Tea at Trianon: Sound of Freedom (2023)

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, November 13, 2023

Sound of Freedom (2023)

None of the positive reviews I read about Sound of Freedom prepared me for what a powerful film it is. Due to the subject matter, it is impossible to describe the experience as enjoyable, but definitely life-changing. I think that most Americans have trouble comprehending such an evil. Since I have relatives who have worked with law enforcement in rescuing children from sex slavery, I was already aware of the problem. But Sound of Freedom exposes the magnitude of the child sex trade, how it is going on all around us, and because people are blind, stupid, indifferent or complicit, it is allowed to flourish. Child trafficking has surpassed the drug trade in generating billions of dollars for a corrupt few at the cost of destroyed bodies, minds and souls. If governments really wanted to stop it, it would stop, but so many of our so-called leaders are part of the problem, not the solution. And I do not get the accusations about the film being linked to QAnon. Maybe some of the "Anons" endorsed it, but the story is based on verifiable events. Any law enforcement professional in any major city can tell you that human trafficking has become a problem.

From Worth It or Woke?:

Every 40 seconds, a child goes missing in The United States of America. Of those taken, millions are sold into sex slavery. The average life expectancy of a child sold into sex slavery in the United States is 7 – 10 years of age, and The United States of America is one of the top destinations for human trafficking and is among the largest consumers of child sex....
How often have we heard some moronic actor and filmmaker say that their piece of garbage propaganda piece posing as a film is “important?”
Well, here is one that actually is, not because it’s excellent (it is), not because it’s gripping (it is), nor because it will haunt you long after the curtain falls (it will), but because its message is so very necessary and it’s goals so very attainable.
Sound of Freedom follows the early missions of the real-life Tim Ballard, played by Jim Caviezel, as he hears God’s calling to rescue children sold into slavery worldwide.
Simply put, Sound of Freedom is nearly perfect. Its gripping story is bolstered by superb performances, a crisp screenplay with economical yet powerful dialogue, and scenes of such terror as to give you nightmares, and even though it is the stuff of the most twisted horror films that will have you sweating and checking in on your sleeping children, it’s not graphic.
Much like how 1999’s Fight Club used the atmosphere and the reactions of those ancillary to the surrounding horrors to elicit the audience’s emotional investment, Director Alejandro Monteverde masterfully allows our imaginations room to breathe and us the freedom to fill in the monstrous blanks ourselves.
Very often in films with multiple children and most certainly in low-budget independent films, it’s a matter of course to have several performers who are not up to the level of its leads or the material. However, from the “smallest” role and up, God’s hands unquestionably guided everyone’s performance, with each delivering impressive and unprecedented emotional presentness. Even the child extras were pitch-perfect, a movie miracle.
Yet, in a movie full of exceptional performances, Jim Caviezel’s genius was laid bare for all to see. Undoubtedly, Jesus has a special place set at his Heavenly table for men like Tim Ballard, and in Sound of Freedom, Jim Caviezel shows us exactly why. In The Passion of The Christ, Caviezel captured what was certainly only a fraction of the otherworldly love of Christ, limited as Caviezel was by virtue of being only a man. Still, it was enough to transport the audience back 2,000 years to the side of our Lord and Savior. In Sound of Freedom, he expertly displays Ballard’s haunting sincerity and righteously obsessive drive in a complex performance worthy of every accolade. (Read more.)

From The Washington Examiner:

When Eduardo Verastegui learned about Operation Underground Railroad, a nonprofit organization that works to save children from sex trafficking, he knew he wanted to tell its story. Specifically, he wanted to tell the story of Tim Ballard, its founder and CEO.
Ballard had spent more than a decade at the Department of Homeland Security, where he worked on the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. When he realized that there were real children who couldn’t be saved without cutting an impossible amount of government red tape, he left in 2013 to create OUR, which boasts 4,000-plus predators arrested and 6,000-plus survivors recovered.
In addition to aftercare and preventative efforts, its website notes, the organization goes “to the darkest corners of the world to assist law enforcement in rescuing children.”
Statistics on human trafficking are hard to compile, but the State Department reports that it has 27.6 million global victims. Many of these are children, and many of them are continuing to be exploited right here in the U.S., not just through physical violence, but also a seemingly endless supply of child pornography. (OUR claims that “Americans are some of the top consumers AND producers of child pornography.”) (Read more.)