Movie Poster Analysis-Anchorman:The Legend of Ron Burgundy

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The 'star persona' and comedy identification of many of the main actors of Anchorman are very important in enticing people to watch the movie. Most notably Will Ferrell, but also Steve Carrell and Paul Rudd are all recognised as being famous comedy actors and viewers of this poster that are fans of their movies or similar ones are likely to want to see the this movie.

The most obvious sections of this poster's mise-en-scene are the costumes of the characters. The formal nature of their costumes implies that they are serious characters, but as we know their eventual actions are far from serious and supply the comedy. The contradictions of the main movie setting, the news station, and the humorous events that occur there are the main source of comedy throughout the movie. The hair and moustaches are also important in the representation of the 1970s which is when the movie is set. The cowboy hat of the character 'Champ Kind' is a very clever inclusion of the creators is enforcing his character as the stereo-typical forceful and over-passionate sports reporter.

The facial expressions and body language of the characters in this poster clearly show the angles that they are portraying in the movie. The main character 'Ron Burgundy', is in a dominant pose with a very serious facial expression to show his authority as the leading man at the station and the successful anchorman. The expressions and body language of Paul Rudd's character 'Brian Fantana', portray his belief that he has in himself as being a womanising charmer. 'Champ Kind' is swinging an imaginary baseball bat and looking very over-zealous in his facial expression to show he is the over-the-top sports reporter. The serious, but kooky expression of Steve Carrell's character weather reporter 'Brick Tamland' is used to show us that he believes he is a brilliant reporter, but his peculiar and comedic actions say otherwise. Finally perhaps the most important character expression and posture of 'Veronica Corningstone' supplies the other side of the story, gender wise. The loving, but determined look on her face portray the womanly care that she gives the station but also her determination to beat the gender limits of the 1970s.

The tag line of this poster is a mockery of the actions of many Americans towards national and international news. Commonly across the United States people do not have any interest in trying to find out news outside of their own road, so the tag line 'They bring you the news, so you don't have to get it yourself' mocks both the ignorance and lazyness of this attitude.

To add to the effectiveness of the contrast from the movie subject and the humour, the font types on this poster are very formal and proper. Although the comedy of the movie comes from the mockery of the nature of the news station subject, the creators continue to promote this on the poster through the serious representation of the formal font and the company logo in the background.