POSTERS

Bond Week: A Look Back at Bond Posters of the Past

by Alex Billington
November 10, 2008

Ah yes, the movie poster - where would James Bond be without movie posters? To kick off Bond Week and pay our respects to the many wonderful designs of the past, we put together a quick little feature today looking at some of the brilliant James Bond posters that have graced the walls of movie theaters for years. There are so many classic and iconic posters that there's actually an entire book of them, but we'll look at just a few of the many that can be found within the book. Being as big of a Bond fan as I am, it's quite nostalgic looking back at all of these posters. Bond has undoubtedly progressed in so many ways over the 46 years that he's been around, and it's easy to tell when you take a look at these posters. Enjoy!

Sean Connery Era:

Back in the 1960's when Dr. No first came out, James Bond was still a unique British idea, hence all the poster designs in the beginning were British quad posters - meaning they were designed horizontally, not vertically (like most US posters). The Sean Connery era began in 1962 with Dr. No and ended in 1971 with Diamonds Are Forever, although we're throwing George Lazenby's On Her Majesty's Secret Service in here, too, because it doesn't fit anywhere else (and was right in the middle of this era anyway).

Roger Moore Era:

Roger Moore's era began in 1973 with Live and Let Die and kept strong all the way through to 1985 with A View to a Kill. You'll notice that this time around, with Roger Moore, they focused more on his look and the idea of a montage of scenes, keeping a consistent pose across nearly all of the posters.

Timothy Dalton Era:

Timothy Dalton's short-lived era of Bond films began in 1987 with The Living Daylights and ended two years later in 1989 with License to Kill. While the designs finally start to take a realistic turn and use actual photos of Dalton (as opposed to paintings), I decided to feature the more vintage posters for these two.

Pierce Brosnan Era:

Pierce Brosnan's era began in 1995 with GoldenEye, quite a few years after License to Kill left the franchise somewhat destroyed. Thus it was a big challenge for them to come up with something that would reignite the James Bond flame. Brosnan's era ended in 2002 with the poorly received Die Another Day.

Daniel Craig Era:

And here we are, finally caught up to the present, with the start of the Daniel Craig era. We're only two films in and he's going very strong so far. MGM finally stopped making posters that featured montages of action scenes and went with the down and dirty sleek look that Bond is known for. Craig's era kicked off in 2006 with Casino Royale and continues this year with Quantum of Solace. As we have seen with nearly every previous era of posters before, their designs have continued to evolve and improve.

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