20 Reasons 80s Movie Posters Ruled

by Staff & Contributors on June 22, 2015

in Movies, The 80s

5. Red Dawn (1984)

The Evil Empire parachuting into our backyards was more of a fantasy than a fear. There’s no way to win a wholesale nuclear conflict, but a land war on American soil? Bring it.
John Alvin, the only artist mentioned twice on this list, taps into the Cold War anxiety in a way the movie couldn’t. The dual language movie title helps.

 

4. Pink Floyd – The Wall (1983)

Edvard Munch’s The Scream stretched across the canvas of the modern world. The artist is Gerald Scarfe, who created and directed the animated sequences in the film. You remember the flowers, right?

 

3. Poltergeist (1982)

Minimalist perfection.

 

2. The Thing (1982)

How do you illustrate the apocalyptic power of a malevolent alien that can assume the form of any living organism? Drew Struzan (The Goonies, Back to the Future) nailed it.

 

1. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Vader, black as space, lurking behind the stars, is offset by the ice world of Hoth. Black and white, good and evil, and in the middle of the cosmic battle the hero on his steed – and a chewy (no pun intended) romance.

It’s a fine art masterpiece by Roger Kastel, who’s also responsible for arguably the most iconic movie poster of all time: Jaws.

 

2W2N writes 2 Warps to Neptune, a blog about “kid culture” and 8-bit life in the ‘70s and ‘80s: Arcades and video games, D&D, comics, toys, film and TV, the PC revolution, and lots of other gnarly stuff. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, daughter, and the longest cat any of them have ever seen.

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Sammy July 12, 2013 at 12:25 am

That Scanners poster is bad as hell

Hail Mary July 12, 2013 at 12:54 am

Great list. The only poster that stands out to me as one that you missed is the minimalist poster for Batman that had nothing more than the logo and date of release.

Howard Decker July 12, 2013 at 8:50 am

Ooh good call I love that poster

Corey Chapman (@chapmanrunner) July 12, 2013 at 9:36 am

I am on record as saying it is my favorite poster of all time and I have it framed (and hanging in my basement)

Bianchi79 July 12, 2013 at 9:31 am

Great choices. I was looking for Jaws but saw you mentioned it at the end. I’d add Ghostbusters to this list, but I do realize it’s not labeled as a “20 Best Movie Posters of the 80s” list, which I like.

2 Warps to Neptune July 12, 2013 at 10:29 am

This is my personal “best of” list. I thought a lot about Ghostbusters. It’s one of the most brilliant marketing ideas ever, but ultimately it’s more logo than symbol. Whereas the helmet on Full Metal Jacket is all symbol.

The Batman poster is cool (too shiny for the character, in my opinion), but the logo had by that point been around for a long time.

Lamar the Revenger July 12, 2013 at 12:49 pm

Great list! I seriously thought Excalibur was rated PG… If it came out now it would be PG-13..

jrm July 12, 2013 at 3:30 pm

Great list. I don’t think it is a coincidence that the list is dominated by horror and sci-fi movies as the artist just has the ability for so much range given the subject matter. I think the simplicity of the Full Metal Jacket poster is what makes it work so well and the Pink Floyd poster borrowing The Scream was just brilliant. While I’ve seen almost all the posters before at some point, the only one I could still see in my mind was the Silent Night, Deadly Night poster. Probably because I was around 9 when the movie came out and it was Santa…sort of.

FPN July 12, 2013 at 5:09 pm

Interesting choices! But, what about the Dark Crystal or Labyrinth? Not enough blood/gore?

Count_Marzo July 12, 2013 at 8:00 pm

Friday the 13th is my favorite from these 20. 🙂

tanya July 14, 2013 at 9:30 am

really good choices. I see a horror sci-fi tendency here but hard to argue against those being the best posters

frankc July 15, 2013 at 9:42 pm

good list, own a few of these.
the friday the 13th one is actually Jasons mom,
he doesn’t start killing until Fri 13th Part 2

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