Sorry To Bother You Voice Sound Analysis Film Theory

Sound is an important element in any film, but especially in Sorry to Bother You (2018) where it plays a central role in the plot. Sound is an active force “which possesses the power to attack, invade, or manipulate, rather than just being a transitory aural whiff carried by the wind.”[footnoteRef:1] Nowhere is this seen more than when Cassius Green applies his white voice in a scene that encapsulates his acceptance into the corporation, his own sense of pride, and simultaneously his own descent into selling out as he and his manager Johnny celebrate with a montage of high-fiving while rock music plays in the background reinforcing the feeling of acceleration into a new phase of life. The scene combines sound, voice, and ear as well as the body in film and really embodies the idea that Chion gets to in his assessment of sound usage in film: “Chion\\\\\\\'s examples highlight the dark side of sound\\\\\\\'s ability to embody agency, a fact also present in another practice, namely ventriloquism. A voice originates not in the face or the mouth but apparently in another part of the body.”[footnoteRef:2] The scene is an act of deliberate ventriloguism as white voice is dubbed over the actual speaking voice of the actor playing Cassius Green, who mimes along with the voice but is not actually heard. The very act is surreal in and of itself and also reflects the surreal nature of film—how with the introduction of sound, the experience of watching and hearing a film changed so that now it is “difficult to decide whether the cinematic experience takes place \\\\\\\'inside\\\\\\\' or \\\\\\\'outside\\\\\\\' the body.”[footnoteRef:3] [1: Chapter 6: “Cinema as Ear—Acoustics and Space,” 157.] [2: Chapter 6: “Cinema as Ear—Acoustics and Space,” 157.] [3: Chapter 6: “Cinema as Ear—Acoustics and Space,” 158.]

The scene begins with Cassius attempting to land his first sale over the phone with white voice and as the camera pans over to capture Cassius at his cubicle in the act, the viewer sees Cassius engaged in the call with his headset on, as he uses a pencil to make points in the air as though he were conducting a silent symphony inside his head. We hear the white voice, but then the film cuts to a surreal interplay between Cassius and the person on the other end of the line together in a room. Cassius is still at a desk acting as a caller but the white person is now in front of him (on a phone to emphasize the fact that he is receiving the call)—but the fact they are together emphasizes the overcoming of space that the white voice has enabled. This is exactly what sound in film was able to do—play with space in such a way that we feel more connected to the images on the screen than we really are. Cassius has become an actor in the film of his own life by adopting white voice and that voice, like sound in a film, has enabled him to reach out of the script or screen and into the life of his audience—the white consumer on the other end of the line. The white consumer is so happy to have this space eliminated (made possible only by way of the white voice) that he shares his joint with the caller.

The film then cuts back to Cassius in his cubicle closing out the sale as his manager watches from behind another cubicle, having somehow heard everything as though he himself has magic ears and is hovering like an angel of corporate soullessness, waiting to devour and feed on the soul of the new corporate goon that Cassius has become. Yet Cassius has even deceived himself with white voice and does not see his manager Johnny as a threat but rather as a welcome friend and the two hi-five repeatedly and engage in all sorts of silly dancing and even dry-humping in a sort of pseudo-sexual symbolization of the union that has just been made between Cassius and the corporation. Even the name of Cassius represents the betrayal that is made here on so many levels: Cassius was the seducer of Brutus and the plotter that worked to overthrow Julius Caesar in Shakespeare’s play. Cassius was also the name of the famous box Cassius Clay before he became Mohammad Ali. So Cassius itself is a name that carries multiple meanings but they all signify a double-sidedness: first, as a friend who is really a betrayer, and second, as a person who changes his identity. Cassius is morphing here in this scene, and his physicality with the manger Johnny is a representation of that morphing: they are touching, slapping, hugging, and humping and then awkwardly disengaging and getting back to work once the euphoria has subsided. The sell-out has been fun and exciting, but Cassius is really there to do a job: he is there to sell for the corporation and he himself as a person does not really matter. The love dance bro-celebration is just a way to make Cassius feel that he is supported—but the reality is that he is being used, and he knows this deep down, but he is okay with the betrayal because he likes what he is receiving in return. He just doesn’t realize the extent to which he is really going to end up paying, i.e., that he will be turned into a literal work horse—half human, half horse—creature by the end of the film.

Sound, voice, ear, and body are all used in the scene to convey all of this complexity: first, the sound is quiet as the voice of the dubbed-in white actor is heard while Cassius “mimes” his way through the scene to get the sale. The ear is thrown off by the experience because the voice clearly does not match the actor and there is an eerie inauthentic quality to it that makes the ear recoil. But the body wants to draw near, especially as the eye sees that the body of Cassius is so relaxed and seems to possess the white voice. Then the sound of the film picks up with the guitar beginning to strum and invite the viewer to want to get up and dance and celebrate with Cassius and Johnny as they unite over the success. The sound of the film reinforces the transition that Cassius has successfully made but also gives a sense of foreboding, as it is a low, driving kind of sound that pulses and throbs as though there is going to be something sinister down the line.