Poster Analysis- The Godfather

The next poster I am going to analyse is ‘The Godfather’. This poster is very simple but has much significant imagery on it. The central image is of actor Marlon Brando who plays the character ‘Don Corleone’. You can see the top of his body where he has a very serious facial expression, looking away from the camera. They have used this photo of him because the Mafia is infamously known as being very serious and stern. However, you cannot perfectly see his facial expression as he is completely black and white and has been edited to have an old fashioned artistic effect. Also, the background is pure black and the text is black and white. I believe this symbolizes the different sides of Mafia culture as black and white are on different ends of the colour spectrum meaning you are on one side or the other. The only colour you can see on the poster is of a red rose in his jacket pocket. This is a very significant aspect on the poster as the colour red signifies blood, and the rose itself represent the family unit you see in the film. Violence and family are major factors in the film.
The only text on the poster is of the title ‘The Godfather’. It is written in a bold, gothic style and is in a white font to effectively stand out from the black background. However, the title looks as if it is being controlled by an image of a hand holding puppet strings which is connected to it. This represents the mafia being in control and feared.
Overall, I believe that this poster has many aspects on it which are very good at signifying important pieces of information about the film and although it is very simple, it is powerful to look at.