The Men Who Stare at Goats, Get Low, posters

Two variations on the floating heads and shish-kebab of noggins. Interesting to weigh the presumed box-office clout of the actors in Get Low based on the relative size and position of their profiles. Personally, I’d have been happy with a poster focusing on Duvall’s craggy features all by himself. But somebody thought the Mount Rushmore avalanche approach would be better, even if they had to wedge Sissy Spacek in there with no concession to graceful flow whatsoever. I feel bad for tiny Lucas Black, dangling down there at the tail end of the team. Apparently the marketers felt nobody was gonna recognize him anyway, so instead of confusing people with his face, just show off the top of his head. “Every secret dies somewhere,” so might as well set this whole thing on fire along the bottom and get it over with.

The Men Who Stare at Goats poster earns bonus points for self-deprecating self-awareness. It takes the traditional parade of profiles, tints them consistently with handsome sunset hues, and lines them up in strict military formation. Kevin Spacey avoids the embarrassment of being low man on the totem pole by ranking one rung above a goat. Ewan McGregor distinguishes himself by being the only one of the five without a porn mustache or luxuriant goatee. Nice touch to add the occult symbols in the background to tickle all the wiccans, illuminati and assorted fringe fans of the paranormal. Naturally the title needs to be the same blocky jokester font as Clooney’s last espionage farce, so we know we’re in for some fun bungling. B+ overall, and A+ for the “No Goats, No Glory” tagline.