MovieChat Forums > Sound of Metal (2020) Discussion > Ruben's decision to get the surgery (spo...

Ruben's decision to get the surgery (spoilers)

posted 4 years ago by redban (6552)
2 replies | jump to latest

What are your thoughts on Ruben's decision to get the implants?

On one hand, I can see why some people say he shouldn't have done it. He had to sell off all his personal belongings, he offended Joe, he ruined his situation at the deaf community just as he was learning to settle in, and the implants offered a distorted sound.

But at the same time, I can totally understand why he'd get the operation. It's easy for an outsider to tell someone to just deal with deafness; but put yourselves in that position -- being deaf means no more music, no more vocal conversations with others, no more watching movies without subtitles, no more hanging out with your regular buddies at the bar or the mall. And what are you supposed to do about dating now? Plus, you have to spend a few years adjusting to silence and learning ASL.

I see a case for both sides. I think Ruben's best decision would've been to talk to Joe, ask for Joe's input, or at least give Joe some notice about the operation. After all -- Joe did so much. He gave Ruben a path to living happily as a deaf person, he gave him shelter & community, and Ruben never even had to pay money. Before the operation, Ruben owed Joe at least a conversation.

[–] FilmStar (408) 3 years ago

The problem was that Ruben didn't get him being deaf a chance. He was too quick to treat it like a tragedy instead of being in the stillness. And if he wasn't going to accept being deaf, he had no place in that particular rehab because it's a community for the deaf. It's not about fixing it.

[–] Jehosaphet (1063) 3 years ago

This is pretty much what I think. He at least owed Joe more than to have done it behind his back like that.
Kind of tragic that he never adapted to the stillness, but I also understand completely. What kept coming back to me as tragic, was that we have the technology to allow deaf people to hear, at least to an extent, but that it costs so much as to keep it out of reach for many of them.

It's just a little unsettling to think that a bunch of people are going through a life without sound because they don't have enough money. And if that was, at least in part, why it was so important for the people in that home to not see it as a disability. They would never be able to come up with that kind of money...it wasn't an option for them, they really had no choice. And its what ultimately made him an outlier.

I also understand why he didn't say anything...he knew what Joe's reaction was going to be, and I'm still not so sure that Joe was fair in trying to get him to give up his life's ambition and instead spend it there, with the household. At least to the degree that he seemed to take it...seemingly like some kind of personal affront when he got the operation.
I don't know, there's no easy answers here, you know? But its great cinema...or even WHY its great cinema.