The History of Sound (#726)


Yesterday I saw another movie, THE HISTORY OF SOUND, that I didn't understand and whose message I could not comprehend—if it had a message. This boring, endless two hour and 7 minute movie takes place in the early 1900s and follows the life of a young man living on a farm in the wilds of Kentucky, who has a marvelous and unique singing voice. Somehow he is discovered and receives a scholarship to the New England Conservatory of Music, where he meets a piano player playing the folk music he loves.  They bond and that night become lovers. The piano player enlists in the army when WWI starts and is sent overseas. The singer quits school and goes back to Kentucky where he is contacted by the friend, now on the faculty of the Conservatory, who invites him to join him on a school project, wandering the remote areas of Maine recording the songs of the folk singers they find on a device that uses wax rollers. They part but somehow meet again in Italy where both are employed in some aspect of music. It then gets very confusing, and you find yourself coming to the conclusion that none of what he did with his friend really happened. He learns that his friend is dead and meets the guy's wife but it doesn't clear up anything. It was beyond me and I was tired of watching so I left before the movie ended—frustrated and confused as to what this movie had to do with the history of sound or about anything else for that matter. Thumbs up by 68% of critics and 78% of audiences left me thinking I must have missed something. Not a new feeling I admit. I thought the folk music and acting were first rate, but.... 

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