Jordan Brown
Doctor Kuhio-Vogeler
Political Science 110
31, October 2012
Essay #2 In the first essay I severely overthought the four basic concepts used to analysis the myths of breadfruit. I, hope to, have gained much more of a grasp of the ideas used to write a simple essay breaking down the movie posters using context, form, content, and function. The most important part is the thesis though, and that was relatively simple. The political significance of these movie posters is the name. A large number of people do not watch the political debates, or the news, or try and keep up with the presidential election, so seeing a bumper sticker with “Romney/Ryan 2012” could be the sole factor of swaying an undecided voter. The context of the “Expendables 2” poster seems to be pretty straightforward to me, the majority of the characters from the first movie are back to act in the second, but in this one there are new additions to the lineup. Those additions include guys like Chuck Norris and Jean Claude Van Damme, whom we do not know if there are good guys or the scum of the earth to be eventually destroyed by the aging action heroes. The time period is not obviously displayed on the poster but from previous knowledge of the movie franchise one can assume that the time period is still the present, as it was in the original movie. The context of the second movie poster is much different than the first. We have a very stoic looking Daniel Day Lewis occupying the majority of the poster portraying former president Abraham Lincoln. From that simple fact we can deduce that this movie must take place around the early 1800’s in the great country of America. The form of advertisements that we are examining are, well, movie posters. I had to research what a petroglyph is to make sure it wasn’t one. A movie poster like this conveys its message, the general pre-screened message of the movie, in a snapshot. One non-moving, never changing picture that is supposed to capture the entire idea, or at least what the producers’ want perceived before viewing the movie. The purpose of both of these posters is, if not exactly the same, quite similar. Putting simply, they want to convince people that see them to go and spend a bit of their money to see their newest production. The content for these posters is very different though. One portraying BOOM, BAM, and POW, while the other seems to say something like, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.” Said by former president Lincoln himself. In the first poster we see a line of actors from the original movie, we also see some new faces including Chuck Norris and Jean Claude Van Damme. Whom we do not know if they are good guys or the scum of the earth sent to destroy our aging action heroes. While in the second poster we just see a white background covered, almost completely, by Daniel Day Lewis who is portraying Abraham Lincoln. In the first poster we have explosions, guns, and bad asses with the ability to kill at will, all the ingredients for a great action flick. In the second poster we see the solemnness of Lincoln and above the title we see that the great Steven Spielberg has produced this movie, which history would tell us that this is going to have amazing graphics and spectacular action scenes. But the poster conveys more of an internal conflict, something of a president who had to battle illness, a depressed wife, and injustice in the country he served. The overall function of these posters are basically the same as the “Young African-Americans for Obama” window decals you can spot on any given day on your nearest populated street or highway, to get you to think a certain way or to convince you to go do a certain thing. The posters want you to go and see the movie, the decals and bumper stickers, that you nearly cause a six car pileup to read, serve to sway the undecided voters and to let everyone who reads the butt of your car who has your political support.