Not a direct use of a magazine, but behind the actor Terence Longdon on the right is a poster headed ‘YOU’ with a pointing policeman. The still is from the 1960 film Carry on Constable. This is a reference to the ‘Your Country Needs You’ cover from London Opinion by Alfred Leete, which was later used for the First World War poster.
There was also a Who Needs Kitchener? episode in the 1975 Carry on Laughing TV spin-off series from the films.
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Magforum blog 
February 28, 2023 at 7:18 pm |
I wonder if Mr Leete ever imagined the staying power of this image.
I see Steven Seagal has been honoured by some obscure warmonger named Putin. Not precisely honourable.
March 1, 2023 at 10:24 am |
Leete will have seen his idea copied by the US and other nations. He was very successful in the 1920s, but died in 1933, so missed the design’s revival in WWII and its never-ending copies afterwards. However, the fact that he gave the London Opinion artwork to the Imperial War Museum suggests he knew its place in history. They appear to have neglected it, however, and at one time even mislaid it. Despite its success, it was never recognised by the art establishment and some sources have even decried its importance in WWI. One of the successes of the Kitchener book I did with Martyn Thatcher was to discover photographs of the poster being used in WWI.
Poster at the IWM: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/16578
Kitchener poster book: http://www.magforum.com/kitchener-wants-you-book.htm
March 1, 2023 at 10:48 pm |
Christian de Quincey calls this approach to the nature of consciousness (if you look at the Kitchener poster as designed to be consciousness-raising) as an intersubjective engagement, in other words, a relationship. This second-person perspective (Socrates explored it, so it’s really old) is dialogic, in this case a verbal relationship between I (the country) and thou (you). He offers a simple definition of intersubjectivity as “consensual validation between independent subjects via exchange of signals. Standard intersubjectivity relies on exchange of physical signals.” So, at its most simple and perhaps pithy, the poster and all the other examples that followed on from it, employ an old, but not always well-understood philosophical concept that is neither first-person subjective nor third person objective, but second-person relational. I wonder if Leete understood the power of this or simply knew it intuitively. You don’t see much of it in late19th or early 20th century advertising.
Christian de Quincey, “Intersubjectivity” Exploring Consciousness from the Second-Person Perspective,” The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, vol. 32, no.2 (2000): 135–155.
Click to access trps-32-00-01-035.pdf
March 1, 2023 at 10:30 am |
As for Seagal, both he and Putin are martial arts nuts. That’s the connection. Under Siege is the best of his films thanks to Tommy Lee Jones and Colm Meaney; the follow-up Dark Territory is not as good (though notable for its use of an Apple Newton); and the rest are not worth finding