The Italian Job is a 1969 film directed by Peter Collinson (Ten Little Indians) and stars famed British actor Michael Caine (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Austin Powers, Batman Begins) and Noël Coward (Around the World in Eighty Days). The story revolves around Charlie Croker (Caine), a renown criminal, trying to set up a diversion to steal four million dollars of gold in Italy. Through government interaction and high-speed chases, Croker and his crew tunnel themselves into problematic circumstances that are testing, even for a criminal. Since the original release in 1969, the movie did have a remake in 2003 with Mark Wahlberg, Donald Sutherland, and Charlize Theron under the same name.
One of the movie posters used for the film shows Michael Caine’s character, Charlie Croker, staring away from the camera. The use of Caine looking away from the focal shutter allows the viewer to analyze his frame of mind. What is he looking at? What is he thinking? What is he expecting to occur? The viewer sees that facial shade as a pondering expression, not one that is literally looking at something. In context to the movie, he could be thinking about the plan, why something did not happen the way he expected it to, the government men from a faraway perch, or the next step in taking the gold. Another signifier in the film’s poster are the colors used for the background and of the Austin Mini Coopers. The color choice of a poster is always a key signifier to look upon. The blue, white, and red of the background and of the Austin Mini Coopers allude to the Union Jack, or the British flag. The criminal group that they use are of English descent, hence Michael Caine as the main character. The smaller triangle on the right half of the Austin Mini Coopers use greed, red, and white. If the title of the film is The Italian Job, the colors represent the Italian flag. The overarching theme of the movie is then, to the spectator of the print, is England versus Italy in some type of showdown.
Next, towards the center of the scene are three Union Jack-colored Mini Coopers in, what looks like, a tunnel. Croker’s crew decides to set up the heist of millions of dollars by driving Minis in, around, and under the city. Austin Minis are small and compact, yet swift, which allow the crew to fit in unusual spaces and get away from the scene they caused quickly. The tunnel surrounding the Mini Coopers on the poster are one of many different landscapes that the team had to fit in. As a viewer to the print, high-speed action is expected. Lastly, the tagline on the poster should be directed. It reads “This is the Self Preservation Society”. One possible meaning to this peculiar and stimulating sentence is that it is a revised “survival of the fittest”. Knowing that Charlie Croker is a high-stakes criminal, crime becomes a somewhat desired occupation. The ones who live life in their manner with their own sets of rules last the longest, therefore, Croker leaned to crime. The movie, to the hopeful onlookers, would give them a glimpse into a society with individual codes and regulations, perhaps a lack thereof rules. The quote on the bottom left of the poster gives credibility to film as an action-packed “crime corker”, as well as using Michael Caine’s name, already quite popular in England, to boast the movie’s quality. Since the quote is from Empire, a distinguished film magazine in England, it provides even more standing for the new movie. An equivalent of Empire in today’s world would be a Roger Ebert or Richard Roeper endorsement or critical review of a film.
The Italian Job is a great example of how a movie poster can denote and connote certain levels of meaning to the eye of a human. This particular poster involves further knowledge of geography, simple psychology, and British car models. Even though the poster print could be taken differently to each observer, basic knowledge and human understanding can extract the signifiers and place them into precise categories.
Comments