Recently, the movie “Sound of Freedom” has been unfairly branded as appealing to the “QAnon fringe” by certain left-leaning media outlets.
Despite its authentic representation of a harrowing human trafficking incident, publications such as The Guardian and Jezebel have attempted to pigeonhole the film as one catering to conspiracy theorists.
The film, featuring Jim Caviezel, tells the real-life tale of a U.S. Homeland Security agent’s heroic efforts to rescue two young children from human traffickers in South America. It was produced by Angel Studios and premiered over the July 4 holiday and killed it at the box office.
Nevertheless, the media coverage has shied away from acknowledging the actual plot, instead focusing on attempting to establish a tenuous connection between the film and the controversial QAnon movement.
In its review, The Guardian proclaimed, “Sound of Freedom: the QAnon-adjacent thriller seducing America”, suggesting the film’s success was the product of conspiracy theory enthusiasts, rather than genuine moviegoers.
The article strained to rationalize why the film didn’t garner more attention over the holiday and delved into its alleged connections with conspiracy theorists.
The piece claimed, “But for a fleeting moment this past Fourth of July, while the intended audience of Indy’s latest outing was presumably spending time with their families and friends at barbecues or in other social situations, an unoccupied fandom rallied by the star Jim Caviezel claimed the day with a $14.2m gross versus Dial of Destiny’s $11.7m.”
In a dismissive tone, The Guardian downplayed the film’s box office triumph by arguing that the numbers required selective framing to support the “David-and-Goliath narrative.”
“No matter that these figures require selective, almost willfully misleading framing to allow for the David-and-Goliath narrative trumpeted by supporters; as the copious tweets accusing Disney of being in cahoots with a global cabal of high-power pedophiles make clear, the truth doesn’t have too much purchase around these parts,” the article said.
While admitting that the movie doesn’t venture into conspiracy territory, The Guardian continued its attempts to tarnish the film’s image. It contended that the film “takes care to be the most anodyne version of itself, all while giving those in the know just enough to latch onto.”
“The trafficking follows no motivation more elaborate than the servicing of rich predators, eliding all talk of body-part black markets and the precious organic biochemical of adrenochrome harvested as a Satanic key to eternal life. The first rule of QAnon: you don’t talk about QAnon where the normals can hear you.”
The author, despite acknowledging that the film doesn’t indulge in scaremongering, insisted that it was a ploy to sway “persuadables.”
They wrote, “These zestier strains of scaremongering are absent in the text itself, but they lurk in the shadows around a film outwardly non-insane enough to lure in the persuadable; the disappointingly un-juicy Sound of Freedom pretends to be a real movie, like a ‘pregnancy crisis center’ masquerading as a bona fide health clinic.”
Referring to Caviezel’s end-credit message about the reality of human trafficking, the piece cynically added, “But of course, this is tailored to go down easy. That’s how propaganda works, and Caviezel’s shameless begging at the end of the movie underlines a desperation to disseminate.”
Jezebel, while labeling the film “an Anti-Child Trafficking Fantasy Fit for QAnon” and claimed, “At last, QAnon’s camp appeal gets the cinematic exploration it demands,” it did acknowledge that human-trafficking a “real problem.”
“The exploitation of children is a real problem that no one (besides the exploiters) wants.” It also stated that the real-life Tim Ballard, the DHS agent portrayed by Caviezel, “has testified at a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee and shared footage of the sting operation portrayed in Sound of Freedom with the media (some of that footage also plays during the final moments of the movie).”
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Both articles attempted to make the QAnon link by associations outside the film. Jezebel’s piece asked, “And really, how distant can Ballard (and by extension his organization) be from QAnon when the guy who’s playing him, with whom he’s been promoting Sound of Freedom, has been using the press opportunity to peddle QAnon theories about adrenochrome and organ harvesting?”
It offered an example, stating, “In an interview with Steve Bannon from earlier this month, Caviezel went on at length about ‘the whole adrenochrome empire’ as driving demand for trafficking. Though Caviezel didn’t direct Freedom, he’s treating it as a passion project, appearing in its trailer to speak directly to the camera about its importance.”
“Sound of Freedom” producer Eduardo Verastegui told Fox News that the Guardian’s piece is part of “a lot of distractions out there” attempting to distract the public from the film. He stated, “They’re trying to take this movie away from theaters.”
This critique showcases a marked disregard for the subject matter of the film – human trafficking. Instead of engaging with the film’s plot and message, these outlets seem more interested in creating an unfounded connection with a right-wing conspiracy group.
One can only guess at the real reason these woke media outlets chose to trash this movie that sheds light on the real-world issue of human-trafficking that affects countless lives. What could they possibly be covering up?
