Film Posters of the 80s (Film Posters of the Decade) [Hardcover]

Tony Nourmand (Author)

Book Description

Series: Film Posters of the Decade | Publication Date: October 25, 2001

The 1980s was an exceptionally fertile decade for the cinema. In Hollywood violent action was very much in vogue, with films such as Die Hard, First Blood, Rohocop, Terminator, Top Gun and Lethal Weapon introducing the public to new, muscular stars like Stallone, Schwartzenegger and Tom Cruise.. Steven Spielberg contributed to this genre with Raiders of the Lost Ark, but also gave us the gentle E.T., which was equally in tune with a period which saw a whole raft of notable science fiction movies, including Dune, Blade Runner and Aliens. In the wake of Star Wars, everyone was eager to make use of the new special effects techniques that played a major role not just in the SF genre (including the Star Wars sequel, The Empire Strikes Back) but also in pictures like Ghostbusters, Gremlins and Poltergeist. For 80s audiences really liked to be scared and Hollywood duly stood their hair on end with The Evil Dead, Friday the 13th and Scanners, among others. For the first time America's film-makers were prepared to examine the nation's recent history and Platoon, Born on the 4th of July, First Blood and Good Morning, Vietnam all tackled, in their different ways, the trauma of Vietnam, while The Killing Fields documented the carnage that continued to wrack South East Asia. More distant history inspired the two bio-epies, Ghandhi and The Last Emperor. There was sex, of course, with 9 1 2 Weeks, American Gigolo and the steamy remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice. But comedy was thinner on the ground, though Hollywood contributed Airplane, the Brits chipped in with A Fish called Wanda and the Italians with the enchanting Cinema Paradiso, which was one of a number of foreign language films (Betty Blue, Ran, Kagamusha) which broke through into the international market. The wide variety of films on the screens of the burgeoning multiplexes was fully reflected in the poster art of the period, the cream of which features in this book.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Flashdance, Fame, 9 1/2 Weeks, The Right Stuff, Top Gun, The Terminator-all are standard references when talking about classic Hollywood films from the Reagan years. The proprietor of London's Reel Post Gallery, Nourmand here offers another ten-year stock taking (Film Posters of the 40s; Film Posters of the 50s; etc.), again with graphic designer Marsh as collaborator. Many of the 131 full-color illustrations are full-page (the book is 9 1/4 x 11 1/2); the reproductions are sharp enough to read almost all of the credits and fine print, though the colors could be brighter. For anyone who lived through the era, the images will seem familiar, so ubiquitous were they (and are now, in the video store aisles), so there are almost no surprises here.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Tony Nourmand is the proprietor the Reel Poster Gallery in London, from whose collection all the images in this book come. Graham Marsh is a graphic designer who has already collaborated with Tony Nourmand on Film Posters of the 50s, the 60s and the 70s as well as Hitchcock Poster Art.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Aurum Press Ltd (October 25, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1854108034
• ISBN-13: 978-1854108036
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 9.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,675,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MOVIE POSTER REFRENCE GUIDE, January 2, 2009

By 

Joel Katte "Author of MILWAUKEE BREWERS IQ tr... (Home of the Milwaukee Brewers) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Film Posters of the 80s: The Essential Movies of the Decade (Paperback)

People are still stumbling upon the exciting hobby of collecting vintage movie posters. Tony Nourmand has created dozens of movie poster books that are sure to help you learn about these rare collectibles. His books cover the most important posters for each decade and also focus on certain genres of film like SCI FI and HORROR and film historian favorites like ALFRED HITCHCOCK and JAMES BOND. His photographs are top notch and his eye for selecting the most interesting images for our favorite classi films is extraordinary. Buy one and you will surely be back to check out his other books too.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Que Gran Epoca fueron los 80's, February 16, 2007

By 

Fernando Valdes Martinez "Lazlo-Lozla" (Mexico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Film Posters of the 80's (Paperback)

No solamente la musica fue victima de la cultura POP, sino tambien el cine y es en este libro con los posters mas relevantes de le época en donde el arte POP se ve a la perfeccion. Desde los poster clasicos hasta lo posters mas extraños. Ya que esta recopilacion no solamente tiene los artes que conocimos pegados en los carteles del cine, sino que ademas contiene artes muy extraños. Destaca la recopilacion de artes de las cintas de David Cronenberg. Muy REcomendable.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best of the Best Era of Movies, August 26, 2003

By 

James N Simpson (Gold Coast, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Film Posters of the 80's: The Essential Films of the Decade (Hardcover)

This is by far the greatest collection of the essential movies of the decade series. The 80's created blockbusters like The Terminator, Friday the 13th, Poltergeist, Fletch, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Raiders of the Lost Ark, ET, Rainman, The Breakfast Club, Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, Beverly Hills Cop, Robo Cop and Rambo to name but a few. They're all inside just begging to go up on your wall and be admired along with heaps of others.

You could either keep this intact as a collection of posters in a book to show and discuss with friends, or cut the book up and actually have a vast number of posters up on your wall. This book is about a third the size of your standard film poster and most movies are full page colour. Any of them would look great up on the wall. If there's a better poster collection out there then it must be really good as this is sensational!