Movie Poster Hall Of Fame: 1982 Edition

Welcome to the Movie Poster Hall Of Fame! In each installment, we'll take a random year and look at the best movie posters, analyzing what makes them great. This time, we'll take a look at the magical year of 1982!

(The posters are in no particular order.)

The Year Of Living Dangerously

The Year Of Living Dangerously is a steamy, strange little movie. The story of an Australian reporter (Mel Gibson) investigating the political turmoil in Indonesia during 1965, Year takes all the potential drama and romance in that tale and jacks it up to eleven. In fact, it feels a lot like the novels that always made the bestseller lists during that period. The poster takes that bestseller vibe and drives it home with the almost dreamlike collage of characters and settings in the background, while the main character looms in front. It looks precisely like the covers of the paperback novels I have from that period. It's a very clever way to draw audiences in!

Does The Movie Live Up To The Poster?: Yes and no. Year definitely has the melodramatic vibe that the poster evokes. That's perfectly fine if you like that kind of story, and I occasionally do. However, this movie never pushes my buttons in the right way, as evidenced by the fact that I've never finished it. Three stars out of five from me!

Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan

Paramount Pictures had a monumental task in front of them: marketing Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan. The prior Star Trek movie, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, had been (rightly) savaged by critics and audiences for being dull. The filmmakers learned their lessons and, with Wrath Of Khan, created a sequel full of action, funny moments, and drama. Now, they had to convince audiences to give them another chance. They did so extremely well. The movie did have a KILLER trailer, but the poster also packed a heavy punch. The poster puts the focus where it belongs: on the villain, Khan. Just seeing that guy, you knew this going to be entirely better than the first film (which featured - no kidding - a broken space satellite as the villain).

Does The Movie Live Up To The Poster?: It does indeed. With a scenery-chewing villain from the original series leading the way, Wrath of Khan boasts everything that the prior Star Trek film lacked: a tightly-constructed plot, well-rounded characters, an ending that makes every nerd cry, and bugs that wrap themselves around your brain stem and force you to tell the truth. It's a solid four-starrer!

The Secret Of NIMH

In 1979, Don Bluth and a cadre of animators left their jobs at Walt Disney Animation. Bluth and company formed a new animation company and pronounced their intentions: to bring animated movies back to the level of quality that Walt Disney had originally established. Those were fighting words, and Don Bluth Productions's first film, The Secret Of NIMH, would have to be pretty awesome in order to legitimatize Bluth's mission. The movie did turn out to be plenty awesome (as we'll discuss later), but it would need to get audiences in seats in order to prove itself. 

The poster was totally up to the job of attracting audiences! The poster does a great job encapsulating the mood of the story; one look at that poster, and you know you're in for an epic adventure story with a lot of magic mixed in. I also love the use of color; the contrast of the yellow light against the purple, blue, and red is very dynamic and exciting.

Does The Movie Live Up To The Poster?: It exceeds it. The Secret of NIMH is a very special animated film for me; it has a special Bluthian vibe to it that keeps me coming back to the movie again and again. The story is interesting and engrossing, and Mrs. Brisby (Elizabeth Hartman) is one of my favorite protagonists in any movie (animated or not). On top of that, the film is visually stunning from beginning to end. Four and a half stars from me!

Rocky III

I'll admit it: this poster is on the list primarily because I love all the Rocky movies (and I do mean ALL of them. I even like Rocky V.) However, that's not the only reason why it's here! I love Rocky III's poster for its guilelessness. The marketers behind Rocky Balboa's third adventure knew EXACTLY what drew us to the first two films: spending time with Mr. Balbo. Rocky III plays on Rocky's likability, and that's ALL it plays on! The rest of the poster is pretty standard, but when you've got The Italian Stallion on your poster, you don't need frills!

Does The Movie Live Up To The Poster?: Well, I think it does, but you've gotta understand that I'm nuts. Seriously, though: I really do think Rocky III is a ton of fun. Does the movie reek of '80s cheesiness? Yes, it does. Does Mr. T overact A LOT as the movie's villain? Indeed. Is the plot extremely brainless? Uh-huh. I'm totally aware of Rocky III's flaws. I love it anyway! The flaws actually give the movie a warmth that you can only get from kitschy '80s movies. I give the flick four stars!

Poltergeist

If it's all the same to you, I'd like to avoid that age-old debate over who REALLY directed Poltergeist. (Was it Steven Spielberg? Was it Tobe Hooper?) It's totally irrelevant to our discussion here. Instead, let's talk about what's really important: the poster. What I love about the poster is that it shows how powerful one line and one image can be when you stick them together! All of the poster's elements come together to formulate questions in moviegoers' minds:

"Why does that girl have her hands on the TV like that?"

"'They're here.' What does that mean?"

"Poltergeist? What's that? Some kind of Italian food?"

The more questions the moviegoer asks, the more curious the moviegoer becomes. The more curious the moviegoer becomes, the more likely they are to buy a ticket on opening day. In other words, Poltergeist's poster gives us a tantalizing tidbit of information, hoping that we'll be intrigued enough to learn more. It uses curiosity as a selling point, and I think that's awesome.

Does The Movie Live Up To The Poster?: Yes, indeedy. In fact, this is one of my favorite horror movies of all time. It's not too weird, and it's not too artsy-fartsy. Poltergeist takes an extremely scary situation and puts it in an environment we've all seen before (a suburban neighborhood), having it happen to realistic, life-like characters. Along with the scares, you also get touches of comedy, a weird psychic lady, a band of intrepid ghost hunters, and a big gob of '80s special effects. Poltergeist is a lot of fun! Four stars!

First Blood

Sly Stallone takes over yet ANOTHER poster! This time, however, there's a little more going on than in Rocky III. In this one-sheet, an advertisement for First Blood, Stallone defines John Rambo in one image: a buff guy with a big gun. He looms over a background of cop cars, police officers, and weekend warriors, all unaware of the terror that Rambo is about to rain down upon them. Overall, however, what stands out most (to me, anyway) is this poster's grimy feel. First Blood is a brutal, uncompromising movie. There are few likable characters, and the situations the plot puts us into are  intense and quite violent. The dirty feel of this poster captures the vibe of the movie perfectly!

Does The Movie Live Up To The Poster?: Yes! Even with all the intensity and grittiness, First Blood is a fun, exciting roller-coaster of a movie. It gave Stallone the second-most iconic role of his career. It was among the first wave of movies to deal directly with the Vietnam War and its effects on veterans. It doesn't match the greatness of David Morrell's original novel, but First Blood is still an excellent way to spend a couple hours. Four stars!

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

When you see Carl Reiner's name on a film, you go in expecting a certain sort of movie: something crazy and creative. Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid delivers on all those fronts (not as well as some of his other movies do, but we'll get to that). However, one name does not a movie sell, unless the name is Johnny Depp. As we've discussed several times, a good poster is one that lets you know exactly what you're getting into when you buy a ticket. Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid does a great job of covering all the bases: it showcases the leading star (Steve Martin, threatening you with his revolver), tells you the general mood of the movie (film noir/comedy), lets you know what kind of comedy to expect (the goofiest kind), and tells you that the film's gonna be gimmicky ('FILMED IN DETECTO-VISION!') The poster is the whole package!

Does The Movie Live Up To The Poster?: This is a tricky one. Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid definitely delivers on all the elements the poster hints at. The movie is perfectly decent, but it pales in comparison to Carl Reiner's other work (like The Jerk and Oh, God!). Honestly, the coolest thing about the movie is the gimmick. Most of the characters are spliced in from other noir movies, and it's fun to see the plot get more crazily convoluted as it works to fit all these clips in. However, the rest of the movie doesn't live up to the fun of that gimmick. If you like noir movies, you should see this. If you don't, you can safely skip it. Three and a half stars.

Creepshow

Sit down, little ones, and I'll tell you about the good ol' days. Back before Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, we actually had go out if we wanted to rent movies. We went to these magical places called video stores, which had pretty much any movie you might want to watch. Everybody had their own routines when they went to Blockbuster, but mine went like this. While my mom went to the new releases, I would pick up one of my rental stand-bys (I must have rented Adventures In Babysitting ten times) and went to look at covers. I would stare at particular covers, admiring the artwork and trying to imagine what the movie might be about. (There's actually an art book devoted to the subject; I own it.)

Creepshow's poster takes me right back to those days. This is exactly the sort of image that would make me yearn to rent the movie (or go to the theater)! The idea of a skele-zombie collecting tickets is just the kind of thing that would get my imagination racing, and the simple-but-effective tagline ("The Most Fun You'll Ever Have BEING SCARED!") is just strong enough to get me wondering what surprises awaited in the actual film. During my salad days, I was too young to know who George A. Romero and Stephen King were, but, even so, I knew this poster packed a punch!

Does The Movie Live Up To The Poster?: It's impossible for me to judge Creepshow objectively. This is one of the first horror movies I remember seeing, and it played a large part into making me the horror fan I am today! As I grow older, I can see that the movie isn't perfect. It's an anthology movie, and two of the stories ("Father's Day" and "The Lonesome Death Of Jordy Verrill") are pretty weak. The remaining three stories are wonderful, though, and the whole movie carries a goofy, fun vibe that mixes well with the scares. Four stars!

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

Steven Spielberg is wonderful at capturing the essence of making his movies special in one image. With Jaws, it was a gigantic shark preparing to devour an innocent swimmer. With Raiders Of The Lost Ark, it was a cool-looking painting of moments and characters from the film, very much reminiscent of posters from the 1930s. With E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Spielberg and his marketers put their heads together and came up with the PERFECT moment to capture the magic and wonder that E.T. boasts: a bike, flying past the moon as a young boy pedals and a hooded alien rides. It's a very special image, the sort that you can only see in the movies. This is the kind of moment that people are talking about when people talk about 'movie magic.' When it comes to drawing audiences in, there's nothing better than some wonder!

Does The Movie Live Up To The Poster?: Does it ever! I personally think that E.T. is Spielberg's best film, and that's saying a lot. It's a film that never fails to pull me in. It's inevitable: I sit down to watch E.T., and, by the end of the movie, I'm bawling. I don't know what it is about the movie that grabs me. Maybe it's the lifelike characters. Maybe it's the stellar special effects. Maybe it's John Williams's score. Maybe it's Spielberg's hand at the helm. Maybe it's a combination of a number of things. Whatever it is, I definitely have to say that E.T. is one of the best movies I've ever seen. Five stars from me!

Thanks for joining me on this first installment of the Movie Poster Hall Of Fame! Next time, we'll be taking a look at 1973!