James Bond Poster

The poster for the ‘James Bond’ film, ‘From Russia With Love’ instantly creates enigma in several ways for the audience as well as providing several denotations to be explored. Roland Barthes created the idea of semiotics. This is the theory that media texts have signs that convey a meaning to the audience. A sign is something within a text that signifies and constructs a meaning. For example, within the poster, the bottom-left shows two ladies fighting in anger and injuring each other. This connotes action and could signify that there will be several scenes similar to this with other people engaging in conflict. The poster is a drawing rather than being made up of photos. This could suggest that the film is full of fun and action, as the almost cartoon look to the poster supports this. The colour scheme of the poster appears to be black, white and red. These could all connote a variety of meanings. For example, the heavy use of red across the poster could connote violence and action that the film includes. It could also be a reference to the introduction scene to the majority of ‘Bond’ films, where 007 appears in the centre of the frame and shoots towards the camera, where the solid red colour drips down the screen to cover it fully. The use of the colour black could connote stealth and espionage, as ‘James Bond’ is a spy who stays hidden when killing his opponents. 

The close up of ‘Bond’ in the middle of the poster conveys that he is predominantly important within the film and clearly the protagonist. ‘Bond’s clothing within the poster once again suggests that he is a spy and excels in his occupation. The positioning and clothing of the woman in the poster could be seen as demeaning as they are on the side of the poster and not within the centre in terms of the rule of thirds. The women are sexualised as they are shown to be wearing either a small amount of clothing, or that their features are teased. This illustrates the sexist representation of women in the film and also appeals to the male demographic. The fact that this is included in the poster, conveys Bond’s success with women. The font within the poster is sophisticated and creates a formal mode of address. This is in concordance with Bonds smart presentation through his clothing. In the top-left corner of the poster, a helicopter can be seen as well as what looks like a car stuck on a train track. This creates an enigma for the audience as it builds tension, whilst the audience wonder what the consequence could be as well as how that scenario even happened. 

The stars and cast are credited at the bottom of the poster, along a bar. This is effective as it includes those who were responsible for the film without covering the main images of the poster. However, despite this, several names appear across the images. This is to persuade the audience to see the film as they may recognise an actor (in this case Sean Connery) that they may admire or a director. The inclusion of the Soviet Union logo implemented with the stylised 'o' in 'love', presents iconogrophy of Russia - the setting and topic of the film. The tagline of the poster, "James Bond is back!"is impactful. The alliteration of the 'b' sound makes it seem fun and attracts the reader. It is short and persuasive and may convince the audience to go and see the film. Steve Neale's theory of genres is shown within this poster. The theory of action is distinctive as Bond holds a rather large pistol in his hand that fills the middle of the rule of thirds. The genre is very recognisable and stands out. Tzvetan Todorov's theory of narrative can be loosely applied, as the image of Bond holding a pistol implies that he will be shooting and fighting others.