To Hear Or Not To Hear

After watching this film I felt like I learned a lot. I had always thought that my viewpoint coming into the subject of cochlear implants was obviously the right choice. Why wouldn’t anyone want this procedure done to him or her if it meant the difference between being deaf and hearing? But after the movie had concluded I was forced to reevaluate my stance. I don’t know a thing about being deaf or what its like to live around deaf people, I don’t even know anybody that is deaf. Because of this, I realized that it would be extremely narrow minded of me to think about it soley from my personal point of view and this movie opened my eyes to how the other side lives.

In the documentary, Sound and Fury, the little girl Heather wanted to get a cochlear device so that she could be like her hearing friends. Because Heather’s mother and father are both deaf this lead to some family between the deaf parents and the hearing grandparents. Personally I think it should be up to the parents of the child to decide whether or not to have a surgical procedure as serious as a cochlear implant. Parents like the ones that Heather had, obviously cared for her and believed that they were doing the right thing for their daughter. They didn’t want her to lose the knowledge and ability to connect with the deaf community. They didn’t believe that it was going to be possible to effectively live in both the hearing and deaf world at the same time. That does not mean however, that they were completely right in their decision of not getting the implant.

The grandparents of Heather had some really good points on why it would be the right thing to get the implant. They believed that by not giving her this option it would severely limit her abilities to succeed in the world. They also brought up the point that it wouldn’t be fair to make this choice for Heather, it should be her choice since it is effecting her future.

In conclusion I think that despite both sides having strong points for their arguments I agree with the parents of Heather. I think it’s impossible to know exactly what it is like to live in the deaf community. Since Heather is still at such a young age, her parents have her best interests in mind and that is what matters the most.

A Different Perspective

In just the first few minutes of the 1979 movie, Apocalypse Now, there were many filming techniques used to portray a variety of messages. In one such scene there is a wide-angle image of a tree line being incinerated by napalm. Soon this image is overlapped another scene, a close-up, with a shirtless man staring into the camera. The man’s eyes are blank, as if he is thinking, remembering whatever atrocities he has experienced in Vietnam. I found that this particular scene to be very interesting because I believe that what the director was trying to show that these soldiers could never be free of what they had seen. Whether it was a beautiful palm tree being burnt to ashes or finding a comrade dead, the experiences stuck. The second scene that I found to be intriguing occurred shortly after the on I have just described.

 As the scene has just completely transitioned to the man’s face, staring into the camera. There is an overlapping scene of close ups of the various items surrounding the man on his bed and nightstand: an empty liquor bottle, a handgun, some cigarettes and a lighter to name a few. These images accompanied with the man’s empty stare, evoke the idea that this man is struggling with depression or some sort of post-traumatic stress syndrome. The director also employs sound effects to drive home a point. When the camera view changes from the man’s face to the ceiling fan above. The sounds produced by the fan are easily distinguishable as the chopping blades of a Huey helicopter. Wherever this man looks the sights and sounds of the war remain imbedded in his memory.