Movie Poster of “The Age of Stupid” (Reader Response)

Going solely by the poster, “The Age of Stupid” appears to be a movie about how the human mind has polluted the Earth with stupidity and bad ideas to the point of nuclear war or other total annihilation of humanity. Another interpretation could be that the pollution is not actually a symbol, but that this text is literally about polluting the Earth (i.e. regarding global warming), which has destroyed the environment. This second scenario turns out to be the actual plot of the film, to this writer’s dismay, however in the movie India does fall to nuclear war.

Visually, the advertisement follows the rule of thirds as the picture is cut up into background (lowest section), content (middle section), and title (top section). Within the background there is dried up soil, which could easily represent the sea of ideas that have dried up in the world (or the seas just actually drying up due to climate change). We also see an urban environment behind that dried sea, with enough industrial infrastructures to suggest it is a business oriented city. The city landscape does not contain any points of interest or landmarks like the CN Tower or the Golden Gate Bridge, which could suggest that this is a global disturbance with no one true origin. The text on the bottom, “Why didn’t we save ourselves when we had the chance”, alludes to the global warming plot of the movie, and how the main character is seeking out the answer of why humanity did nothing to stop it. The clothing that the man dons has an unusual collar that resembles a robe, which he appears to wear under an overcoat. However, this neither matters, nor does it give away that the movie takes place in London in the year 2055.

The middle section of the poster features what is assumedly the main character (the top of the poster has the actors name), whose mind appears to be expelling toxic waste into the atmosphere. Plot-wise, this does not represent anything symbolically. The story revolves around the unnamed main character, who is put in charge of archiving all of the artistic and intellectual endeavours of humanity, and who is investigating why the Earth was allowed to become so tainted. It is not his mind that pollutes the Earth in the part-drama, part-documentary movie, but rather the lives of the individuals it documents, which are not represented in the poster. The top section of the poster, which includes the title, references, and the actor’s name, does not divulge anything about the story itself. The style and shading of the title graphic puts more emphasis on the words “THE” and “OF”. This makes the meaningful words of the title blend into the background of the poster, and makes them more difficult to read. The use of red in the referencing text looks out of place in the poster, which was possibly used deliberately to attract the eye.

The actual movie “The Age of Stupid” seems to be very postmodern. From viewing the trailer, it depicts several diverse voices in its interviews, has ties to hyper-consumerism, rejects linearity through scattered narration, rejects the authority of world leaders and politicians, shows self-awareness, and blurs the line between what is fact and what is fiction. It was the first film to use “crowd funding”, a form of viral campaigning, to fund production. The makers of “The Age of Stupid” were also the pioneers of the “Indie Screenings” method of distribution, which allows anyone in the world to screen the movie and claim the profits for themselves. The movie really pushes the impact of globalization, and lays out the pros and cons of such an interconnected world.