Titanic (Film Poster Analysis)

On the poster, the typography is simple and elegant looking. The font looks like the word ‘titanic’ as it is painted on the side of the ship, linking it directly to main theme of the film. The word ‘Titanic’ is in white, so stands out against the dark colour of the ship. Below this, the credits of the people involved are in gold which has connotations of being grand and high class, much like the titanic. As titanic is such a big historic event and almost all people will have heard of it, seeing the word Titanic stand out in a bold font means more people will be drawn to it.

The picture of the ship takes up most of the shot and is taken from a low angle, portraying Titanic as being grand and superior, showing it to be an iconic ship and also emphasising the size of it.  Another reason for the ship taking up the majority of the poster is the fact that it is the main setting of the film, and is where all the action of the film takes place, making it key to the film. The bow of the ship comes up in between the two lead characters, Jack and Rose, suggesting that they are seperated by the Titanic and may try to pull them apart, symbolising one of the key themes as the social divide onboard.

In the picture of the two characters, Jack has his arms wrapped around Rose, showing that the film is of the romantic genre, and also portrays his protective behaviour towards her. She is facing away, suggesting that although it is a romance, there are complications, which is where the theme of disaster comes in to play. The background is a cloudy, blue sky. Placed behind the low angle shot of the Titanic, it seems to reinforce the scale and how majestic the ship appears. It is also a conventional setting of a romance, having conventions of being care free, relaxed and happy. This is how the film appears to begin with, which is when the romance aspects are most prominent, but then draws up more of a contrast to later on in the film as the ship begins to sink.

The tagline is ‘Nothing on earth could come between them.’ which almost seems to foreshadow some form of tradegy occuring and coming between them. It also says ‘From the Director of Aliens, T2 and True Lies.’ This shows what a famous and successful director James Cameron is, his film titles speak for themselves and his name isn’t needed.

The genre is obvious for the poster, and we know before seeing the film that it will be a romance/tragedy. The fact that Titanic is such a widely known event, the audience already know what will happen, and know that tragedy will occur. A romance is used within the film to emotionally connect the viewers to the ship, so that when it sinks, we feel more like we are on board, and we don’t want to see harm come to either of these characters, as we have formed a connection to them.