Educational Media Reviews Online

Excessive noise is increasingly present in the world around us. The documentary Sound and Fury highlights the physical and psychological toll that noise exacts from us and documents how it is being dealt with in several different locales in the US, Canada, and England as residents, activists, and noise control officers attempt to control and regulate noise levels in their communities. A major message of Sound and Fury, and one which inspires the video's title, is that unwanted noise provokes anxiety, frustration, sleeplessness, anger, aggression, and in extreme cases, homicidal acts in those subjected to it against their wills. Another important message of the video is that we must take action to bring noise levels under control.

Sound and Fury exposes viewers to the lives and situations of several residents struggling with uncontrolled noise, and interviews members of community organizations committed to regulating noise levels in their neighborhoods. The video crew also follows several noise control officers as they walk their nocturnal beats in an effort to reduce the noise created by party-goers, bars, and unruly neighbors.

Sound and Fury is well produced and makes effective use of narration, interview segments, and sound. The use of captioning to provide factoids and statistics about noise is also notable, and integrates well with other video techniques. The makers of Sound and Fury have devised a clever and highly effective means of getting their message heard. In place of a soundtrack, the viewer (or shall I say listener) is exposed to an unrelenting stream of noise which at times drowns out the voices of those being interviewed. The documentary begins by subjecting its audience to the sounds that typically accompany our morning routines - the blare of the alarm clock, the buzz of the electric razor, the incessant whine of the coffee grinder, and the howl of the household dog. The sounds are introduced in rapid succession, and as the noise builds, the audience is quickly ushered into the deafening roar of the outside world of mass transportation and urban road construction. My only reservation about the video is that this technique may be too effective - I found myself lowering the volume several times, as the noise began to annoy me.

Sound and Fury is appropriate for students from grades 7 to 12 as well as for adults, and would enhance the video collections of public, school, and college libraries. Recommended.