The Sound of Freedom finally came out on the week of the 4th of July and has garnered high numbers at the box office, surpassing even the new Indiana Jones movie in the opening weekend.
The movie is very Catholic themed as it stars the actor who played Jesus Christ in The Passion of the Christ, Jim Caviezel, a very practicing Catholic who even speaks Jesus's first language, Aramaic, in addition to many other very Catholic stars, such as producer Eduardo Verástegui, and director Alejandro Gómez Monteverde.
The story follows the path of Tim Ballard, a former US Special Agent in the Department of Homeland Security on the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
After working in the US Government for 12 years, he left to start his own US based anti-trafficking non-profit organization called Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.).
Without giving away too much of the movie, the story line follows Tim Ballard's transition from a US Government employee to his founding of the O.U.R.
A specific case really convinced him to create his own task force that could deal with the intricacies of international child trafficking in ways national governments often cannot.
This case is what the Sound of Freedom explores.
The movie is quite powerful and very emotionally charged, as the audience finds itself rooting for children and adults in the most dangerous positions one can think of.
It is not necessarily a movie good for children to watch, yet it does a great job of keeping the video content clean. The reason it is not kid-friendly is because the topic is so grave, that one must really be prepared for the ultimate horror that does fall upon some very unlucky children.
But, the story is a must watch, nonetheless, because the topic is way too important to ignore.
Similar to the movie series Taken, the Sound of Freedom opens the movie goer's eyes to the fact that our world has some very dark parts to it.
While sitting in the dark can often help you sleep at night, it creates obliviousness that would be better used as alertness so you can help out the oppressed around you.
Similar to how teachers and really all adults are required to alert authorities when they feel a child is being endangered, the Sound of Freedom alerts the viewer to the fact that we often ignore trafficking around us, and how we must do better by seeing and helping out the most vulnerable.
As such, O.U.R. and Tim Ballard have been working with the US Government in forming more transnational task forces at stopping child trafficking.
And now, Tim Ballard and the cast invite you to join their noble goals by watching the Sound of Freedom.
As for the criticism you may read about, it is understandable why people may have these views. But, it appears most of the criticism is due to the political and religious beliefs of some of the key people in the film, rather than the film itself. And if people were to boycott films for this reason, no one would ever see a movie. So, do not let the criticism keep you from seeing a very important movie.
Cole Kinder is a recent graduate of UCLA in political science with a focus on international relations. He has written one book, Foreign Policy in 4 Hours, Afghanistan 2021, and has written many articles on various websites such as Crisis Magazine. Cole Kinder specializes in international relations, domestic politics, religious studies (Catholicism), Slavic studies, sports, as well as geography.
