Dinosaurs at the Movies

Dinosaurs are endlessly captivating. Why? Perhaps it is because they are portrayed as paradoxes. Slow in movement and wit and now extinct, they are often used as models of failures in popular culture (see the artwork of Winsor McCay in “Dinosaurs in the Funny Papers” case). However, dinosaurs’ enormous size, strength, and ability to overcome environmental challenges and dominate the planet for 150 million years – seventy-seven times the duration of human existence - has made them enviable pictures of success.

Before modern science cast dinosaurs in these conflicting roles, a variety of cultures encountering the remains of dinosaurs assigned them mystical, magical, and religious qualities and powers and as lead actors in creation stories. Works that responded to the public’s interest in dinosaurs and helped to add to the public’s knowledge of them are featured throughout Bibliosaurus! Film posters document in dramatic and artistically bold ways the significance of the dinosaur in the popular imagination.