Sound Of Metal: When The World Is Far Away From Your Ears

Liu Ying / Wen

On this year's Oscar nominations for best picture, "the sound of the metal" was a surprise. The virgin feature film, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, received a lot of praise when it came out. However, it was beyond the expectation of many people that it was purchased by Netflix and formally competed with the hot film "mank" to compete for the little golden man. Darryls madel is not a young director in a strict sense. As a Post-70s student, he has rich experience in the industry. The former screenwriter "out of the pine woods" and the documentary film "plunder" have achieved satisfactory results step by step. As for the sound of metal, he tried to direct fictional films for the first time, setting the challenging topic of "deafness of rock musicians", which shows his ambition.

"The sound of metal" is a film with both the author's expression and commercial nature. It has to be said that the director has demonstrated his skill in the balance of the two aspects. The story revolves around the life of drummer Reuben. He and his girlfriend form a band and tour across the United States. On the stage, they are crazy young people who express themselves with sweat and music. Unfortunately, it landed on Reuben. After a performance, he suddenly found that his hearing was impaired. The arrival of physical illness caught people by surprise. Reuben, who lives on music, is deaf. The film captures the helplessness and despair of a normal person when his body function rapidly deteriorates. With excellent sound design, the film restores the hearing impaired's perception of external sound, and gives the audience a strange sense of immersive experience. Films often "force" the audience to stand in Reuben's perspective, blurring the sound source and lowering the decibel, making the audience as deaf as they can not distinguish the sound and dialogue in the film, creating a strong sense of immersion.

Reuben's healing process is the focus of the film. In a special community for hearing-impaired people, he begins the long process of accepting the disease. In the film, Reuben is portrayed as a poor speaker with a careless personality. In many cases, he can't even organize precise language to express himself. Hearing loss makes him manic, but cochlear implants, as the ultimate solution, continue to provide hope for him. Rehabilitation institutions have provided enough space for Reuben to examine his own life, and the contact with children in the school for the deaf and dumb has also made him more calm. In the middle of the film, the rhythm is obviously slow, recording the process of his reconciliation with himself. With the help of the cochlear implant, Reuben, who has undergone surgery, can talk to his surroundings again. However, the sound from the external sources through the cochlear implant is not completely clear and perceptible, but a rustling radio wave that seems to be interfered with. The "metal" in the title of the film also refers to the changes brought about by the small metal object hearing aid to the hero.

It is worth mentioning that although Reuben and his girlfriend Louise showed their sweetness on the stage at the beginning, their feelings did not go to bloody dogs. Born in a rich family, she is willing to set foot on the road of wandering for love, but when facing the crisis of her boyfriend's life, she also takes this opportunity to recognize her own future road and the life she wants. She left Reuben to recover in the community and chose to leave. In the middle of the film, Lois disappears completely, but she completes her own growth arc outside the screen. The director portrays her as a woman who tries to find herself in the lost, and her relationship with Reuben constitutes a moving companion, rather than the endless effort of "I am willing to take my life for you". Such a real treatment makes the interaction between the two more organic, and the sparks of two independent individuals collide when the dilemma comes is particularly moving.

Reuben hopes to be able to regain his normal life through cochlear implants, but some people do not think that hearing loss is abnormal. They refuse to use hearing aids in daily life and accept the communication of sign language and lip language. The sound of metal also expresses the different attitudes of hearing-impaired people towards their own disabilities from the perspective of the hero. In this regard, the film has more profound social significance.

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