Disturbance
Sorry to Bother You is an interesting film, to say the least. For the majority of the film, everything seems believable and realistic, and suddenly they're turning people into half-horses. So why was this part of the film?
The most obvious reason for this sudden change is the shock value. Before the scene where Cash tries to find the bathroom, WorryFree was the most shocking thing the corporations had created. Many of us have heard of tech giants using factory labor for their products, so a lifetime labor contract doesn't seem too far off. By showing how suddenly WorryFree shifts from exploiting humans for labor to modifying the humans themselves, the film gets us to worry about the real world. Tech giants have been using factory labor for years, how long until they do something similar? (Though it wouldn't be as drastic as in the film, with the recent advancements in gene editing, how long until a factory uses this to make their laborers stronger?)
The film sends a message of warning to corporations, too. Near the end of the film, police slowly quell the human mob, but the equisapiens trump them with little effort. WorryFree had set their sights solely on extra profit, and had failed to realize the dangers they were posing to themselves by making their laborers stronger. In the end, this comes back to bite them when the equisapiens break free. This warns today's corporations to see their workers as human beings, with individual thoughts and ideas, instead of mere tools for profit. If they don't, their workers will likely revolt in a similar way.
The most obvious reason for this sudden change is the shock value. Before the scene where Cash tries to find the bathroom, WorryFree was the most shocking thing the corporations had created. Many of us have heard of tech giants using factory labor for their products, so a lifetime labor contract doesn't seem too far off. By showing how suddenly WorryFree shifts from exploiting humans for labor to modifying the humans themselves, the film gets us to worry about the real world. Tech giants have been using factory labor for years, how long until they do something similar? (Though it wouldn't be as drastic as in the film, with the recent advancements in gene editing, how long until a factory uses this to make their laborers stronger?)
The film sends a message of warning to corporations, too. Near the end of the film, police slowly quell the human mob, but the equisapiens trump them with little effort. WorryFree had set their sights solely on extra profit, and had failed to realize the dangers they were posing to themselves by making their laborers stronger. In the end, this comes back to bite them when the equisapiens break free. This warns today's corporations to see their workers as human beings, with individual thoughts and ideas, instead of mere tools for profit. If they don't, their workers will likely revolt in a similar way.
Nice post with interesting questions to think about. Like you said, I believe that the equisapiens were used for shock value. I most certainly will not be forgetting that scene from the movie anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right that the equisapiens are there to upset the viewer, but shock value seems like the wrong phrase to me. That implies an emptiness behind the shocking thing, but I actually think they're more deep that just shock value. I think they're more like a deeply unsettling metaphor for what is wrong with labor in the US today.
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