V-J Day in Times Square - The Photograph in Popular Culture

The Photograph in Popular Culture

In 2005, John Seward Johnson II displayed a bronze life-size sculpture, Unconditional Surrender, at an August 14, 2005 sixtieth-anniversary reenactment at Times Square of the event made famous in Eisenstaedt's photograph. His statue was featured in a ceremony that included Carl Muscarello and Edith Shain, holding a copy of the famous photograph, as participants. Johnson also sculpted 25 feet (7.6 m)-tall versions in plastic and aluminum, which have been displayed in several cities, including San Diego (right) and Sarasota.

In the 2009 film, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, a life-size blow-up of the photograph plays an important role when characters Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) and Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams) escape pursuers by jumping into it and emerging in a monochrome 1945 Times Square, and losing a cell phone, which catches the attention of one of the background sailors, Joey Motorola, played by actor Jay Baruchel.

The picture is referenced - albeit showing a different camera - in the 2009 film Watchmen, which depicts alternate history versions of iconic moments in American history. During the opening credits, The Silhouette, a female "costumed hero", replaces the sailor in the famous picture after coming upon the woman in Times Square during the VJ Day celebrations. In a later scene, the pair are found brutally murdered.

In the 2010 film, Letters to Juliet, the Eisenstaedt photograph is featured in a scene where an editor of the New Yorker questions Sophie about her fact-checking (her job there) of the image as if it would be published in that magazine as a full-page feature. He questions her closely about whether the photograph was staged and most importantly whether it truly was "spontaneous and romantic." Sophie gives him several pieces of information obtained from a sailor in the background of the photograph. She assures the editor that all of these facts were thoroughly checked and found to be correct, so he need have no concern.

The kiss was parodied in the The Simpsons episode, "Bart the General". As celebrations ensue following victory for Bart in a battle against the school bully, a young boy dressed as a sailor kisses Lisa as a photograph is taken. After the photograph is taken, Lisa rebukes the boy, telling him to 'knock it off' and slapping him in the face.

In 2012, while performing a show for the Marines during the New York City Fleet Week, singer Katy Perry kissed a man on stage, replicating the pose.

In the 2012 film Men in Black III, Will Smith views The Kiss occurring while time traveling after his fall from the skyscraper.