Is Ghostbusters (2016) a racist, sexist movie?
While researching the topic of social responsibilities of popular culture creators, I found the ongoing backlash against the rebooted movie Ghostbusters (2016) a vivid example. Long before the official Ghostbusters trailers were released, controversies against its casting, storytelling and production had already been heated on social media. Bringing together two sources in this essay, an review article by John Nolte and the official poster of Ghostbusters (2016), I will present one example of society’s concerns about the movie’s sexism and racism through analyzing rhetorical strategies used in the two sources and how the images presented in the poster was interpreted and responded by Nolte.
Writer …show more content…
The primary image of the poster creates a strong visual attraction to viewers with the contrast between the background of dark night and the occult, cold, blue bright light coming from the car’s headlight and the ghost sign in the air. The colors that the poster is adopted with are also in stark contrast: characters’ dim, dull clothing versus the bright, alarming red and orange stripes on ghostbusters’ uniform and the ghost sign. Such overall tone of the poster is indeed strong pathos in that it creates a sense of mystery and evoke viewer’s curiosity into the story. The ominous foreboding color implies the intensity of the story, a sense of urgency of how crucially needed the ghostbusters is to save the general public in the movie. It also help strengthen the story’s essential character (ethos)—the ultimate inexplicable supernatural …show more content…
At the button of the poster, the film title GHOSTBUSTERS is also presented in all capitals and in broadway fonts with shadows. Noticeably, the letter “O” is replaced by a “O” shaped ghostbusters sign, which is a tribute to the original 1984 movie poster to evoke the nostalgic memory of old movie fans as a pathos
While researching the topic of social responsibilities of popular culture creators, I found the ongoing backlash against the rebooted movie Ghostbusters (2016) a vivid example. Long before the official Ghostbusters trailers were released, controversies against its casting, storytelling and production had already been heated on social media. Bringing together two sources in this essay, an review article by John Nolte and the official poster of Ghostbusters (2016), I will present one example of society’s concerns about the movie’s sexism and racism through analyzing rhetorical strategies used in the two sources and how the images presented in the poster was interpreted and responded by Nolte.
Writer …show more content…
The primary image of the poster creates a strong visual attraction to viewers with the contrast between the background of dark night and the occult, cold, blue bright light coming from the car’s headlight and the ghost sign in the air. The colors that the poster is adopted with are also in stark contrast: characters’ dim, dull clothing versus the bright, alarming red and orange stripes on ghostbusters’ uniform and the ghost sign. Such overall tone of the poster is indeed strong pathos in that it creates a sense of mystery and evoke viewer’s curiosity into the story. The ominous foreboding color implies the intensity of the story, a sense of urgency of how crucially needed the ghostbusters is to save the general public in the movie. It also help strengthen the story’s essential character (ethos)—the ultimate inexplicable supernatural …show more content…
At the button of the poster, the film title GHOSTBUSTERS is also presented in all capitals and in broadway fonts with shadows. Noticeably, the letter “O” is replaced by a “O” shaped ghostbusters sign, which is a tribute to the original 1984 movie poster to evoke the nostalgic memory of old movie fans as a pathos