The Sound Of Metal -- An Inevitable Path From Restlessness To Stillness

The sound of metal is a profound story about a man discovering the beauty of stillness.

The film opens with the sound of ominous, melancholic sound feedback as a shirtless, intense Reuben -- played by Riz Ahmed -- focuses on what he must do next. The crowd roars and his hands rhythmically swing and batter the drums. To those unfamiliar to metal, the scene is uncomfortable and bewildering. To fans of the genre, the performance is euphoric and spiritual.

In this intro we sample only a fragment of what Reuben must have been doing nearly day and day out for many years. The loud noise is soon replaced with muffled ones. Muffled noises are replaced with distant noises. Distant noises are then replaced with the absence of noise -- silence and only clues of sound, felt through vibrations in the physical world.

Reuben rages at his circumstances. We learn he's an addict and this information turns up the suspense even more for the audience. He calls his 12 step sponsor and with the help of his girlfriend, Lou, who mediates the call like a tragic and desperate translator Reuben learns of a community for his deafness. At the encouragement of his sponsor and the insistence of his girlfriend he visits this community.

At this community for the deaf, Reuben learns more than sign language. What I love about the sound of metal is how delicately it interweaves meaning with the material details of the characters. Reuben is a drummer in a metal band. However these details are trivial to the overall meaning of the film. In fact we barely know the name of the community of the deaf -- all we know that it is a charitable community devoted to one cause: to help deaf folks learn that deafness is not a disability and life is rich in joy and happiness as a deaf person.

Reuben at first protests his participation in this community for the deaf on the grounds that he will not accept church charity, which would be the financial means that floats his time there. He's a metal artist -- anti religion, anti capitalism, anti conformity, anti-anti. Still these details about who he is through the lens of the metal genre are unimportant. What the film makes important are thankfully the important things: a man's confrontation with loss and the grieving process he invariably enters.

Reuben scoffs at the stern but gentle guidance of the head counselor for the community of the deaf. As this man starts to initiate Reuben into his community, Reuben struggles to accept his loss of hearing. Reuben refusal to accept this loss tugs at the tear ducts of the audience. Reuben is a tormented soul already fighting the disease of addiction. He has one joy in life: his drums. The loss of his hearing is tantamount to the loss of life as he has loved it all his life. This loss, like the heavy weight of steal, is almost too difficult to bear. We as the audience worry that he'll take his own life because this weight is too heavy for him to continue on living.

After many classes, many assignments from his senior counselor and many moving scenes with children at a school for the deaf, Reuben seems to have accepted his loss of hearing and appears to have made a glorious comeback into showing up for life. He's also developed a strong bond with the founding counselor of the community. This counselor asks reuben to stay permanently to support the community and asks reuben to think about this offer.

Still the euphoric sounds of metal cling to his consciousness. Despite all his progress in accepting his new life as a member of the deaf, he decides to pay for a very expensive surgery (40-80 thousand dollars) to restore the healing he has lost. He has to sell his drum set, his RV and everything in between.

What I love about the sound of metal is the deeply spiritual and moral messages of the film. As reuben returns to his community after his expensive surgery he informs his senior counselor of his decision to reclaim the hearing he lost. The senior counselor wishes him sincerely that the surgery brings Reuben the happiness he wants. Reuben then pushes his luck asking the senior counselor for a loan to get back what he sold.

The senior counselor says he's not able to loan him the money and that Reuben at this moment sounds like an addict. He further informs him that the community he made here is founded on the principle that deafness is not a handicap. People here need each other to be deaf and accept their deafness. Reuben's decision to not accept his deafness and reclaim his hearing violates the principles that help people heal in this community. Because the community's survival requires each member to accept their deafness the senior counselor with tears in his eyes and visibly shaken has to ask Reuben to pack up his things and leave. Just like the loss of his hearing, he has lost his community of the deaf. Just as he can not return to the community of the hearing, his surgery has made his opportunity to return to this community of the deaf irretrievable.

This scene poetically illustrates the tension that people have in balancing the needs of the individual against the needs of a group. A lot of us are accustomed to poisonous group dynamics and the idea of sacrificing our individuality to the group sounds asphyxiating, cruel and wrong. However in this instance we see how the individual does not have a blank check when it comes to their behavior and the decisions they make as it relates to the group to which they belong. If and when those decisions undermine the clear purpose of the group this behavior is considered intolerable because it threatens the survival of the community. In other words the survival of the group is necessary for the survival of the individual. The rule that the senior counselor enforces is clear, sobering and profoundly ethical.

With reuben's surgery complete he heads out to Paris to reunite with his girlfriend Lou. What he finds in Paris is humbling. He learns that his new hearing, which is scientifically generated is a far cry from what native human sounds feel like. His auditory abilities allow him to hear sound interwoven with a caustic, static high pitched rattling. His girlfriend, Lou, has moved on. She hasn't learned sign language and she hasn't written often to him as she promised. His fantasy of returning to his former relationship and his former life of as a roaming band of metal gypsies is a mirage -- seaming perceptible but ultimately unreal.

As he wanders the streets of Paris with his ear piece blaring what feels like alien sounds into human ears, Reuben sits in a beautiful Plaza. He hears the clanging cacophony of church bells tolling -- this sound of metal. He removes his ear piece. This is his Outro -- silence. He focuses on the children playing with the skate board, gazes at the sun breaching the branches stretched across the magnificent blue sky and he feels the rhythmic soothing vibrations of human life in the Plaza surrounding him.

While sitting still in humble acceptance of his new life on this bench in silence he realizes he does not need this contorted, desperate grasp of his previous life. He sees differently now. He's found an eternal summer in his bleakest winter. In silence, he has found stillness -- the kingdom of God.

Dear Pasta Lovers -- the Sound of Metal pairs excellently with Spaghetti alla Nerano. As you cook this dish, savor the smells of sizzling zuchhini and prepare yourself for a heavenly mouthful of noodles, zuchini, provolone and parmesan cheese.