- “Hey Warren. Who is this guy?”
- “He’s Stuntman Mike”
- “What does he do?”
- “He’s a stuntman…”
One piece of extremely effective retro design is the cover and promotional pieces for Quentin Tarantino’s 2007 Grindhouse segment; “Death Proof”. The film itself plays homage to the over the top exploitative films of the 1970’s that commonly featured fast cars, sexy women, bloody violence and bad acting. The posters, however, are brilliant pieces of art; beautiful hand painted recreations of the movie’s main characters or climax scenes are tied lovingly together with stylish, hand drawn type. What can I say, B-Movies have kick ass posters.
“I’m afraid you’re going to have to start getting scared… immediately.”
Tarantino knows this, it’s his life, so for the cover and promotional pieces for Death Proof (and its Grindhouse sister Planet Terror) it makes total sense that he wanted a hand drawn cover as opposed to a brilliantly photoshopped image of a Dodge Charger.
Now let me introduce you to the cover:
When I first saw this sitting on the shelf in Big W, I couldn’t take my eyes off it. The artwork has this unique quality to it when you see it sitting next to every other DVD case on the shelf, and not that it loses this when you take it from that environment, it just works. Everything from the hand drawn type, to the silhouetted girls in the sunset to the thundering “Death Proof” car works. It fits. The extra “film scratch” and “creased edges” just give it that little bit more added authenticity, that isn’t exactly needed, but its icing on the cake. I could go on forever about how much I like this cover, but I will stop. I will, on the other hand, say that this is definitely one of the top 5 movie covers I have ever seen (the top being Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark) and If I were wearing a hat, I would tip it to you, Quentin sir.
I’m going to quote a review for the closing, as I think it sums up this movie and in turn, this style, effectively:
“This one is like they used to make ‘em – real driving, done real fast.” Except in this case, we are talking about drawing…
I love this movie, I think i like the first set of girls better then the second though. good luck with your shirts.YES TIM CAN!!
ReplyDeleteThat guy who's smoking is really cool. He is cool because he is smoking and smoking is cool. He is also wearing sunnies, which make him even cooler than if he was just smoking (a hard task to do). I have decided to imitate this guy, as he is obviously so cool.
ReplyDeleteA. Guy,
ReplyDeleteyou are obviously not a golfer.
golfers do not smoke. and they also realize how nicely their rugs tie rooms together. something a smoker could never understand, as they spend all their time stamping cigarette butts into the floor and wearing their sunglasses indoors.
i of course know this as i have spent my research in medical labs wearing white coats. my tests came to the conclusion that wearing sunglasses causes cancer.
sincerely, tim.
They also cause mass physical pain to the genitalia from poontang. just sayin' bro
ReplyDelete