Sound of Freedom – REVIEW

Be warned. The subject matter of Sound of Freedom is not pleasant. It’s not a movie that will put smiles on faces or have audiences vowing to come back for encore viewings. However it’s a movie that serves as a cautionary tale – a movie that everyone, especially parents with younger children should put on their must see list.

Fictionalised but based on  true events, it’s the story of an American Government agent turned vigilante named Timothy Ballard, who spent the past 12 years catching paedophiles and rescuing young children who had been taken and sold into child slavery. The movie highlights his incredible dedication, sometimes even risking his own life.

Becoming emotionally attached to a particular case, he promises a young boy he has rescued that he will find his 11 year old sister who was also stolen. He heroically goes into the rebel territory in Columbia, an area which the police and the army would never enter. He tells his superior who initially wouldn’t allow him to go on this mission, “This job tears you apart and this is my one chance to put all the pieces back together again.”

The opening credits set the mood, as disturbing real life black and white footage of young children being stolen are played over and over again, images that may stay with audiences long after leaving the cinema. The path of the story is quickly set in the incredibly realistic and unsettling opening sequence that shows the ploys utilized by child traffickers to trick parents into ‘voluntarily’ handing over their children.

“God’s children are not for sale – it’s a messed up world we live in,” emotionally states one of the characters as crimes against children are discussed at length in a pivotal scene. There will be tears. The emotional intensity increases as the story builds. Audiences should be lured into the story immediately, driven by an excellent script and the arresting performance by Jim Caviezel who portrays Timothy Ballard with much sentiment. A special mention must also be made of the tear inducing performances delivered by Cristal Aparicio and Lucas Avila who play the roles of the two young siblings.

The musical score is extremely important in this movie, heightening the cinematic experience. Audiences will be on an emotional rollercoaster, feeling anger, hatred, sadness and ultimately relief at what transpires. There is a sign of hope and a beacon of light in the bittersweet conclusion.

Sound of Freedom spreads awareness. Child pornography is the fastest growing crime network that the world has seen. A piece of dialogue that highlights why it’s even bigger than the drug trade is most disturbing; “A bag of cocaine you can only sell once – but you can sell a five year old 5 to 10 times a day for 10 years straight…”.

This may be a soul destroying movie for the most sensitive of movie goers, but ultimately it’s triumphant, knowing that there are people like Timothy Ballard who devote their lives in finding these stolen children and changing laws relating to child trafficking.

People unfortunately don’t want to talk about this universal issue – it may be too ugly for polite conversation. Forget Barbie and Oppenheimer. The real hero lies in Sound of Freedom.

★★★★1/2

In Cinemas August 24