Sound and Fury

Sound and Fury is a documentary that made me actually think about how I treat people, and how I view others that are different from myself.  It is not all that often that you watch a movie and it makes you question your ethics or moral compass.  This documentary did that for me.  Sound and Fury addresses the issue of cochlear implants (a listening device that allows deaf people to hear).  I was unaware of the controversy surrounding this implant and the deaf community.  I was unaware of what is addressed in the movie as “deaf culture”.  This documentary does a good job presenting the arguments of both sides without taking a stance on one side or the other.  It follows one family that has multiple deaf and hearing parents and multiple deaf children in the family.  In the two families the fathers of the children are brothers.  They both have young deaf children, and both have to make the decision whether or not to implant their children with a cochlear listening device.  You follow their decision making process, see family fighting over decisions made, and get conflicting opinions from different sets of grandparents.  I think this movie challenges you to think about the respect you give to different cultures and possibly reexamine how you may view cultures that are not your own.

            In my life I have not had much interaction with deaf people.  I think I could probably sign the alphabet, but would have a hard time communicating to a deaf person due to my limited signing and terrible spelling.   My initial reaction to this documentary was that of most hearing people, “If someone can’t hear, and you have the ability to make them hearing, then do the surgery to fix their disability.”  One of the Dads in the movie says something that stuck with me to really question my thoughts on the subject.  He talks about how he doesn’t think that deafness is a disability.  He says that he has his own language and own culture.  Much of his communication comes from the beauty of signing.  His inability to hear makes him more perceptive to the actions of others. 

            I started to question my initial reaction when I thought what the major argument is for making a deaf person hearing, and then thinking about what would the reaction be if we were to apply that to other cultures. 

-       It would make their lives easier if we implanted them because they could then hear and talk like everyone else.  If there were a pill that we could give all non-white people in America and then they would turn white like the majority of America they would be more like everyone else and would not have to deal with racism.  But the thought of this seems appalling, racist, and would be compared by many to a form of genocide on other races.  Many people argue that “deaf culture” is just like any races culture, not with where you are born or to whom you are born but how you are born.  If every deaf child were implanted it would effectively eradicate “deaf culture”.

The question that it raised for me was the notion of “fixing” someone who was not like the majority of others. Does the fact that someone is different from the majority mean that they need to be fixed to be like the majority? Carrying that notion that we must make others assimilate to the majority only breeds hatred and resentment for those who hold on to the things that make them uniquely who they are.     

            Here is the crazy part about all of this.  If I had a child born today that was deaf, I have no idea whether or not I would give them a cochlear implant.   I did not walk away from the movie with a clear cut decision on my choice for my family, I only walked away with a new respect for other cultures and how I view values held dear to those cultures.   I think when hearing parents have deaf children they get put into a position where they must address how much, if any, of the deaf culture they want to bring into the child’s life.  I think this is very much like parents who adopt children from other cultures.  It is not as though the family will completely change their own culture to the origin of the child, but how much of the child’s original culture do they embrace, teach, and encourage.   These types of situations are deeply personal to the families, but not issues that can go ignored.

            Sound and Fury made me look at the notion that differences are not things that need to be “fixed”, but merely things we should try to understand. 

Hands on a Hard Body

           

           Most people can think to a song or album that grabbed hold of them and had such an impact on them that it was integral in shaping their musical taste.  Hands on a Hard Body was that type of movie for me.  Hands on a Hard Body is the movie that is responsible for making me want to see other documentaries.  The story line is so simplistic yet so full of cinema gold.  The title makes it sound dirty yet nothing could be considered dirty in this movie.  The documentary centers around a contest held in Longview, Texas, where a car dealership has selected contestants place their hands on a new Nissan Truck and the last one to take their hand off the truck wins the truck.  There is no sitting, no sleeping, and no resting on the truck, just standing beside the truck with your hand on it as long as you can.  One slip up and you are out.  The contest doesn’t make the movie, the characters that are on the truck and the relationships between them as the competition goes on is what makes this movie magic.  As lack of sleep sets in they begin to go crazier and crazier.  The combination of east Texas country bumpkins, early 90s hair, and quite frankly lack of teeth on some of the characters will make anyone finish watching the movie and say to them selves, “My life is not that bad.”  It is currently out of print but I believe you can find used copies on Amazon.

            The joy of this movie is to watch the craziness unfold.  I can think to two times in my life when I have had the opportunity to profit off a challenge, and they take place about 8 years apart from each other but involve the exact same people in my life.  My senior year in college my fraternity brothers were preparing to go on our Fall Break road trip to watch Baylor play Colorado and the caravan of guys going on this road trip were meeting at the house I shared with 3 of my best friends.  We were waiting out in front of our house for a couple of guys who had not yet shown up, when one of my fraternity brothers makes the claim, “Rhodes I’ll give you a dollar if you try to jump that hammock.”  We had a broken hammock strung between 2 trees in our front yard at the time.  My reply to him was, “Not for a dollar.”  That response prompted several other guys to claim they would pitch in a dollar to see me jump the hammock.  At this point I am getting encouragement and prodding and a nice little pool of money to give me the courage that I can do this.  I can jump a hammock that is 4 feet wide and about a foot and a half off the ground.  I assess the hammock to come up with my best option of making the jump. Upon seeing how the hammock hangs it looks like my best bet is to jump from the side that is in the grassy area and land on the side that is on our pea gravel drive way.  I seem to remember that by this time my name is being chanted and my courage level is at an all time high.  I take a running start at the hammock and jump.  I am looking at my goal of the ground on the other side of the hammock.  I realize that I have the height to make this jump and then I look down at my feet, and when I see my foot I notice the front of my foot has some of the broken piece of hammock wrapped around it.  In the air in a split second my thoughts go from, “ ha ha suckers you thought I wouldn’t make it, to OH  CRAP this is going to hurt.”  Right as I would have been clearing the other side of the hammock ready to land cleanly that piece of hammock wrapped around my foot causes the front side of the hammock to sling forward throwing me from an upright position to a flat on my face position in our drive way.  I have never hit the ground so hard in my life. As I got up you could see an indention of my body in the pea gravel driveway like I was Wiley Coyote falling from a cliff hitting the ground and leaving a coyote shape hole in the ground.  Although I did not succeed in jumping the hammock cleanly, and I am reminded of the hammock jump every time I see the guys who were there, I made 8 dollars and got a picture of the moment when I realized I was in for some pain.

          8 years later my buddies decided to get together to hangout over the Christmas break.  We were sitting around when one of the guys throws out they would give me $20 to shave my head.  My hair is worth so much more to me than $20 dollars.  My reply again, was not “No” but, “Not for $20.”  Other people there saw an opportunity to see what it would take for me to do it.  I kept saying no, no, no until the dollar amount hit about $250.  I had to then ask myself, is there ever another time that I will be able to make $250 in just a few minutes? So I agreed to take $250 in exchange for being their spectacle of entertainment for the evening. 

 I still think that I made the right decision, but I did get weird looks from people for about 4 weeks and had to field questions from people at work, like “Are you in chemotherapy?”.  I also realized I have an ugly shaped head with a ridge down the middle of it that makes my skull look like it has grown into a faux-hawk.  I love Hands on a Hard Body for so many reasons but ultimately I think I have a soft spot for people who are willing to compete for the entertainment of others even if failing means you fall on your face.

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King of Kong: A Fist Full of Quarters

     King of Kong: A Fist Full of Quarters is one of my favorite documentaries of all time.  If someone was new to the documentary game, and I wanted to ease them into this genre that many times gets labled as boring, slow, and pretentious, I would start them off with this gem of a documentary.  Much has been written about this documentary and many people call it an incredible underdog story that rivals that of Rocky, Rudy, or at least Cool Runnings.

   

     I don’t contest any of those reviews but I am not here to regurgitate many of the things written about the movie when it debuted in 2007.  I bonded with this movie over an issue with the main character (Steve Wiebe) that is only spoken in undertones through the movie.  Steve struggles to “have it all”.  He struggles to become the very best at something while living the life of loving father and devoted husband.  My job gives me the opportunity to actually compete with people around the DFW region, the great state of Texas, and the Nation.  I am a hyper-competitive person and do not like losing.  In my quest to try to coach the best speakers and debaters in the country my job takes a tremendous amount of time.  My kids are competing 22 weekends a year and we have after school practice 3 times a week. This schedule on top of work is huge time commitment.  That time commitment can often trade off with time spent with my family.  I know the inner drive that Steve has to be the best, to work his hardest for something, go to battle, and reach the goal of being in an elite category.  That story we are told as little kids that says hard work, drive, and determination is all it takes to achieve your goal gets a quick in the teeth.  When in Steve’s case he is in the middle of setting a world record at Donkey Kong and his son who is under 4 at the time needs some attention and needs his dad to, “wipe [his] butt”.  I don’t want a different life and would not give up my family for anything.  I would just like to find that magic balance that allows me to do both.  As I was watching this documentary it hit me the amount of time Steve spends in his garage playing Donkey Kong.  One game at his level is going to take around 2 ½ hours.  If he gets in 2 games a night that is 5 hours of hard core focused Kong time on top of work, kids and family.  I empathize with that inner desire to be the best at something and have recognition from your peers.  I understand the struggle to want to be a great dad and loving husband, all wile working for a goal that only a small minority recognize as significant.  In this movie Steve Wiebe truly is the every man character who’s problems mimic my own and make this an amazing documentary for everyone. 

   

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