There’s self-righteous and then there’s SELF-RIGHTEOUS. In Sound of Freedom, Jim Caviezel plays a character who is so self-righteous, his titular character in The Passion of the Christ would look at him and say, “wow, is that guy self-righteous.” For a man who don’t emote much, subtlety sure ain’t Jim Caviezel’s strong suit.
Sound if Freedom is about the sex trafficking of minors. It is based on a true story of an American agent for Homeland Security so incensed by the kidnap and selling of minors for sexual purposes that he decided to do something about it, throwing caution, job, and his own family to the wind. “What if this was your child?” is a question the film frequently asks. And it’s not wrong. It shouldn’t matter whose child was stolen and sold into sexual slavery; this should be an outrage for every.single.person on the planet, bar none. Contrary to despicable RW propaganda, there is no “pro sex trafficking” lobby or group with any political power whatsoever.
Speaking of which, had this film been political, it would have rated zero stars. Luckily, the film focused entirely on the problem at hand, which meant it just came off as sickeningly preachy rather than severely misguided.
In Honduras, a brother and sister are promised modeling careers. When dad (José Zúñiga) comes to pick them up, the whole operation has disappeared and the children are on a boat to South America. That is next-level messed up.
Meanwhile in the US, Agent Tim Ballard (Caviezel) arrests child pornographers. Frustrated that he never saves any of the children, only capturing the adults, he goes undercover posing as exactly the kind of slimeball he puts away. With dedication and time, he is able to rescue one of the Honduran children. Woohoo! Right?
“Oh, the problem is bigger. Ok, how much bigger? Ummm, have we got budget for that? Have we got people for that? Have we got jurisdiction for that?”
The answers: 1. Imagine your living room v. Yankee Stadium (and that might be underselling it). 2. No. 3. No. 4. No.
So Ballard says, “Screw it.” Telling himself that if it were his own child, he wouldn’t ever give up, he abandons his own children to play Central American White Savior in an effort to save enough children to populate maybe 10% of the Yankee Stadium infield. I’m not saying this isn’t a worthwhile goal, but you could at least be a little conflicted 
about going undercover in Columbia for several months while your own children during that time might, I dunno, need a father figure, huh Officer Ballard? No?
Sound of Freedom is a tough film to watch from a couple angles: First, it’s hard to enjoy any subject matter that involves the exploitation of children, and children don’t get more exploited than this. Second, the material is presented in completely black & white terms. I don’t know that it shouldn’t be, but I got to an odd place in the narrative where I wanted Ballard to succeed without actually being successful. It’s hard to describe. I sure as heck wanted the kids to come home, but almost as surely, I wanted to see Ballard get beaten up a little. How often are you going to play Jesus Christ, Jim?
There’s a very small leap from white saviorism to white supremacy, which also made the subject matter problematic. No one doubts that Central America has issues, but is the solution for an army of their white neighbors to come in and save the day time and time again? You know we’re not exactly the pinnacle of morality, nation-wise, right? And even if we were … well, suffice to say this is a subject where I hope we all can root for the correct outcome … and the fact that the film is occasionally exciting and easy to get behind plot-wise makes me shrug and offer a tepid a thumbs up. I’m not pleased with our hero and I’m not pleased about the air of self-righteous smug that accompanies this piece of “art,” but it’s impossible not to root for the metaphorical Sound of Freedom, no matter how poorly it’s displayed.
Tim Ballard never stopped to ask, “Why?”
His heart told him that he forever must try
So full of unending self-right
To take on the world, he might
Jesus Christ, get a load of this guy
Rated PG-13, 131 Minutes
Director: Alejandro Monteverde
Writer: Rod Barr, Alejandro Monteverde
Genre: Self-righteous self-righteousing
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: People that don’t want to see a tween get sex-trafficked. I hope that’s all of us, y’know?
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Sex traffickers
