Inglorious Basterds Poster

The film poster of Inglorious Basterds is composed by one main image at the centre of the poster of a baseball bat which could be seen as phallic symbolism, with an army helmet hanging of the edge of the bat which has the a Nazi sign on it. This is suggesting that the bat belongs to the Americans, it is interpreted as belonging to the them because the baseball game is mainly of American. Therefore, the blood on the bat and the helmet hanging down of it could be referring to the fact that Americans have defeated the Nazis. There is a slogan placed at the top of the main image which says 'Once upon a time in Nazi occupied France...' The ellipses at the end of the sentence follows on to the main image which shows the way they are making a joke of the Nazis. This could be referring to the power that the Americans have compared to the Nazis. Other writing included on the poster of the film is the title of the film the year which it will be released and the director of the film.

The eyes of a person instantly drawn to the main image placed in the centre of the poster. This is because the poster only contains one big image which is deliberately placed so it can catch people's attention. The Nazi sign on the helmet implies that the film might be of a war genre and the baseball bat with blood on it suggests that the film will contain a lot of violence. The poster is mostly colourless, there is a use of very dull colours with the addition of red. This could have been used to imply that the film will contains a lot of killing and fighting. The main image is a photo image, which has been graphically enhanced and placed on a grey cloudy background.This may suggest that the director wants everyone to focus their attention on the main image. The title is also misspelt which shows the comical side to this poster, this is reinforced by the tag line of the film ‘Once upon a time in Nazi occupied France’. The beginning of the tag line starts with ‘Once upon a time’, this is similar to how a fairytale starts. This suggest that the film might have some styles of a fairytale. The main image could suggest that this film is mainly aimed at male audiences.

The modern representation of the baseball bat is that its a weapon mainly used by gangs. The image suggests that it is of phallic symbolism because the baseball bat can connote an erect penis with the helmet hanging off it. The whole image is like it is of rape. This image definitely does impose a level of intrigue to the audience due to the interesting and various symbols and interpretations it gives out.

Looking at the other poster campaigns of the film and magazine covers with the addition of the trailer of the film itself, there is a huge significance of brand identity. The style of the poster is exactly the same in all the posters. The dullness, the redness, the violence, etc. This adds to the uniqueness of the film and help the audience recognise the products and the link between them. I generally think that the film is promoted to a high standard. The use of connotations or symbolism is successful and adds humour to the posters. The poster has also been successful in using the right conventions and subverting some conventions such as the deliberate spelling mistake, 'basterd'.