By Owen Toomey –
Sound of Freedom, the call-to-action thriller about a Homeland Security officer who went rogue and busted sex traffickers in Colombia, ended up among the top 10 grossing films for 2023.
The faith-friendly movie that was rejected by major studios (Disney shelved it, saying it didn’t align with its values) even beat Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
“It’s very important that we protect our children, but not (just) American children or Mexican children,” said Director Alejandro Monteverde on NBC. “Children should be a world heritage because it will have a ripple effect. If a child gets abused in Russia or in Haiti, eventually that pain will travel.”
Sound of Freedom exposed how sex trafficking syndicates scourge the world, kidnapping children and renting and selling them to rich perverts. It was the stuff of Epstein Island, but the far-left media associated the film with a Q-Anon conspiracy theory and recommended people avoid it. The Los Angeles Times and New York Times embargoed the story.
According to Box Office Mojo, Sound of Freedom grossed $250 million against a budget of $14.5 million. It stars Jim Caviezel in the role of Tim Ballard, the ex-Homeland Security agent that saved 200 kids (the movie depicted 54 kids getting saved) from a “sex island” off the coast of Columbia.
The movie compressed time frames and heightened the drama of certain scenes. For example, Ballard didn’t go into the jungle to single-handedly kill a guerrilla chief to free a sex slave.
“Some things are definitely overreported,” Ballard said on FaithIt. “[Jim Caviezel] makes me look way cooler than I am. I promise. But some things are underreported, like we didn’t rescue 54 kids on that island operation. We rescued over 120.”
The feature got a 99% approval rating from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, but only 57% from critics.
Sound of Freedom was completed in 2018 but was dropped after Twentieth Century Fox was acquired by Disney. Subsequently, the filmmakers bought the distribution rights back from Disney.
In 2023, Angel Studios acquired the worldwide distribution rights, and used equity crowdfunding to raise the funds needed to distribute and market the film. Seven thousand people invested, allowing Angel to meet its $5 million goal in two weeks, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Director Monteverde said he feared being kidnapped everyday as a child in Mexico. When he read about child trafficking later as an adult, he was deeply moved and wanted to bring light to the issue through cinema.
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About the writer of this article: Owen Toomey studies at Lighthouse Christian Academy near Beverly Hills, CA.
