Title – Sound of Freedom (2023)

Director – Alejandro Monteverde (Bella) 

Cast – Jim Caviezel, Mira Sorvino, Bill Camp

Plot – The true story of former government agent turned vigilante Tim Ballard (Caviezel), who dedicated his life to rescuing children who had been abducted as part of depraved sex trafficking rings. 

“Break the silence. Save the children”

Review by Eddie on 30/08/2023

In my time as a movie fan I can’t recall any surprise success story quite like the one Sound of Freedom has achieved seemingly out of the blue during its release in 2023. 

A film that sat on the shelf completed for more than 5 years only to be bought back by its filmmakers and sold to a studio that had previously only released one feature film in cinemas, that Freedom even managed to escape its shelf life and streaming destiny is a story in itself but it has also gone on to become a box office hit that out grossed the newest Mission Impossible and last Indiana Jones film at the American ticket booths, an outcome that surely even the most educated of film experts could never have predicted. 

One could spend hours combing through the other aspects of the behind the scenes stories of Alejandro Monteverde’s feature, one that tells partially true elements of the real life story of American government agent turned vigilante Tim Ballard but with all the headlining rumours and innuendo centred around the film, the core question of is the film itself any good? Is one that needs to be answered and thankfully this film with an important (if here often heavy handed) message is a solid thriller that while embellishing many aspects of Ballard’s life and work still manages to be a thrilling, eye-opening and horrific exploration of a topic many of us ignore, through ignorance or choice. 

Here played by the undoubtedly unhinged Jim Caviezel (Ballard’s personal choice for the role), Freedom follows Ballard from his work in the United States to a dangerous journey to the heart of the human trafficking world in Columbia where his personal quest to rescue a young girl from the depraved world of child sex trafficking and slavery leads him on a journey into the heart of darkness that Ballard intends to shine a light on and stop in any way he can manage. 

Teaming up with Bill Camp’s ex-criminal Vampiro, the supporting actor once more stealing the show and delivering one of the films most intense and well written scenes in one particularly memorable sequence, Ballard and his off-siders quest to take matters into their own hands is undeniably gripping and considering the intense subject matter and often taboo topics Freedom is dealing with, it does a fine job of managing to be horrific and incendiary without ever over stepping the boundaries and while the films script and delivery is sometimes on the nose, it’s hard to be too concerned about that when you realise how important it is for a story like this to be told, in anyway, shape or form. 

Losing its way a little in a final act that feels like an attempt to appeal to more of a mass market angle and take on more of a typical Hollywood thriller vibe, much of Freedom’s quieter moments and human focused elements are the ones many will recall, making this a little film that could, a rare example of a feature seemingly set to come and disappear only to have found itself the exact type of large-scale audience it could’ve only dreamed of reaching. 

Final Say – 

Dealing with a heavy topic in variety of ways both successful and unsuccessful in parts, Sound of Freedom is an undeniably powerful expose of a current global problem that deserves to be in the spotlight in a major way in hopes the world will do more for those that can’t. 

4 drums out of 5