christain 70's exploitation

The 1970s was the time of the exploitation movie in all its glory. Exploitation or Trash movies have since gained a cult following for all the wrong reasons probably but were movies made at a time when political correctness wasnt heard off.

Exploitation and Trash movies came in a number of forms, across a number of movie genres and presented people with sex, violence and gore, all taboo subjects until this time in cinema. They and the posters that came along with them have been described as the underbelly of both the cinematic and poster arts and are widely defined by words like, sleazy, cheap, racist, violent, grose, tasteless, sick and sexist but they are a great example of the liberation in the 1970's of freedom of expression and bending the rules in creativity, cinema and design.

The movie posters that came along with Trash and Exploitation have also been described as a low point in advertising and cinema promotions and poster design but again they reflect the times and are highly sought after by collectors. The posters are instantly recognisable as the 1970's. the typography alone help define the 70's and the images borrowed from a range of art movements including pop and physchedelic to create some distinctive images. The posters also bent the rules as far as what was seen on a movie poster until this time and for all their crassness they stand alone as unique peices of work and many of the styles used have been copied time and time again to recapture the feel of the 1970's.

The movies and posters were meant to shock and never pretended to be anything that they werent.

Amongst the most successful of the movies were those in the Blaxploitation genre which put African Americans to the forefront in cinema for the first time. Movies such as Superfly, Shaft, Foxy Brown, Cleopatra Jones and Slaughter and their posters have become cult classics.