This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.
It is always detrimental to see children in pain in movies. It’s even more disturbing when it is based on a true story. I knew nothing about Sound of Freedom before I saw the trailers and everyone talking about it on social media. Everyone was raving about it, so I just had to see for myself how good of a movie this actually is. It did not disappoint.
Sound of Freedom is a true story based on child sex trafficking. The story follows Tim Ballard (played by Jim Caviezel) who works in the department of Homeland Security. He spends his time tracking down and arresting child predators. This movie starts off right away with its action having Tim Ballard finding one of those people and arresting him.
Within the first 20-30 minutes of this film, the emotion already sets in. We are shown numerous videos of real-life abductions and then cut back to the storytelling of two children, in which this movie is centered around.
I did have one problem with sound of Freedom. The entire first part was very emotional but then it turned into more humor than I would have liked. This was supposed to be a serious and sincere movie and the jokes that were thrown in were somewhat unnecessary. I think a little humor is good to lighten the spirits, however they mildly overdid it. Along with the previous point, this middle third of the movie was just a little too much. The film did go back to the original feelings and by the end of the movie, I don’t think there was a dry eye in the theater.
The acting in this movie was great. Jim Caviezel is mostly known for his role in The Passion of Christ where he didn’t disappoint. Sound of Freedom is only the second movie I have seen with him in it, and I was thoroughly impressed. In most films, you can tell if the actor is truly acting or if they are trying a little too hard to act. With this particular film, I could clearly tell that he poured his heart and soul into this movie.
At the end of the movie after the first set of credits there is a “special message” that I highly recommend sticking around for. In this message, Caviezel explains the making behind the movie and you can tell that he didn’t just do this movie for the acting.
Final Thoughts
There have been a lot of controversial opinions about this movie. My opinion is that I am going to put aside everything that I hear and just focus on what this movie made me feel. This wasn’t an easy watch. There were times in this movie that my heart just dropped into my stomach. I did have my few disputes with the film but overall, it was such a powerful way to tell the story of the disgusting child sex trafficking.
