Sound and Fury

I have been involved with the Deaf world for about 20 years and when I saw this film I was deeply moved, but not the way most of the viewers who commented were. I see the Deaf world as a minority and this film, though showing that Deaf Culture is precious to Deaf people, seemed to leave that part out. If we had a pill that would turn African Americans or other racial groups white, would we want them to take it so their lives would be made easier? I don't think so. It is the same with Deaf people. They do not see themselves as handicapped. They can do everything that hearing people can do, except hear. It is we, the hearing community, not the Deaf themselves, that limit them. With the CI, not one mentioned that that boy would be limited in the choices he would be able to make in school, that he would not be able to participate in sports for the most part. That choice was taken away from him. I have seen this before and I have seen how hurt the deaf boy was. So hurt in fact that he stopped using the CI and entered the Deaf world while he was still in high school. But it was too late for him to experience basketball, football, swimming, baseball. He could only sit on the sidelines and watch as his friends, both deaf and hearing, played. As with the deaf girl with the CI in the deaf family, her speech was not that clear, but the deaf father said that her grandmother said it was perfect. How ironic. Do you think the hearing children she played with thought so?

It also did not talk about the dangers of the CI surgery. It is brain surgery and it is seldom that the dangers of infections to the brain and the resulting consequences are spoken of. It didn't talk of the paralysis that sometimes occurs or the fact that it might not work. The surgeon told the parents that their son would hear. He didn't tell them any negatives. Personally, I would not want to have surgery until I could understand all of the ramifications and risks involved.

I felt that this film leaned heavily on the promotion of CI surgery as a cure-all for deafness. It left many issues untouched. The Deaf parents were called abusive by several of the people in the film. I don't see it as abuse. They were willing to allow their child to make the decision at a later date. The girl was learning language, it just wasn't spoken. The CI by it's very nature turns a deaf child away from the culture by emphasizing speech and hearing and de-emphasizing sign language. The hearing mother of the deaf son was making sure that it would be difficult for her son to communicate with her Deaf parents. She is content to take from the Deaf world as an interpreter, but she is also willing to insult it when her own child is born deaf. The film was interesting, but it did not come close to looking at many of the important issues of the Deaf World and CI.

If your child were born with a disability which medical technology could cure, would you use it? Stupid question, you might say. But it might depend on your definition of "disability" and your environment.

SOUND AND FURY deals with the questions raised by the development of cochlear implants which can restore hearing for those with congenital deafness. Very few (if any) people in the hearing world would think this to be a bad thing, but within the deaf community some see this as encroaching technology which will eventually obliterate deaf culture and sign language.

This is one of the best documentaries I've seen in some time - partly because it really made me think (reminding me of the statement 'If you make people think they're thinking - they'll love you. If you *really* make them think, they'll hate you.')

I didn't feel hate - but I experienced some very strong emotions. Not nearly as much as those on screen, though. I was exposed to a situation in which I didn't think there could be more than one side - and was brought to the realization that there was. A very provocative film.

There was a forum after the screening of the film I attended with Josh Aronson (the director), a local pediatric surgeon who's done a number of implants, the mother of a young girl who'd had an implant operation by this surgeon, and a person from the Theatre for the Deaf in the area. I was best able to appreciate the feeling of some of those in the deaf community when the theatre director made an analogy to the Borg in STAR TREK (I paraphrase): A lot of people in the deaf community see cochlear implants like the Borg - instead of going through the eye, the implants go through the skull by the ear. It seems like hearing society is saying to the deaf society "You will be assimilated - resistance is futile."

How important is deaf culture? Whose responsibility is it to choose whether a child should get an implant? To delay and "let the child make the choice later" can very much be like choosing no, as the window for brain plasticity for language narrows with every passing year. Are parents who don't get an implant for their child, thereby keeping them in the deaf community "abusive"?

An interesting film raising intriguing questions.

I am currently living with a deaf step sister and her deaf boyfriend. I have heard many times from my step mother that her daughter wanted to have a deaf child. I know that this may sound selfish, but there is reason behind it. She wanted to be able to connect with her child on the same level, the same way a hearing person would not wish to have a deaf child, there is something missing there.

When I saw this movie, I was able to see both sides of the story, it was very touching to me personally. I thought that it was so interesting the way everyone's values were in different places. This is such a good movie and it really portrays the dynamic of living in deaf household.

If you ever thought about how many ways people can be different, you should really watch this movie.

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more; it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

MacBeth, v. iii.

Sound and fury is as robust a movie as I can recall having ever seen. It speaks heartily of life and of the dilemmas and difficult decisions we all face. It confronts modernity and the extinction of culture. This film speaks of decisions made that are incomprehensible to other members of the same family. It speaks of steps that are superficially modest but whose consequences are mammoth. These are the decisions that we make daily and may eventually destroy human life on this rock. Sound and fury asks each of us in a soft voice if we are part of the problem or the solution. It is a moving picture.

I really enjoy documentaries, especially ones that don't have an axe to grind. Though I have no particular interest in the "deaf culture" (my exposure has been limited to a bunch of deaf folks who are in a dart league at the local sports pub), I was drawn into this documentary.

Like another reviewer noted, I found myself getting a little emotional at the end. In fact, throughout the movie I was emotionally involved with a subject matter I would never thought I would.

I was struck by the elitist nature of a certain element of the deaf community. Many of the deaf people in the film were extremely antagonistic toward anything that would remove deafness or a deaf person from their community. While this is understandable, I found it extremely selfish. Not only were many in complete denial that deafness inhibited their quality of life whatsoever (are we still allowed to use the word handicapped???), some considered it superior to the "hearing world." I noted with irony that many of the deaf family members at the picnic who were so repulsed by the idea of a cocklear implant were wearing glasses; obviously they considered being born with or having deteriorating eyesight something in need of fixing. Their attitude reminded me of other defensive groups such as un(der)educated parents (hey, I did OK, why does my son need to go to college) or racial minorities (oh, you just want to make her "white").

Even without the controversial subject of the cocklear implant this is a great study in generations as it is the old story of parents either wanting their kids (adult kids) wanting them to either be like them or to have it better than they had it.