Cavan Scott's Creative Bloq has placed Amsel's rerelease poster for RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK at the very top of his 25 top movie posters of all time. Who am I to argue?
The list includes work from illustrators John Alvin, Drew Struzan, Roger Kastel, and Tom Jung, along with a number of digitally made photographic selections.
The Raiders trilogy harked back to a time when men were real men, women were real women, and swarthy racial stereotypes were real swarthy racial stereotypes. This comic-book style poster design by Richard Amsel is a young boy's dream – full of swashbuckling adventure, foreign devils and a splash of romance.
Amsel, who died in 1985, also created iconic poster art for 1980s blockbusters Flash Gordon and The Dark Crystal. "If I paint or draw something that takes people into the realm of fantasy, then I feel that I've accomplished something," he once told Star Notes magazine. He certainly did in this case.
