Poster posture: The fantasy mound

There's a recurring motif in posters from fantasy movies of the late 1970's and continuing through the 80's: the (almost always) male hero posing on top of a mound, surrounded by images of the characters and landscapes of his adventure, weapon raised, with a woman placed next to him — sometimes seemingly submissive and dependent upon him for protection, at all times sexualized and occupying a lower space in the composition.

Below are examples of this motif from several movie posters. Some of the films were probably lower-budget attempts to cash in on the sword-and-sandal craze ostensibly set off by Conan the Barbarian (1982). Others were almost certainly sex-and-violence exploitation films (I admit there are a few on this list I have not seen). But this poster style was used by more successful mainstream films as well, as early as 1977's Star Wars. The style was used outside of the fantasy genre (though perhaps just barely) in the Clint Eastwood cop adventure The Gauntlet, parodied by two of National Lampoon's Vacation comedies, given a female hero variation for Barbarian Queen (1985) and Warrior Queen (1987), and echoed decades later in the poster for Tron Legacy (2010), the sequel to Tron (1982), which also used the style.

This motif reflects the concerns of a genre often aimed — accurately or not — at a young male audience: weapons (frequently phallic), life's challenges made physical and solvable by battle, and the role of women as the hero's reward.

Star Wars (1977)

The Gauntlet (1977)

The Norseman (1978)

Conan the Barbarian (1982)

Tron (1982)

The Beastmaster (1982)

National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)

Fire and Ice (1983)

Sword of the Barbarians (Sangraal, the Sword of Fire, 1983)

Warriors of the Wasteland (The New Barbarians, 1983)

The Blade Master (Ator 2 - L'invincibile Orion, 1984)

The Warrior and the Sorceress (1984)

National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985)

Barbarian Queen (1985)

Warrior Queen (1987)

Tron Legacy (2010)

Repeat vacation

It's been said that Hollywood turns out the same product again and again, never giving its audience anything new. Consider this list comparing gags from National Lampoon's Vacation with the third movie in the Vacation series, Christmas Vacation. Seeing that the second and fourth Vacations (European and Vegas) were laughably un-laughable, maybe repetition's not such a bad thing after all!

Vacation	Christmas Vacation
Clark and Ellen try to get the kids to sing songs during a car trip, but the kids won't have it	Clark and Ellen try to get the kids to sing songs during a car trip, but the kids won't have it
Jokes about being stuck with grouchy Aunt Edna	Jokes about being stuck with grouchy Uncle Lewis
Aunt Edna's dog is a pain, then gets killed	Cousin Eddie's dog is a pain, and Aunt Bethany's cat gets killed
Clark flirts with a beautiful woman in a Ferrari, then goes skinny dipping with her in a motel pool	Clark flirts with a beautiful woman at a lingerie counter, then fantasizes about her skinny dipping in the family pool
Clark drives the family station wagon over a big jump on the road to Wally World	Clark drives the family station wagon over a big jump on the road to the Christmas tree farm
Clark wanders alone through the hot desert until he finds his family at a gas station	Clark gets locked alone in the cold attic until his family returns and lets him out
After making the big jump in the family car, Clark meets some hillbillies who charge him too much for doing a poor repair job on his car	Right before making the big jump in the family car, Clark races with hillbillies who try to run his car off the road
Audrey can't hear after Clark antagonizes a bartender into firing a loud gun	Audrey can't see after Clark drags the family out into the cold to find a Christmas tree
Eddie and Catherine and their strange kids need financial help	Eddie and Catherine and their strange kids need financial help
Eddie and Catherine make a disgusting dinner of Hamburger Helper without the meat	Catherine makes a disgusting Thanksgiving dinner by overcooking the turkey and dissolving all the meat
When things look worse and the family wants to cancel the trip and go home, Clark goes on a verbal tirade, spewing obscenities	When things look worse and the family wants to cancel Christmas and go home, Clark goes on a verbal tirade, spewing obscenities
When Clark and his family finally get to Wally World, they find it closed, prompting Clark to throw a fit	When Clark finally gets his "big Christmas bonus" he finds it's only a subscription to the jelly of the month club, prompting him to throw a fit
The Griswold family kidnaps a Wally World guard only to be caught by the SWAT team at the end	The Griswold family kidnaps Clark's boss only to be caught by the SWAT team at the end