Looker (1981)

Sci-Fi Thriller Starring Albert Finney, James Coburn and Susan Dey. Written and Directed by Michael Crichton.

Looker is a early 80's whistleblower film which tackles and satirizes the subject of Unrealistic standards of Beauty portrayed in the media ...and on more pernicious note still,  the existence and use of 'subliminal' techniques in TV advertising.

Another childhood Sci-Fi favourite, which ...in my view, is still as valid and relevant as ever.

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Plot

Dr. Larry Roberts (Albert Finney), a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, is puzzled when four beautiful models working in television commercials request cosmetic surgery to make changes so minor that they would be imperceptible to the naked eye. When these models start dying under mysterious circumstances, he discovers they are all linked to the same advertisement research firm.


"Television can control public opinion more effectively than armies of secret police, because television is entirely voluntary. The American government forces our children to attend school, but nobody forces them to watch T.V. Americans of all ages *submit* to television. Television is the American ideal. Persuasion without coercion. Nobody makes us watch. Who could have predicted that a *free* people would voluntarily spend one fifth of their lives sitting in front of a *box* with pictures? Fifteen years sitting in prison is punishment. But 15 years sitting in front of a television set is entertainment. And the average American now spends more than one and a half years of his life just watching television commercials. Fifty minutes, every day of his life, watching commercials. Now, that's power." - John Reston


"At a million Dollars a minute, We want You to be looking at what we are Selling"


Music by Barry De Vorzon


Trailer

IMDb