The Sound of Metal

We watched this last night, and it surprised me.

When it had first flashed across my consciousness, for some reason, I’d thought it was a documentary series on metal music. Then I thought it was a documentary film on metal music. Then I saw that it was a fictional film about a musician who loses his hearing, But I still thought it would be heavy on the metal part.

Well, it’s not.

The Sound of Metal isn’t a flawless masterpiece, but it’s good and thought-provoking. Summary:

The star of “The Night of” plays Ruben, a heavy metal drummer accompanist to his singer-girlfriend Lou (Olivia Cooke). Marder and his co-writer/brother Abraham (the script also has a story credit for Derek Cianfrance, who worked with Marder on “The Place Beyond the Pines”) waste no time getting to the meat of their story. Mere minutes after meeting Ruben and Lou, we’re watching the drummer realize that his hearing is drastically disappearing. This is not a mere ringing in the ears or minor hearing loss. At his first meeting with a doctor, he gets word after word wrong, and he’s told that he’s lost 80-90% of his hearing, and the rest will likely soon follow. With a few exceptions, Ahmed plays it subtle, conveying the quietness that often comes with fear and denial. He can play through it. He can get surgery. Everything will be fine. Let’s go to the next show.

However, Lou knows there’s another problem to consider—Ruben is a recovering addict. He’s been clean for four years, but she knows that trauma often leads to relapse, and knows that Ruben needs focus or he will destroy himself. How many of us have pushed away our demons or even just our character flaws with activity and noise? We so often distract ourselves from our darkness through any means necessary. Imagine becoming an expert at something like drumming only to have it all ripped away, and then imagine not being able to use the standard crutches that you did so often in your life to make yourself feel better. “Sound of Metal” will be classified as a drama about deafness, but addiction is a notable part of this story, and just as accomplished.

What’s interesting here is that the tension within the deaf community about cochlear implants is brought into the story – not in a showy, screaming way, but subtly – Ruben, of course, wants his hearing back, but the healing community which he’s entered is shaped by a resistance to characterizing deafness as a disability, but rather a characteristic of a unique culture with its own language.

But this tension aside, the deeper question remains: as life changes in ways we don’t expect or like, in ways that challenge and require a shift in priorities and vision….what do we do? Do we cling to the past and constantly try to retrieve it, recreate it and live in that past? Or do we accept a new normal and commit ourselves to be taught in and by this new way?

And deeper yet is the theme of silence and stillness. In a way, The Sound of Metal isn’t about physical deafness, but about spiritual and mental deafening. Deafening brought on by literal noise, busy-ness, addiction and escapism. You could even see it, in a sense, inviting us to consider if the technology we embrace, hoping it brings us clarity and a fuller life, actually serves to obscure and deafen us even more.

The film begins in a small, crowded room, filled with banging, screeching and screaming that is impossible to escape or think in. It ends outdoors, in silence, And in between, a deaf character has said to Ruben:

All these morning you’ve been sitting in my study, sitting: have you had any moments of stillness? Cause you’re right, Ruben. The world does keep moving, and it can be a damn cruel place. But for me, those moments of stillness: that place, that’s the kingdom of God. And that place will never abandon you.