The main image appears in greyscale black and white and aligns the audience with the central

protagonist Gilbert through the presentation of him as almost heroic through his stance and clouded look. The majority of the main image shows a small town in black and white with a sky heavy with clouds. This could be interpreted to be a representation of Gilberts view on the town and himself as insignificant as in proportion he takes up a small proportion of the poster.

The tagline Life is a terrible thing to sleep through gives an insight into the mind state of the central protagonist Gilbert as it appears Gilbert is merely getting through life rather than enjoying it. The Serif font provides an elegance and serious nature to the words which appear taking up nearly a third of the poster The presentation of the two main stars names highlighting their significance. Johnny Depp and Juliette Lewis are presented in a wide tracked serif font in bold white directly contrasting to the black background. This advertises the poster on their names as they are the brightest piece of text shown in the whole poster.

The image of Johnny Depp appears to be layered on to the picture of the mundane town. This could be an editing technique used to suggest his presence is merely physical within the town and emphasise that life is a terrible thing to sleep through to create sympathy for the character Gilbert before viewers have even seen the film.

The title appears in the lower third of the poster in grey, not only does the grey font create a sense of continuity linking with the greyscale image but highlights the boredom shown in Gilbert Grapes eyes. The grey adds to the overall sense of hopelessness surrounding the film and provides an insight into the genre of social realism which is shown through the dark outlook on the surrounding in the main image