Blade Runner
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| Poster Origin : | United States |
| Poster Size : | US 1 Sheet / 27 x 41" |
| Poster Artist : | John Alvin |
| Poster Year : | 1982 |
| Poster Version : | First Release |
| Film Origin : | United States |
| Film Director : | Ridley Scott |
| Film Year : | 1982 |
John Alvin’s illustrative quality is particularly seductive; although the style is measured and rooted in realism it has an ethereal warmth that is conspicuously absent in more photorealistic art.
Alvin wielded his airbrush with more flair than most, and accents of traditional brushwork add signs of life where it matters; Deckard’s rough features contrast with Rachael’s flawless complexion to imply the heavenly beauty she represents to him, an absolute perfection perhaps only possible by artificial means. Here the real and the false are somewhat apparent and this marks the significant difference between the characters; in this 1982 release there was no question of Deckard’s origins, until the 1992 Director’s Cut sowed seeds of doubt.
It is perhaps ironic that Rachael's airbrushed perfection is a conceptual device here, but today even the most beautiful models have to be rendered flawless by photo software by default - reality is just not good enough, and seeing is no longer believing. We have sadly caught up with Philip K. Dick’s dystopia.
At the time it was quite unusual to see ‘full-bleed’ US posters, as the white border format was still favoured well into the 80s. Partly for this reason this poster has aged much better than many of its contemporaries.