Based on a true story and independently made, Sound of Freedom has raked in over $100 million. That’s an incredible feat considering its main competition is the new Indiana Jones movie that was released at the same time. This film is a must-see and is an eye-opener about the child sex trafficking trade in the U.S. and all over the world. Let’s dig in!
The film begins when a former beauty queen approaches a poor father of two children, a boy (Miguel) and a girl (Rocio), to become models. He drops them off, but when he comes back to pick them up, they are gone and the crew has vanished. He learns that they have been kidnapped to become sex slaves. Tim Ballard is introduced to the film as a Homeland Security Investigations agent who works specifically with those who produce and distribute child pornography. Ballard realizes that he arrests the pedophiles, but never saves any children because they are outside the U.S. He begins to gain the trust of an arrested predator by posing as a predator himself and is led to the man who has purchased Miguel. He is able to save Miguel at the border and learns that his sister is still in captivity but does not know where she is. Ballard travels to Cartegena, Columbia to investigate the whereabouts of the missing child.
Jim Caviezel takes on the role of Timothy Ballard, the courageous agent that takes on the child trafficking industry. Mira Sorvino plays his wife who is only seen in a few scenes. Bill Camp plays the character Vampiro, who has connections to the cartels and has made a choice to purchase children as sex slaves and then release them. Other familiar faces appear in this movie that some of the audience would recognize. Although their roles are minor, their characters are nonetheless important to the progression of the plot.
Work on the script began in 2015 and filming was completed in 2018. Distribution of the film was initially a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox, but Walt Disney purchased the company and shelved the film. The filmmakers somehow repurchased the film rights from Disney and found another distributor, Angel Films. The film received a release date of July 4, 2023. Angel Films had to raise the money on their own to distribute the film and miraculously raised the required amount in 2 days from 7,000 investors. They wanted the public to see this film so badly that they offered free tickets to anyone who wanted to see it but could not afford it.
This is a must-see film! It is an eye-opener about child sex and slave trafficking. Even though I went to see the film a few days after the opening date, the movie theater only showed it on one of the smaller screens. It was a packed theater that night. The interesting thing is that one could hear a pin drop in that theater. There was no crunching of popcorn, no one getting up and down, no talking or whispering, no rattling of seats or paper; it was quiet. I have only experienced this one other time in my lifetime and that was the film adaptation of Les Miserables, starring Hugh Jackman. Sound of Freedom gets a 5 out of 5 stars in my book. Stay to the ending credits for a special message from Jim Caviezel.
