Sound of Freedom (2023) (2024)

Popular reviews

• Review by Connor McGinnis ½ 1.5K

  First, I would like to provide some context. I was working at my local theater when this film came out, and was very surprised to see that it had sold out two showings, something very rare to happen in our smaller theater. Was perplexed me even more was people’s reaction to the film. They way people were walking out of the theater, you’d think it were one of the Schindler’s list viewings for Holocaust survivors rather than a conservative Christian action film. I have never seen so many mortified old white people in my life. Later that shift, I cleaned that theater and saw that the film was endorsed by the Department of Homeland Security. This set me off. I…

• Review by Brett Arnold ★★ 4

  A movie about reuniting stolen children with their families, brought to you by the people who gleefully supported separating immigrant families at the border.

  Splits the difference between QAnon bait and regular flavor right-wing Christian “conservative cinema.” Exploitation movie filtered through the church doesn’t hit right but the bigger issue is all the boring cliches

  Disingenuous in several different ways but I like that people think it’s well-meaning and important instead of a misleading sensationalized grift lining people’s pockets and doing fuck all to stop trafficking but these folks have a tough time with reality

• Review by the sam(ta clause) ★★★★ 126

  So...

  first I'm going to talk about how I feel about the film and then I'm going to talk about how I feel about the controversy surrounding it.

  People are severely misinterpreting this film (somebody told me I should lead with that)

  
  THE FILM

  
  So the film's pretty great. I'm not going to lie and say it was perfect, the script leaves a bit to be desired here and there and the direction can be a bit off at times, but where this movie shines strong it shines strong enough to overshadow its rough edges for me.

  This is the first film that I've seen starring Jim Caviezel, and, honestly, I need to see more from him. He's a pretty…

• Review by save cats ★★★★★ 1

  Letterboxd when they see a Roman Polanski (child rapist) movie:
  🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

  Letterboxd when they see a movie about a man who arrested child rapists:
  😡😡😡😡😡😡😡

• Review by Brother Bro ★★½ 154

  This was fine. I'm glad a film shines a light on this topic, and I hope it sparks legislation to protect victims of such crimes and crack down on the perpetrators.

  Unfortunately the film is overdramatized and averse to nuance. Child trafficking is not just stealing screaming children. It's more often manipulating and exploiting teenagers in a grooming process, often by a person close to you, which isn't depicted here because the audience... wouldn't be sophisticated enough to understand that that is still abuse? Or maybe because it was more concerned with Ballard looking like a badass hero slinging little girls over his shoulder? I'm not sure.

  But um... are people alright out there? Seeing the discourse online I'm afraid…

• Review by Trayvon Apasta 7

  The “special message” after the credits is probably the weirdest call-to-action I’ve ever seen.

  Help stop human trafficking by… buying more tickets to this movie?? Okay bud.

• Review by lisan alex gaib ½ 12

  Instead of watching this QAnon version of a human trafficking thriller, read thisor this for a nice summary!

  Seriously though, this movie cares more about promoting itself (or rather, asking you to promote it for them lmao) and making the questionable Tim Ballard into a Christ-like hero than the actual issue at hand. And on top of that, it’s a legitimatelycrummy narrative feature too.

  TW: Why did they feel the need to insert actual footage of real children being kidnapped as part of the title sequence? So distasteful and unnecessary. I don’t blame all the people that left during this or at any other point of the film tbh.

• Review by Double Deanz ½ 127

  The holy trinity: Q-Anon, Christian mission trips, and white savior complexes.

  The woman next to me would not stop talking about “how scary Mexicans are”……… the movie takes place in Colombia. Her phone also went off a couple times and it only bothered me bc it was an Android notification.

  I CALLED IT FIRST: Tim Ballard will inspire a black mirror episode:
  slate.com/human-interest/2021/05/sex-trafficking-raid-operation-underground-railroad.html

• Review by Pablo Honey ★★★★ 13

  I don't care about culture war fights or conspiracy theories, i just think we all should come together and support a film that is propaganda against human trafficking and child p*rn*graphy. Because any person with a little amount of decency would be against stuff like that, doesn't matter if the people behind it are left, right or moderate. I personally would want to see this type of conversation go mainstream more often.

• Review by Aidan ½ 223

  Conservative, Christian, QAnon, Trump bootlicking propaganda garbage.

  First off, let me clarify that I am against child trafficking. Any sane person with a functioning brain would be. The fact that dumbasses are calling people pedophiles if they don’t like the movie, and/or refuse to see it is fucking dumb. Im glad that we are getting more awareness of this issue, but this movie is not the way to do it.

  For one, the real person that this film is based on Tim Ballard, is an evangelical QAnon nut conspiracy theorist. Not only that, but Jim Caviezel, the guy portraying Ballard, is the same way. Ballard is also a man who allegedly has completely fabricated or straight up lied about the…

• Review by Tyler Whitmore ★ 68

  Obviously, the most controversial movie of 2023 is going to be a tough one to review, whether you rate it high or low, you will piss off 50% of the population regardless. All I will say is that whoever you are reading this, if you want to go see this movie, please educate yourself and do some external research, and don't just eat this up hook, line, and sinker.

  First off, child trafficking is a horrible, heinous crime that needs to be investigated, eradicated, and prosecuted to the highest degree. That much is obvious and I absolutely support the effort to bring justice to the assailants and to save all the children possible.

  Sound of Freedom, purely as a movie…

• Review by Sergio Muñoz Esquer ★½ 27

  A pesar de tocar un tema tan importante y del que se debe hablar más, Sound of Fredom termina siendo una película de “white-savior” tan tibia, sobre cómo los gringos irán a países tercermundistas a hacerse los héroes pero sin resolver nada.

  Un gran problema de la película es su protagonista, un personaje que es bueno, benevolente y todo le sale bien. Literalmente es Jim Caviezel reinterpretando a Jesús. Jamás se siente que la película desafíe al personaje, y se vuelve aburrida porque ya sabes que todo estará bien.

  Si tengo que mencionar algo bueno de la película es Bill Camp. Y no solo su actuación, sino también su personaje, el cual es mil veces más interesante que el principal.…