Why I Want to Watch Sound of Metal in Theaters Again, and Why I Can’t
I was itching to go back to the movies. I hadn’t been since watching Tenet in September. On Thursday, April 22nd, I parked the bus I drive for work, hopped in my car. I had a show to catch, and the last one was only 15 minutes after I got off work. I had to make it in time for trailers, too, of course. I sped to the movie theaters, parked the car, darted out, “Wait, my mask!” Back to the car again. “One ticket to Sound of Metal, please.”
The trailers weren’t a disappointment at all. They included the trailer for James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, the trailer to the Saw spin-off with Chris Rock. The trailer I was most excited about was for A Quiet Place Part II. I had seen the trailer a while back when they were advertising the original release date last year, but something about watching it in theaters made it more real. That something was the sound design. The crispness of the audio sent shivers down my spine as it reminded me of the terror and sensational experience of watching the first film in theaters. With its flawless sound design, the first A Quiet Place movie was a film that audience members needed to experience in theaters. I bring this up because if I were to review Sound of Metal, I could sum up my entire opinion of the film by saying the same thing.
Audience members need to watch Sound of Metal in theaters. Shot on 35 mm film, Sound of Metal offers a movie with an aesthetic level that moviegoers can’t find in films shot on digital. Beyond the beautiful visuals, the film immersed the audience with its sound design by putting them in the point of view of the main character, Ruben Stone, as he loses his hearing. I need to note Riz Ahmed’s performance as Ruben Stone and the performances of his supporting cast. Between the breath-taking cinematography, the sensational sound design, and Riz Ahmed’s incredible performance, along with that of his supporting cast, Sound of Metal is an immersive film that viewers can’t truly experience unless they watch it in theaters.
Director of Photography Daniel Bouquet shot Sound of Metal on 35mm film. The decision to shoot on film was a decision also made by John Krasinski and Cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen when producing A Quiet Place. Christensen shot Fences and Far from the Madding Crowd on film. She kept that tradition with A Quiet Place even though it would be easier to shoot on digital because of the VFX and the fact that a lot of the scenes took place outside at night. In an interview with FILMMAKER magazine, Christensen explained that it didn’t feel like the VFX supervisors preferred whether she shot the movie on digital or film (Mulcahey, 2018). She also said, “Every single reference that John had for the look of the movie was shot on film: Jaws, No Country for Old Men, There Will be Blood, Let the Right One In (Mulcahey, 2018).”
Going back to Sound of Metal, in an interview with Slashfilm.com, Sound of Metal’s director, Darius Marder, shut down the notion that shooting with film is more expensive. He said, “Shooting digital is expensive. When you’re shooting digital, you can shoot and shoot and shoot and shoot. What does that mean? Overtime. There’s nothing more expensive on a film set than overtime (Giroux, 2020).” If we were to move on to another area of the Film vs. Digital debate and talk about aesthetics, A Quiet Place and Sound of Metal are two movies that put those arguments to rest.
More sensational than the aesthetics are the sound design. Not long into the movie, it was clear that watching this in theaters was the right choice. The dialogue is perfectly mixed with the ambient noises and folly. It was clear from the beginning that the sound design was a strength in this film. Then Ruben starts to lose his hearing, and the audience loses it with him. Sound of Metal uses aesthetics, audio, and subtitles (yes, subtitles) to take the audience on a journey that they may or may not have experienced the likes of before. Since watching this film, the movie has won the Oscars for Best Film Editing and the new category, Best Sound. This new category combines the old categories Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing. A Quiet Place won Best Sound Editing in 2019.
As I said earlier, I need to note Riz Ahmed’s performance and that of his supporting cast. Though the sound design and editing are the greatest strengths of this film, the acting in the movie is some of the best I’ve seen on the big screen. Riz Ahmed’s performance primarily served the visual storytelling of the film. Any close-up of Ahmed showed the audience exactly what he was feeling, and the audience felt it with him. If the aesthetics, editing, and sound design took the audience on this immersive journey, it was the performances that were the cherry on top which made the audience genuinely feel as if they were experiencing Ruben’s story. If there were areas of Sound of Metal that were stronger than A Quiet Place, the performances would be one of them. I’m not knocking on the acting of Krasinski, Blunt, Simmonds, and Jupe. They did remarkably. I am saying that The Sound of Metal did a better job utilizing the performances in a way that fast-paced story-driven films like A Quiet Place aren’t capable of doing. Yes, A Quiet Place wasn’t as fast-paced as, say, an Avengers movie, and it did break free from the blockbuster norms in that it cut down the dialogue, but the pacing was more catered toward an everyday audience. It didn’t have the drawn-out reaction shots that Sound of Metal had. There’s a beautiful scene where Ruben’s love interest Lou is singing in front of her guests. It’s a lovely moment, but then the music becomes garbled. We, the audience, start hearing what Ruben hears. The camera pulls in to Ruben, and his face tells an entire story. We can see Ruben’s pain; we can imagine his discoveries, thoughts, and feelings at the moment. The shot is a painting in and of itself. Aside from the intimate moment where Krasinski and Blunt dance to Harvest Moon, there weren’t many drawn-out moments in A Quiet Place. But that’s completely understandable; A Quiet Place was for a wider audience. They can’t get away with drawn-out reaction shots. The everyday audience would get bored.
Let me be clear though, A Quiet Place and Sound of Metal are both flawless films. They have both made my list of favorite movies. I would never say I like one over the other. However, I think that Sound of Metal affected me on a deeper, more personal, and spiritual level than a movie about aliens or monsters could. I think A Quiet Place has a beautiful theme surrounding family. The Sound of Metal felt more natural, and I learned more about myself by watching it.
There’s a scene that’s utterly silent for an extended period in Sound of Metal. It’s a beautiful scene that ties up the theme of the film. I bring this up because I said it’s a flawless film, but I do have a complaint, not in the movie but the venue. During this extended period of silence, I could hear the movie next door. It was a great venue, but I had to accept that many movies were going on at the same time. After watching it in theaters, I decided to find a smaller theater to watch it to get that perfect experience. A great plan, but it’s a shame that Sound of Metal never came back to theaters.
The showing I caught after work three Thursdays ago was the last, not the last of the day but the last of the theater run in the Salt Lake area where I live. After watching the movie and falling in love with it, I was pretty confident that I’d have an opportunity to watch it again in theaters because the Oscars were that weekend. The Academy nominated the film for multiple awards. Oscar films typically do another theater run after the ceremony, or at least that’s what I thought. When calling the worker at the Cineplex, he explained that Amazon Prime owns the rights to Sound of Metal, and the theater is reserving the second Oscar theater run for only the best picture winner, Nomadland. Looking at showtimes throughout the area, I found that this is accurate across the board. The only two Oscar films that theaters were playing were Nomadland and The Father. Perhaps, they’re showing The Father based on the controversy of the ceremony, but there’s no need to discuss that. I am disappointed, though, that Nomadland is the film that’s playing across the Salt Lake area out of the winners and nominees.
Best Picture winners should be the best of the best. It should be films that are well-crafted and inspiring. I don’t want to discuss my reasons for not watching Nomadland and why I don’t think a film like Nomadland should win Best picture. All I’ll say is that I’ve been disappointed in the Academy’s last three picks for Best Picture. The last time I agreed with their pick was The Green Book in 2019, though I thought A Quiet Place could have just as easily won. Both were my favorite movies from that year. Sound of Metal should have won that award for this year. Sound of Metal should be the film that’s getting a second Oscar run and playing everywhere. Instead, it got only a few showings to be qualified for the Oscars, and then it played in select theaters for a week before the ceremony. It’s a shame that the only way for audience members to experience Marder’s message of finding stillness can be through a small screen and a subscription through Amazon. On a brighter note, A Quiet Place Part II is coming to theaters on May 28th.
Mulcahey, M. (2018, April 20). “A Very Old Fashioned Kind of Filmmaking”: DP Charlotte Bruus Christensen on Shooting A Quiet Place on 35mm. Filmmaker. https://filmmakermagazine.com/105175-a-very-old-fashioned-kind-of-filmmaking-dp-charlotte-bruus-christensen-on-a-quiet-place-on-35mm/#.YJbwILVKjIU
Giroux, J. (2020, December 4). ‘Sound of Metal’ Director Darius Marder Shot on 35mm Because It’s “My Goddamn Movie” [Interview]. /Film. https://www.slashfilm.com/sound-of-metal-director-interview/
