Movie Trailers are cultural signposts scattered across the web as touchstones of where we have been and where we can go as an audience. A good trailer finds the movies target audience and expands it. Exciting interest in demographic groups who under normal conditions would have dismissed the film as unappealing. They play before the movie, not after it. The name dates to their earliest incarnation, when they actually did follow the feature. The documentary “Coming Attractions” dates the very first trailer to a 1912 Edison serial entitled “What Happened to Mary?” After each installment, a black card with white text would appear to inform audiences “The next incident in the series of ‘What Happened to Mary’ will be shown a week from now.” Not exactly “In a world…” but it did the trick back in 1912.
Now trailers have grown into one of the most popular forms of advertising in the world. For me, a good trailer is a delicious visual appetizer to prepare the audience for the main course, it wets the palate and allows speedy uptake of the world the filmmaker is creating; because the audience has heightened anticipation and expectation. Maybe this is why some of the best trailers like “The Shining” and “Aliens” thrive in these emotional responses.
How do we measure a trailer’s quality? Is it the persuasiveness of its salesmanship, the impact of its imagery or the cleverness of its copywriting. Ultimately, we decided that the best trailers are those that most effectively combine art and commerce, and that sell and entertain with equal skill. So which movie trailer has been the most important to the evolution of the format? Is it “Sin City” or “Cloverfield” or maybe its “Psycho” or “The Lord of the Rings”?
For me its got to be The Big Sleep 1946. Its a trailblazer that gave us rules for trailers that are still valid today.Big stars, big drama big music and even bigger fonts. Theatrical trailer for the 1946 film noir classic, THE BIG SLEEP, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. For the second teaming of the sizzling screen team of Humphrey Bogart and lauren Bacall, Warner Brothers’ chose the Raymond Chandler detective thriller, THE BIG SLEEP, called on Howard Hawks to direct and secured the services of William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furman to translate the murky murder thriller to the screen. The result is one of the screen’s most fascinating — not to mention cmplex and confusing — film noir thrillers. Hollywood legend has it that Faulkner and Brackett could not determine who the killer was in the original novel and contacted Chandler for clarification. Chandler, after replying adamantly that the answer was in the book, soon called back and admitted hecouldn’t determine it, himself, so he left the decision up to them.
At the Hollywood Public Library, Humphrey Bogart, decked out in gumshoe fedora and trench coat, looks for a good read, maybe a mystery along the lines of “The Maltese Falcon.” Luckily, a librarian who looks and sounds an awful lot like Lauren Bacall is there to help with a handy suggestion ” how about Raymond Chandler’s latest bestseller, “The Big Sleep”? Intrigued, he cracks open the novel and begins reading aloud, his narration segueing into a deftly edited series of clips from the Howard Hawks-directed classic Its classic noir! Bogey breaking into a room via a window and finding a murdered body, Bacall crouched secretively, steamy kisses Sex, violence, bravado, allure and cigarettes! What more could you want.
Heres a countdown of the top 25 as prepared by IFC
25. Real Life (1979)
24. Schindler’s List (1993)
23. Red Eye (2005)
22. Sin City (2005)
21. Strange Days (1995)
20. She’s Gotta Have It (1986)
19. Unbreakable (2000)
18. Sleeper (1973)
17. Charade (1963)
16. GoldenEye (1995)
15. Pulp Fiction (1994)
14. Garden State (2005)
13. Mr. Sardonicus (1961)
12. Independence Day (1996)
11. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
10. The Shining (1980)
9. Mission: Impossible (1996)
8. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
7. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
6. Citizen Kane (1941)
5. Comedian (2002)
4. Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
3. Cloverfield (2008)
2. Psycho (1960)
1. Alien (1979)
