Rolling Stone Has a Total Meltdown as 'Sound of Freedom' Film Continues to Destroy Expectations

 From The Federalist Papers:

The Rolling Stone review of the independent thriller, “Sound of Freedom,” violated the very first rule of any good review: objectivity. Because the author, Miles Klee (keep this name in mind when Bart Simpson is mentioned later) makes it very clear that he hates everything about this movie — the movie itself, its fans, its star (“Passion of the Christ” star Jim Caviezel), and its entire underlying messaging that child sex-trafficking is a scourge on this planet. The title of the article, “‘Sound Of Freedom’ Is a Superhero Movie for Dads With Brainworms,” pretty much sets the tone for the whole thing. For the unaware: “Sound of Freedom” is a dramatized biopic depicting the real-life adventures of Tim Ballard, head of the anti-sex trafficking nonprofit Operation Underground Railroad.

The movie has been an unmitigated success by any metric. Deadline pegs the movie to make $37.2 million at the box office by the weekend’s end, despite being in fewer than 3,000 theaters across the country (“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” which “Sound of Freedom” shockingly beat head-to-head on July 4, was in 4,600 theaters.) According to the entertainment website ScreenRant, the movie’s budget was anywhere from $14.5 million to $20.5 million if you include crowdfunding. With $37.2 million (and counting), the movie is very likely profitable already.

So the movie is a success, regardless of context. Throw in the rather significant fact that the film only has Angel Studios, a downright tiny outfit compared to the Disney's and Warner Bros. of the world, behind it, and “Sound of Freedom” is something of an enduring movie trope itself — the plucky underdog who comes out on top. (Read more.)

 

 From Catholic Exchange:

The sheer scale of this insatiable appetite for the corruption of innocent flesh is almost incomprehensible. The sins cry to Heaven for justice, and as Ballard quotes Matthew 18:6 in the film to one of the pedophiles “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and be cast into the sea.” 

And yet many of these lost children are never found, but remain chained in slavery of the most horrible kind, their innocence crucified on a tree at the hands of vile men. For every one that is rescued, hundreds remain in bondage. This has the potential to be a great challenge to one’s faith in a good and loving Father and in his only begotten Son who debased himself to come to earth and search out the one that was lost (Lk 15:4) when they remain out there, somewhere, in a dark room subjected to unspeakable traumas. 

And yet, “there is no one righteous, no not one” (Rom 3:10; Ps 14:3). Many of us are complicit in the sins of the flesh which have perpetuated this abominable slave ship, though–we fuel it not just with clicks and downloads, but by our apathy and fence-sitting in the face of such evil. Christ was utterly crushed by the weight of sin (Is 53:5)–our sin. He came to ransom us, left a comfortable Heaven to debase himself here on earth (Phil 2:7) and pay the price with his sacrifice and death (Rom 5:7-8). He was innocence itself (1 Pt 3:18).

I don’t know Tim Ballard’s back story, if he is a Christian or not, but I will say Jim Caviezel was the right man to play him in this role. When Tim is describing his “line of work” to someone in the film, he mentions that this reality (of sex trafficking) is “too ugly for polite company.” (Read more.)

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