2021 Oscars Winner: The Sound of Metal
As anticipated, in this new edition of the Oscars, both categories (Best Edition and Best Sound) were unified, and The Sound of Metal has been the first film to be awarded for both in the Covid era. This film makes us reflect not only for its peculiar technical aspects but for the meanings to which it leads us, since it awakens several questions regarding the concept of "sound" itself, from its distortion and absolute absence.
Spoiler alert: various events of the movie plot will be discussed here.
The movie is about the story of Ruben Stone, a punk-metal drummer who faces the nightmare of any musician, metalhead, and music lover: losing his/her hearing and facing the consequences derived from that. Like the lessons Beethoven's life teaches us (both moral and technical) about music, this film dives deep into the concept of sound and its antonym, to the point that tons of people have wondered in forums why the title of this film is the one we already know and not Simon & Garfunkel’s famous song The Sound of Silence.
The film begins with a brief exposition of Ruben’s daily life and his girlfriend, living a "gypsy life," touring America in their RV. The first few minutes of the film show Ruben as a man who is solid in his lifestyle, disciplined, willful. Later on, we learn of his drug addiction and his idyllic rock n' roll life along with his girlfriend as his lifeline, a shelter guarding him against chaos. And then, the catastrophic event that sets things in motion: sudden deafness, a point of no return that transforms Ruben's life forever, visually represented when he smashes a donut with his fist in a fit of rage, picking up later the pieces to resemble what it was before.
In the beginning, and, in a masterful way, silence appears as a terrifying element. Riz Ahmed's extraordinary performance, Darius Marder's direction, as well as the interplay of noise and silence, make it possible to experience a desperate terror at the idea of silence. From that point on, we find ourselves in a film with no music, no soundtrack, with silent dialogues, interpreted by characters communicating in sign language. However, two elements begin to take on singular importance. The first one is sound as a landscape: those innumerable but crucial sonic details that accompany every second of our lives, and which, unfortunately, we take for granted every day (as evidenced by John Cage's controversial composition 4'33;) Sounds that we desperately search for when they are gone. The murmur of the drops of coffee in the pot, the passing of the wind through the trees, not to mention our favorite song, or the voice of the people we love. To this extent, the film highlights the importance of sound in composing our reality, and, indirectly, the relevance of sound industry professionals, such as Enhanced Media, who work so hard to keep alive the soundscapes of everyday life.
The second thing that silence highlights in the film is what a deaf conversation looks and sounds like to those who can listen, as well as how a conversation without sound looks from the point of view of someone who has recently lost their hearing. The way human communication finds ways to flow in the midst of absolute silence, as well as the noise that disturbs it when we have learned to experience serenity within the lack of sound.
But, in addition to the human approach of the film, and the proactivity of the main character, one of the elements that ultimately won this work an Oscar, is distortion. The imperfect sound, the buzzing, and dirt that Ruben manages to perceive after getting the money that finally allows him to afford a cochlear implant operation. Ruben realizes that he is no longer the same, that he can no longer listen to music as he did before, and that playing the drums is no longer an option. To be able to show the audience how a distorted and unacceptable sound is perceived, very much like a reflection in a broken mirror, is a technical achievement that only someone who does know enough about sound design and editing can achieve. Someone who does know all the possible sound problems in a musical production.
The film is not really about music, is about a quest for peace. As Joe (played by Paul Raci) affirms during an amazing dialogue, silence is, somehow, the Kingdom of Heaven. The movie is not a band flick, a rock n’ roll movie. It is a hero's journey that leads a broken man to reconcile with silence thanks to the loud ringing of church bells. Undoubtedly, a sublime moment in the history of cinema from now on.
*The images used on this post are taken from Pexels.com