Week Five: Nadell

This American Gangster movie poster does a great job of using the Gestalt theory, specifically the principle of figure/ground. The poster effectively uses black and white and a shade of gray to make the images stand apart. Although you cannot see the man's eyes in the background and barely any other specifics of him, it is identifiable that this is Denzel Washington and he is some type of man with power. As a viewer of the poster we can figure out many things about this movie without it being told to us. With a dominant Denzel standing behind and above the New York City skyline, we can assume that this movie has to do with Denzel's power of New York. Also this poster has a lot of simplicity. There isn't too much going on and everything is very clear and easy to interpret. There are really only three dominant parts of this poster: Denzel, the New York skyline and the movie title in the center. The only color used other than black, white and the shades of gray, is the red line in between "American" and Gangster". Just this simple red stroke indicates to us that this is a violent movie, since red is associated with blood and evil. The sum of the three parts give us some specifics about the movie without having to see the film.