Web Advertisement: "An Unlikely Weapon"

The viewer's eyes are drawn immediately to the image inside the red circle, the iconic photograph of a South Vietnamese General about to fire a bullet into the head of a Viet Cong soldier. The text below the photograph (in a newsprint-style font, supporting the film's journalistic subject matter) is centered below symmetrically arranged text blocks (excerpts of reviews) creating a solid pedestal on which the photographic image sits; its position within the poster's composition as well as the increased tone and brightness of the parts of the image inside the circle further enhance the already shocking and dramatic subject. The black/white/red color scheme creates intensity, while the red circle and red underlining of the films title appear as though some has come along with a red marker and fiercely altered the poster to make certain that we understand the gravity of the subject. Moreover, the red circle simulates a bullet hole (the effect of the gun as weapon) while the red underline reminds us that the film's subject is the "unlikely weapon": the photograph itself.