Film Poster Research - 1980’s Ghanan Film Posters

An article about the film posters from Ghana in the 80’s really caught my eye, mainly because of their vast difference to standard Hollywood film posters. Currently on show at the Brunei Gallery in London, these hand painted 2m high posters demonstrate this explosion of hand crafted and painted posters in Ghana during the 80’s - local entrepreneurs would commission artists to paint the posters, on anything from wood to sacks, and then the posters would be displayed in various towns, rolled up, and taken to the next town to be displayed and advertise the film. The posters offer a really diverse interpretation go the film poster, it’s interesting to see these iconic actors and characters such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Superman, painted very expressively, it almost adds to the character of the poster. 

I thought it might be an engaging exercise to examine the posters as I have for the ones in my essay, to see if they are successful. The poster for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ‘Eraser’ is very eye catching; instantly, this use of star power as a marketing tool is very prominent, with the gun wielding Arnie very symmetrically  front and centre in the composition, with the explosions at his knees adding to the excitement. The hand painted type either side of his head is very nice and advertises the movie and start very well. 

Conclusion 

The poster is engaging and the painted medium adds a lot of intrigue, with the wear and tear and ageing of the poster adding to the character of it. Is it successful as a movie poster? Well, that depends on the context, being used for its purpose, to advertise the movie in the 80’s in Ghana, it does work very well, it’s eye catching and represents the movie well. Despite that, if the poster were used today in western culture, it would be perhaps less successful, and this is simply because the medium is outdated, and as a result of that, would not engage with the general public in quite the same way that a modern poster would. Ultimately though, on an aesthetic level, we can still admire it for what it is, and what it does very well, is represent the era and location in which it was made.