The Nexus of Art and Science
The Nexus of Art and Science
Boot Riley’s “Sorry to Bother You”
Sorry To Bother You is a film of many genres that calls out racism in the workplace and sells a very strong anti-capitalist message. In an alternate universe, our lead, Cassius Greene, goes from lowly telemarketer to a salesman for slavery. He discovers what he is selling much after taking his position, but later finds out that they company selling slave labor is also trying to turn their employees from weak humans to strong and efficient equisapiens (horse-people). This turn from what seems like a comedy with commentary on workplace racism, to a sci-fi with anti capitalist horse-people shocks most viewers, but this shock is exactly what is needed to break viewers from negotiating out of the movie’s ideologies, and facing them head on.
Using knowledge of how horses and humans work and move, animators and fx artists on Sorry To Bother You brought horrid horse-people characters to life and shocked their audience into further listening to the anti-racist, anti-capitalist message of the film.
The first look at the equisapiens in this film is when Cassius accidently goes through the wrong door and finds some of them chained up. One of them is in a stall crying for help when Cassius walks in, and when he opens the door this horse person falls to the floor, naked and kicking in pain. More of them reveal themselves behind curtains and they are all chained up. These beasts are hairless, slimy, and overly muscular with huge genitalia. The equisapiens move differently because of their legs, so they are hunched over. The exposed equisapien flailing on the ground is definitely one of the most shocking parts of the movie. Next, when Cassius returns to his boss’s office, he is forced to sit down and watch a short movie on the development of these equisapiens. In this short claymation, we see a cheerful depiction of how these creatures compare to the humans they once were. It is explained that WorryFree, a company that signs people into lifetime labor contracts in exchange for “3 hots and a cot”, is turning their workers into these creatures to be better at factory work. WorryFree is then selling this labor to companies around the world. However, the fun creatures depicted in the short, clearly very strong and not gross at all, are very different to the creatures Cassius just found chained up. The equisapiens in the short have the same balance as other humans and stand upright, with their only difference being their muscles and horse head. In actuality, the equisapiens are more deformed than just being extra muscular, as depicted in the concept art by Brynn Metheney. Their leg structure completely changes their walk cycle, causing their big heads to lean much more forward.
Significant Productions hired ADI to do the effects and animation for this film. However, they hired a freelance artist Brynn Metheney to do the concept art for the equisapiens. Metheney is a well established artist who focuses on creature design. Her work on these creatures has great detail in articulating horse and people anatomy which is extremely important to the physics of how they move. With huge shoulders, all weight is taken off the back and makes them perfect for lifting heavy objects. However, perhaps their leg design is too extreme as we see some of them in the film having trouble standing on their new hooves and maintaining their balance. Once they do find balance, later in the film they are shown extremely hunched over. This analysis of how the weight falls on these characters adds to their development in the movie and shocks the audience with their strength. Unrelated to physics, the development of horse people by snorting a mysterious powder is a very cool sci-fi creation. To add to the look, designers decided to make the creatures hairless and oiled up. All in all, we see these creatures go from something efficient, friendly, and work-safe to the realization that they are a horrible creation. But this species arc is just the extreme needed to force the audience to fully see the racist and anti-capitalist themes to the film if they rejected them prior. It is often easier to see reality when looking at something so far from it, to paraphrase Boots Riley, the director.
With such a genre bending film and a shock ending, many viewers without outside knowledge on social/political issues leave not seeing anything more than some scary horses. Outside of the carefully crafted script, these horse-people speak to a bigger issue than to just be shocking. This film shows our lead Cassius moving from desk job as telemarketer to salesman for slavery. It depicts how the top 1% operate and do things so devoid of morals but because of their monetary benefits. Yes horse-people seem a little far fetched, but doing whatever it takes to underpay and overwork employees and make the most profit is the root of capitalism. Horse-people is just the extreme some viewers need to shock them of what realities they are dealing with. In this alternate universe, people are shown all around Cassius to be joining WorryFree because of poverty. Signing up for this company only incarcerates them and makes the top 1% even more money. This movie is commenting, amongst other things, that sweatshop labor is not so far away from America, even making comments comparing prison to WorryFree because of what it provides. Thanks to ADI and Brynn Metheney, these creatures turned out to be not only shocking, but so extremely detailed and life-like. Their claymation only adds emphasis to how the WorryFree heads see their acts vs real life. This film doesn’t rely on the use of science to tell it’s story, but the use of science definitely helped sell it.
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