One of the movies that people have been talking about repeatedly for its Oscar contention and as one of the best films of the year is The Sound of Metal, a movie that can be streamed on Amazon for free. It was a tough watch in an emotional manner, but it also lived up to the hype that has been surrounding it. It is almost guaranteed to win the Oscar for best sound mixing for obvious reasons, but it should be in higher consideration for more than just the sound mixing Oscar. It was an incredibly well put together film, with a compelling story, and although it was not based on a real events, the way it was put together felt so real, and the emotion it evoked was very real.
The Sound of Metal was about a young couple, Ruben and Lou, who were in a death metal rock band traveling around on tour playing at varying bars and small locations for their niche crowd. Then after one show Ruben started to show signs of deafness, at first his hearing seemed to come in and out, but then it was basically gone altogether and did not return, and he went to a doctor and learned that it would probably not come back unless he had surgery, which was expensive and not covered by insurance. All this stress made Ruben have a high potential for a relapse into drug use, so Lou convinced him to go to a narcotics house for the deaf. At first he was not into it, but soon he began to thrive, and he seemed happier than he had been all film, but this was not his final goal. He sold off most of his expensive band possessions and got the surgery, to attempt to return to his old life. The surgery did not heal him as much as he had expected, but he did return to Lou, but even their relationship did not seem the same.
The pivotal point in the movie comes from the conversation between Ruben and Joe, the leader of the deaf house. Ruben came to tell Joe that he had gotten surgery to return his ability to hear, and he came to ask for money that he promised he would pay back, which in Joe’s words was exactly what an addict would say, although Ruben had not gone back to drugs, he had truly changed, and this resulted in him no longer being able to stay at the facility, getting his hearing back took him away from the community. Again, in Joe’s words he said that, “Here we believe that being deaf is not a disability.” It goes to show how strong the community here and in the deaf community at large is. So Ruben had to leave and start his new life as someone who will soon be able to hear. Trying to summarize the conversation will not do it justice, within the whole set up of the film, the whole conversation is steeped with emotion and incredibly well done. Clearly Joe thinks that Ruben has made a mistake, and eventually it is hard to tell if Ruben thinks he made a mistake or not.
When Ruben was able to turn on his new hearing system, it initially barely works at all, and it just sounds like static. Ruben must have the aid adjusted multiple times before he can hear the doctor properly, but even then it was not the best quality. Watching the whole process was heartbreaking, because it sounded so unlike the world we live in with our hearing. The best way to describe his hearing ability after the surgery was if someone was listening to a radio station but was not quite in range. The sound was still staticky, it was understandable, but there was some interference there, and this was in the best-case scenario too. When he went to Lou and her Dad’s house, the party was almost a constant static sound, and he could barely hear what anyone was saying. Then when it came to Lou and her Dad performing a song, it was unrecognizable from how it actually sounded, and as someone whose love was music, it was incredibly hard to see/hear what Ruben was going through even after the surgery.
The moment where the movie ends, Ruben was sitting on a bench in the middle of the city the morning after the party, and he decided to take off his hearing aid, and the silence returns. This leaves it up to the watcher to decide if Ruben will put the device back on, or if he realized that the deaf community was where he belonged, and that his life would truly never return to normal. Personally I think that he decided that the deaf community was where he belonged and that his world would never be the same as it had been. During the parts of the film when Ruben was with the deaf community, especially when he was with the children, he seemed happier and in a better place than he had been at any other time. He seemed genuinely happy, and it also seemed like he was in the best place to not even risk a relapse. He meant a ton to the people in the community there. When he returned to Lou their interactions seemed strained, they both seemed to want to rekindle the flame, but no matter what happened, it seemed like there was just something now missing between them. They both seemed to notice it, but it was unspoken between them, so in the end I think he returned to the deaf community and decides not to use his hearing aids, which would also be depressing for him. He spent so much money on the surgery to only have it be incredibly lack luster, so the moments when the audience gets to hear what he is hearing is truly heartbreaking.
This plays into the reason as to why it is almost assured to win the Oscar for best sound mixing. Throughout the film there was a switchback between what Ruben could hear, and what the normal person would hear. It starts with a general kind of ringing and a lessening of sound, but it grows into what it sounds like when a person’s ear pop and everything sounds softer and weird, and eventually evolves into everything sounding quieter than a whisper. All of that was just for the progression of him losing his hearing, but the sound mixing does not stop there. Eventually it gets to the point of largely silence, but then Ruben gets his implants, and the audience gets to go on the journey of the implants sounding initially like static, but slowly evolving into a more coherent sound, but never truly clear as a normal person would hear. It really shows a diverse spectrum of hearing capabilities for a person going on this journey. I do not know how accurate it was, but it felt like it would be incredibly accurate, and this makes the audience’s emotional pull for Ruben extraordinarily strong because of all he must endure.
Although this movie was not based on a true story, much of it was based off reality for some people. There was a ton of research that went into the process of what it would feel like and sound like for someone going through this experience. It was awesome to see the community that these deaf people had, and it goes to show that there truly is a group for everyone out there. This specific group was for deaf people that had previously been addicted to different drugs. Also from what I have heard in general the deaf community is very tight knit and look after each other incredibly well, so it was interesting to see a depiction of this community. They did use many actual deaf actors that were fluent in sign language to help make the story even more realistic.
So with all of that being said, I believe that this film sound be in much higher contention for the best picture Oscar, I felt like it was much better than the current front runner Nomadland, which was good, but not nearly as good. I also believe that Riz Ahmed should be in higher contention for the best actor Oscar, but it does seem very set in stone that Chadwick Boseman will win this posthumously. I gave The Sound of Metal a 90, and I cannot recommend highly enough that this film is viewed. I waited too long to watch it, I just did not believe in all the hype it was getting, but it truly held up to this standard.
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