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Sound of Metal Movie Discussion

Paris Lawson's picture

        The Sound of Metal movie was very interesting to me as, like I am sure it was meant to be, I have never seen a movie like it. The sound design that revolved around how Ruben's hearing was in that moment was both interesting and informative. I think with a lot of movies about a struggle, viewers often have a hard time understanding the movie because they can't truly understand. The way this movie was made, made us understand as we experienced what Ruben was. Those scenes in his perspective were often jarring just as a viewer, not even knowing what it would be like to have that happen to your own person. 

        Another point that stuck out to me was the recovery house's leader (Joe) to not let Ruben stay. I get where he is coming from--he does have a comunnity to protect and you can obviously see that the decision he makes is a very difficult one as he has obviously come to care for Ruben in his own way, but it raised some questions for me. If someone else in the group decided to get implants because they felt that was best, but still don't see deafness as a thing to be cured, would they be allowed to stay? Or does Joe consider any implant a sign of seeing deafness as a thing to be cured? If so, then there are limitations and discriminations in their own community. It might also be different because they are dealing with recovering additic deaf adults, but I started to think about the school they work with and if they would see those kids differently. It reminded me of when we were at Sarah Novic's talk and the other presenter with her told us about how implants worked really well for her sister who had lost her hearing later in life.