The film Hooker contains no nudity or graphic sexuality. It is being reviewed in this section, based solely on its subject matter.

This 1983 documentary, originally made for HBO, is designed to show that prostitutes have lives other than that which they live in the streets or in brothels. With all its realism, Hooker is anything but shocking. In fact, the film does not dig any deeper than the surface conversations involving various prostitutes.

Unlike Vestron’s Chicken Ranch, which was unyielding in its depiction of Nevada whorehouse, Hooker barely gets beyond what these women say they would have done had they not been in their chosen profession.

Presented in three segments, Hooker discusses call girls, nude ‘modeling’ studios and street prostitutes.  Only the section on street prostitution carries any impact at all; one woman interviewed here was stabbed to death by a client after the filming had been completed.  A pimp, who seems rather subdued, discusses street life in detail and only here does the filmmaker get into the nitty gritty of what this business is all about.

During the section on call girls, an actual depiction of a man being subjected to B&D is shown.  He is chained up and swatted repeatedly in the testicles, eventually having his penis stretched in strange ways.  But, believe it or not, it seems rather low-keyed.

The nude ‘modeling’ section is the closest thing to Chicken Ranch, as the husband and wife team who own the studio declare that “most men are very inept.”  Here, the owners are very open and vivid in the description of their business.  Unfortunately, the whole section seems flat, with nothing visual to back up the conversations being depicted on film.

Hooker seems a bit too tame; perhaps it was made under the restrictions of cable television.  It plays like a boring TV movie with none of the melodrama.  To produce a documentary on a controversial subject, you can’t walk the fine line of good taste.  You have to get into the “meat” of the subject which is being discussed.