Drew: The Man Behind the Poster

Synopsis

The documentary features interviews with a number of people, including Struzan himself, his wife, Dylan Struzan, his son, Christian Struzan, directors Steven Spielberg, Guillermo del Toro and George Lucas, and actors Harrison Ford and Michael J. Fox. The film follows Struzan's career painting movie posters for films such as Star Wars, The Thing, Back to the Future, the Indiana Jones franchise, and the Harry Potter franchise.

The film delves into Struzan's art for Alice Cooper's album Welcome to My Nightmare, and also how his artwork for Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and Pan's Labyrinth, though greatly admired by del Toro, was rejected by the studio in favour of more photographic posters. This leads the documentary in a direction about how film studios are interested more in profit rather than quality, how film posters are currently more often photographs of the actors rather than paintings of them.

The documentary concludes with footage of Struzan at the San Diego Comic-Con International in 2010, wherein he receives the Inkpot Award for his illustrations. This is then followed by footage of Struzan talking about and showing his personal paintings not related to film, and how he spends his time painting not for someone else, but now for himself, and how he often plays outside with grandson, Nico.

Critical reception

The documentary has received mixed to positive reviews, currently holding a rating of 50% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 8 reviews.

Andy Webster of The New York Times wrote that the film "becomes a mildly taxing torrent. And Mr. Struzan, while an agreeable presence, is not an especially engrossing speaker". Peter Debruge of Variety called the documentary "sophomore effort [that] is no masterpiece", although noting that he owned a Struzan poster himself and admired Struzan's "impressive oeuvre". Nick Schager of The A.V. Club appreciated that the documentary "makes a valid case for the artist as not simply an all-time great, but as a casualty of a business that prizes bottom-line cost management above unique creativity"; however, he disliked the film's focus on "lavishing adulation on Struzan".