TITLE: The Exterminator
YEAR OF MOVIE RELEASE: 1980
PRESENTED BY: Mark Buntzman
DISTRIBUTOR CREDIT ON POSTER: Warner Bros.
TAGLINE: “In war, you have to kill to stay alive... on the streets of New York, it’s often the same.”
ADDITIONAL POSTER TEXT: “…the man they pushed too far.”
DIRECTOR: James Glickenhaus
CAST: Christopher George, Samantha Eggar and Robert Ginty as the Exterminator
SCREENPLAY: James Glickenhaus
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Robert M. Baldwin
ORIGINAL MUSIC COMPOSED AND CONDUCTED BY: Joe Renzetti
GUEST MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: Stan Getz
SONGS: The Trammps and Roger Bowling
FILM EDITING: Corky O’Hara
FORMAT: One Sheet
GENRE: Action / Crime / Thriller
COLLECTOR’S NOTE
The Exterminator follows Vietnam veteran John Eastland, played by Robert Ginty, as he becomes a vigilante in New York. The poster’s headline directly connects the character’s wartime experience with the film’s urban setting.
An unexpected musical connection appears in its credits: jazz saxophonist Stan Getz gives a guest performance. His Battery Park sequence features “Kali Au”, written specifically for the film by guitarist Chuck Loeb, a member of Getz’s ensemble. This detail adds music-history interest to a poster otherwise dominated by the film’s stark action imagery.
POSTER DESIGN FEATURES
A helmeted figure in sleeveless military-style clothing stands against a smoky blue background, holding a flamethrower that projects a bright yellow-orange flame towards the right. The dark visor conceals the face, giving the central figure an anonymous, threatening presence.
The flame provides the strongest warm colour against the surrounding deep blue and black tones. White uppercase tagline lettering spans the top, while the large cyan-blue THE EXTERMINATOR title crosses the lower image in slanted block lettering.
The secondary tagline appears beneath the title in white italics. A diamond-shaped R classification marking sits beside