This week, I’d like to dive back into the archives and talk about a movie that you’ve either forgotten or never heard of. It’s streaming on the Roku channel, which is why I’m talking about it today.
Note: This film isn’t new, so I’m going to be a little loose with spoilers here.
Looker, written and directed by Michael Crichton, is a fairly stock standard tech-adventure tale. The story is fairly straightforward: a plastic surgeon turns detective when he discovers that an evil corporation is making young women get plastic surgery and then killing them. Along the way, there’s all the typical shenanigans of this sort of film, from exaggerated special effects to evil henchmen to scantily clad women falling from buildings.
Talking about the film itself
Michael Crichton was a fairly well-known commodity at the time, having written films like The Andromeda Strain. But, his two biggest successes, Jurassic Park and ER, were both a decade ahead. So, at this point you have to look at him being just another mid-level filmmaker, not the legend he is thought of being today. Crichton both wrote and directed the film. That can be a recipe for disaster as there isn’t anyone to say “no” to a director when they want to go in the wrong direction. This film would probably have been better if there had been a different director.
The film stars Albert Finney, who would have been familiar to audiences from movies and TV shows. In this film, Finney affects a more or less permanent sneer that makes you feel like even he doesn’t believe he’s doing this film. But, he’s an entertaining actor if you can ignore what may be the worst perm in the history of time. This is the best image I could find of it and it truly fails to capture the horror that is this perm.
You also get James Coburn, Dorian Harewood, and Susan Dey in a post-Partridge Family, pre-LA Law role as the female lead, a “perfect” young model. It’s a fairly small ensemble for such an ambitious film, and for the most part the actors do their best to make something out of the material they’ve been given.
The parts you should really ignore
This is a film made close to 45 years ago and boy does it show in some places. I mean, there’s the tobacco, the casual and almost constant sexual harassment, and a lot of nudity that’s really just there because they wanted people to come into the theater. I’ll leave it up to the viewer to decide if they really like the early-80s fashion and decor, or if it’s impossibly cheesy.
In the world of Looker, women are really just objects on a chessboard while the men control everything. Most of them do nothing, and they say really flighty things like “You’ve been ignoring me all night.” They don’t seem to mind if their doctors pin them to the bed. There is a female CEO, but she really just defers to her husband on everything.
But, you have to accept that this is a movie of its time and put all that aside. What’s really interesting is the stuff that’s actually come true since, the stuff that seemed like impossible science fiction back then.
The parts you should be amazed at
It’s not really the plot of Looker that will seem familiar to you. It’s the tech, much of which has actually come to pass. The titular Looker device, the function of which I don’t want to spoil, hasn’t been built yet. But practically everything else has. I mean, take a look at this list of things that were science fiction then but are commonplace now. All of these are in Looker.
- Autonomous inventory robots that run on tracks in the floor
- Magnetic connections that data passes through
- Full body scanning that’s capable of creating a convincing 3D model
- Computer-generated voices that sound completely natural
- Creating moving images using convincing CGI humans
Of all of it, it’s the idea that you can create a CGI model of a person and then use them as a digital actor that really stands out. In 1981, obviously this was impossible but just 25 years later, it started to happen routinely. Today, CGI is used to bring dead celebrities to life, to create convincing alien characters, and to fix production mistakes without reshoots. It’s also used to put actors’ heads on stunt performers’ bodies so that you can see closeups that look real.
I mean, let’s face it, anyone can use a filter on social media to look completely different than they look in real life. This technology isn’t just here, it’s everywhere.
There’s another bit of Looker that’s turned out to be commonplace. This is a movie that’s partially about commercials and instead of using made-up products, real companies like Budweiser and Dodge are prominently featured. Today, paid product placement is everywhere. Back then, it was a lot rarer.
The warnings of Looker
If you took Looker seriously, you were supposed to focus on how our drive for physical perfection has become toxic, and how our dependence on technology has sucked up a huge amount of our time. Both these things are as true now as ever, perhaps more. But, viewed in the context of 2023, these are almost clichés. Back then, I guess the idea was a lot newer.
In fact, the film doesn’t really address the ethical considerations of digital actors the same way a film like The Congress (2013) does. The entire idea of digital scanning and CGI recreation seems to exist solely to let you see Susan Dey naked. But, all that said, you take from this movie what you want to take from it.
Looker came out in 1981. On the face of it, it’s a fable about the perils of technology and chasing the idea of perfection. It’s also extremely cheesy by today’s standards, and is absolutely a product of its time. But, there’s one part of it that feels eerily contemporary, and that’s the part that I really liked.
Here’s a trailer for Looker, and as I said it’s streaming on The Roku Channel. If you don’t have a Roku device, you can still get the app for your phone. Or, use your PC to watch for free.
