Jim Caviezel as Tim Ballard in The Sound of Freedom
I first heard about the movie The Sound of Freedom about a month ago. when I interviewed James Carrick, founder of an American conservative review site called Worth it or Woke.
“That's brilliant,” he said enthusiastically, expressing surprise that this independent thriller about child trafficking, starring Jim Caviezel, The Passion of the Christ, hadn't yet caught my eye. The film's distributors, a small Christian organization called Angel Studios, have been the only company to have made any attempt to woo him since his website was launched earlier this year. Carrick gave the film a score of 97 percent, writing, “This can't be another 'conservative' film that is 'good for independent films'. It should and can be a blockbuster, but for that we all have to do something about it.”
Well, whether it's from Carrick's website or elsewhere, the call has been heard. While British moviegoers go crazy for Barbenheimer, in the United States, The Sound of Freedom is also thriving. On a meager $15 million budget, it grossed $127 million in three weeks, even surpassing Mission: Impossible last weekend. On July 4th opening day – clearly a magical date – it outperformed Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny, also in its first week of release.
In fact, it proved to be such a hit that, almost unique among “religious” films made for American Christian audiences, it was released in the UK: Last night Angel Studios announced it would be released here in September on distribution. the deal they make with individual venues. However, compared to the much-discussed “Barbenheimer Lessons”, there is relatively little speculation in the trade press about what Hollywood can take from its success.
Why? Here's where things get a little weird. The film tells the purported true story of Tim Ballard, a dedicated Mormon and self-proclaimed former Homeland Security agent (due to the nature of the job, this cannot be confirmed) who ran a series of sting operations around child trafficking both in and out of the US. However, its Mexican director and co-writer, Alejandro Monteverde, originally conceived the project as fiction, concocting the entire story after watching a documentary on the subject in 2017.
It wasn't until a few months later that an enterprising producer offered to instill Ballard as the hero, as it eased the film's transition into production and his work roughly matched the plot. (The actual value of Ballard's work in child trafficking prevention is heavily disputed, but this is hardly the first time the film has emphasized the importance of its theme.)
The film was shot in the summer. 2018 and originally planned to be distributed by 20th Century Fox's Latin American division, but during the studio's merger with Disney, the rights returned to the filmmakers, and it sat on the shelf for years until Angel Studios acquired it via crowdfunding earlier this year. year.
These dates matter. One of the main criticisms leveled at the film by its detractors is that it is a veiled confirmation of the QAnon conspiracy theory that the world is controlled by an elite cabal of famous pedophiles who synthesize the elixir of life known as adrenochrome from the blood of kidnapped children. But QAnon didn't start to take off seriously in the US until late 2018, after the movie had been made, so there's no way he was thinking with that nonsense in mind.
Mira Sorvino at the Sounds of Freedom premiere in Utah. Photo: Getty
Unfortunately, in the time it sat on the shelf before release, its lead actor has become something of a star in the QAnon movement. In 2021, Caviezel appeared via Zoom at a fake event called “Health and Freedom Conference” where he spoke about “children's adrenochromization”. And while promoting The Sound of Freedom earlier this month on an internet talk show hosted by Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump's former chief strategist, he once again delivered a monologue about “the entire adrenochromic empire” while rehearsing some of QAnon's statements while in the whole gave the impression of a deep restless soul.
Trump himself – the hero of the QAnon Brigade – urged his supporters to watch the film in an email, calling it “a very important film and a very important documentary rolled into one.” . Last week he held a show at one of his golf courses, where Caviezel and Ballard were guests of honor. Monteverde, the director, was not present.
The sheer scale of the film's success suggests that its fan base goes well beyond conspiracy-riddled lunatics to undoubtedly include many middle-aged Americans who disagree with Hollywood progressive mores and revel in having a fig-leaf of piety to justify watching the macabre. movie. thriller this time.
Scene from Sounds of Freedom
And reviews were generally lukewarm, too, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 70 percent. In the now-standard U.S. culture wars scenario, pro-Trump sites directed their readers to critics who lambasted the film, who then weathered days of social media onslaught of “you're a faggot” variation. But the idea that Sound of Freedom is telling its audience things that some shady power doesn't want you to know was eagerly picked up by Angel Studios – at least until their fingers get burned.
The film closes with a call to the audience from Caviezel, now out of character, to buy additional tickets for the film they won't be using in order to boost his credibility. “We don't have a lot of studio money to promote this movie,” Caviezel insists, “but we do have you.” Then a convenient QR code will appear on the screen.
Angel Studios declined to say how much of their ticket sales are due to this wheezing, but it created some uncertainty about how many people actually watched this apparent box office success. Bizarre seating charts in movie theaters were widely circulated online, in which tickets were bought in odd blocks, as were photos of near-empty theaters at supposedly sold-out screenings. But some film backers have interpreted this as a sign of how deep the conspiracy is: even the multiplexes don't want you to see this and are squeezing out real customers with phantom non-bookings.
@savannahlathem Go watch The Sound of Freedom NOW!🫶🏼 #soundoffre # soundoffreedommovie #christian #faith ♬ original sound – Savannah Lathem
Even more nefarious, they deliberately do a disservice to those who show up – at least according to TikTok Christian influencer Savannah Latham, who suggested in a recent post that the faulty air conditioner and poor lighting at her local AMC theater in Alabama could be part of a psych op. .
Not everyone who saw the video was convinced: “I saw John Wick and the air conditioner was off – is Keanu Reeves also involved?” one commenter joked. But after it hit 10 million views, both the chief executive of the cinema chain and the head of distribution at Angel Studios issued statements officially refuting the allegations.
In any case, British viewers will have a chance to choose a side. Friday, September 1, when The Sound of Freedom plays to a mysterious number of flesh-and-blood patrons in a movie theater somewhere near you. And remember, if The Telegraph gave it two stars or less, it's only because I'm a drooling grunt in a depraved globalist conspiracy.
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