GoodFellas is a Crime/Drama movie released in 1990 about a mobster called Henry Hill who grows up to be one of Americas most influential mobsters of the 20th Century. The film stars included in this film are: Ray Liotta (R.I.P) who wasn't a very recognisable star at the time, Robert De Niro who still to this day is regarded as one of the greatest actors ever, and Joe Pesci who would go on to win a Best Sup. Actor Oscar for his role in this film.
In my opinion, the Poster targets people who are predominantly white males and who are obsessed with crime films. The reason I say this is because of the stars I just mentioned; all of them are white males. This is probably because of the time period in which the movie begins which was the start of the Civil Rights Movement. Nevertheless casting a full white male cast gets rid of African American audiences and Female audiences because of the lack of inclusion on the poster. To be a bit fair on GoodFellas, from what I can remember there is only one African American in the movie and there is only 3 females I can remember. Out of all of these characters I would say only one of them is integral to the story and who you would have to include, that being Karen Hill (Henry Hill's) wife. However she does not appear on the poster and I think the reason for that is because the people behind the film would think that having a Female on the poster wouldn't fit for a crime movie. This isn't just the case for GoodFellas, in any crime movie poster there is often no female characters on there, and if they are they are most likely not the main focus of the film. This is because the crime genre is seen as a masculine movie genre and the majority of people who have seen this film will have been men.
The Star Power of the Poster also probably appears to people who are fans of both De Niro and Pesci and Crime. Even though Ray Liotta is obviously the main character, for some reason he is not in the centre of the Poster, De Niro is. This could be because De Niro is more in touch with the crime genre then any other actor in the movie; after all he has been in some crime classics like The Godfather Part II, Taxi Driver, The Untouchables, etc. whilst Ray Liotta was not a very known actor at the time.
Both my Mum and Dad have seen this, but they talk about in such different ways. My Dad praises the movie for its strong acting and incredibly story, whilst my Mum says the movie is not for her (she says that with a lot of movies). This is probably because there are no characters in the movie that my Mum can latch onto whilst my Dad on the other hand as a very large variety of characters to choose from. It may also have to do with how the characters on the poster are represented. The Men on the poster are portrayed as Strong heroic and fearless; especially De Niro's character with his arms crossed pose. The Women on the Poster... EXACTLY, there are no Women on the poster, so someone like my Mum won't be able to relate or get a sense of a pride out of people who are the same gender as her in the movie. This is probably why the movie didn't do well at the box office as it had a budget of $25 million, but only made $47 million back. To earn your money back you need to double your budget because that is how much goes into marketing, GoodFellas didn't do this so it most likely lost money.
I understand the ideology of the poster however, I actually think that the poster reinforces dominant ideologies of how men are represented in film and throughout the media itself, I believe that this poster reinforces tropes of masculinity such as violence and the way that men act. Furthermore, I do not agree with this dominant ideologies and have taken a oppositional reading of this media text.