Thoughts on "Sound of Freedom"?

I have not seen it, but the wife and I are planning on going to see it. I, too, think human trafficking is a huge issue and many of the policies that are used in the US contribute to it. But I am curious how they rolled this one out.

Fictional movies just pander to our fears and the Zeitgeist. They present stories that hit us in the feels and rarely have nuance. I won’t see it, because I’m not interested, but I guess I don’t hate that it exists any more than most other films.

It doesn’t address everything about human trafficking, but it’s a place to start. I have noticed that some of the survivors of trafficking are not a fan of the movie because it commercializes a horrible experience and some of them feel victimized all over again.

I get all that, but unless the public is made aware, it will never be dealt with. It’s got to start somewhere.

Human trafficking is a huge issue, but I think this issue is being used to put forth conspiracy theories. If you go see it, see it with an open mind and don’t drink the kool-aid.

@LifeQuestioner I haven’t read much about it but I had the feeling that a particular agenda is being pushed in it.

@janbb there is. If you must go see it, read up on qanon talking points first. Also, dig a little deeper into the guy starring in the movie and what he actually stands for. He’s very much a qanon sympathizer if not follower.

@LifeQuestioner Oh no, I’m not planning to go see it!

@janbb good to hear!

I haven’t seen it. Obviously child trafficking is horrific and should be stopped. That said, lots of shitty laws and policies have been enacted under the guise of stopping child trafficking. The real reason Latin America is trafficking kids has a lot more to do with decades of US policies that involved propping up dictators loyal to the us that kept the populations poor and desperate while the US exploited their natural resources and labor. Also, read up on the origins of MS-13 and how the US created and exported the gangs that are enabling the trafficking.

We need to look in the mirror about how we treat immigrants and our neighbors to the south of us more generally.

This is literally the first I’ve heard of it. Doesn’t sound interesting in the least.

It’s very popular here and yes, I’ll see it.

Here is an uber Republican review:
It was definitely very powerful. From a filmmaking standpoint, I was very impressed with the way the the film was shot. The acting was authentic.

Yes, it was preachy. But not in an unnatural way, if you get my drift. It was definitely a docu-drama, but that’s a compliment.
Go see it!!!

It looks like the film was based on a true story and that it didn’t stray too far from the real story. Not sure why there is so much negative being said about this film. If it is largely accurate to the real story, how can conspiracy theories be pushed? I saw one comment that fictional stories pander to our fears. But if it is a true story…? It could be preachy I guess, if the acting goes way off script. But by what I just cited, it looks like many of the conversations are fairly accurate, the bad guys are based on real people, the whole thing seems to take what is a tremendous real life event and just assign actors to it.

I’ll go see it and see if I see anything there makes me believe it is pushing some sort of narrative.

@seawulf575 It’s possible that it is not pushing a narrative – I don’t know – but if it’s made by QAnon porponnents and the profits go to them, I won’t see it. No need for a response.

I haven’t seen it, but it’s important to remember you never needed a movie to be more aware of trafficking.

Conspiracy theories are just for a few unhinged people to become more unhinged and they can get their doses from literally anywhere else: podcast, message boards, forums, their conservative uncle that visits for the holidays etc.

@janbb I have no idea about QAnon. As far as I can tell, QAnon is toted out any time someone wants to bash something from the right. I’ve never looked into QAnon or anything like that. I certainly couldn’t tell you any of their ideas. I looked up and article from the Guardian that does a really great job of hinting that QAnon ideas were pushed, though they have to admit that many of what they say are QAnon ideas were not really spoken of. They are trying to tie things back to hints and conjecture and claiming all sorts of things about the movie.

The movie was put out by Angel Studios, a new venture that is only 2 years old. It looks like they started off trying to be a streaming service and moved into production a couple years ago. I can’t find a tie between QAnon and Angel Studios, though I’m sure some QAnon conspiracy theorist could come up with hints and innuendos to try tying them together.

After reading about it in this mornings WaPo, I have no interest in going to the cinema to see it. I might stream it when it’s free.

@seawulf575 Likely Democrats feel it’s another attempt to label them as the party supporting pedophilia, a crime.
But no one who’s gone to see it has said anything like that at all. Without seeingcit for ourselves, I see no reason to feel any particular way about it.
We all know it happens so hopefully it’s got educational value .

@KNOWITALL Yep, as I have said: I’ll go see it myself to see what it has to say.

It bothers me that we all know it happens. I know I have mentioned human trafficking in discussions about our porous southern border. The responses I have gotten seem to imply it isn’t a big enough problem to stop the open border policies. If that is the case then we all know it happens and we just don’t care.

The movie promotes the idea that children are being kidnapped in order to harvest their organs, to sacrifice them or drink their blood, an idea that is definitely put forward by qanon. It also implies that a lot of the trafficking is coming from across the border when that is not necessarily true. That’s why I have a problem with it, along with the fact that anybody saying that they are not interested in seeing it is automatically labeled as a pedophile. Also, check into the background of the guy starring in it, who definitely has touted some qanon ideas in the past.

It seems like a powerful tool that qanon has come up with to subtly promote a number of their ideas. I’m also naturally suspicious whenever so many people are pushing for a movie to be seen. The best word I can think of to describe it, although I don’t mean it literally of course, is that it’s had an almost rabid response on social media, which is really crazy for something that’s not considered a blockbuster hit.

I may have mentioned this already, but there was some lady in my Sunday school class this past week who was claiming we all need to go see it because it wasn’t doing very well at the box office and unless we went and saw it to help sales, it wasn’t going to be able to be shown in the theater very long. She brought it up all out of context with what we were studying and discussing, which made it sound rather like a sales pitch and raise the hairs on the back of my neck so to speak. And then she made the statement that Hollywood is so satanic, which by the way is another qanon principle, and that also put me on the alert so that I started doing some research on the movie.

I watched some non-partisan reviews, they say it’s not leaning either way politically. I have met Jim Cavaziel and watched many interviews and he’s a very nice man and is appalled at the abuse of children to the degree he chooses to make meaningful movies like this.

@KNOWITALL okay then. But apparently there are anti-trafficking groups, real groups, that are saying that what this movie is portraying is actually harmful to their efforts. It is not rooted in reality and they tries to make it look like a superhero movie.

I haven’t seen it. If it’s only in theaters, I have no interest in going to a theater to see it, but if it’s online somewhere for free, I might.

I have a feeling that like any movement or issue, the more the idea is pushed that this is a huge problem, with millions of victims, the more money the movement can acquire. I’m not saying it’s not a problem, but are the numbers exagerated? I don’t know. If it’s underground, how are they finding the numbers? Is it speculation?

@LifeQuestioner Then don’t watch it. I’m not sure I will. But I don’t think the intent was to cause harm.

@LifeQuestioner As I said, I haven’t seen it. The Guardian article I cited specifically states they didn’t discuss that stuff, though.

As for branding people that don’t want to see it as pedophiles? Where did that come from?

As for Jim Caviezel and his qanon beliefs, I have no knowledge of that sort of thing, nor do I really care. Though I will say you exhibiting much McCarthyism tendencies by going after anyone that is rumored to believe in something you don’t like.

I have seen some reviews from people that saw it. Most said it brought them to tears and several points. By all accounts it is a well done move, relating a moving story with a powerful message.

@seawulf575 Trump shared it on Truth Social so there’s a segment of society that will not see it for that alone. :)

@seawulf575… Here’s a link…

https://twitter.com/patriottakes/status/1678871786887290880?t=KIGglxk5Zdr1PaxnY-q4rQ&s=19

It’s okay if you didn’t see people being called pedophiles. But it’s true and all you have to do is go on Twitter, search for Sound of Freedom, and then read comments of anybody suggesting that the film is not all it seems.

@LifeQuestioner As I said, you’re exhibiting McCarthyism. An actor puts forth some thought onto social media that you don’t like and suddenly you are on a witch hunt for this person. His movies must put forth that same belief, he tries to sneak it into everything he does, etc.

Here’s a thought for you: the idea of adrenochrome being extracted from children predates QAnon. It goes back to the Middle Ages, possibly before then. It was blamed on Jews, as so many things are. It is something that pops up periodically and then fades away again. In fact, this isn’t the first time it has shown up this century. Hunter S. Thompson described using adrenochrome in his book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. And to put it in perspective, that was written in 1971, QAnon was founded in 2017. (Yes, I’ve had to do a lot of research into this). If you want to go to something that is relatively close to this, look at Doctor Sleep by Stephen King. The antagonists in this book torture children with the shining to purify their steam (their essence that is the shining) so they can extract it and use it to help extend their lives. That seems like a thinly veiled rewrite of what Caviezel said. Funny no one pointed out King as a QAnon mouthpiece.

The point being that you are blaming QAnon for all these things when they are just not that original. The other point being that it is likely that at some point, torturing children to get this chemical is a true thing, or was. For the same story to be around for 1000 years seems odd if it is just a conspiracy theory. And I have utter faith that people are ready, willing, and able to commit all sorts of atrocities against one another.

Yes, by all means let’s defend qAnon.

@LifeQuestioner Whatever. I’m not defending QAnon. I’m speaking out against hatred and witch hunts. To me, QAnon is a non-entity. I don’t care about them enough to even know things they speak about. I have to do research just to find out anything about them. Kinda hard to defend something you know nothing about and have no investment in. But hey, try shutting down any voice that doesn’t follow your own opinion. By all means do that.

@seawulf575 “I have to do research to find anything about them.”

Here’s the Wikipedia page. I always find Wiki a good place to start to learn the details: They provide sources to everything they write, which is always good.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon

@jca2 Yes, I can do the research and, in fact, I did it already as you can see by a previous comment. The point is that I had to do the research. The point is that I don’t care enough about them to look them up unless they are pushed into a conversation. I truly believe that if the left didn’t dog whistle about them all the time they would fade into obscurity. Left-wingers are far more obsessed and knowledgeable about QAnon than most right-wingers I know. The left gives them power, not the right.

What does any of that have to do with the movie about child trafficking though, if non-partisan reviews state it’s not mentioned?

@seawulf575 Adrenochrome was discovered in the 1950s.

@Zounderkite Yes, that was not the point. It’s been referenced in popular movies (Fear & Loathing) and people believe it’s real.
Maybe it is. It’s only a conspiracy theory if ut’s not true.

@KNOWITALL He also said that conspiracy theories about adrenochrome go back to the middle ages. That’s not possible. And it matters because it shows what’s wrong with saying “for the same story to be around for 1000 years seems odd if it is just a conspiracy theory.” The adrenochrome conspiracy theory and the blood libel conspiracy theory are not the same story. They are different stories built around a set of tropes and accusations strung together in ways that get updated, rearranged, and recycled by different hate groups to suit their needs.

@Zounderkite Yes, the chemical Adernochrome was discovered in the 1950’s. But the idea of torturing children to get this chemical and using it is just a permutation of Blood Libel which was the conspiracy theory from the 1100’s that said Jews were torturing and killing children to drink their blood as part of a religious rite.

And to be completely precise: adrenochrome existed back in the 1100s. It just hadn’t been extracted in a lab and given a name. It was still there. So if someone goes through a process of making it more potent (supposedly done through torture) and then drinks the blood, isn’t it possible that is a medieval version of what is supposedly being done today? And more to the point, as conspiracy theories go, the Jews drinking blood and the wealthy doing adrenochrome sound very similar.

@seawulf575 I can only respond to what you actually say, and what you said was that “the idea of adrenochrome being extracted from children… goes back to the Middle Ages.” Your words. I get that the modern conspiracy theory mirrors the medieval one. In fact, I made that point in the answer you just responded to. But the similarity doesn’t support the idea that it’s true. All it shows us is that these tropes are powerful tools for manipulating certain kinds of people.

Hey all, this question got moved to social with my permission since it had gotten a little off topic but I didn’t want comments to get deleted so I told them to go ahead and move it.

@Zounderkite I get it. But think about what you are saying and then go back and look at a number of the answers on this thread. People have literally stated that the movie is a QAnon movie because it pushes the idea of people pulling adrenochrome from children even though it actually doesn’t. Even those touting this idea say it only hints at things like that. So apparently that same advice can be given to them, eh?

My uncle the uber-Republican called last night and said he didn’t see any kind of political flex in the movie for either party. Or Qnon conspiracies. :)

@KNOWITALL sorry, but that argument is pretty flimsy. An uber-Republican might not notice such things if he takes them as truth, or he might just deny that they’re in there, trying to draw other people in. So that doesn’t prove anything.

@LifeQuestioner It was a statement, not an argument. :)

If I had put my uber-liberal aunt I wonder if that would have got the same response. Ya’ll are something else. Frfr

@KNOWITALL actually, you wouldn’t have gotten the same response, but not for the reason you’re implying. While I would expect an uber-Republican to not want to draw attention to subtle qanon principles in a movie, I would be surprised if an uber-Democrat did not. I know not everybody does the following, but I definitely take into account people’s general stances when they are talking about something. And I would be surprised by either of the responses mentioned above. It’s getting so hard to hold a discussion when people don’t even make good logical sense but just tend to make generalizations about somebody who doesn’t follow their ideology.

@LifeQuestioner There are a lot of reviews on youtube from non-political folks. It really doesn’t matter to me if any of you watch it or not

@KNOWITALL I think you need to define uber-Republican. I’ve been accused of being that and am a registered Independent. I suspect with this crowd, anyone to the right of Mao would be considered uber-Republican or radical right.

^^ Exactly!

@seawulf575 More like DeSantis than I’m comfortable with, personally, but not a conspiracy theorist, not Qnon and owns no guns. He does like football but doesn’t drink, but if he did it would definately not be a Bud Light. Ha!

I’ve talked to you since 2012, there is a difference for sure. If people think you are the worst, they have another think coming soon.

I have been trying to follow the discussion, and I can’t figure out what’s going on. We all agree that sex trafficking of minors is wrong. Does the movie turn this into an issue related to left or right wing politics? Does it accuse the Democrats of supporting pediophelia the way that Qanon does? Does it show us the pizza parlor basements where Hillary Clinton supporters are supposedly engaged in sex trafficking?

@LostInParadise Many on the left are losing their minds because they don’t like Jim Caviezel, the star. They know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the entire movie is full of Qanon theories even though they’ve never seen it and have been shown articles that specifically address this as being false. Not sure what the angst is. It is based on a true story, apparently keeps close to the real story, it is about child sex trafficking and one man’s effort to fight back against it.

Here is my take on this whole QAnon thing as it applies to this movie: If someone doesn’t want to see the movie, don’t. But if they are not going because you believe QAnon is against child sex trafficking, then they are fools. It almost sounds like if QAnon is against it, they are for it. In this case it almost seems like they are supporting child sex trafficking because to not do so might make someone believe they are part of QAnon.

@seawulf575 you’re doing exactly what so many right wing people are doing, that is judging people who don’t want to see the film. Just because somebody doesn’t want to see the film doesn’t mean that they support child trafficking. By the way, I had never heard of James Caviezel before this film came up in discussion, so you’re wrong about that too.

From what I’ve heard, it may be based on a true story, but it is not a realistic view of how anti-trafficking groups work. In fact, Jim Ballard’s group has been asked to stop their efforts because they are interfering with actual anti-trafficking groups. They are also over glorifying the process, and making it seem like once the children are rescued, they’re going to be fine, when children are often traumatized for years to come afterwards. I also don’t like that people are shoving the movie down my throat. I don’t ever go see something or read a book because I’m being told I just have to go see it. And when people are pushing something so hard, that automatically makes me wonder what their motivation is. Tell me you saw a movie and it was really good and I should see it if I get a chance, but when you keep insisting that everybody go see it? Yeah, I’m not one to jump on the bandwagon just because.

@LifeQuestioner No, I’m judging people that are ignorant and proud of it. You have tried diligently to tie this all to QAnon. You are trying to make sure you convince others it is all a QAnon plot and that by watching it their very lives and minds are in danger. What you are doing is making the entire story about child sex trafficking about QAnon. And you have just said you didn’t see the movie. So you are REALLY campaigning against QAnon by bashing a movie that tries to raise awareness of child sex trafficking, a movie you say you haven’t seen.

And I have already given a citation above that addresses the “actual anti-trafficking groups” concern. Jim Ballard was part of one of those “actual anti-trafficking groups”. He spent 12 years working in the DHS in the area of child sex trafficking and all they were doing is catching a few of the end users, not actually working to stop the sex trafficking. That is where this story comes in. He actually quit that job because he felt he had to violate the rules they put in place to save a girl from this life.

If you don’t want to be “pressured” into seeing it, that is fine. But let me tell you, I believe you are being very thin skinned. If I see a movie and really liked it, I might tell you “Wow! that movie was great! You need to see it!”. That isn’t pressure, that is excitement for something you might like. But hey, I better stop because I’ll likely mispronoun you in a moment too.

@seawulf575mispronoun me? And I just said that I don’t mind if somebody says, hey, I saw a great movie and you should go see it. It’s when they go on and on about it and they are pushing it like it’s some sort of agenda. But as I’ve already said before, and I don’t know why I keep trying to talk to you, it’s obvious that you are set in your ways and there’s no getting through to you.

@LifeQuestioner No one cares if you see the movie!!! It’s over $50 million now, they don’t need your ticket price haha!!

You posted the question saying the movie was ‘rife with conspiracy theories’ that literally NO ONE who has seen it concurs with. Don’t bleme us for calling out your bias.

@KNOWITALL I didn’t say anybody on here was pushing the movie. If you read my original details, which apparently you did not bother to do, I talked about how a lady at my church was really pushing to go see the movie. She also claimed that it wasn’t doing well at the box office, which upon a bit more investigation, I found out was BS. And I know of plenty of people who have gone to see it who do concur with my point, so stop taking your shallow viewpoint and applying it to everybody.

@KNOWITALL Yes, please keep your viewpoint that he can see it or not to yourself! @LifeQuestioner was trying to be a victim and spread conspiracy theories. You are triggering him by calling his bias!

Oh look, the trolls are ganging up on me. Lol!

Since many (most?) here don’t believe that human trafficking is a problem, here’s a youtube channel that documents the stories. They come from all over the world, and include human trafficking for all sorts of purposes.
https://www.youtube.com/@OurRescueOrg

@snowberry again with this? I haven’t seen one comment on here where somebody thinks human trafficking isn’t a problem. It says something about you that you would accuse people of this.

Sorry. My bad. That’s the attitude I’ve picked up. The fact that folks are attacking a movie about the subject, because they don’t like who produced it, or who starred in it, (or whatever), well, here’s some evidence.

I just got back from seeing Sound of Freedom. No conspiracy theories even hinted at. Very much pushing statistics though. They focused on how children are grabbed, how they are moved around, how they are used in the sex trade and sometimes as slave labor (or both). Absolutely nothing about Adrenochrome even hinted at.

As far as preachy, the one recurring theme that popped up seemed to be “What if it was your child?”. Another seemed to be that God does occasionally step in to push you in a good direction. Both were used as ways to show reasons for taking various actions.

Not sure why there is such a push back against this movie. The one thing I DID notice that might be the reason for the push back is that 99% of the people involved with the movie (cast/crew/production/direction) were all Latino. Hollywood may have been pushing hard against this as their stranglehold with unions and whatnot may have been threatened. They did say at the end of the movie that it was completed 5 years ago and there was so many roadblocks put in their way that this was the soonest it could be put out. That may be because it was done by a fledgling production company, though.

I am a fan of Louis L’Amour, and I have read his books many times. My latest re-read is Callaghan. Considering The Sound of Freedom movie, as well as current affairs in general, this quote really jumped out at me, and if it’s true, it explains a lot of mysteries:

“And there is perhaps no one hated more by a man than one to whom he has done an injustice.” Callaghan chapter 6

Does the film show how US gun sales have enabled the trafficking of children by arming destabilizing forces and criminal gangs?

@gorillapaws Sort of but not by name. The one girl he is looking for ends up getting sold to the leader of a bad “rebel” gang. She is taken deep into rebel territory. They don’t discuss how the rebels get their guns but they do let it be known they are a factor.

The neat part is that you and I can have that discussion. If that is part of the problem then it needs to be discussed.

@seawulf575 I’m glad you got in, it’s sold out again here. Looks like I better reserve seats today for the weekend.

@LifeQuestioner If you think that is ‘ganging up’ you haven’t been here long enough kiddo. Ha!!

@KNOWITALL The movie was interesting and touching. But it wasn’t a particularly great movie as these things go. But the subject matter and the ties to reality make it a very powerful movie. After seeing the movie, at the end of it they show scenes of the actual events that happened. They kept very close to reality when they made the movie.