“Hear that, that’s the Sound of Freedom”. That’s a real line from the film, I gasped, surely they didn’t do that. We don’t do that anymore, no film stops the action for a contemplative moment to slide the title in there these days. This brave and bold move was one of many brave and bold actions that this film makes in its incredibly drawn out runtime.
The highlight reel from Tim Ballard’s career has been renamed to Sound of Freedom, followed by the cries of a bald eagle, soaring across the screen and into our hearts. The subject matter of this one is very much not one that we can argue about, but we sure have. The film has so much controversy fizzing around it, launching it into the mainstream conversation, with the defenders of the film pushing back against the deviant and deceptive “mainstream media”.
I would like to be able to talk about this film as a self contained entity, I will do my best.
The story follows Homeland Security agent Tim Ballard, who works to protect kids. We begin with him arresting a very stereotypical criminal, caught in the act of advertising children who are for sale online while he listens to rock music in his ambiently lit home office.
Tim begins his style of investigation, by pretending to be one of them, gain their trust and then catch them in the act. An unarguably noble act, protecting the most vulnerable from the most exploitative and evil. Hard to argue with that.
He then takes an interest in a particular case, and goes out of the country to try and find the sister of the boy he had just saved. This takes him on a long journey, meeting incredibly creepy characters and also ones that lean more on the traditional heroic side, like the billionaire who is willing to spend his money in order to capture these people.
It all gets a bit action hero, vigilante when he quits his role with Homeland Security to continue in his pursuit of this girl.
The film has a respectable amount of tension, cheesy lines and obviously some incredibly high stakes. All these do feel a little bit on the insensitive side when considering the real life topic.
Tim Ballard appears like a noble hero on the outside, but he is widely regarded as someone who does more harm than good in these situations, obsessed with the spotlight and glory of the headlines. His efforts helped to free over 100 children from the slave trade, and capture around a dozen of the ringleaders. The controversy surrounding this operation is the amount of children saved actually seemed to create more demand, kidnapping children who weren’t in captivity at the time. The positives of this are also clear, in removing these figureheads, you reduce the amount of people involved in kidnapping, but the trauma that these children go through makes you wonder if there is a better method of tracking them down and bringing them to their rightful justice.
The other main issue seems to be some inconsistencies in the stories being told by Tim, creating disillusion and wavering trust in the work being done to help these children.
There are articles and videos detailing both sides of the argument out there with a lot more information, laid out and explained a lot more eloquently than I have just done. I am just relaying the points that I feel make this film difficult to take on face value as a recount of a hero. Also, reviews aren’t subjective, my thoughts reflect my pea brain and its capacity for knowledge.
Visually, the film is perfectly acceptable, with impressive set design or locations, aesthetically pleasing lighting setups and standardised compositions to match. I have no major complaints about this aspect of the film.
The music however, I am not okay with. Its catholic choir soundtrack mixed with the pounding synths of the action soundtrack are an insane mix. The slow violins and singing play at an obnoxious volume, begging you to feel something while you watch. They play so often that it feels like the director was just genuinely unhappy with having any silence, and wanted to fill it with whatever score was left on the studio floor. Also, the fact it is somewhat of a church choir is slightly ironic.
To give you the Sound of Summary, this film is a mediocre action thriller, with an aggressive soundtrack, passable cast and enough controversy to raise it to international box office success. The idea of independent cinema overcoming big distributors is exciting, it's just a pity that it's not a better quality film. Again, I think extracting the theme of this film from its context is indefensible as a good thing to raise awareness for, but when all you’re doing it raising awareness while not providing donation or information links at the end of your film, it comes across a little bit sketchy. The “Pay It Forward” system is laid out as a means for others to see this important film, but nothing beyond that. Hmm
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