This is yet another film I have seen not by choice. If this movie was recommended to me by a friend (true friend), I would definitely put it on my list but who knows when I would get to watch it. So it is good that some films are chosen for me to watch and I just have to be present to watch it. So I saw this film as part of the film theory class that I completely unofficially am sitting in. One day, once this class is over, I will probably go back to my "old ways" and start writing about other films, but for now, since I only post once per week, there is not much room for writing about other films that I want to write about. Actually, I don't write about every film I see in that class either, so I might very soon already pick something else to write about. But I saw Sound of Metal and I felt I do want to write about it, so here we are.
The main character in this film is played by Riz Ahmed. I knew that this was his name because I looked it up but the name did not seem familiar to me at all. But then, once I saw the character in the movie, the face seemed really familiar. Unfortunately, I am really bad with faces (I mentioned this in at least one of the previous posts). So I couldn't figure out who he is, that is, where I knew him from. Of course, it was quietly eating me inside, but I let it go. For about an hour and fifteen minutes into the movie, I had convinced myself that he probably just looks like someone I know in real life (not a famous person but a distant relative or so) and that that's why I felt like the face was familiar because the name Riz Ahmed did not ring a bell for me. Then I couldn't resist it and looked it up. I was extremely surprised to see he was in Venom but it made a lot of sense. Apparently he was also in Jason Bourne and Rogue One. So I had seen him in at least three other movies and I still had no idea who he was when I saw him in this one. Now, dear reader, if you are one of my closest friends who also happened to have watched many many movies with me, I know that your reaction would be "that's so you!". If not, you're just going to have to believe me that that's just so me. Now that I buried myself under the ground by making a great confession about my face-recognition abilities, we can continue. (I do still think that he resembles to someone I know but I can't quite point it out)
The title of the film is Sound of Metal and the main character is in a metal music band, however, the word "metal" in the title is used in two different ways, which is a bit cool but a bit lame at the same time. I don't know if I liked the main character, or maybe I just didn't like the acting of Riz Ahmed. It was good but it wasn't spectacular. I really liked the performance of Paul Raci (supporting actor).
When I was looking Riz Ahmed up, I saw that he is also a rapper. I am guessing that the tattoos we see on his character's body do actually belong to the actor, maybe at least some of them. From the way his character talks, I could guess this person has a past with rap. Then it occurred to me, up to some extent, how the fashion style of a rapper and a metalhead could be similar. This made me think of my high school years where I spent half of it as a metalhead and half of it by listening to underground rap music (and while doing that still listening to metal music). I just wore oversized clothes for both of them and it worked.
The outfit and speaking style of Ruben (Riz Ahmed's character) was not the only thing that took me to my high school years during the movie. In fact, there were many things in the content of the film that resonated in my personal life. To put it in context, if you look at the poster, you see a man sitting in front of his drums. First thing that comes to mind is Whiplash (another film with a drummer in it). Now, Whiplash is an older movie than this one (and I must add it is a great one too if you haven't seen it before). I still remember (somehow) when and where I went to see Whiplash, so the poster had already taken me back in my timeline. This drummer, Ruben, loses his ability to hear at some point (early in the movie). I guess people can react to this (seeing a character go deaf) in various different ways. It made me remember the times when I wanted to go deaf. I don't feel that way anymore but to be continually confessional I did genuinely want that in the past. This was mostly in my teenage years which include my high school years.
Why would anyone want to go deaf, especially at such a young age? Well, it wasn't that I didn't appreciate sound. I actually loved music and I still do, so even if I am not a musician, if I had lost my hearing, it would definitely dry out my soul because of not being able to hear music. When so many people talk around you, I don't know if it ever happened to you, but you may want to close your ears. Maybe because of loudness, maybe something else. So I was at a point where I was sick of hearing people's voices but it wasn't the sound the problem it was what they were saying. So here I refer to the second meaning of the word voice. No matter how much I tried to close my ears to their "voices", I just kept hearing them (because I know their opinions in general so it's almost always there in my mind). You can even imagine a character in a film who is hearing voices out of nowhere and then she is trying to get them out of her head and then starts closing her ears but then it's not enough so she tries to rip her ears or something. Now, this is what would happen in a movie, in real life, it didn't happen like that, that is, I wasn't going crazy---at least not necessarily. But the voices I "heard" in my mind were just originating from what people actually told me and I couldn't stop thinking what they would say to anything I do next---you can see this as a case of "caring too much what other people think about you". So I would often sit down and imagine how peaceful my life would be if I stopped hearing. Of course, I didn't do anything to achieve that, but to a mind like that, it seemed like a solution (although not exact), and to imagine it was a relief.
So when I was watching a man go deaf and his struggles about it, I remembered a time when I wanted to go deaf voluntarily. Did this make me regret anything? No. There is really nothing to regret about as I didn't try to go deaf, I just had wanted it and thought about it. One might think that I should feel bad about myself but I really don't. I think one should take a moment and think how much a teenager must have been psychologically terrorized to have come to a conclusion like wanting a disability. Now, a spoiler, not about the film, but about this teenage girl's story. In the end, she solved the problem by not going deaf but by going away. Obviously, this sounds a bit superficial because I didn't tell the whole story but when I said "caring too much what other people think of you", 1) these people are not strangers, 2) you are a kid (so you don't have freedom and you have no way of avoiding these people; plus, they are the ones who give you shelter and food, so you are already conditioned to follow their rules but you almost never agree with their lifestyle). What bothered me the most in these people's voices was that they were telling me how to live and how to be, to the point where I had felt like I needed to ask for permission before breathing. Yes. breathing. So I had to shut them up and I did so at some point. In the end, I am glad I am not deaf.
The person in the film who goes deaf is a musician, so losing hearing ability means more to him than to a non-musician. I guess if he lost an arm or something, his music would again be affected but somehow hearing sounds more crucial for his line of work. I used to often think what would happen if I lost my left hand (that's what's crucial in my line of work). The answer is I would write with my right hand. Next, what if I lost that too? Then I thought I would get someone to write for me while I tell them what to write. Next is, what if I lost my ability to speak at the same time? Well, I am guessing that this is very low probability to happen---losing all three. I should also note that these questions are really questions, i.e. it is not like the deafness story---I definitely did not want to lose my hands or speech. Although, coincidentally, the years I thought about these questions are the same years I wanted to go deaf.
Back to the film. You see this musician man losing his hearing and having great difficulty in accepting his situation. I think people who did not witness a person in a similar situation in real life might judge the film in a different way. I think the events of the film were pretty realistic. I have witnessed a man at the age of 45 suddenly lose ability to walk and speak. After spending so many years in life fully functioning, one day, you think, you want to open your mouth and say what you think, but your muscles don't listen to you. Perhaps if it is after an accident, it would make more sense, but what I am saying is just happening, say, when you were sitting. Imagine you are a successful middle-aged person who has at least one university degree and who is considered very smart and active, and who is the owner/founder and the director of a company such that at least 20 people work for you. Now, all of a sudden, you don't have a voice. I think this is more or less equivalent to what happened to Ruben. Well, maybe not, but my point is when I was watching the film, I was already watching as a person who witnessed what I described above happen to someone in real life. So I feel like I can decide if the film's events were realistic or not. I also want to point out that Ruben went deaf, but he still had his voice to complain about it.
Now, this is going to be repetitive but, "a musician losing the ability to hear". These filmmakers cannot be the first people in the history of cinema to have come up with this idea. I mean it is not that difficult. I didn't search it but I cannot believe it if there are no other films which had the same setting. Why did humanity had to wait until 2019 to make such a film? It really doesn't make sense to me.
It looks like this film received several awards including a best editing award. I think the editing of the film is good but it really looks to me like they earned this award only because they were just better than the other ones' that year.
In the end, I am glad this film was made and that I have seen it. It definitely was not a loss of time to watch it.
I give 7.5/10.
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