Sound and Fury

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.

I just couldn't stop the tears when I saw the reaction of the 9-month-old child hearing for the first time, after the implant. I just started crying, moved by the simple act of a child reacting to the mother's call for the first time ever. Marvellous!

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.

Moving, emotionally and morally complex documentary about a family with both hearing and deaf members, including two sets of parents of deaf children. One set of parents are hearing, the other deaf themselves. The fathers are brothers.

The hearing parents want a cochlear implant for their deaf baby, angering and alienating the deaf relatives who see the operation as a threat to deaf culture. The even more complex story is that of the 5 year old deaf daughter of the deaf parents. The little girl wants the implant, and that creates an awful emotional dilemma for the parents who have to question whether denying their daughter the operation is the right thing to do.

There are a few minor annoyances. The families try to act like the camera isn't there, but it clearly is awkwardly affecting their behavior. Also, I wish the film had subtitled the sign language, rather than having less-than-great actors give their own inflection and emotional interpretation to what'™s being said, which may or may not be accurate.

But these are minor problems for a film that tackles a complex issue with intelligence and even-handedness.

Every so often, a movie comes along which disturbs me -- not because it is graphical or offensive in nature, but because it is genuinely upsetting to watch. This is one such movie.

And these are the movies I value highest, because they cause you to *think* -- whereas most movies intend to produce the exactly opposite effect. Although I would not describe this movie as leaving one with a warm fuzzy feeling afterward, I will say that I am better for having watched it. It was a powerful reminder of the real danger that ignorance and pride pose to each of us in this world -- a danger that, both ironically and fittingly, we may never come to realize because of circumstances outside of our control.