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The Sound of Metal

May 19, 2021 by Amy Welborn

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.

Oscar Nominated 'Sound of Metal' Sonic Designer Breaks Down the Film's  Profound Final Scene

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  • Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time..... "Thousands and thousands of people upon the stage of life are adjusting themselves to their roles in this drama — this drama which is real life.  Old men are there and old women, youths and maidens, and even little children.  From all parts of the world they come and from all walks of life — kings and queens, merchants and laborers, teachers and students, bankers and beggars, religious of all orders, cardinals, bishops and parish priests, and leading them all the Vicar of Christ on earth.  All are quietly taking their places, for all are actors in the sublime mystery drama of our redemption. More: "The Churches ceremony of Baptism is so elaborate! I keep trying to think of some way in fiction that I could convey the richness against the threadbareness of the other but my thought is none to productive. The Church takes care of everything and I am always struck fresh with it on St. Blases Day when you have your throat blessed. The One True Holy Catholic & Apostolic Church taking time out to bless my throat! And these people around here have to scratch their religion out of the ground. " "It is interesting to take a close look at this entrance of the Child Jesus into the solemnity of the temple, in the great comings and goings of many people, busy with their work: priests and Levites taking turns to be on duty, the numerous devout people and pilgrims anxious to encounter the Holy God of Israel. Yet none of them noticed anything. Jesus was a child like the others, a first-born son of very simple parents. Today's the memorial of St. Angela Merici, founder of the Ursulines.  Today is the feast the Conversion of Paul. Some related images from my books. The Loyola Kids Book of Bible Stories, the Loyola Kids Book of Heroes, and the Loyola Kids Book of Catholic Signs and Symbols. More:. https://amywelborn.wordpress.com/2023/01/25/the-conversion-of-saul-in-poetry/ St. Francis de Sales, whose feast is today, invites us to focus first, on the reality of the present moment. How is God calling me to love here, now? From St. Francis de Sales, whose feastday is today:

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