Goodfellas Poster Analysis

This is the poster for the 1990 crime drama film, Goodfellas. This poster, along with Scarface's, has become iconic and used several times as modern interior design. It's poster is simple yet incredibly effective, it only shows the three main actors aswell as a dead body but the colour schemes and writing stand out.

Firstly, the three actors lined up next to each other. They are three heavyweight actors, all prestigious and renowned in their own right. The faces they pull are reflective of their characters in the film. Ray Liotta is a naive,confused anti-hero, his face in the poster is expressing both this qualities. Robert de Niro is a menacing, stone cold crime kingpin. His status is shown in this, he is in the middle of the three, arm crossed and clearly the main brain. Joe Pesci is a physcotic,maniac and his glare in the poster is a great indication to this.

The dead body laid on the floor is a obvious sign to the content of the film, brutal and underworld. The dark lighting which encompasses the whole poster is a reflection of the film's dark and cynical nature. The bridge which is shown may very well be a symbol of being under the radar so to speak, being out of sight of the rest of the world.

The contrast in white and black is something which was also shown in the Scarface poster. It shows a balance between Good and Evil, which is present in the film as the anti-hero, Henry Hill, faces a constant struggle to see what is right and what is completely wrong. Yet the majority he doesn't see the difference, making the balance inequal. This may be why the white is significantly reduced compared to the black.

The tagline, ' Three Decades in The Mafia', tells the audience of the epic nature of the film and more obviously, the content of gangster drama with its highs and its lows.

The credits are placed above the characters heads to empathise the importance of the actors. We will emulate this in our poster as it is a good way to pull people in and see the film's potential. We will also try to mix the colours to reflect the film's nature, the 'ying yang' theory used in this may not be used, as we plan to make a rather perversely dark film which is a throwback to gangster film's with morals.

Harry Mountier