The Sound of Freedom (2023): 4/5 A Solid, Emotionally Wrenching Thriller about the Sex Slave Industry
For many parents, The Sound of Freedom is a parent’s worse nightmare. The way children are kidnapped and sold on the black market. It’s terrible and sickening thing to write about and portray in a true way. Produced by Angel Studios, after Disney owned the film, and blocked it from being released, bought it from Disney, almost given away, basically. The worst thing is going into a film expecting the worst and being pleasantly surprised. Director Alejandro Gomez Monteverde, whose Bella won the top prize at Toronto Film Festival in 2006. His other film credit in 2015, Little Boy, was the code name for the Atom Bomb in Hiroshima. Jim Caviezel, whose most notably known for Terrance Malick’s The Thin Red Line (1996), The Count of Monte Cristo (2002), and Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (2004), are when Caviezel was at the peak of his physical beauty. But the way an actor prepares for a role or at least finds another role is what makes the filmmaking process in the film itself.
The world of sex trafficking is more popular now than it was when it was legal in the United States. The film, based off Tim Ballards years of freeing child from sex rings, is heavy handed at times but it is trying to prove a point, without being too obsessive. It doesn’t show the children being raped, which is nice, but somehow still dread inducing. A scene where the children yelling through a fan air vent while they are being shipped on a container is probably as powerful as any rape scene could offer. The claustrophobia really creates that paranoia and fear the young children could feel.
Tim Ballard, or Timeoteo, to one boy, is charged with finding his younger sister who got separated from her brother. Teaming up with an ex cartel member, who buys trafficked kids, immediately releasing them, helps Tim Ballard move toward his ultimate goal. Finding a forced labor camp, pretending to be a doctor, and he finds the young girl, before she is about to be raped, and kills the guerrilla fighter. Tim Ballard and the girl escape narrowly and brings her back home. Only to be changed forever.
At times, it did pull on my emotions. And it worked, as there was no dry eye in the theater. I know I had to run outside just to catch my breath when the film was over. Sitting out there in the parking lot, trying to calm myself. To me, if this were in the hands of Mel Gibson, the film might have fared better in the box office, but at least Angel Studio’s helped release it from the House of Mouse, or Walt Disney Corporation.[1] But the film to me didn’t want to go for a full R rating but the condition of the PG-13 helping a massive audience bring their children to the theater, to help spread awareness of human trafficking.
Or the way the film opens up with camera footage made me clench my fist. I wanted to write Miles Kee, who called the Sound of Freedom a “vigilante fever dream” which irks me because the film itself doesn’t go as ostentatious as it should. The violence itself is really saved for one scene, so it doesn’t constitute the “vigilante fever dream” claim as the Rolling Stone lost all credibility and talent when Hunter S. Thompson died. But the Sound of Freedom’s material was so rich that they did give all the characters as much depth but left the villains to be either so devilishly beautiful, charming, or outright ugly.
And it all worked, as much as it did. Finally, Caviezel steals the entire movie. It does show that he’s an understated leading man. Not outright like Mel Gibson, but the spiritual warrior out of a Miyazaki film. Like Prince Ashitaka, who has to do what he is compelled to do, without committing violence unless absolutely necessary. But something is necessary.
Watch the film. Don’t turn away from it. Don’t turn away from the Sound of Freedom. Watch it with an open mind and heart.
Final Analysis: 4/5
[1] Mel Gibson did publicly endorse the film, which probably helped spread the word of mouth. But also the film did generate a generous indie donor campaign that helped get the film released.
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-Louis Bruno is the author of more than 21 books, including, The Michael Project, The Michael Project: Book 2: The Lost Children of Eve, Thy Kingdom Come, The Disintegrating Bloodline Part 2: Chaos, The Data Chase, The Disintegrating Bloodline part 3: Solvè, The Disintegrating Bloodline (and the original text re-released in 2019), Apocalypse Soldier, The Data Chase, Selection: The First Book of the Life and Death Saga, and Blinking Eyes: The Second Book of the Life and Death Saga, Hierarchy of Dwindling Sheep, The City of Sand, The God of Curiosity, To the Moon and Back, The Villain Lives and The Villain Lives: The Divided Pinpoint, Come Home, Young One, City of Sand: Book 1: The Holy Terror, and The Voices Are Alive, and The City of Sand: Book 2: Jerusalem Ignited. He has a Bachelor of Arts in English from University of Phoenix. His books can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Lulu. He can be found on Gab, https://gab.com/thereallouistbruno, Minds https://www.minds.com/lbruno8063/. Instagram @lbrruno8063 and @louisbrunoofficialbook. Twitter: https://twitter.com/LouisBr88881650. He has written for the Intellectual Conservative and Ephemere. His two newest books, The City of Sand: Book 2: Jerusalem Ignited, and The Savior, the Flood, and the Beast: Three Plays are out now: https://www.amazon.com/City-Sand-Book-Jerusalem-Ignited/dp/1365979660/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1G8HAWZP73ZFO&keywords=Louis+Bruno+City+of+Sand+book+2&qid=1675772880&sprefix=louis+bruno+city+of+sand+book+2%2Caps%2C88&sr=8-1. https://www.amazon.com/Savior-Flood-Beast-Three-Plays/dp/1088120997/ref=pd_ybh_a_sccl_4/140-0249150-4265358?pd_rd_w=W5fsa&content-id=amzn1.sym.67f8cf21-ade4-4299-b433-69e404eeecf1&pf_rd_p=67f8cf21-ade4-4299-b433-69e404eeecf1&pf_rd_r=2E73RTDRBVPZEY5D77V2&pd_rd_wg=69KGI&pd_rd_r=59d8721c-bf89-4fa7-bd88-7a072004a89f&pd_rd_i=1088120997&psc=1.