You know how the Fast & Furious movies are made for “bros who love
cars”? Like really really LOVE cars? This is that but for American
Christians who obsessively fantasize about becoming vigilantes, traveling to
South America and saving brown children from traffickers. For how distasteful I
believe the movie actually becomes, I must say that Sound of Freedom had one
hell of a marketing campaign.
Synopsis: Former American government agent becomes a
vigilante, traveling to South America on a quest to rescue children from
traffickers.
It’s PG-13 and thankfully doesn’t show anything “explicit”, but
what it does contain are countless protracted sequences displaying the lead up
to child harm, knowing that’s what their audiences came to see. These sequences
are filmed in an excessively lecherous manner that doesn’t progress the story
one bit (directed by Alejandro Monteverde). If you are familiar with the term
torture porn, then Sound of Freedom contains that, but in faith-based
form.
On a technical level it’s not the worst movie ever. Sure, there are heavy
white savior vibes. And sure, the characters are all made easily digestible,
but that simply stems from a lazy script from Monteverde and Rod Barr.
Final Thought: Jim Caviezel also gives a shockingly stiff
performance, which doesn’t help things one bit. That said, Monteverde is
talented enough to get audiences from point A to point B. I simply couldn’t get
past the lingering and leering of specific sequences. In conjunction with the
subject matter, these directorial choices felt exploitative. I understand that
the subject of child trafficking is heavy, but the way this is filmed is
definitely by design.
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