Machete Poster Analysis

This is a poster of an upcoming film Machete and stars Jessica Alba as one of the main characters “Sartana”.

“Machete” is a large knife used for cutting vegetation but in this case it is to be used as a weapon. The title is shown in a red 3D text with a black shadow connoting that there will be violence and blood in the film, maybe even death. The 3D effect gives a sense of action and danger, stereotypically appealing to the male audience. The title of the film is shown in a large yet different font style to the other texts to make it obvious of what the film title is. The redness of the title continues by the splatter of blood around the poster; this also suggests that the film will consist of violence.


The main image consists of a medium shot of one of the main characters in the film, Jessica Alba. She is shown standing, sideways on to the camera with her left arm stretched out and the right holding a gun in front of her which can connote a phallic symbol as well as just being a prop that she uses in the film. At the same time as her body is in a twist like posture it could reflect her personality. The position of the characters head is shown to be facing down with her eyes facing towards the camera in a way that would make another feel threatened yet also makes her look more seducing from the posture as well as her hair being blown away from her face. The clothing on the character is of a uniform fashion with a plain coloured vest and dark trousers, hence the belt buckle looking like a police badge.

The composition of the character is a medium shot taking up most of the poster yet there is still room for text, “Jessica Alba As Sartana” in the top right of the image in a stamp/ army type font close to her face, as if it were a label. The “Robert Rodriguez’s” text has a similar font style however in a smaller size showing that as an audience you don’t really want to know this piece of information about the film yet it is still as significant.

The gradient effect in the background consists of a lighter shade towards the middle to a darker shade which surrounds the image giving a slight aura / glow to the subject. The contrast in lighting used on the subject’s arms and hair, make her stand out and make the image more 3D like. The gradient effect can also give the character a persona, the light shade connotates she is bright and soft hearted on the inside, yet the darker shade will show a sense of evil and toughness, this could present the characters personality.

The glow behind the character and on her body connotes that Sartana is sexy/hot and appeals to the male audience of 15-25 years of age giving an insight of what could happen in the film.