poster analysis for gangster squad

1. The colour red connotes love and
passion.Vibrantreddresswornby
an attractive woman suggests a
possibly romantic element to the
film.EmmaStone is the only actor
seen in full, in order to highlight
herseductive nature.EmmaStone
could potentially be a possible
femme fatale,asshe comesacross
as quite ambiguousandseductive.
The formal clothing is
conventional of the crime
genre, which could connote
that the three males either
work for the police or are
members of the mafia.
However, the use of blue
connotes the police force in
America.
The blaze/fire in the middle of the
postergivesthe impression that the
film will feature destruction and
violence, which is furthered by the
title of the film being ‘Gangster
Squad’
The tagline ‘NO NAMES. NO BADGES. NO MERCY’ is an
anaphora, with the repeated word ‘NO’ emphasising
how serious this task is. These few sharp words may
be revealing that the film has a bad cop twist to it,
who show no mercy. This infers that there could be a
lotof shootouts,conventional of crime films set in the
1940s. ‘NOMERCY’ standsout the most foraction fans
as it suggeststhe characters will be brutal and violent
to achieve their goal of taking down Mickey Cohen.
Ryan Gosling’sfacial
expressioncouldbe
inferringthathe isthe
charmingone of the
three males,andcould
possiblybe the one who
formsa relationshipwith
Emma Stone’scharacter.
The title isstylizedtoresemble
the Hollywoodsign,whichhelps
connote the 1940’s Los Angeles
time periodof the film.
The production company,
Warner Bros, and the release
date being featured at the
bottom of the poster is
conventional of film posters for
many genres.
The clouds situated above
foreshadow an impending darkness
over all the characters, and could
possibly connote the crime thriller
genre.
Hollywood sign
reveals the films
setting for the
audience, with Los
Angeles being a
popular location for
crime films in the
1940s.
The character positions
are key to showing who
is the most important
and who are supporting
actors. Sean Penn
(Mickey Cohen) is both
the largest and biggest
character on the poster,
making it clear that
both Ryan Gosling and
Josh Brolin’s character
are supporting. The
characters are smaller
and are side by side,
suggestingthatthey are
both working together
to take down Penn’s
character.
This is arguably the main USP for the film, the fact
the character name ‘Mickey Cohen’ is featured and
not the others. This will attract the audience as
Mickey Cohen was a real life, famous LA mobster
during the 1940s, so it will draw in audiences who
like crime films on real life people. As one of the
best-known gangsters of all time, it would be a
mistake to not feature his name on the poster.