Looker story
The film is a suspense/science-fiction piece that comments upon and satirizes media, advertising, TV's effects on the populace, and a ridiculous standard of beauty.
15 total · 5 major · 10 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| mass consumerism | major | Reston Industries was using hypnotic television commercials to market products. These commercials were also novel for featuring computer generated actors. |
| speculative hypnosis | major | Reston Industries was using hypnotic television commercials to market products. |
| television as a control mechanism | major | John Reston gave a speech in which he voiced an opinion that "television can control public opinion more effectively than armies and secret police" and expressed his astonishment about how "a free people spend one fifth of their lives sitting in front of a box with pictures". From a wider perspective, Reston Industries was banking on using hypnotic television commercials featuring computer generated actors to manipulate the public into buying certain products and getting a certain senator elected U.S. President. |
| unethical business practices | major | Reston Industries, a six billion dollar conglomerate, plotted to use hypnotic television commercials to market products. |
| what is beauty | major | Four models came to Dr. Larry Roberts with very detailed lists of cosmetic modifications they wanted him to perform on them. This was with the goal of meeting the Digital Matrix corporation computer algorithm definition of beauty. |
| bureaucracy | minor | A senator ran for President on a platform of fighting bureaucracy, pollution, and inflation. |
| electioneering in society | minor | Reston Industries plotted to run a series of hypnotic television commercials to get a senator elected U.S. President. |
| father and daughter | minor | Cindy when to visit her parents but they were more interested in watching television than they were in speaking to her. |
| husband and wife | minor | We saw Cindy's couch potato parents enjoying their favorite pastime. |
| mother and daughter | minor | Cindy when to visit her parents but they were more interested in watching television than they were in speaking to her. |