wacky and fun!' hard-sell as the posters, but at the very same time you can see actual clips from the film disproving this.

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111103164719/doblaje/es/images/3/3a/Noviembrerosa.jpg

This one is from 1990 too, but yeah, it seems this aesthetic had died by the 90s.

Though I would argue that the basic aesthetic is still alive in "zany" comedy posters, it's just that the Jack Davis style caricatures have been replaced with digitally manipulated photos:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TKzvfeV488A/UXSZCBzI_yI/AAAAAAAABXg/_Ok1WdDB3Nw/s1600/Rat%2BRace%2Bposter.jpg

http://www.aceshowbiz.com/images/still/scary-movie-5-poster01.jpg

that rat race poster is hideous

http://vol11.music-bazaar.com/album-images/vol11/521/521153/2353810-big/Les-Aventures-De-Rabbi-Jacob-cover.jpg

http://img11.hostingpics.net/pics/374573LESRIPOUX1.jpg

Now I'm curious: was there actually an elephant in Madhouse?

"Rat Race" is awful but at least they were trying to do one of "these." "Madhouse" and "Going Under" really show you the gig is up - they're slightly cartooned, barely caricatured airbrush art, and the only reason to do them that way is that it'd be tough to get all the actors in the right position (and to make the door bulge like that in "Madhouse"). Once computers and stuff make that easier...ehh. I also think the point made upthread about stars wanting their faces bigger on the poster is key.

Another awkward transition (sorry for huge):

http://meansheets.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/brain-donors-movie-poster.jpg%3Fw%3D580

Did I miss a scene from this movie? Because I don't remember anything resembling this:

http://meansheets.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/used-cars-movie-poste-style-b.jpg

I also think the point made upthread about stars wanting their faces bigger on the poster is key.

i'm guessing it's more that the detail in these kind of images gets lost on video/dvd covers and (nowadays) onscreen thumbnails.

Madhouse is a film I will always remember for this:

Bernice: I need your opinion on something here. These are my favorite names for the baby so far: "Amaretta," "Caramel," or "Treblinka"
Claudia: You yokel, naming your baby after a German concentration camp!
Bernice: I thought Treblinka was one of those cute little fairies from Cinderella.
Claudia: You moron!
Bernice: I hope my water breaks all over your fur coat!

In the category of homages/revivals, poster artist The Dude Designs strives "to paint, illustrate and hand assemble images which have personality, that invoke those memories and emotions you used to get when you held a video box in your hand or stared with amazement and curiosity at an illustrated movie poster." The blog gets into some detail on each poster, which is pretty sweet. He works in some different styles, and is mainly a horror guy, but a few are totally tapping into this vein. The one thing is that there's not much in the way of caricature - all the actors look pretty closely keyed off reference photos. This and the amount of modeling through shade (aibrush?) makes it look much more 80s than 70s... But still! Wish I'd seen his Heat poster everywhere instead of the shitty photo of the two leads on a pink background.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HBxx__w7rY0/UciL2XPX1PI/AAAAAAAA5gE/9F0_mgHkWMc/s1600/pdc_theheatposter4.jpg

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTQxMTIyMzYzOV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMTM0MTI2OQ@@._V1_SX640_SY720_.jpg

http://nebula.wsimg.com/4151447b805ae0b771db4d32e3870d0a?AccessKeyId=71DC53FC6978419123ED&disposition=0&alloworigin=1

thread delivers!

I hope dude starts getting lots of work soon

Seems like he's doing okay - Heat was a pretty big movie even if they hardly used the poster - but agreed!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1/1621694_10152250443126563_939017797_n.jpg

Has anyone started making fanart of these for new movies?

I mean, I'm not crazy about stuff like this example, but I would be curious to see what someone else could come up with:

http://thisisnotadvertising.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/the-matrix.jpg