Sound of Freedom
Sound of Freedom is a 2023 American action film directed and co-written by Alejandro Monteverde, and stars Jim Caviezel, Mira Sorvino, and Bill Camp. Caviezel plays Tim Ballard, a former government agent who embarks on a mission to rescue children from sex traffickers in Colombia. It is produced by Eduardo Verástegui, who also plays a role in the film.
The film was released on July 4, 2023, by Angel Studios and grossed over $49 million worldwide.
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 77% based on 31 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on five critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an "A+" grade, a standard for faith-based titles.
Variety's Owen Gleiberman gave the film a positive review, writing, "Let's assume that, like me, you're not a right-wing fundamentalist conspiracy theorist looking for a dark, faith-based suspense film to see over the holiday weekend. (The movie opens July 3.) Even then, you needn't hold extreme beliefs to experience Sound of Freedom as a compelling movie that shines an authentic light on one of the crucial criminal horrors of our time, one that Hollywood has mostly shied away from." Film Threat's Alan Ng also recommended the film: "Sound of Freedom is almost as if you're listening to Tim Ballard tell his incredible story of rescuing children and having it dramatized onscreen. It's heartfelt, informative, and inspiring."
Rolling Stone's Miles Klee gave a more critical review, writing, "Sound of Freedom is a stomach-turning experience, fetishizing the torture of its child victims and lingering over lush preludes to their sexual abuse. At times I had the uncomfortable sense that I might be arrested myself just for sitting through it ... To know thousands of adults will absorb ... this vigilante fever dream, and come away thinking themselves better informed on a hidden civilizational crisis ... well, it's profoundly depressing. Worse still, they'll want to spread the word."
RogerEbert.com's Nick Allen was also negative: "Sound of Freedom is a solemn, drawn-out bore with a not particularly bold narrative stance—caring about the safety of children is roughly the easiest cause for any remotely decent human being... But while being so committed to such solemnity and suffering, the truncated storytelling by co-writers Monteverde and Rod Barr neglects to flesh out its ideas or characters or add any more intensity to Ballard's slow-slow-slow burn search for two kids in particular (Lucás Ávila's Miguel and Cristal Aparicio's Rocío) whose faces haunt him."
Slate's Sam Adams said in his review that the movie appears to be "a straightforward search-and-rescue thriller, in which Ballard, a special agent at the Department of Homeland Security, goes rogue to free a young girl from the clutches of a Colombian sex-trafficking ring. But it arrived in theaters surrounded by a cloud of innuendo put forth by its star and its noisiest right-wing supporters—conspiratorial insinuations about who doesn’t want this story to be told and what real-world traffickers are really up to."
The movie has been subjected to significant criticism by the mainstream media.
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