Sound of Freedom, a gripping film released on July 4, 2023, portrays the deeply moving story of Tim Ballad, former Homeland Security agent and founder of Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.), and his efforts to rescue victims from the clutches of human trafficking. O.U.R. gained rapid popularity in the summer of its release, ranking #1 on the domestic box office charts in its first month. It secured profits far ahead that of the “big budget franchise flicks from the likes of Marvel and DC, Disney”.
The film, based on real-life events, tells the story of the first mission by Ballard in search of Rocío, a young girl captured in Columbia alongside her younger brother, “Teddy”, aka Miguel. Through promises of modeling work, they were lured, kidnapped, and trafficked across national borders to be sold for sex.
Since its release, Sound of Freedom, and its associated foundation, O.U.R., have made waves across the U.S., bringing human trafficking to the forefront of public consciousness. While Sound of Freedom ignited a significant and emotional response from its viewers and across social media platforms, the film also faced its share of opposition.
Nay-Sayers:
MSNBC host Mehdi Asan claims lead actor, Jim Caviezel,
“is now a peddler of the kookiest, weirdest, craziest, most dangerous conspiracies in American public life. Yes. He’s gone full QAnon”.
Asan goes on to detail the “dangerous” theory to which he refers as the use of Adrenochrome by elites. The theory asserts that political and Hollywood elites extract Adrenochrome from children, a chemical produced when under stress, and that it’s used as a recreational drug, claimed to be 10x stronger than heroin.
Firstly, Asan provides no evidence to support that this theory is in fact the “most dangerous”, or that even a single life has been harmed by this theory. It doesn’t take much to recall a few theories in American public life that have been far more dangerous, like perhaps, “Only 1% of users become addicted to Oxycontin” -Purdue, or “Iraq has Weapons of Mass Destruction”-G.W. Bush, or even more recently, “Vaccinated people do not carry the [Covid19] virus”-Rochelle Walensky, CDC.
Secondly, the film never mentions Adrenochrome. Asan falls victim to his own political bias, defaming an entire film based on the beliefs of the actor that played in the movie. I don’t recall Top Gun: Maverick getting hit by the press for Cruise’s Scientology beliefs.
Asan goes as far as to say
“I can’t take seriously a movie on child trafficking being pushed by and starring an out-and-out conspiracist”.
To that, Asan, I urge you to take seriously the millions of children that are forced into sex slavery every single day, and make your narrative about them.
Asan is not alone in his attempt to undermine the efforts made by O.U.R.
CNN guest, journalist, and conspiracy theory expert, Mike Rothschild, expresses his opinion that movies like Sound of Freedom are
“Created out of moral panics, they’re created out of bogus statistics, they’re created out of fear.”
Rothschild, much like Asan, makes no effort to support his claims with counterfactual statements. To which “bogus statistics” might he be referring? Could Rothschild be referring to the raid on the Colombian island that rescued 123 survivors, 55 of whom were minors? This incident was both filmed and verified by Homeland Security, footage of which is shared at the end of the movie. Could he be talking about the rescuing of Miguel at the Mexican border? Another easily verifiable incident corroborated by Homeland Security. Could he be referring to the character “Giselle”, the original recruiter of the children? “Giselle” known in her hometown of Obrereo as “Miss Cartagena”, aka Kelly Johana Suarez, is a well known recruiter and trafficker of children in Colombia. She lured her victims through the promises of model and pageantry work as portrayed in the film. Could Rothschild be questioning the validity of the undercover work in the Amazonian jungle in which Ballard posed as a doctor offering humanitarian aid? This operation, and its search for trafficked victim Gardy, is yet another well recorded event.
Similarly to most Hollywood films, the events in Sound of Freedom are dramatized, and creative liberties are taken, but the occurrence of these operations themselves are not debatable. Maybe this is a greater critique of the audience Hollywood’s demand feeds; that it took a dramatization of real-life events for CNN and the nation to start talking about human trafficking.
Rothschild continues,
“…Sound of Freedom, it’s specifically looking at QAnon concepts of these child trafficking rings that are run by the high level elites and only people like Tim Ballard and Jim Cavizel and by extension only people like the ticket buyer, can help bring these trafficking rings down.”
Once again, Adrenochrome isn’t mentioned or even alluded to in the film. I’d argue; however, that we should first take a look at Ghislaine Maxwell’s list of undoubtedly ‘high level elites’ who visited Epstein’s Island before we denounce entirely that this theory has no merit.
“There’s a very participatory element…you [the ticket buyer] are helping bring down these pedophile rings and save children..Now it’s not true, but it’s a very comforting and very warm feeling to have” -Rothschilld
Here, Rothschild is referencing the end of the film where Jim Caviezel presents a QR code that allows viewers to buy tickets for others in an effort to spread awareness. As a “journalist”, one would think Rothschild would conceptualize the importance of spreading awareness, which is precisely what Sound of Freedom and their ‘pass-it-on’ ticket buyers have done. Must we remind Rothschild that Sound of Freedom rapidly hit top of the charts? If it’s not enough to be #1 on the charts and seen by nearly 9 million Americans, and subsequently making it on Rothschild’s list of worthy topics to discuss, what social impact must Sound of Freedom have to constitute a ‘spreading of awareness’ that could potentially bring down a pedophile ring?
Times of Israel – Surprise blockbuster ‘Sound of Freedom’ echoes antisemitic QAnon conspiracies
Writer, Shira Bartov, echoes the common narrative in her article, stating,
“It [Sound of Freedom] also draws from a conspiratorial well that includes a number of anti-Jewish canards, including the ‘blood libel’ accusation”.
Here, Bartov refers to the 12th century conspiracy that Jews extracted blood from Christian children in secret ceremonies which was used to justify the torture and murder of Jews. By this, Bartov is commenting on actor Jim Caviezel’s statements about Adrenochrome, which is, again, not once mentioned or even alluded to throughout the entirety of the film.
More importantly, Caviezel’s discussion of the possibility of elites extracting Adrenochrome from children is not an anti-semetic statement, nor is it a condoning statement about Natzi’s killing Jews for possibly taking blood from Christian children. This common fallacy that Bartov falls victim to is known as false equivalence. In fact, even if Caviezel claimed that Hollywood elites must be tortured and killed on this basis, that still wouldn’t be anti-semitic. Hopefully my readers are more equipped than those of Bartov and don’t need an elaboration on why that’s the case.
NPR-Qanon supporters are promoting ‘Sound of Freedom.’ Here’s why
In NPR’s article, Shannon Bond asserts the same baseless claims that Sound of Freedom is colored by its support of QAnon theories; however, I would like to take on her more substantive claim. Bond asserts “the movie is being criticized as a vehicle for…misleading depictions of human trafficking”. Finally! Let’s talk about the victims!
To support this claim, Bond quotes Elizabeth Campbell, co-director of the University of Michigan’s Human Trafficking Clinic, who claims,
“By doing that [reducing human trafficking to one archetype], I think we make actual victims of human trafficking more invisible and more vulnerable to exploitation…It becomes easy for people to say, ‘Well, if I just spread a message that we need to support law enforcement in freeing these child victims,’ they don’t have to do the hard work of asking what role they play in the purchasing of goods for forced labor, or they don’t have to play the hard role of figuring out how do we reduce poverty and the sort of inherent vulnerability that comes with poverty that leads to this kind of exploitation”.
I agree with Campbell. Reducing human trafficking to a single archetype; to a young girl who is lured in through false promises, held captive, and transported across national borders only to be bought and sold for sex, leaves many victims out of the conversation. It fails to acknowledge those trafficked without crossing a single border, those bought and sold in your own backyard, especially those victimized by family and friends versus strangers. It fails to shed light on those trafficked for labor, or organs, or all purposes outside of sex. It fails to acknowledge those above the age of 18 who also fall victim to human trafficking.
I would think that Campbell’s and Shannon’s critiques would be warranted if Rocío’s story wasn’t true. I would think this if Sound of Freedom was simply a work of fiction, a Hollywood creation to sensationalize an issue, but it’s not. Rocío was a young girl, lured by a predator, held captive, transported across national borders, and bought and sold for sex. This is a 2 hour film that aims to tell her story. A story that is not unique to her but rather echoed across the globe.
Sound of Freedom is not intended as a Netflix docuseries detailing the stories of the many different types of trafficking that plague our society. It tells just one story. Take it for what it is. Learn from it, teach it to others, and hopefully they, too, will be inspired to continue to research and expand their understanding of this issue as Campbell once did, and as O.U.R. continues to do.
As for Campbell’s assertion that the depictions of trafficking in Sound of Freedom will result in people believing they just “need to support law enforcement in freeing these child victims”. This speaks to Campbell’s clear misunderstanding of the foundation of O.U.R. and the inspiration behind the entire film.
Ballard’s decision to quit Homeland Security, to take on an independent mission in foreign nations, and build a non-governmental organization around this fight, was entirely based on the failures of law enforcement. Ballard’s frustrations over the slow, limited, and bureaucratic processes of the government is the whole reason O.U.R. was founded. So yes, Campbell is correct in her assertion that we can’t just rely on law enforcement, an assertion that Ballard has supported through the risk of his life and livelihood. And that is a much bigger story than an actor espousing conspiracy theories.
The real story, however, is of course that of the victims, but because of the media’s response to the film, I’m forced to make this about a rejection of their response. Read next week’s article “Corporate News Tolerates Human Trafficking” for a reflection as to why corporate news is telling us that this film, that Operation Underground Railroad, and by extension, that human trafficking is “bogus”, and is not worth your attention, time, or money.
Since Operation Underground Railroad’s founding in 2013, it has managed to liberate thousands of individuals from the horrors of trafficking. According to O.U.R., the team has operated over 1,000 undercover missions, rescued over 6,000 survivors and arrested over 4,000 predators.
Buy a ticket, spread the word, & continue learning,
The Abolitionist