The Art of Hammer: The Official Poster Collection From the Archive of Hammer Films
Book Reviews | Dec 15th, 2010
Author: Marcus Hearn
Publisher: Titan Books
Genre: Film
Pages: 192 pages
Buy On Amazon.com
Just like the Drew Struzan’s movie poster hardcover book from Titan Books, The Art of Hammer is another impressive photo book showcasing the poster art from Hammer Film Productions. This is the first ever collection of rare photos and images compiled into one book! Movie and classic horror fans will greatly appreciate this book! I know I do!
Hammer Films is responsible for some of the most iconic and beautiful movie posters in the 20th century. In this book, over 300 posters are showcased which is impressive. Most of the posters were classic horror movie posters, illustrated, painted and drawn. Movie geeks will love this book just from the artwork alone. As an artist and a movie geek, I loved flipping through The Art of Hammer. For one, it’s inspiring and influential and could spring some ideas in my head when I’m stuck in a rut for designs. Plus, it’s just nice to see what fantastic movie posters used to look like. Just like what Frank Darabont said in Drew Struzan’s book, the floating heads posters are just lame and lazy. But of course I’m paraphrasing what he said but that’s what he meant.
The book is sectioned off into the years. It’s interesting to see how the art and the movie posters progress over the years. when you get to the 70s, you see how sexual things have gotten. Sex sells I guess, or at least it’s nice to look at even though it’s in illustrated form. I didn’t really get a chance to read the pages and blurbs all that much, but I checked out the photos in the book several times. In the end, that’s what you’re really buying this book for.
So appreciate movie poster art and pay tribute to Hammer Film Productions with this book! Showcase it on the coffee table; it would even make a great bathroom read. Yeah…I went there.
Bottom Line: A must-have poster book for movie geeks!
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