Movie Trailers, a style guide, 1960s – 2000s

I was watching movie trailers on YouTube, and was noticing style differences between the decades.

The 1995 movie Virtuosity has a narrator. To us as modern movie audiences, narrators feel very cheesy.

But how do directors communicate to the audience without them? Look at the preview for Transformers: Dark of the Moon, an equivalenty action movie. There’s no narrator, and not even any dialogue. This probably comes from the fact that it is a sequel, so we already know what to expect, and they can get by with more tease and less content (although the same could be said of the whole movie).

Inception trailer has some narration at the beginning. This is fairly uncommon among modern (2000-2010s) movie trailers. One thing about it — he’s not talking TO you, he’s just talking (but not with dialogue from the movie), and letting you figure it out. It’s less narration, and more monologue.

I think the Inception trailer is representative of what we’re seeing in modern times. The audience has to figure out what’s going on, which means they’re thinking and more engaged.

The trailer for Source Code (2011) uses a few title screens to fill in a few details.

To be fair, Inception and Source Code are more in the JJ Abrams-mystery box genre of movies. But here’s Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which again has no narrator, and uses on-screen text more heavily. If you read the on-screen text in your head with a cheesy 80s-narrator voice, it seems almost the same. It guides people through the “what’s going to happen next?”

80s movies have the same vibe as the 90s, although this seems like they tell you a bit more about how you’ll feel when you watch the movie (“with a touch of romance”), rather than the 90s one which is more narrative and descriptive. Check out the trailer from The Wizard, 1989.

Going farther back is A Clockwork Orange, 1971. There’s no narrator. This actually feels surprisingly modern, although the pacing seems older.

The Godfather, 1872 1972. No narrator, and only some dialogue. Again, this feels modern, but the pacing gives it away.

Doctor Zhivago, 1965, has a narrator. Also, notice the length of the trailer. This isn’t a movie trailer so much as an academic report.

Again, a long trailer for Lawrence of Arabia, 1962, also has a narrator. Near the end, the narrator discusses more about the actors themselves, and not just focusing on the plot. Obviously a sign of the times.

Thoughts?