Why Critics Are Divided over 'The History of Sound': Too Polite or Pure Masterpiece?

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The journey of translating Ben Shattuck’s short story into a feature-length World War I drama demanded an intricate recalibration of tone. Published in 2018 in The Common, Shattuck’s prose relied heavily on sensory impressions, the rasp of pine needles, the weight of a portable Edison cylinder phonograph, and the heavy, unspoken longing between two men trekking across New England. Oliver Hermanus, fresh off his acclaimed work on Living (2022), approached the material with a painterly eye, prioritizing silence over theatrical monologues.

Hermanus chose to anchor the film in the quiet spaces of rural Massachusetts and Maine. Rather than inflating the quiet, episodic nature of the original story into Hollywood melodrama, the production leans into patient pacing. Ben Shattuck himself served as the screenwriter, working closely with Hermanus to preserve the interiority of the characters. However, where an author can illuminate internal desire through reflective prose, cinema must visualize it. That transfer of interior longing onto widescreen celluloid is precisely where the divide began.