Drew: The Man Behind the Poster

Drew: The Man Behind the Poster is a 2013 American documentary film about the career of film poster artist Drew Struzan. It is directed by Erik Sharkey and premiered on July 19, 2013 at the San Diego Comic-Con International.

Drew: The Man Behind The Poster
Directed byErik Sharkey
Produced byCharles Ricciardi
Greg Boas
Erik Sharkey
Written byGreg Boas
Charles Ricciardi
Erik Sharkey
Jeff Yorkes
Starring
Music byRyan Shore
Production
company
Torino Pictures
Hefty
Sharkey Productions
Kino Lorber
Release date
  • July 19, 2013 (2013-07-19)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Synopsis

The documentary features interviews with a number of people, including Struzan himself, his wife, Dylan Struzan, his son, Christian Struzan, directors Steven Spielberg, Guillermo del Toro and George Lucas, and actors Harrison Ford and Michael J. Fox. The film follows Struzan's career painting movie posters for films such as Star Wars, The Thing, Back to the Future, the Indiana Jones franchise, and the Harry Potter franchise.[1]

The film delves into Struzan's art for Alice Cooper's album Welcome to My Nightmare, and also how his artwork for Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and Pan's Labyrinth, though greatly admired by del Toro, was rejected by the studio in favor of more photographic posters.[2] This leads the documentary in a direction about how film studios are interested more in profit rather than quality, how film posters are more often photographs of the actors rather than paintings of them.

The documentary concludes with footage of Struzan at the San Diego Comic-Con International in 2010, wherein he receives the Inkpot Award for his illustrations.[3] This is then followed by footage of Struzan talking about and showing his personal paintings not related to film, and how he spends his time painting not for someone else, but for himself, and how he often plays outside with grandson, Nico.

Critical reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 50% based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 5.75/10.[4] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 59 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[5]

Andy Webster of The New York Times wrote that the film "becomes a mildly taxing torrent. And Mr. Struzan, while an agreeable presence, is not an especially engrossing speaker".[6] Peter Debruge of Variety called the documentary "sophomore effort [that] is no masterpiece", although noting that he owned a Struzan poster himself and admired Struzan's "impressive oeuvre".[7] Nick Schager of The A.V. Club appreciated that the documentary "makes a valid case for the artist as not simply an all-time great, but as a casualty of a business that prizes bottom-line cost management above unique creativity"; however, he disliked the film's focus on "lavishing adulation on Struzan".[8]

Awards
Year Award Category Result
2013 Hollywood Film Festival[9] Best Documentary Feature Won
2014 Dragon Con Independent Film Festival[10] Best Feature Film Won
Ridgewood Guild Film Festival[11] Best Documentary Won
gollark: I imagine they thought it would be harder to make them work, because it was thinky and harder to win at.
gollark: By combining two design flaws and a bot I hacked together, I'm now doing one buy/sell order every 20 seconds for huge profits!
gollark: It's just wildly ridiculously insane in so many ways!
gollark: I still run it manually, but it works.
gollark: My arguably-evil scheme is running perfectly, by the way.

References
  1. "Drew Struzan Illustrated Portfolio". DrewStruzan. Retrieved 5 July 2014.
  2. Marshall, Rick (8 September 2010). "The Drew Struzan 'Hellboy' Poster That Never Made It To Theaters". MTV. Archived from the original on 2010-09-10.
  3. Yamato, Jen (3 July 2013). "Doc On Poster Artist Drew Struzan To Debut At Comic-Con". Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  4. "Drew: The Man Behind the Poster (2013)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  5. "Drew: The Man Behind the Poster Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  6. Webster, Andy (15 August 2013). "The Illustrator Behind the Big Pictures - 'Drew: The Man Behind the Poster' Profiles Drew Struzan". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
  7. Debruge, Peter (16 August 2013). "Film Review: 'Drew: The Man Behind the Poster'". Variety. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
  8. Schager, Nick (15 August 2013). "Movie Review - Drew: The Man Behind The Poster". A.V. Club. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
  9. "2013 Hollywood Festival Films". www.hollywoodfilmfestival.com. Hollywood Film Festival. Archived from the original on 2 December 2014. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
  10. filmfest.dragoncon.org
  11. Laura Herzog. "Ridgewood Guild Film Festival honors actor Danny Aiello". NorthJersey.com.
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