I meant to do this column earlier, but October kept me very busy, and I needed a little extra time and a less frazzled mindset to look back on the career of the late Drew Struzan; the pop artist whose work helped define movie posters for the last fifty years. His work has graced the covers of books, comics, graphic novels, music albums and even commemorative stamps for the United States Postal Service. Struzan recently passed away at age 78 after a debilitating struggle with Alzheimer’s, leaving his wife Dylan and son Christopher (who follows in his father’s brushstrokes as an art director). Struzan also leaves behind a tremendous legacy and legions of devoted fans, myself proudly among them.
Drew Struzan at San Diego Comic Con. For all the times I’ve attended San Diego Comic Con, I sadly, never met this artist who illustrated my wonder years.
To describe Struzan’s vast portfolio of artwork as ‘promotional material’ is like calling Elton John a piano player. Struzan’s posters didn’t just put butts in theater seats. They defined a more innocent (and colorful) era of pop culture; a time when anticipation was built largely through one-sheet posters in bus stations, malls and multiplexes. Struzan’s use of acrylics, airbrushes and colored pencils gave his subjects subtle shading, textures and graceful blending which were well-suited for the heightened yet tactile reality of movies. Most movie posters today rely more on digital photo manipulation and AI rather than paint and airbrushes, since they need to be produced quickly and as cheaply as possible. While the kind of luxe, hand painted movie posters of my youth are quickly becoming a lost art, Drew Struzan’s work is well-chronicled in books, including “Movie Posters of Drew Struzan” (2001) and “The Art of Drew Struzan” (2010); well worth seeking out.
Had this poster tacked to my bedroom wall (sans Kenobi) for several years as a kid.
I first became a fan of Struzan’s work around the age of 12, when his “Star Wars” re-release poster from 1978 was published in the official ‘Star Wars Poster Magazine’; a monthly news leaflet that opened to reveal Struzan’s poster on its reverse side. The poster was a genuine improvement over the less colorful original 1977 release poster from Tom Jung. Struzan’s poster captured the bold colors of George Lucas’ movie, as well as the action and excitement–with bright pink for Luke’s blaster beam and Vader’s lightsaber, as well as the cool blue of a Jawa stun gun. Luke and Leia were depicted more accurately than on Jung’s or the Hildebrandt brothers’ posters, as well. As an added touch, Druzan’s art deco lettering on the poster evoked the intentional 1930s-1940s action-adventure serial vibe George Lucas originally sought. That poster hung on my bedroom wall for a couple of years before gravity caused it to sag–eventually ripping from its thumb tacks, and sadly, lost to time. I wish my younger self had a better sense of preservation.
The Struzan-designed ILM magician logo, with also graces the covers of the 1986 coffee table book, “Industrial Light & Magic: The Art of Special Effects”; a deep-dive chronicle of the pre-digital age of visual effects I somehow managed to hold onto over the decades.
Struzan’s movie posters for Lucasfilm movies led to his designing the famed magician’s logo for Industrial Light & Magic, the original Star Wars special effects house which exploded from a rundown industrial warehouse in Van Nuys, California into a premier FX service with top-of-the-line facilities in San Francisco, London, Sydney, Singapore and Mumbai. While Struzan’s artwork captured so much late 20th century movie history and evolution, he also maintained a diverse portfolio of other projects, including early album covers for Alice Cooper and Black Sabbath. Beyond his well-known work in the sci-fi and fantasy movie genres, Struzan’s other movie posters ranged from light comedies like “Adventures in Babysitting” to heavy dramas such as “The Shawshank Redemption.” From the 1980s through the 2000s, it was nigh on impossible to find a theatrical multiplex or video store that didn’t feature Struzan’s work on multiple releases.
For this column, I threw together some prime examples of his work (no matter if I personally liked the movie or not), and I’d very much love to hear from readers about their own personal favorites in the comments section below.
While I was never a huge Muppets fan, I enjoy them well enough, and this poster for “The Muppet Movie” (1979) features a carful of Muppets racing out from the poster’s forced perspective point, while framed by a hilarious “Gone with the Wind” homage, with Miss Piggy dipping Kermit the Frog, à la Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh.
While his first “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981) poster was arguably not among Struzan’s best, his poster for “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” (1984) knocks it out of the park. The flames of the action reflect on Harrison Ford’s half-squinting face, adding a warm/cool contrast with images of Kate Capshaw and Ke Huy Quan on the lower right, with exotic Asian elephants accenting the location of this adventure. I don’t even like this movie (sooo many reasons) but I love this poster; arguably the best of the Indiana Jones movie posters. The iconic “Back to the Future” poster from 1985 is one of Drew Struzan’s most iconic, and rightfully so. It’s gives so little away, yet the sight of action-pose Martystepping out of a time-traveling DeLorean tells you everything you need to know. Actor Michael J. Fox wasn’t available to pose for the poster, so Struzan used himself as the body model while juxtaposing his head with Fox’s. The other two posters for this trilogy would add characters to the image, including Christopher Lloyd and Mary Steenburgen. All three actors would pose for Struzan on those occasions.John Carpenter’s cult action-adventure movie “Big Trouble in Little China” (1986) promises something closer to a modern-set Indiana Jones movie with this kick-ass poster. Kurt Russell is in full action mode, while Kim Cattrall plays the more vulnerable heroine. The Chinese sorcerers he runs into are an indistinguishable mob, with James Hong’s glowing-eyed villain almost lost in the chaos. This is another example of a Struzan poster arguably outclassing the movie it’s promoting.Dolph Lundgren and Frank Langella star in 1986’s He-Man movie, “Masters of the Universe.” While the movie and the He-Man cartoons it’s based on are not my thing (at all), the vividly rendered Struzan poster saves it. It’s one of the few Drew Struzan posters I’ve seen where the artist’s “Drew” signature isn’t easily visible (if it’s there, I can’t see it).My personal favorite of the Indiana Jones movies, “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (1989) gets a wonderfully framed poster with Indiana and his dad Sean Connery framed in stone with heroic John Rhys-Davies and Denholm Elliott up top, while the Nazis are (rightfully) at the bottom (no offense to actors Alison Doody and Michael Byrne; their only crime is doing their jobs too well). Like the Muppets and “Back to the Future” posters, Jones races on horseback outward from the frame’s center. The golden cast of the poster suggests the sepia-tone of a period piece. What should’ve ended the Indiana Jones movies is given a solid Struzan sendoff.While Steven Spielberg’s “Hook” (1991) isn’t usually listed among his best movies, I enjoyed it well enough, and Struzan’s poster uses Dustin Hoffman’s Captain Hook and the late Robin Williams’ Peter Pan as the headliners, with Julia Roberts’ TinkerBell and Bob Hoskins’ Smee rounding them out. Struzan squeezes a lot into this poster, including the mermaid, the crocodile clock, and most of the Lost Boys–yet it never feels crowded due to its uncluttered center. Intentional or not, Peter’s wreath-like collar also adds a vague holiday vibe, which is in keeping with the movie’s Christmas setting and release date (December 1991). While I missed it in theatrical release, “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994) was one of those movies I keenly remember renting on laserdisc back in the mid-1990s. Struzan’s artwork here is dark, stormy and moody, in keeping with the story’s prison setting. The only light comes from lightning in the upper center of the frame, as Tim Robbins gets a cleansing feeling of freedom during a storm. The lines of Morgan Freeman’s face are very prominent, but not obtrusive. Like “Shawshank…” Struzan’s poster for “The Green Mile” (1999) is also shadowy and moody, but with stronger light sources, with sunlight streaming from behind Tom Hanks, and a healing luminosity coming the cupped hands of the late Michael Clarke Duncan–a not-so-subtle hint of his character’s supernatural nature. “Mr. Jingles” is very present in the poster as well. This was the secondFrank Darabont-directed Stephen King period piece with a Drew Struzan poster. Top row: Struzan’s posters for theStar Wars prequel trilogy (1999-2005) were, perhaps ironically, more gorgeous pieces of art, on a par with some of his best work. Bottom row: Though Struzan didn’t create the first-run posters for the Star Wars original trilogy(1977-1983), he was tapped to create all-new posters for their 1997 Special Edition rereleases. As much as I love both Struzan’s work and that 1978 art deco-influenced “Star Wars” poster, the Special Edition posters were a mite underwhelming, though their color schemes are absolutely gorgeous, with color palettes suggesting each movie’s setting (warm for Tatooine, cool for Hoth, green for Endor, etc). Once again, the “Harry Potter” movies (2001-2011) are not my personal cuppa tea, but this poster from “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (aka “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”) smartly use the warm/cool contrast that defines Struzan’s work, as flames warm us from the cool moonlight outside the famed wizard academy. Struzan’s use of color pencils is very evident in his poster for “Hellboy” (2004), with Ron Perlman’s titular character filling the bulk of the frame, surrounded by his allies, with the baddies placed in the lower center; similar to Struzan’s heroes and villains’ top/bottom composition from “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”For director Ridley Scott’s Final Cut of his sci-fi masterpiece “Blade Runner” (1982), Struzan made an all-new poster that is head and shoulders above the downright ugly 1982 original release poster. When the Final Cut was released to DVD/Blu-Ray in 2007, this was the case artwork, and was also the poster used for the Final Cut’s theatrical re-release. All essential characters are here, and Struzan’s signature warm/cool contrast fits with the rain soaked Los Angeles of alternate-2019.
Drew Struzan’s works date back from his album covers in the the early 1970s to movie posters made only a few years ago, before illness forced him to withdraw from work as well as public appearances. I regret that I never took the opportunity to meet him at any of the conventions where he was a guest (one of the drawbacks of big conventions; so many events–never enough time). Struzan’s work didn’t just grace my childhood bedroom wall–it was everywhere I went. In old movie theaters, bookstores, music/video stores (remember those?) and at conventions, where I see his classic posters waiting for younger fans to discover and appreciate.
For much of my life, Struzan’s work was a colorful cyclorama of the pop zeitgeist; evoking fond memories for me wherever my eyes landed. Equally suitable for both museums and bedroom walls, Struzan was a unique and graceful pop art talent who made the heightened reality of cinema tangible.
