# Sound and Fury (2000)

### reviewed by
Harvey S. Karten

    SOUND AND FURY

     Reviewed by Harvey Karten
     Artistic License
     Director: Josh Aronson
     Writer:  --
     Cast: Chris, Mary, Peter, Christopher and Emily Artinian;
    Pater, Nita, Heather, Timothy and C.J. Artinian; others

In "Macbeth" Act V, Shakespeare says that "life...is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing." Josh Aronson's documentary, by analogy, is full of sound and fury but signifies...literally. "Sound and Fury," which gets its name from the Shakespearean quote, is about the controversy aroused by a fairly new technique known as cochlear implants--which can enable deaf people to hear. For some characters in this picture, signifying, i.e. sign language, replaces sound, while for others who want to hold on to this form of communication and their opponents alike, fury reigns. Aronson's documentary, which deals not so much with the technical aspects of cochlear implants, focuses strongly on the emotional frenzy that this fairly new technique has engendered and is the sort of documentary that the "talking-heads" school of filmmakers should copy. Avoiding the procedure used by most documentarians, an approach that embraces a deadly-dull series of interviews, Aronson pumps us the drama by having his subjects actively engage each other in what is a virtual knock-down, drag-out battle over an issue that most of us had probably never before considered to be controversial.

That issue is this: imagine that you and your wife have been deaf since birth. You have a baby daughter who is also born deaf and whom you support with a good job with a Wall Street firm. While you get along with your fellow executives who are all hearing people, outside of work you have socialized almost exclusively with deaf people with whom you communicate by sign language. You have no idea what "music" means, you appreciate the beauty of a rainstorm though you do not hear the pitter-patter of the drops or even the loud claps of thunder. Essentially you are part of--and cherish--an entire culture separate from the hearing majority. You precocious daughter has picked up sign language and seems happy enough.

Along comes a new technology, the cochlear implant, which is a device implanted with invasive surgery into the hearing canal and which can restore with reasonable accuracy your child's ability to hear and, with the help of intensive speech therapy, to speak normally. Would you spring for the surgery if you had the money and wanted only the best for your child?

Sounds like a no-brainer, doesn't it? Handicapped kid restored to the healthy world through a miraculous device? Not at all. The fury of two parents in particular, Peter Artinian and his wife Nita, will expose you to a subject that you never would imagine to be controversial. Peter does not want his five-year-old daughter Heather to have the operation. Why? Is it because he feels that the device implanted in the ear with a correlative contraption hanging outside will make her look freakish? Is it because he fears that the operation will be unsuccessful and could somehow damange Heather even further? Not at all. Peter actually embraces his condition-- which he obviously does not consider a handicap. He argues, usually vociferously if that's the word we can use with one who does not hear or speak, that he is part of a valuable culture that he does not want his daughter to lose. When Peter's mother argues that her granddaughter should indeed undergo the surgery, virtually calling her own son a child abuser, Peter is shocked. He had not known that his own mother refuses to accept deafness as a feature to be embraced rather than treated as a woeful handicap.

Complementing the sound and fury of Peter and his mother is the story of Peter's hearing brother, Chris, whose little boy has been born deaf. Chris wants his infant son to undergo the surgery and he is supported strongly by his wife, Emily. Aronson opens up his film to bring in an array of people from outside the extended family, including members of an excellent school for the deaf in Maryland (where Peter, Nita and Heather are going to move so that they can immerse themselves totally into the culture of the deaf), doctors and support personnel in the field of otolaryngology, and an expanded community of deaf people who eschew changing their ways.

The documentary is awesome not only because Aronson bypasses the usual talking-heads syndrome but because he follows these people around and makes their regular argumentation seem to be actually happening as though they were not acting in front of a camera. He even captures part of an actual operation that took place on Chris's infant. And when a documentary makes a spectator want to jump out of his seat and throw tomatoes at some of the performers, you know that the film maker has captured the imagination of the audience. I sat in my seat dumbfounded and appalled at this huge Luddite of a man who would veto this miraculous surgery for his gifted daughter (and brainwash her into liking her present, deaf condition) knowing that this is not the kind of decision that the kid should make later when she is of age. The operation simply cannot wait that long. Only when the hospital can implant the device on a very young child does it work well. Wait until adulthood and you will have perhaps a 20% success rate, furnishing patients who will be able to hear only muffled sound. This guy Peter in my mind is analogous to a Jehovah's witness who denies his infant a blood transfusion that would save his life.

I can understand perfectly the view of a Chinese-American parent who fears that his son is becoming too Americanized-- that the kid will refuse to speak or even learn Chinese, will eschew garlic shrimp in black bean sauce in favor of a bland McDonald cheeseburger, and will become as undisciplined as the hoods in his local public school. But I cannot for the life of me fathom the concept that it's not only good to be deaf but that given the opportunity to give your son or daughter the power to hear, you would deny this technology to your loved one. When those who oppose Peter and Nita's decision are given time to express their views, I felt like leaping up in my seat and shouting, "Hear, Hear!" Ultimately the emotions that Aronson evokes in his audience are what make this film a must-hear.

Not Rated. Running time: 80 minutes. (C) 2000 by Harvey Karten, film_critic@compuserve.com

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