September 17, 2023 • 57 mins
Prepare for an intense journey as we tackle the controversial film, The Sound of Freedom. This stirring cinematic piece, starring Jim Cavieziel, bravely dives into the chilling underworld of child trafficking. We unpack its harrowing narrative and applaud the remarkable performances that breathe life into these grim realities. But how does a film address such shocking truths without losing respect for the victims? Tune in to find out.
Through the lens of Jim Caviziel's character, Tim Ballard, we navigate the terrifyingly real world of child exploitation, and the emotional journey he embarks on for redemption. Despite its modestly low budget, Sound of Freedom pulls no punches in its technical and narrative execution. With impressive tension-building, it sucks you into the stark reality of its dark themes.
Lastly, we examine the ripple effect of this movie on its viewers and the controversy it has sparked since its release. The Sound of Freedom, despite its limited marketing support and lower budget, has struck a nerve, inspiring many with its powerful message and outstanding performances. We share our candid insights and reflections on this provocative film. Be prepared for a discussion that's as compelling as the film itself.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everyone, and welcome to another podcast of
Movies Worth Seeing.
I'm your host, michaelPichonery, joined by Martin Jung
, videographer, video editor,the man, the myth, the legend,
whatever you want to call him.
Join me for a heavy episodetoday.
Today, we are reviewing thesound of freedom.
(00:21):
What is the sound of freedom?
Apparently, not a lot of peopleknow about this movie, because
this film seems to be steeped incontroversy due to its heavy
subject matter.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I didn't know this movie existed until Michael told
me to come on to do this review.
I was like, what is this movie?
Then, once I watched it, I wasin.
I was yeah, well, just to jumpahead of it very blown away by
it.
And then after the ending I wasleft wondering why is no one
talking about this?
(00:54):
I've never heard of it.
And okay, it's a slight spoiler, but mid-credits scene does
acknowledge yeah, there's likezero marketing.
But I mean, thinking back, it'skind of obvious why.
It's the subject matter alonethat just makes it unmarketable.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Before we get into it , we better let the audience
know what this movie is, becausethis film has had no marketing
other than people saying it'scontroversial, it's offensive,
it's alt-rights and whatever thefuck people in Hollywood are
saying, which is all a bunch ofbullshit.
But the sound of freedom starsJim Caviesal, whose most famous
(01:30):
role was playing Jesus Christ inthe Passion of Christ directed
by Mel Gibson.
You know, interestingly, jimCaviesal JC Jesus Christ and he
got the role at 27.
He was playing Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ was meant to be 27at the age of the story.
Wow, it was almost meant to be.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
And Mel.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Gibson actually warned Jim Caviesal this might
fuck up your career.
Just so you know because,you're playing Jesus Christ and
this might piss people off andunfortunately we haven't seen a
lot from Jim Caviesal.
I don't know if he's, if he hasbeen other films and I'm just
not aware of it.
TV series.
Yeah, I know him from filmsbefore the Passion of the Christ
(02:16):
, but I don't know a lot of hisfilmography after the Passion of
the Christ, so it could be truethat the role did affect his
career.
But it's great to see him backin this film because he's
phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
But now it's like history has a funny way of
repeating itself right now in my, in yet another controversial
theme being the lead actor yeah,controversial theme.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Film controversial film.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Fair enough.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Just wanted to make sure I heard that right.
I thought it maybe it was likean artistic term or something
that I wasn't aware of from likefilm school or something.
This is Le film you know, likewhen they end like an artsy film
and it's like Finn instead ofthe oh yeah, finn, finn, oh yeah
, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
And it's always in like italic letters and fonts
and stuff.
Yeah, yeah, I don't know wherewe were going with that.
Anyways.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
The Sound of Freedom is about Tim Ballard.
He's working in home security.
He specializes in taking downsex offenders.
I don't know if I can say theword, the P word.
Will that affect anything onYouTube?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yeah, it's always, it's always tricky.
See, we're already getting likemired in, like what we can say
and so on.
It's like well to do with.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
I don't know why that's so.
It's like underage people.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Let's just put it that way.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
I don't know why that's Like, why you can't even
say the word.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
It's always like this , this barrier of like.
Do you want the comfortable lieor the unvarnished truth sort
of thing?
Do you want to, like you know,turn a blind eye towards the
realities of the world?
And let's live in comfortablecomplacency, which I think this
movie definitely gets to theheart of.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Well, the whole point of this movie is that ignorance
is not bliss.
Exactly, you can't be ignorantabout certain issues.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
You have to confront it head on and acknowledge it's
real.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah we have to acknowledge that it's real and,
like this film, deals with childtrafficking, a very serious
issue that this film juststraightaway shows you sets the
tone by showing you actualfootage of children being
kidnapped, snatched.
Yes, yes and it sets the tonefor this horrifying reality that
(04:29):
we live in, where this is areal issue in the world, and
right from the get go.
This film is an uncomfortablewatch, but necessary.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Exactly, yeah, no, but I will say I think it, given
the how heavy the subjectmatter is, they still I could
feel that they made as mucheffort to depict the scenarios
as respectfully, as humanlypossible.
Still, Because these are, youknow, graphic things that happen
.
So they'll just like implythings or talk about it and they
(05:00):
, well, they definitely didn'texplicitly like explicitly show
on camera.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
So there's so much that you can really push the
boundaries, I mean from the getgo of the story, the way the
narrative unfolds in this.
Right from the start, we seeTim Ballard taking down an
actual sex offender, predator,who has access to files Of
various children that have beentrafficked.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah, trafficking rings and getting it mired into
you know all the networks and soon.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah, and he imprisons this guy and then he
actually like, pretends to behis friend and develop trust,
which is like some A levelacting where you have a guy
who's pretending to be someonehe's not to try and fool an
actual vile evil criminal intothinking that they're not,
(05:54):
they're not, into thinking thatthey're the same.
That requires some someincredible acting to try and
convince the villain that I'm onthe same team as you.
And you can almost see it inJim Caviesal's eyes, like his
masking.
It's so hard to explain.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
And also just masterful direction and
storytelling as well.
Thankfully, it's like amomentary sigh of relief when we
see afterwards that when, whenthe mask comes off, that he, he
splashes himself.
He splashes himself with waterjust to get himself back to
reality.
Okay, he's not someone that's,like you know, compromised.
His ideal was integrated,something he's still Tim.
(06:33):
Underneath and and throughoutthe movie there was just a lot
of like show don't tell sort ofexecutions, where we commonly
criticize movies for just havingzero subtext and it's like what
you see, what you say is whatthey mean, but this movie they,
they just you know it was sogood just to see that tried and
(06:55):
tested show don't tell approach,Like for little things, like
showing that he adopts kids andso on, and and then once again,
like I said, like him splashinghimself to get himself back.
But, yeah, just throughout thiswhole movie where it just
doesn't stay overstay.
It's welcome.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
There's visual with visuals Like.
This film uses visual motifs.
There's lots of subtexts.
There's minimal dialogue.
There's music and editing beingused to convey messages.
It's not something where everycharacter says exactly what
they're doing.
You can read between the linesof the dialogue and there's a
(07:32):
lot of times in this movie like.
This movie isn't really ratedlike MA or anything, considering
the harsh subject matter.
What is the rating actually?
I believe it's like M really,which shocked me.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Wow, that is surprisingly low.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
But when I think about it, they did such a good
job of not having to showanything graphically horrifying.
Everything in this film thatwas uncomfortable was implied to
the audience.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
You just internalizing the horrific
reality of it all.
Well like when it's in playingin your head.
That's what makes it all themore.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
One of the particular scene that I thought was very
well done was there's a scenewhere Tim Ballard is actually
looking at footage of childrenbeing mistreated off a computer
screen and instead of the filmshowing us this horrifying stuff
(08:33):
, they just have a close up onTim Ballard's face, his eyes and
his eyes.
You just see the reflection ofthe computer screen in his eyes
and you're seeing tears streamdown his face.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yeah, the reflection is still opaque and stuff.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
And you see him starting to type out the
explicit details in words, likewhat happens, like second by
second, and I like when moviessort of like lets the audience
fill in the blanks, yeah, yeah,so you don't provide the answer.
It's like the audience alreadyknows.
Like the rest of the details.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
It's kind of like similar in monster movies, how
you hide the monster until rightat the end, like you let the
audience interpret all thehorrifying stuff, because the
mind is always like theimagination of the mind is
always going to be much betterthan whatever's shown.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
And that's what's all the more horrific than if they
just showed what happened.
The mind goes awry.
All the vivid details, the mosthorrible things you can imagine
is just playing out here andnot there.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
And because you know it's children's lives at stake,
it adds so much emotional weightto everything.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Yeah, it's like the loss of innocence that hits hard
.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
And I had tears at times.
In this movie there were eitherlike either had one stream of a
teardrop coming or I felt likeI was on the verge of, but I was
shaking in my seat.
Watching this movie I feltuncomfortable at times.
I felt scared and anxiouswhenever certain characters were
(10:25):
in danger, because just seeingchildren in danger like is hard
for me to watch.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
It hits something like deep down in our human
nature, something deep down inour very nature yearns for to
see the children being protectedand just to let see them their
innocence and their smile andtheir joy play out, and to know
that that's being robbed of them.
Something hits us deep down,our most primal fears, even if
(10:58):
we're not parents.
It's just natural.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
And if I was a parent , I don't know if I could watch
this movie.
I mean becoming a parent wouldprobably change you and you
would look at things sodifferently.
Watching a film like this, likethe sound of freedom, reminded
me of another film called ransom, which starred Mel Gibson,
ironically, and it showedexactly the emotional turmoil of
(11:27):
parents when their child iskidnapped and when they feel
powerless to save them.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Yeah, yeah, always these there's always like these
movies where it's like it's justsuch a Debbie down and it's
objectively a really good movie.
But this is one of those moviesyou really have to be in the
mood for, to be depressed, yeah,and just like spend the rest of
a day Just like pretty muchdoing nothing else, cuz like,
after you watch this you won'tbe in the mood to just go out on
(11:55):
anything, but it stays with you.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah, yeah you can't just be like I'm gonna watch the
sound of freedom and then go towet and wild or some shit,
exactly.
But yeah, stays with you.
I felt all these feelings ofGratefulness that you know my
childhood was great, that I thatI didn't have to Suffer like
the children in in the film,like you feel this gratefulness
that you're you haven't beenthrough something horrifying
(12:19):
like that, that you're alive.
You feel this gratefulness.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Also, there are still people fighting the good fight.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Yeah, you feel hope as well that there's people in
this world that recognize thisevil and are trying to take it
down, doesn't turn a blind eye,and that I think that was about
the sound of freedom is.
It's not just about thehorrifying reality that these
Things, these crimes, can happenin modern society, but it's
(12:50):
also about the inspiring hopethat we can change it and that
we can save these children.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Don't just be resigned to this fate.
You know there was stand upagainst there was one particular
line of dialogue.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
It was when one of the other characters asked Tim
ballad, why, why do you want todo this?
Why do you want to save thesechildren?
And he said God's children arenot for sale.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Yes, yes.
Is that a biblical quote, maybe, I wonder.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
I think it was just Just saying, like you know,
children aren't for sale, butbut like putting God on, it was
like Humanity, like humans, arenot meant to be slaves.
We're all God's children.
None of us are meant to beslaves.
It's just not the way that Godwanted Us to be.
I felt it was a really powerfulline.
(13:44):
It's one of those moments likewhen you, when you try and find
that one quote that kind ofSummarizes a whole film, that
was like defines the character,yeah the character motivation.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
You see, this is a man of noble and pure heart.
Yeah, it's not that he's doingthis because he's looking To be
rewarded for his actions.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
He's doing it because he has integrity and for the
sake of it and the fact thatit's based on a true story and
they actually show the real Timballad, and To know that this is
a person that risked his careerand his life.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yes, to save these children meant a lot, because
he's getting mixed up also in arebel groups and in very
Conflict heavy countries as well, in our Columbia, yeah,
southern Columbia, where in aworld that's not maybe
necessarily governed by.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Normal yeah, yeah, the the sound of freedom is a
film that left a lastingimpression on me, and Throughout
the film I was just soemotionally moved and
intellectually engaged.
Yeah, did it surprise you thatthe budget of this film was only
14 million?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
wait what?
Yeah, wow, okay, let's.
Let's go into that thingbecause, on top of just the just
how well Executed it wasnarratively, I was just like
Absolutely floored by had justhow technically well executed
this movie was in itscinematography lighting, music,
(15:14):
editing, the, the pacing of likecharacter motivations and the
story progression.
You're constantly reminded,like, for example, that the
battle is won, but the war is isever raging, that sort of thing
.
Because they achieve onevictory, something else throws a
spanner into work.
Yeah, and on the technical side, just like it helps that this
(15:39):
is so surprising, you telling methis now 14 million, 14 million
, yeah, this is like great, ahigh, big budget levels of
production.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Just put that into perspective.
Indiana Jones 5 Costed 500million and needed to make a
billion dollars to make a profit.
It didn't.
This film looks better visuallyand like the Production value.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Just the look and everything like haze machines
everywhere, always like lightstreaming in through windows and
so on.
Just all the like textbooklighting makes you wonder.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
You should make sure you wonder where the budget went
in Indiana Jones 5 and justalso fight scenes and stuff.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Yeah, oh, just CGI D aging cuz like you know set
pieces, they, all those otherbig money Drainer's you know
it's like you know Tom Cruisealways fighting to add in you
know Big set pieces withmotorcycles that those are the
stuff that adds a lot of money.
He's gonna find shit to jump.
Yeah, so yes, but then like withthese kinds of movies, these
more slow Bernie kind of movies,like it's made, where it's
(16:44):
mainly sort of like dialogueshot, reverse shot, those types
of things, yeah, those ones youdon't have to invest lots of
money to hire.
You know pyrotechnics and bighelicopter shots.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
I mean, it's completely different film, genre
wise.
Yeah a thriller Indiana Jones,like those big budget Franchises
of a more action, heavy, bigset pieces.
But I mean it does make youthink that an entertaining film
with a good story Doesn't haveto be made on a 500 million
dollar budget to engage viewers.
(17:15):
Like I didn't look at my phonethe entire time I was watching
this.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
I was Totally in this film could have just carried
its own way just by Subjectmatter and story alone.
I feel like they didn't have toput all this like more effort
into like editing and lightingand camera works and stuff, but
they did this whole movie everymoment Is I could just be a like
a masterclass in like lighting,cinematography and so on.
(17:42):
But yeah, I think because ofhow well technically it was
executed, it helped to To keepme focused and engaged
throughout the story.
And I guess just one specificexample that we can talk about
with the editing Just alsobringing it back to just on top
of how well this movie wasexecuted narratively, just how
(18:04):
well it was executed on atechnical level as well.
Do you remember, like in theclimax of the movie, when Tim
finally finds the girl and thenhe's having to fight off the
Scorpion, how he tells the girlto close her eyes?
And then in the editing it'sjust like this the screen keeps
on blacking out and stuff, yeah,and it's like, and every time
(18:27):
she opens her eyes she only seeglimpses of the ensuing struggle
and then when she closes hereyes again, we're only just left
with the muffled sounds ofstruggles and fighting and stuff
.
And there's lots of like othermoments like that throughout the
movie as well.
It's not to that high ofattention, but just always that
constant on the edge of yourseats, kind of like dread.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
It's putting you in a really uncomfortable seat.
You're in the seat of the childbeing in this traumatic
situation.
It's like you're strapped in.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
You're strapped in, you're in their point of view.
Yeah, exactly just Masterclassin editing throughout, building
up tension, you know, towardsthe climax and everything.
It's just all those littlemoments like that.
It's just again makes me wonderhow in the world did they do
this with the budget that theyhad to?
Yeah, to make the audiencereally just so tense, you know
(19:20):
God, and you make you fear foryou know People's safety as well
, and to make you so emotionallyinvested in everyone honestly,
when I was watching at the wholetime I was like oh my god, is
he gonna get through this yeah?
Speaker 1 (19:36):
exactly like I've seen so many horror movies that
never make me feel like that,but this movie made me Like
squint, like I was just in myseat In dread I was feeling
anxiety when you're watchingmovies like the Exorcist and all
those supernatural Shit kind ofhorror films.
(19:59):
The Exorcist is a good movie,but I'm saying like nowadays, a
lot of horror films they justrely on jump scares and stuff
like that and it's hard to takeon the the supernatural horror
elements because it's not real.
Yeah, it doesn't feel real.
It always feels like you canescape through the guise of
(20:20):
knowing that it's supernatural.
Yeah but in this film it's sogrounded in realism that you
feel like there's no escapingthis harsh reality.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
You know it happened it actually kind of happen.
I mean, creative liberty istaken here and there, but that
it actually happens, yeah, andthat it's not fake.
It's not the supernatural thingthat your brains, even despite
how scared you are when watchinghorror movies, you still have
that tiny knowledge that this isnot real.
But then here, this Reality iswhat's scary, and that's, I
(20:50):
think, is what made thatblacking out scene so tense.
You know, yeah, and just lots ofmoments like that.
I think also to just likeimplied action as well, when the
ex cartel it's like talkingabout doing the deed with
somebody he thought was age 25but turned out to be like at
(21:10):
least half that age, let's justput it that way and how much
earlier that person had starteddoing the deed that I just
visibly went like, oh god.
It's just just that dread oflike, wow, this is, this is what
takes place in this one.
(21:32):
You know the underbelly of thisworld, and just how just
Learning that fact makes me so ICan see a Monologue like that
being used in a film and itmeans nothing.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
I Can see something like that just being inserted
for the sake of controversy orto stir up attention, but in
this movie it has a clear point.
It's for this characters arclike to help us sympathize with
them and and understand whythey're involved, to understand
their motivation For how they'vechanged their life around.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Yeah, the shock value serves a purpose for us to get
behind, like why he's nowwanting to reform himself, you
know, seeking redemption.
Yeah, I agree, I agree therewas one scene in particular.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I wasn't so much from an editing standpoint, but the
performance is involved.
Jim Caveso has this very toughjob of Having to pretend he's
one of these elites.
That's part of the childtrafficking.
Yes, in order to catch andarrest the actual criminals, and
there was one scene inparticular where they're on this
(22:42):
island and all the childrenhave been brought in on the
boats and one of the head,hancho's head criminal, he's
saying that he wants to.
You know, take the child awayand One child in particular, one
child in particular, and Timballad stops him and plays it
(23:04):
off like he's one of them.
Plays it off like as if to sayno, no, no, no, I'm going to be
with the job.
I want to take this one.
It's so hard to describe thisshit without it.
I guess the point is TimBallard's character is
protecting the child while alsomaintaining the guys that he is
(23:24):
one of these sex traffickers.
And it was so well done theperformance from Jim Caviesel of
holding back the horror andrealizing that he has to play
undercover so well because thischild's life is at stake.
Like, imagine being anundercover cop and if you fuck
(23:46):
this up and they see throughyour disguise, you die, but not
just you.
The child dies, and theemotional stakes that were going
on and seeing them play out inthat scene through the
performances of all three actorsinvolved was phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Having to pretend to enjoy doing what they do.
That eats your way and that wasportrayed so well.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
That would eat your conscience.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Yes because you're pretending you have to smile
through it.
And just acting to that caliberman.
That demonstrates youunderstand your character to the
tenth degree.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
That's incredible.
Layers, layers upon layers,that's just layers upon layers,
where you're not just a good guy, you're a good guy pretending
to be a bad guy, but you cannotbe caught out.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
There's too much at stake.
That was the same that got meFrom an acting standpoint right,
Just how well they do it.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Yeah, and I guess just the way things escalate.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Yeah Well, I mean, I talk about editing taking over
with the Kuleshov effect andeverything.
It's about what you read intothe actors and all that.
This is one of the rareexceptions where the performance
sold itself.
There was no editing trickeryneeded.
It just needed for the camerato just linger and just let the
(25:19):
play out, or to see the lack ofaction happen on screen for the
audience's mind to go racing.
You know about what could behappening behind closed doors.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
I guess it's like what you said earlier Sometimes
just having the scene play outthat little bit longer, making
it more uncomfortable, lingeringon certain shots, having the
tension build, having thoseuncomfortable pauses, all of
those things that build thattension, and you're like when's
(25:48):
it going to be released?
Speaker 2 (25:50):
And then it's like, yeah, and especially because
it's what actually happened aswell, and I just knew we were
going to be in for a ride, likeat the very beginning, like when
they were pretending to takethe kids in for auditions and
then they closed the door, butthen that shot lingers for a
long time to really build the.
(26:10):
Something feels off here, gutfeeling, you know straight away.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
You can hear it and you can tell something is wrong.
But you're kind of hoping it'snot going to happen.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Yeah, but something in your gut, you know, please.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
It's not going to happen that things go
differently and then when theydon't, you're like it's tough.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
I knew it, but I had hoped with all the, every fiber
of my being that it wouldn'tcome to be.
But it came to be, and justthat ethereal music once again.
Yeah, it sets the.
It sets like a somber tone, butI put it up if I'm able to find
it on the internet.
But just just, it's just amixture of like hopelessness and
(26:56):
hope at the same time, becausein the beginning it sets off
that like something's going togo wrong and in the ending it's
it's used again, but this timeit it lists, it's like feelings
of hope to it.
It's a very mixed bag.
It sounds incredible, soothingto the ears, but did you get
that kind of like mixed emotion?
It's used in scenes like,especially when on the island,
(27:20):
the 50 plus kids which in reallife was like, as you said, 200
kids, like they played that bit.
So it's it's oxymoronic, Iguess it's both.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
I guess the music suits both tones depending on
what you see visually, but it'sthe music's able to kind of
blend in with what's going onand suit either either mood.
Because, it's such well createdmusic that it can apply to both
the the euphoric kind of theinspiring hopefulness and also
(27:55):
the absolute dread.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Yeah, what I got out of hearing that piece was that
it was both of thosesimultaneously.
That's, that's something.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Yeah, that's to create music like that.
That's phenomenal.
But I mean, I guess it helpsthat this film has a massive
like sense of purpose behind it.
Automatically, when you, whenyou look at a film like this,
it's so hard to compare to othermovies out there like that are
(28:26):
just generic and they never staywith you.
You feel like they're justnothingness.
It's like a McDonald's HappyMeal you eat it and you forget
about it.
The sound of freedom primarilyserves the purpose of raising
awareness about the criticalissue of child trafficking.
Its whole goal is to inform andinspire viewers and I believe
(28:48):
it's succeeded in that mission.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Yeah, and I think just like something that helps
to really sell that and for usto get behind the premise.
Also, too, is sound designmusic, just like I was so
enraptured by ethereal choirmusic, you know, when they're
singing the sound of freedom,like that opening shot with the
girl.
Oh, by the way, I really likethis attention to detail where
(29:13):
the opening shot is the reverseof the ending shot.
What would you call that shot?
A crane?
Speaker 1 (29:19):
in crane, in dolly in , dolly out, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Yeah, it's so as the way to you know, neatly tie up,
you know, beginning and end ofthe movie.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Well, that's what I mean.
Like there's there's visualmotifs and there's a sense of
like cyclical, like everything'scoming back to cyclical, where
it ended, and you just feel likeeverything has a purpose in
this movie.
You feel like every bit ofdialogue.
Nothing is wasted.
I felt like no time, no cuts.
Nothing is wasted in this.
I'm so used to seeing filmsthat are just all bullshit
(29:50):
bloated two and a half hours andthey could be an hour and 40
minutes, but with this it feltlike everything needed to be
there.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Yeah, and certainly those long movies.
You can already feel, during,even during the viewing of that
session, certain scenes that youfelt like this is just padding.
Yeah, for me it did.
There were some times where Ifelt like this movie, oh wow,
it's still going, it's stillgoing.
But then I just remember ohit's, it's, it's to do with the
fact that you know the battle iswon.
But you know, something elsecomplicates the matter.
(30:20):
Yeah, so that's what keeps theconflict going.
You're constantly, you know, onthe edge of your seat wondering
wow, now this, now it's justsomething has upped the ante
even more.
How is Tim going to resolvethis new thing that's popped up
now?
You're so emotionally investedfrom early on.
You're invested to see how he,you know, triumphs over
(30:42):
impossible odds.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
You also want to see him rescue this child's sister.
Yeah, and you feel like there'seven a moment when the famous
sting operation happens wherehe's not really happy, he's not
really celebrating that victory,even though he saved like 50,
apparently in real life it was200 kids.
Damn In that operation, butthey had to change it for budget
(31:05):
reasons, so they shortened itand that makes the real life
story all the more impressive.
Oh, so all the more humbling.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Wow.
So it's like he's still notjust.
But despite the large amount ofkids he's rescued, he's still
not content.
Yeah, there's always one more,there's going to be one more,
and then he's like never endinguphill battle for him.
But yeah, he doesn't see likehis achievements.
He never rests on his laurethsbecause he's always raising the
(31:32):
bar for himself.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Because it's always the thought of yes, I rescued 50
kids, but there's a millionother kids that still need to be
saved.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
That are still in trouble.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
There's a million other parents that are like
scrambling gone nuts, that don'thave their children lying in
their bedrooms at night.
And I guess we see that becauseTim Ballard is a father who has
a bunch of children and hereally loves.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Yeah, what if it was my kid, you know?
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Yeah, like you see him go through that in his mind
of if this was my child, I woulddo whatever it takes.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
So I'm going to do whatever it takes for this
person's child and I think thatthis film they also then made us
care for the characters byshowing what motivates them to
well on this noble quest.
Even, like down to thatex-cartel guy when he asked him
so why are you doing this?
And then, when he revealed hisreasons, yeah, it's like it made
(32:28):
, you know, it made everyone,just so, I don't know, we could
like get behind their cause.
Yeah, it's like because, yeah,by default, of course you know,
like fight against injustice,yeah, but really, what's your
personal motivations for doingthis?
And then, when they had thosescenes where you just sit down
and have a dialogue back andforth, that that's when the
(32:49):
movie really sold me that theseare Well realized, well fleshed
out characters.
Of course, yeah, you know,taken from the real life
scenarios, but like they tookthe time to then for us to
explore, like, what happened tothem in the past.
And the ex cartel guy islooking to Make good on his
failures in the past.
You know he's seekingredemption.
Because you always want to,despite how defaults that you
(33:12):
know fighting against evil is,you still Need your, your
protagonists and you'resupporting cast of characters to
have like a personal stake init.
You know, and they showed thatthe theirs was a cause that we
could get behind.
It, you know, made them feel sohuman, but the film also
managed to show the thestruggles for people in that
(33:35):
situation.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
These people that work in trying to protect
children from trafficking andTaking down sexual predators and
sex offenders.
They show that, like the psyche, the emotional damage that
these people take on by havingto go through these
Investigations and the toll thatit takes on them having to comb
(33:58):
through evidence, that's reallydisturbing.
But you have to because someonehas to do that.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Yeah, he who stares, you know, into the darkness, you
know finds a Like the darknessstares back into him and then
just to see them Constantlypushing that down to not let the
corruption overwhelm them andto stay true to their integrity,
yeah, it never gives up.
And you touch on this as well.
Just, this is a very, very ahard character to Portray you're
(34:29):
, because, as an actor you're,there's a lot of layers that
you're having to bring to screenwith, like, the subtlest of,
like eye twitches and andshaking lips and so on, and body
language.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
You know what I was thinking.
I cannot do for the life of me,you know watching this movie
Noticing the stillness and justthe presence of Jim Carvaisal.
I think that guy could playBatman.
Hmm, like he would be anawesome Bruce Wayne.
I think he has that brooding.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
When you look into his eyes, you see that there's
pain Underneath that he tries tocome off as stoic, but you can
see he's hurting deep down.
Yeah, especially right, yes.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
The few moments when, when Jim Carvaisal's character,
when Tim ballad, sheds tears,or when he's just overwhelmed
with grief and he has to Takeoff that that stoic mask, you,
you feel it like, you feelcompelled to To shed a tear as
well.
You just feel his pain.
You, you can understand whathe's going through.
(35:28):
Nothing has to be said, though.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Yeah, it's just again again show, don't tell, show,
don't tell.
Exactly.
A man can only burden so muchon his shoulders before he just
breaks.
Exactly.
And actually speaking of actingas well, just the, the little,
the little kid that he rescuesthe first time around at the
mexico us Border crossing, it'sjust like, so I don't know just
(35:51):
a realization of like the amountof mental torment the kid went
through through.
Just like subtle acting and anddialogue.
That it's just like.
That is acting like wow.
When, when Tim asked what'syour name and the kid replies
with teddy bear, my mind justgoes racing.
(36:12):
It's like wow.
That it's like the damage hasbeen done.
It's like, oh, my god, that'sgot sinking feeling off.
Just worst part for me.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
It's like the damage has been done, oh no, even if
you save these children fromthis horrifying ordeal, there's
still the matter of the traumaThey've already gone through.
What suffering have theyalready?
Can they be helped?
Can they rise above that thathorrifying ordeal?
How do they Go back to a normallife after something horrifying
(36:46):
, something so traumatic?
Yeah, so that's why you'refeeling of helplessness.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
It's just like I don't think these kids can ever
be.
They're innocent past selves.
Again, that loss of innocence,again the heart sinking feeling
of helplessness about it, yeah,and also it's just really sold
on.
I don't know how they directedthat kid to just give such like
raw emotions, like shedding atear, realizing he's, you know,
(37:11):
finally saved from From that guy.
Just yeah, because you knowchild acting, directing children
, and that's that's a herculeantask, that's hard, and so having
props to the, you know thedirectors, you know props to all
, all the child actors in thisfilm.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Are they all knocked it out of the park?
Yes, I feel that the the filmdoes not feel like it's
exploiting these children at all.
No, it never comes across asexploitive of them and you can
see that, especially momentswhen the children are held
captive and they know thatthey're they're just.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
And then yeah, yeah, and then you show the beginnings
of the act.
Like you know, adult and I wasmore taken by how how
uncomfortable the adult actorswould have been as well because
they're having to initiate thebeginnings of a very Violent act
.
You know, like the unbucklingof the belts, or like the
closing of window curtains andthe editing as well, just
(38:11):
letting the camera stay for anuncomfortable 10 plus seconds
just to for us to sink in.
The unspeakable Is nowhappening.
Then cut to.
You know, girl crying in showersort of thing to show.
You know, the unspeakable deedhas been done.
Just my god.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Everyone's acting is just a, done as respectfully as
possible it does make you think,as an actor, that would be a
very tough task to be.
Like you have to be.
You have to play the most evil,the most reprehensible by all
kind of character.
And to not play it in a waywhere it's over the top or
cartoonish, like you have tostill make it seem believable
(38:53):
that this is a real life kind ofevil that's really in the world
.
That's phenomenal acting, andwithout those actors Playing
those parts that you know, maybenot everyone's gonna want to be
known for playing those kind ofparts.
But you got to appreciate theeffort that was put in the
(39:14):
investment on their end.
Yeah, for everyone involved,like every actor, not just acted
, the, the whole production.
Obviously, to make a film likethis, where you don't know
what's gonna happen, you're notreally getting support from
marketing or promotion, you'vegot barely a budget.
And for them to rise above it,you've also got critics that are
(39:39):
Tearing the movie apart for thewrong reasons, purely to save
themselves politically, which Idon't.
We'll get into that, but Idon't understand it.
The way I see it, this filmdoes not have a political agenda
.
It is just trying to raiseawareness of an issue that
(40:01):
should be dealt with.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Yeah, it ties back to .
It's like somebody has to bethe watchdog, to be the one
chasing after these, like youknow, sex trafficking rings and
so on.
It's someone has to do it.
And so, to the same degree,some film company has to be the
one to bring to life and realizethis in order to raise
awareness, knowing all thebacklash that they're going to
(40:24):
receive, like you know, actorsand people behind people, in
front of the camera and behindthe camera.
So the making of this kind of,you know, parallels the yeah, it
parallels, you know, the taskthat nobody wants to do.
I think the making of this film.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
I feel like there could even be a documentary
further down the track of justhow this film got made.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
All the naysayers behind you know.
Apparently this was a.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Fox film and it was made like five years ago.
Yeah, it was in production kindof hell of getting finished and
distributed because Disney thenbought Fox.
Disney probably didn't want torelease the film and felt it
wouldn't fit with their brandingand just wanted to keep
releasing all the shittysuperhero movies instead.
(41:11):
So, yeah, that that's a wholeinteresting issue.
Yeah, that would be great tolook into of, like, how this
movie got made on such a lowbudget compared to other
Hollywood movies.
What was involved?
Did actors have to invest theirown money?
We usually hear stuff like thathappening.
Wouldn't surprise me.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
Yeah, again, the comfortable ignorance or the
unvarnished truth.
This is a story that has to betold, Otherwise, you know,
without the awareness of it,evil will persist.
Can't turn a blind eye.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
Yeah, it is disappointing to note that Sound
of Freedom didn't receive themarketing or promotion it
deserved from Hollywood.
The only reason I know aboutthis film is because of YouTube.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
really, it's hard to get sort of consumerism or the
economic incentives behind themarketing and stuff too, because
this is a movie that is notexisting for like financial
gains and stuff.
This is a public awareness sortof piece.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
That's why I'm so shocked that there was like
controversy about it.
When I looked at reviews for it, it was such a massive
difference between audiencereviews and actual critic
reviews.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
And like how they were describing the movie.
Yeah, the critics were justlike.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
So what were they saying?
They were just like oh, it'scomplete shit, blah, blah, blah,
actings, terrible.
Like you had one end of thespectrum and then you had a
completely opposite end.
Critics were not in between.
They were either reallyshitting on the movie or thought
it was the best thing ever.
And then when you looked ataudience reviews, they were all
(42:51):
unanimously like giving the.
It got a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
Oh, man, I hate to say it, but like those, if the
shoe fits those who protest theloudest, I'm just saying Well, I
just don't know what.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Unless, I don't see anything bad from a story point
of view the acting, anythinglike that I don't understand how
you could rate it so low orthink it's a terrible movie.
Of course, like you can say youdon't like the movie, that's
not.
Like I wouldn't say to criticsout there, like YouTuber critics
(43:27):
or anything like oh, if youhate the movie, you're part of
the problem, Like you're allowedto not like the movie.
I'm just saying I thought it wasa bit fishy that critics were
either completely loving themovie or completely hating it
and that there was such a hugedifference between audiences and
critics.
When I see that big of adifference, I usually think to
(43:51):
myself something's not right.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
Yeah, they'll doft protest too much.
Exactly, some things are amiss.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
Like maybe they didn't get paid off enough.
Maybe the critics didn't getpaid enough by the studio
because there wasn't a budget topay off the critics to give
great reviews.
Maybe they had issues, becauseI don't know.
People were saying the moviewas right.
I'm like the movie's not rightor left, it's just dealing with
an issue.
I don't see any of that in thisfilm, so I don't understand all
(44:20):
of that.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
Yeah, it's getting conspiratorial.
It's like about is it that itcomes from?
It comes from higher up, wheresome people from the top don't
want a certain widespread youknow awareness of certain
contentious issues to be outthere and therefore does a bit
of 4D chess to then stifleconversations around a topic
(44:44):
that has to be discussed.
It's tinfoil-y, conspiratorial,I know, but just if the shoe
fits, man, if the shoe fits, I'mjust saying yeah, I just don't
get it, but I'm glad to have tohave watched this film or and to
know this film exists at all.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
You know, yeah, just for every person that watches
this, they're going to be moreinformed, they're going to know
more about this.
They might want to researchwhat actually happened, find out
what's real, what's not, andthat's that's going to make a
difference.
Yeah, but the fact that I wasseeing news outlets kind of
saying like it's a conspiracy,they're trying to drag this
movie, you know, through the mud.
(45:21):
Yeah, I just don't know why,other than the obvious people in
positions of high power tryingto stop the message being
spreaded.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
You know, probably trying to, it struck a nerve
with some of these top people,maybe again tinfoil-y
conspiratorial, I know.
I'm just saying you know, thosewho wants to stifle a certain
messaging, they've got bones intheir closets, exactly.
So yeah, I'm just saying, man,I guess it's also skeletons in
their closets, it's also certainpeople in that world thinking
(45:54):
ignorance is bliss.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
I don't want to know that this stuff happens, I just
want to turn the blind eye.
And it's like this movie issaying, no, you're going to
fucking know about it.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
Yeah, and the mid-cred scene, you know,
acknowledges as well Exactly,this has to be.
This is a message that has tobe heard.
Get people talking about it,including you know, this very
podcast, you know.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
Yeah, I mean there were.
There were reviewers I wasseeing and people were
commenting applauding them fordoing the review because they
thought they weren't going to doit because of the subject
matter, and I was kind ofshocked because this was
probably one of the better filmsI've watched this year.
Speaker 2 (46:31):
Oh yeah, even if not for like the subject matter of
it all, just like completelyenamored by how technically well
executed this film was.
And again, just to emphasize, Iam so shocked you told me this
was $14 million budget.
Look it up, far out you wouldthink this is a multi like
(46:51):
hundred million dollarproduction, with the amount of.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
It makes sense, though, because it would have a
small budget, because no onewants to kind of fund this, and
it makes sense because itdoesn't have the marketing
behind it.
But thanks to YouTube, socialmedia and whatnot, a film like
this can still be marketeddespite the low budget.
One of the things that the filmskillfully did was juxtaposing
(47:18):
these horrifying moments withmoments of euphoric celebration.
You got the inspiring with thetraumatic.
Speaker 2 (47:26):
For me, though, they felt like it was mostly very
depressing of a movie, and thenthe moments of celebration are
very short lived.
The movie, very soon after it,reminds you that the war rages
on.
There is no time to celebrate.
(47:48):
We see that in Tim's innerconflict as well, so I never
felt like there was a moment tofeel happy.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
No, I couldn't allow myself to.
There are small moments whereyou have a little bit of time to
celebrate the victory.
Speaker 2 (48:02):
But it just felt as a viewer, as an audience, that I
can't allow myself to feel happybecause it's just a drop in the
bucket.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
Knowing that it's a real life issue means that you
might not, as an audience member, be able to be like.
I can go home feeling goodabout that, because you just saw
all these stats at the end ofthe movie saying how this is a
very real issue that's stillongoing.
So, like you said, the warrages on.
So you can't exactly go homeafter watching this movie, you
can't relax, but that's thewhole point.
(48:33):
You're not meant to.
Speaker 2 (48:35):
You have to keep on going, but I will say there was
like, at the very least therewas one scene that offered a
moment of levity, where theywere practicing greeting that
Miss Columbia, or whatever thatmodel.
They were practicing undercovertactics for when they meet with
these traffickers, and I waslike, okay, hello, oh, I see
(49:00):
your is like I think the kiss isis a bit much.
And then I, for that moment, Ifelt it was okay to laugh.
It was okay to just like letloose all this tension that's
been built up for like over halfthe movie.
It's like it's okay to justokay, let's get some, let's get
some humor back in.
It's not all serious, or DebbieDowners and stuff.
(49:21):
Let's just, let's just laughabout something.
Speaker 1 (49:24):
It's so hard to give the audience permission to let
out a chuckle, a bit of levitywhen it's something so heavy
Because it feels inappropriateto laugh for a movie like this.
Speaker 2 (49:36):
But then that one scene, I felt it was, it was, it
was all right we needed.
We needed that like light atthe end of the tunnel.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
It wasn't like that.
I really wasn't like a Marvelsuperhero movie where they just
undercut every dramaticemotional moment with so this is
the bad guy right.
Looks like this is going to bea big job.
Yeah, no, no characterassassinations, you know, they
just look at the fucking cameraand like, yeah, yeah, this movie
(50:05):
restored my faith in like, newmovies being good yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:11):
And well, actually it's technically not new,
because it was made forever ago,and then you know through a
change of leadership, you know,getting lost in a shuffle and
somehow has wormed its way outto our own, it's way out to our
screens.
I mean time will tell,distribution wise, what happens
to this movie if this gets youknow, buried by executives for
(50:32):
various reasons.
Speaker 1 (50:34):
Whoever tried to bury it didn't do a good enough job
because we were able to watch itand the sound of freedom is not
an easy watch, but is essentialfor understanding real life,
global and social issues.
It offers a thought provokingmessage instead of I don't know
me virtue signaling.
Speaker 2 (50:56):
Yeah, the whole time you watch it, if you feel like a
dementor has like absorbed allthe happiness out of you, but
something within you, somethingprimal, compels you to just like
keep on watching, to see thisscenario play out.
You feel, I guess, a sense ofduty to just see this to the end
, despite how uncomfortable youget.
(51:17):
You have to confront theuncomfortable reality and just
yeah, the same with like reallife.
Speaker 1 (51:25):
I mean, if you, if you were in a war, you have to
keep going and not to say thatthe film is like war or anything
.
But sometimes in life you haveto confront the harsh realities
and that the world's not perfect.
There are issues still going on.
We can, we can't blindourselves into thinking that the
(51:48):
world is one way when it's not.
Speaker 2 (51:50):
And again, you know, ends on a hopeful note for us to
like a quarter action.
You can be as idealistic as youwant, but you also, you know,
have to.
What's that for be the changeyou want to see in the world?
Speaker 1 (52:02):
But yeah, Well, what do?
What do you write the sound offreedom out of, out of five?
Speaker 2 (52:10):
I mean quite easily, quite easily a four.
Yeah, I'd say four out of five,or four or four point five.
The only only thing that takesa few points away is just like,
well, the how harsh matter.
Speaker 1 (52:23):
The harsh subject matter.
Speaker 2 (52:26):
It's you know, the lack of mass market appeal of it
.
So that knocks it down a fewpegs.
What else?
I think I guess the length ofthe movie as well.
But like all these points, allthese things that takes points
away, for me they're kind of Iguess the best way to phrase it
is like necessary evils, like it.
The movie had to be as long asit was because to showcase just
(52:49):
how long of a journey it tookTim to get back to girl and so
on and just how many things likecomplicates the matter and has
and results in him constantlyhaving to fight an uphill battle
as well.
And again with the lack of massmarket appeal, because, well,
it had to be an uncomfortablemovie.
So it's in a way, had to be animperfect movie.
(53:12):
That's where I can put it.
It's not perfect, because that'skind of.
That's kind of the point, Iguess to put it.
Speaker 1 (53:20):
Yeah, like it's not going to be a movie that you
just watch at any time, like I'min the mood for yeah, that's
the other thing I don't.
I don't see myself wanting tosee this multiple times.
The only reason I'd want towatch this again is to show
someone.
I was talking about the filmwith my partner and when I told
(53:42):
her about it I could tell shewas really interested in seeing
it.
I would watch it again just tosee how it affects her, because,
watching it to spread themessage, yet to spread the
message, but also because I knowshe's someone who's very
passionate about social issuesand social issues and like human
suffering and those type ofthings.
(54:03):
So, being that, I went to seethe film by myself.
It would be interesting to seehow other people react.
Can they handle theuncomfortable nature, or can it
be too much for some people?
That that intrigues me, yeah.
Speaker 2 (54:19):
So unfortunately, I will have to knock the score
down a few pegs, because this isnot a movie you watch for
entertainment, it's your movieyou watch to be educated and to
spread awareness of you know.
So I'm still on.
Okay, let's just say 4.5 out of5.
Speaker 1 (54:37):
Yeah, I'm going to say I'm going to give the sound
of freedom 4.5 out of 5.
It's an absolute, incrediblyimportant film that left a
profound impact on me personally.
It's ability to convey acrucial message about child
trafficking, while maintaininghigh quality storytelling and
(54:58):
cinematography, is commendable.
It's a stark reminder thatbudget size doesn't necessarily
equate to outstandingentertainment, especially
nowadays, with all the horribletrash that's just pumped out of
the Hollywood machine.
This film served as a powerfulcall to action for a pressing
(55:20):
issue that needs our attention.
It has rekindled myappreciation for films with a
clear purpose and message,reminding me of the true
potential of cinema.
Performance is a phenomenal.
It's not going to be acomfortable watch, but it's
definitely going to be a filmthat stays with you long after
the credits roll, and I thinkthat means a lot.
(55:43):
So, yeah, that's our thoughtson the sound of freedom.
We'd love to know what youthink.
Comment below, let us know.
Did you like the sound offreedom?
If not, let us know why.
And please like, share andsubscribe for more content like
this.
Speaker 2 (56:02):
Hey guys, later, watch this movie, however we can
, if it's available at yournearby cinema at all.
We really have to like, becauseif you don't search for this
movie, it won't pop up in yourrecommended.
Don't listen to the critics,just judge this movie for
yourself, and that's the mostimportant part.
It's like yeah, don't go inwith this movie with any
(56:24):
preconceived bias as well, andyou might be in for a surprise,
you know I was in for a surprise, you know, $14 million Looked
like a multi-hundred milliondollar movie production value
alone.
But yeah, anyways, yeah, take iteasy guys, Watch this movie
Watch this movie.
Hey everyone, and welcome to another podcast of
Movies Worth Seeing.
I'm your host, michaelPichonery, joined by Martin Jung
, videographer, video editor,the man, the myth, the legend,
whatever you want to call him.
Join me for a heavy episodetoday.
Today, we are reviewing thesound of freedom.
(00:21):
What is the sound of freedom?
Apparently, not a lot of peopleknow about this movie, because
this film seems to be steeped incontroversy due to its heavy
subject matter.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I didn't know this movie existed until Michael told
me to come on to do this review.
I was like, what is this movie?
Then, once I watched it, I wasin.
I was yeah, well, just to jumpahead of it very blown away by
it.
And then after the ending I wasleft wondering why is no one
talking about this?
(00:54):
I've never heard of it.
And okay, it's a slight spoiler, but mid-credits scene does
acknowledge yeah, there's likezero marketing.
But I mean, thinking back, it'skind of obvious why.
It's the subject matter alonethat just makes it unmarketable.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Before we get into it , we better let the audience
know what this movie is, becausethis film has had no marketing
other than people saying it'scontroversial, it's offensive,
it's alt-rights and whatever thefuck people in Hollywood are
saying, which is all a bunch ofbullshit.
But the sound of freedom starsJim Caviesal, whose most famous
(01:30):
role was playing Jesus Christ inthe Passion of Christ directed
by Mel Gibson.
You know, interestingly, jimCaviesal JC Jesus Christ and he
got the role at 27.
He was playing Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ was meant to be 27at the age of the story.
Wow, it was almost meant to be.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
And Mel.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Gibson actually warned Jim Caviesal this might
fuck up your career.
Just so you know because,you're playing Jesus Christ and
this might piss people off andunfortunately we haven't seen a
lot from Jim Caviesal.
I don't know if he's, if he hasbeen other films and I'm just
not aware of it.
TV series.
Yeah, I know him from filmsbefore the Passion of the Christ
(02:16):
, but I don't know a lot of hisfilmography after the Passion of
the Christ, so it could be truethat the role did affect his
career.
But it's great to see him backin this film because he's
phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
But now it's like history has a funny way of
repeating itself right now in my, in yet another controversial
theme being the lead actor yeah,controversial theme.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Film controversial film.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Fair enough.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Just wanted to make sure I heard that right.
I thought it maybe it was likean artistic term or something
that I wasn't aware of from likefilm school or something.
This is Le film you know, likewhen they end like an artsy film
and it's like Finn instead ofthe oh yeah, finn, finn, oh yeah
, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
And it's always in like italic letters and fonts
and stuff.
Yeah, yeah, I don't know wherewe were going with that.
Anyways.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
The Sound of Freedom is about Tim Ballard.
He's working in home security.
He specializes in taking downsex offenders.
I don't know if I can say theword, the P word.
Will that affect anything onYouTube?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yeah, it's always, it's always tricky.
See, we're already getting likemired in, like what we can say
and so on.
It's like well to do with.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
I don't know why that's so.
It's like underage people.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Let's just put it that way.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
I don't know why that's Like, why you can't even
say the word.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
It's always like this , this barrier of like.
Do you want the comfortable lieor the unvarnished truth sort
of thing?
Do you want to, like you know,turn a blind eye towards the
realities of the world?
And let's live in comfortablecomplacency, which I think this
movie definitely gets to theheart of.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Well, the whole point of this movie is that ignorance
is not bliss.
Exactly, you can't be ignorantabout certain issues.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
You have to confront it head on and acknowledge it's
real.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah we have to acknowledge that it's real and,
like this film, deals with childtrafficking, a very serious
issue that this film juststraightaway shows you sets the
tone by showing you actualfootage of children being
kidnapped, snatched.
Yes, yes and it sets the tonefor this horrifying reality that
(04:29):
we live in, where this is areal issue in the world, and
right from the get go.
This film is an uncomfortablewatch, but necessary.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Exactly, yeah, no, but I will say I think it, given
the how heavy the subjectmatter is, they still I could
feel that they made as mucheffort to depict the scenarios
as respectfully, as humanlypossible.
Still, Because these are, youknow, graphic things that happen
.
So they'll just like implythings or talk about it and they
(05:00):
, well, they definitely didn'texplicitly like explicitly show
on camera.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
So there's so much that you can really push the
boundaries, I mean from the getgo of the story, the way the
narrative unfolds in this.
Right from the start, we seeTim Ballard taking down an
actual sex offender, predator,who has access to files Of
various children that have beentrafficked.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah, trafficking rings and getting it mired into
you know all the networks and soon.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah, and he imprisons this guy and then he
actually like, pretends to behis friend and develop trust,
which is like some A levelacting where you have a guy
who's pretending to be someonehe's not to try and fool an
actual vile evil criminal intothinking that they're not,
(05:54):
they're not, into thinking thatthey're the same.
That requires some someincredible acting to try and
convince the villain that I'm onthe same team as you.
And you can almost see it inJim Caviesal's eyes, like his
masking.
It's so hard to explain.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
And also just masterful direction and
storytelling as well.
Thankfully, it's like amomentary sigh of relief when we
see afterwards that when, whenthe mask comes off, that he, he
splashes himself.
He splashes himself with waterjust to get himself back to
reality.
Okay, he's not someone that's,like you know, compromised.
His ideal was integrated,something he's still Tim.
(06:33):
Underneath and and throughoutthe movie there was just a lot
of like show don't tell sort ofexecutions, where we commonly
criticize movies for just havingzero subtext and it's like what
you see, what you say is whatthey mean, but this movie they,
they just you know it was sogood just to see that tried and
(06:55):
tested show don't tell approach,Like for little things, like
showing that he adopts kids andso on, and and then once again,
like I said, like him splashinghimself to get himself back.
But, yeah, just throughout thiswhole movie where it just
doesn't stay overstay.
It's welcome.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
There's visual with visuals Like.
This film uses visual motifs.
There's lots of subtexts.
There's minimal dialogue.
There's music and editing beingused to convey messages.
It's not something where everycharacter says exactly what
they're doing.
You can read between the linesof the dialogue and there's a
(07:32):
lot of times in this movie like.
This movie isn't really ratedlike MA or anything, considering
the harsh subject matter.
What is the rating actually?
I believe it's like M really,which shocked me.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Wow, that is surprisingly low.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
But when I think about it, they did such a good
job of not having to showanything graphically horrifying.
Everything in this film thatwas uncomfortable was implied to
the audience.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
You just internalizing the horrific
reality of it all.
Well like when it's in playingin your head.
That's what makes it all themore.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
One of the particular scene that I thought was very
well done was there's a scenewhere Tim Ballard is actually
looking at footage of childrenbeing mistreated off a computer
screen and instead of the filmshowing us this horrifying stuff
(08:33):
, they just have a close up onTim Ballard's face, his eyes and
his eyes.
You just see the reflection ofthe computer screen in his eyes
and you're seeing tears streamdown his face.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yeah, the reflection is still opaque and stuff.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
And you see him starting to type out the
explicit details in words, likewhat happens, like second by
second, and I like when moviessort of like lets the audience
fill in the blanks, yeah, yeah,so you don't provide the answer.
It's like the audience alreadyknows.
Like the rest of the details.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
It's kind of like similar in monster movies, how
you hide the monster until rightat the end, like you let the
audience interpret all thehorrifying stuff, because the
mind is always like theimagination of the mind is
always going to be much betterthan whatever's shown.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
And that's what's all the more horrific than if they
just showed what happened.
The mind goes awry.
All the vivid details, the mosthorrible things you can imagine
is just playing out here andnot there.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
And because you know it's children's lives at stake,
it adds so much emotional weightto everything.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Yeah, it's like the loss of innocence that hits hard
.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
And I had tears at times.
In this movie there were eitherlike either had one stream of a
teardrop coming or I felt likeI was on the verge of, but I was
shaking in my seat.
Watching this movie I feltuncomfortable at times.
I felt scared and anxiouswhenever certain characters were
(10:25):
in danger, because just seeingchildren in danger like is hard
for me to watch.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
It hits something like deep down in our human
nature, something deep down inour very nature yearns for to
see the children being protectedand just to let see them their
innocence and their smile andtheir joy play out, and to know
that that's being robbed of them.
Something hits us deep down,our most primal fears, even if
(10:58):
we're not parents.
It's just natural.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
And if I was a parent , I don't know if I could watch
this movie.
I mean becoming a parent wouldprobably change you and you
would look at things sodifferently.
Watching a film like this, likethe sound of freedom, reminded
me of another film called ransom, which starred Mel Gibson,
ironically, and it showedexactly the emotional turmoil of
(11:27):
parents when their child iskidnapped and when they feel
powerless to save them.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Yeah, yeah, always these there's always like these
movies where it's like it's justsuch a Debbie down and it's
objectively a really good movie.
But this is one of those moviesyou really have to be in the
mood for, to be depressed, yeah,and just like spend the rest of
a day Just like pretty muchdoing nothing else, cuz like,
after you watch this you won'tbe in the mood to just go out on
(11:55):
anything, but it stays with you.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah, yeah you can't just be like I'm gonna watch the
sound of freedom and then go towet and wild or some shit,
exactly.
But yeah, stays with you.
I felt all these feelings ofGratefulness that you know my
childhood was great, that I thatI didn't have to Suffer like
the children in in the film,like you feel this gratefulness
that you're you haven't beenthrough something horrifying
(12:19):
like that, that you're alive.
You feel this gratefulness.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Also, there are still people fighting the good fight.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Yeah, you feel hope as well that there's people in
this world that recognize thisevil and are trying to take it
down, doesn't turn a blind eye,and that I think that was about
the sound of freedom is.
It's not just about thehorrifying reality that these
Things, these crimes, can happenin modern society, but it's
(12:50):
also about the inspiring hopethat we can change it and that
we can save these children.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Don't just be resigned to this fate.
You know there was stand upagainst there was one particular
line of dialogue.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
It was when one of the other characters asked Tim
ballad, why, why do you want todo this?
Why do you want to save thesechildren?
And he said God's children arenot for sale.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Yes, yes.
Is that a biblical quote, maybe, I wonder.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
I think it was just Just saying, like you know,
children aren't for sale, butbut like putting God on, it was
like Humanity, like humans, arenot meant to be slaves.
We're all God's children.
None of us are meant to beslaves.
It's just not the way that Godwanted Us to be.
I felt it was a really powerfulline.
(13:44):
It's one of those moments likewhen you, when you try and find
that one quote that kind ofSummarizes a whole film, that
was like defines the character,yeah the character motivation.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
You see, this is a man of noble and pure heart.
Yeah, it's not that he's doingthis because he's looking To be
rewarded for his actions.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
He's doing it because he has integrity and for the
sake of it and the fact thatit's based on a true story and
they actually show the real Timballad, and To know that this is
a person that risked his careerand his life.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yes, to save these children meant a lot, because
he's getting mixed up also in arebel groups and in very
Conflict heavy countries as well, in our Columbia, yeah,
southern Columbia, where in aworld that's not maybe
necessarily governed by.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Normal yeah, yeah, the the sound of freedom is a
film that left a lastingimpression on me, and Throughout
the film I was just soemotionally moved and
intellectually engaged.
Yeah, did it surprise you thatthe budget of this film was only
14 million?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
wait what?
Yeah, wow, okay, let's.
Let's go into that thingbecause, on top of just the just
how well Executed it wasnarratively, I was just like
Absolutely floored by had justhow technically well executed
this movie was in itscinematography lighting, music,
(15:14):
editing, the, the pacing of likecharacter motivations and the
story progression.
You're constantly reminded,like, for example, that the
battle is won, but the war is isever raging, that sort of thing
.
Because they achieve onevictory, something else throws a
spanner into work.
Yeah, and on the technical side, just like it helps that this
(15:39):
is so surprising, you telling methis now 14 million, 14 million
, yeah, this is like great, ahigh, big budget levels of
production.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Just put that into perspective.
Indiana Jones 5 Costed 500million and needed to make a
billion dollars to make a profit.
It didn't.
This film looks better visuallyand like the Production value.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Just the look and everything like haze machines
everywhere, always like lightstreaming in through windows and
so on.
Just all the like textbooklighting makes you wonder.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
You should make sure you wonder where the budget went
in Indiana Jones 5 and justalso fight scenes and stuff.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Yeah, oh, just CGI D aging cuz like you know set
pieces, they, all those otherbig money Drainer's you know
it's like you know Tom Cruisealways fighting to add in you
know Big set pieces withmotorcycles that those are the
stuff that adds a lot of money.
He's gonna find shit to jump.
Yeah, so yes, but then like withthese kinds of movies, these
more slow Bernie kind of movies,like it's made, where it's
(16:44):
mainly sort of like dialogueshot, reverse shot, those types
of things, yeah, those ones youdon't have to invest lots of
money to hire.
You know pyrotechnics and bighelicopter shots.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
I mean, it's completely different film, genre
wise.
Yeah a thriller Indiana Jones,like those big budget Franchises
of a more action, heavy, bigset pieces.
But I mean it does make youthink that an entertaining film
with a good story Doesn't haveto be made on a 500 million
dollar budget to engage viewers.
(17:15):
Like I didn't look at my phonethe entire time I was watching
this.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
I was Totally in this film could have just carried
its own way just by Subjectmatter and story alone.
I feel like they didn't have toput all this like more effort
into like editing and lightingand camera works and stuff, but
they did this whole movie everymoment Is I could just be a like
a masterclass in like lighting,cinematography and so on.
(17:42):
But yeah, I think because ofhow well technically it was
executed, it helped to To keepme focused and engaged
throughout the story.
And I guess just one specificexample that we can talk about
with the editing Just alsobringing it back to just on top
of how well this movie wasexecuted narratively, just how
(18:04):
well it was executed on atechnical level as well.
Do you remember, like in theclimax of the movie, when Tim
finally finds the girl and thenhe's having to fight off the
Scorpion, how he tells the girlto close her eyes?
And then in the editing it'sjust like this the screen keeps
on blacking out and stuff, yeah,and it's like, and every time
(18:27):
she opens her eyes she only seeglimpses of the ensuing struggle
and then when she closes hereyes again, we're only just left
with the muffled sounds ofstruggles and fighting and stuff
.
And there's lots of like othermoments like that throughout the
movie as well.
It's not to that high ofattention, but just always that
constant on the edge of yourseats, kind of like dread.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
It's putting you in a really uncomfortable seat.
You're in the seat of the childbeing in this traumatic
situation.
It's like you're strapped in.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
You're strapped in, you're in their point of view.
Yeah, exactly just Masterclassin editing throughout, building
up tension, you know, towardsthe climax and everything.
It's just all those littlemoments like that.
It's just again makes me wonderhow in the world did they do
this with the budget that theyhad to?
Yeah, to make the audiencereally just so tense, you know
(19:20):
God, and you make you fear foryou know People's safety as well
, and to make you so emotionallyinvested in everyone honestly,
when I was watching at the wholetime I was like oh my god, is
he gonna get through this yeah?
Speaker 1 (19:36):
exactly like I've seen so many horror movies that
never make me feel like that,but this movie made me Like
squint, like I was just in myseat In dread I was feeling
anxiety when you're watchingmovies like the Exorcist and all
those supernatural Shit kind ofhorror films.
(19:59):
The Exorcist is a good movie,but I'm saying like nowadays, a
lot of horror films they justrely on jump scares and stuff
like that and it's hard to takeon the the supernatural horror
elements because it's not real.
Yeah, it doesn't feel real.
It always feels like you canescape through the guise of
(20:20):
knowing that it's supernatural.
Yeah but in this film it's sogrounded in realism that you
feel like there's no escapingthis harsh reality.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
You know it happened it actually kind of happen.
I mean, creative liberty istaken here and there, but that
it actually happens, yeah, andthat it's not fake.
It's not the supernatural thingthat your brains, even despite
how scared you are when watchinghorror movies, you still have
that tiny knowledge that this isnot real.
But then here, this Reality iswhat's scary, and that's, I
(20:50):
think, is what made thatblacking out scene so tense.
You know, yeah, and just lots ofmoments like that.
I think also to just likeimplied action as well, when the
ex cartel it's like talkingabout doing the deed with
somebody he thought was age 25but turned out to be like at
(21:10):
least half that age, let's justput it that way and how much
earlier that person had starteddoing the deed that I just
visibly went like, oh god.
It's just just that dread oflike, wow, this is, this is what
takes place in this one.
(21:32):
You know the underbelly of thisworld, and just how just
Learning that fact makes me so ICan see a Monologue like that
being used in a film and itmeans nothing.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
I Can see something like that just being inserted
for the sake of controversy orto stir up attention, but in
this movie it has a clear point.
It's for this characters arclike to help us sympathize with
them and and understand whythey're involved, to understand
their motivation For how they'vechanged their life around.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Yeah, the shock value serves a purpose for us to get
behind, like why he's nowwanting to reform himself, you
know, seeking redemption.
Yeah, I agree, I agree therewas one scene in particular.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I wasn't so much from an editing standpoint, but the
performance is involved.
Jim Caveso has this very toughjob of Having to pretend he's
one of these elites.
That's part of the childtrafficking.
Yes, in order to catch andarrest the actual criminals, and
there was one scene inparticular where they're on this
(22:42):
island and all the childrenhave been brought in on the
boats and one of the head,hancho's head criminal, he's
saying that he wants to.
You know, take the child awayand One child in particular, one
child in particular, and Timballad stops him and plays it
(23:04):
off like he's one of them.
Plays it off like as if to sayno, no, no, no, I'm going to be
with the job.
I want to take this one.
It's so hard to describe thisshit without it.
I guess the point is TimBallard's character is
protecting the child while alsomaintaining the guys that he is
(23:24):
one of these sex traffickers.
And it was so well done theperformance from Jim Caviesel of
holding back the horror andrealizing that he has to play
undercover so well because thischild's life is at stake.
Like, imagine being anundercover cop and if you fuck
(23:46):
this up and they see throughyour disguise, you die, but not
just you.
The child dies, and theemotional stakes that were going
on and seeing them play out inthat scene through the
performances of all three actorsinvolved was phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Having to pretend to enjoy doing what they do.
That eats your way and that wasportrayed so well.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
That would eat your conscience.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Yes because you're pretending you have to smile
through it.
And just acting to that caliberman.
That demonstrates youunderstand your character to the
tenth degree.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
That's incredible.
Layers, layers upon layers,that's just layers upon layers,
where you're not just a good guy, you're a good guy pretending
to be a bad guy, but you cannotbe caught out.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
There's too much at stake.
That was the same that got meFrom an acting standpoint right,
Just how well they do it.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Yeah, and I guess just the way things escalate.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Yeah Well, I mean, I talk about editing taking over
with the Kuleshov effect andeverything.
It's about what you read intothe actors and all that.
This is one of the rareexceptions where the performance
sold itself.
There was no editing trickeryneeded.
It just needed for the camerato just linger and just let the
(25:19):
play out, or to see the lack ofaction happen on screen for the
audience's mind to go racing.
You know about what could behappening behind closed doors.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
I guess it's like what you said earlier Sometimes
just having the scene play outthat little bit longer, making
it more uncomfortable, lingeringon certain shots, having the
tension build, having thoseuncomfortable pauses, all of
those things that build thattension, and you're like when's
(25:48):
it going to be released?
Speaker 2 (25:50):
And then it's like, yeah, and especially because
it's what actually happened aswell, and I just knew we were
going to be in for a ride, likeat the very beginning, like when
they were pretending to takethe kids in for auditions and
then they closed the door, butthen that shot lingers for a
long time to really build the.
(26:10):
Something feels off here, gutfeeling, you know straight away.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
You can hear it and you can tell something is wrong.
But you're kind of hoping it'snot going to happen.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Yeah, but something in your gut, you know, please.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
It's not going to happen that things go
differently and then when theydon't, you're like it's tough.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
I knew it, but I had hoped with all the, every fiber
of my being that it wouldn'tcome to be.
But it came to be, and justthat ethereal music once again.
Yeah, it sets the.
It sets like a somber tone, butI put it up if I'm able to find
it on the internet.
But just just, it's just amixture of like hopelessness and
(26:56):
hope at the same time, becausein the beginning it sets off
that like something's going togo wrong and in the ending it's
it's used again, but this timeit it lists, it's like feelings
of hope to it.
It's a very mixed bag.
It sounds incredible, soothingto the ears, but did you get
that kind of like mixed emotion?
It's used in scenes like,especially when on the island,
(27:20):
the 50 plus kids which in reallife was like, as you said, 200
kids, like they played that bit.
So it's it's oxymoronic, Iguess it's both.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
I guess the music suits both tones depending on
what you see visually, but it'sthe music's able to kind of
blend in with what's going onand suit either either mood.
Because, it's such well createdmusic that it can apply to both
the the euphoric kind of theinspiring hopefulness and also
(27:55):
the absolute dread.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Yeah, what I got out of hearing that piece was that
it was both of thosesimultaneously.
That's, that's something.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Yeah, that's to create music like that.
That's phenomenal.
But I mean, I guess it helpsthat this film has a massive
like sense of purpose behind it.
Automatically, when you, whenyou look at a film like this,
it's so hard to compare to othermovies out there like that are
(28:26):
just generic and they never staywith you.
You feel like they're justnothingness.
It's like a McDonald's HappyMeal you eat it and you forget
about it.
The sound of freedom primarilyserves the purpose of raising
awareness about the criticalissue of child trafficking.
Its whole goal is to inform andinspire viewers and I believe
(28:48):
it's succeeded in that mission.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Yeah, and I think just like something that helps
to really sell that and for usto get behind the premise.
Also, too, is sound designmusic, just like I was so
enraptured by ethereal choirmusic, you know, when they're
singing the sound of freedom,like that opening shot with the
girl.
Oh, by the way, I really likethis attention to detail where
(29:13):
the opening shot is the reverseof the ending shot.
What would you call that shot?
A crane?
Speaker 1 (29:19):
in crane, in dolly in , dolly out, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Yeah, it's so as the way to you know, neatly tie up,
you know, beginning and end ofthe movie.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Well, that's what I mean.
Like there's there's visualmotifs and there's a sense of
like cyclical, like everything'scoming back to cyclical, where
it ended, and you just feel likeeverything has a purpose in
this movie.
You feel like every bit ofdialogue.
Nothing is wasted.
I felt like no time, no cuts.
Nothing is wasted in this.
I'm so used to seeing filmsthat are just all bullshit
(29:50):
bloated two and a half hours andthey could be an hour and 40
minutes, but with this it feltlike everything needed to be
there.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Yeah, and certainly those long movies.
You can already feel, during,even during the viewing of that
session, certain scenes that youfelt like this is just padding.
Yeah, for me it did.
There were some times where Ifelt like this movie, oh wow,
it's still going, it's stillgoing.
But then I just remember ohit's, it's, it's to do with the
fact that you know the battle iswon.
But you know, something elsecomplicates the matter.
(30:20):
Yeah, so that's what keeps theconflict going.
You're constantly, you know, onthe edge of your seat wondering
wow, now this, now it's justsomething has upped the ante
even more.
How is Tim going to resolvethis new thing that's popped up
now?
You're so emotionally investedfrom early on.
You're invested to see how he,you know, triumphs over
(30:42):
impossible odds.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
You also want to see him rescue this child's sister.
Yeah, and you feel like there'seven a moment when the famous
sting operation happens wherehe's not really happy, he's not
really celebrating that victory,even though he saved like 50,
apparently in real life it was200 kids.
Damn In that operation, butthey had to change it for budget
(31:05):
reasons, so they shortened itand that makes the real life
story all the more impressive.
Oh, so all the more humbling.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Wow.
So it's like he's still notjust.
But despite the large amount ofkids he's rescued, he's still
not content.
Yeah, there's always one more,there's going to be one more,
and then he's like never endinguphill battle for him.
But yeah, he doesn't see likehis achievements.
He never rests on his laurethsbecause he's always raising the
(31:32):
bar for himself.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Because it's always the thought of yes, I rescued 50
kids, but there's a millionother kids that still need to be
saved.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
That are still in trouble.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
There's a million other parents that are like
scrambling gone nuts, that don'thave their children lying in
their bedrooms at night.
And I guess we see that becauseTim Ballard is a father who has
a bunch of children and hereally loves.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Yeah, what if it was my kid, you know?
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Yeah, like you see him go through that in his mind
of if this was my child, I woulddo whatever it takes.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
So I'm going to do whatever it takes for this
person's child and I think thatthis film they also then made us
care for the characters byshowing what motivates them to
well on this noble quest.
Even, like down to thatex-cartel guy when he asked him
so why are you doing this?
And then, when he revealed hisreasons, yeah, it's like it made
(32:28):
, you know, it made everyone,just so, I don't know, we could
like get behind their cause.
Yeah, it's like because, yeah,by default, of course you know,
like fight against injustice,yeah, but really, what's your
personal motivations for doingthis?
And then, when they had thosescenes where you just sit down
and have a dialogue back andforth, that that's when the
(32:49):
movie really sold me that theseare Well realized, well fleshed
out characters.
Of course, yeah, you know,taken from the real life
scenarios, but like they tookthe time to then for us to
explore, like, what happened tothem in the past.
And the ex cartel guy islooking to Make good on his
failures in the past.
You know he's seekingredemption.
Because you always want to,despite how defaults that you
(33:12):
know fighting against evil is,you still Need your, your
protagonists and you'resupporting cast of characters to
have like a personal stake init.
You know, and they showed thatthe theirs was a cause that we
could get behind.
It, you know, made them feel sohuman, but the film also
managed to show the thestruggles for people in that
(33:35):
situation.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
These people that work in trying to protect
children from trafficking andTaking down sexual predators and
sex offenders.
They show that, like the psyche, the emotional damage that
these people take on by havingto go through these
Investigations and the toll thatit takes on them having to comb
(33:58):
through evidence, that's reallydisturbing.
But you have to because someonehas to do that.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Yeah, he who stares, you know, into the darkness, you
know finds a Like the darknessstares back into him and then
just to see them Constantlypushing that down to not let the
corruption overwhelm them andto stay true to their integrity,
yeah, it never gives up.
And you touch on this as well.
Just, this is a very, very ahard character to Portray you're
(34:29):
, because, as an actor you're,there's a lot of layers that
you're having to bring to screenwith, like, the subtlest of,
like eye twitches and andshaking lips and so on, and body
language.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
You know what I was thinking.
I cannot do for the life of me,you know watching this movie
Noticing the stillness and justthe presence of Jim Carvaisal.
I think that guy could playBatman.
Hmm, like he would be anawesome Bruce Wayne.
I think he has that brooding.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
When you look into his eyes, you see that there's
pain Underneath that he tries tocome off as stoic, but you can
see he's hurting deep down.
Yeah, especially right, yes.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
The few moments when, when Jim Carvaisal's character,
when Tim ballad, sheds tears,or when he's just overwhelmed
with grief and he has to Takeoff that that stoic mask, you,
you feel it like, you feelcompelled to To shed a tear as
well.
You just feel his pain.
You, you can understand whathe's going through.
(35:28):
Nothing has to be said, though.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Yeah, it's just again again show, don't tell, show,
don't tell.
Exactly.
A man can only burden so muchon his shoulders before he just
breaks.
Exactly.
And actually speaking of actingas well, just the, the little,
the little kid that he rescuesthe first time around at the
mexico us Border crossing, it'sjust like, so I don't know just
(35:51):
a realization of like the amountof mental torment the kid went
through through.
Just like subtle acting and anddialogue.
That it's just like.
That is acting like wow.
When, when Tim asked what'syour name and the kid replies
with teddy bear, my mind justgoes racing.
(36:12):
It's like wow.
That it's like the damage hasbeen done.
It's like, oh, my god, that'sgot sinking feeling off.
Just worst part for me.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
It's like the damage has been done, oh no, even if
you save these children fromthis horrifying ordeal, there's
still the matter of the traumaThey've already gone through.
What suffering have theyalready?
Can they be helped?
Can they rise above that thathorrifying ordeal?
How do they Go back to a normallife after something horrifying
(36:46):
, something so traumatic?
Yeah, so that's why you'refeeling of helplessness.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
It's just like I don't think these kids can ever
be.
They're innocent past selves.
Again, that loss of innocence,again the heart sinking feeling
of helplessness about it, yeah,and also it's just really sold
on.
I don't know how they directedthat kid to just give such like
raw emotions, like shedding atear, realizing he's, you know,
(37:11):
finally saved from From that guy.
Just yeah, because you knowchild acting, directing children
, and that's that's a herculeantask, that's hard, and so having
props to the, you know thedirectors, you know props to all
, all the child actors in thisfilm.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Are they all knocked it out of the park?
Yes, I feel that the the filmdoes not feel like it's
exploiting these children at all.
No, it never comes across asexploitive of them and you can
see that, especially momentswhen the children are held
captive and they know thatthey're they're just.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
And then yeah, yeah, and then you show the beginnings
of the act.
Like you know, adult and I wasmore taken by how how
uncomfortable the adult actorswould have been as well because
they're having to initiate thebeginnings of a very Violent act
.
You know, like the unbucklingof the belts, or like the
closing of window curtains andthe editing as well, just
(38:11):
letting the camera stay for anuncomfortable 10 plus seconds
just to for us to sink in.
The unspeakable Is nowhappening.
Then cut to.
You know, girl crying in showersort of thing to show.
You know, the unspeakable deedhas been done.
Just my god.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Everyone's acting is just a, done as respectfully as
possible it does make you think,as an actor, that would be a
very tough task to be.
Like you have to be.
You have to play the most evil,the most reprehensible by all
kind of character.
And to not play it in a waywhere it's over the top or
cartoonish, like you have tostill make it seem believable
(38:53):
that this is a real life kind ofevil that's really in the world
.
That's phenomenal acting, andwithout those actors Playing
those parts that you know, maybenot everyone's gonna want to be
known for playing those kind ofparts.
But you got to appreciate theeffort that was put in the
(39:14):
investment on their end.
Yeah, for everyone involved,like every actor, not just acted
, the, the whole production.
Obviously, to make a film likethis, where you don't know
what's gonna happen, you're notreally getting support from
marketing or promotion, you'vegot barely a budget.
And for them to rise above it,you've also got critics that are
(39:39):
Tearing the movie apart for thewrong reasons, purely to save
themselves politically, which Idon't.
We'll get into that, but Idon't understand it.
The way I see it, this filmdoes not have a political agenda
.
It is just trying to raiseawareness of an issue that
(40:01):
should be dealt with.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Yeah, it ties back to .
It's like somebody has to bethe watchdog, to be the one
chasing after these, like youknow, sex trafficking rings and
so on.
It's someone has to do it.
And so, to the same degree,some film company has to be the
one to bring to life and realizethis in order to raise
awareness, knowing all thebacklash that they're going to
(40:24):
receive, like you know, actorsand people behind people, in
front of the camera and behindthe camera.
So the making of this kind of,you know, parallels the yeah, it
parallels, you know, the taskthat nobody wants to do.
I think the making of this film.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
I feel like there could even be a documentary
further down the track of justhow this film got made.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
All the naysayers behind you know.
Apparently this was a.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Fox film and it was made like five years ago.
Yeah, it was in production kindof hell of getting finished and
distributed because Disney thenbought Fox.
Disney probably didn't want torelease the film and felt it
wouldn't fit with their brandingand just wanted to keep
releasing all the shittysuperhero movies instead.
(41:11):
So, yeah, that that's a wholeinteresting issue.
Yeah, that would be great tolook into of, like, how this
movie got made on such a lowbudget compared to other
Hollywood movies.
What was involved?
Did actors have to invest theirown money?
We usually hear stuff like thathappening.
Wouldn't surprise me.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
Yeah, again, the comfortable ignorance or the
unvarnished truth.
This is a story that has to betold, Otherwise, you know,
without the awareness of it,evil will persist.
Can't turn a blind eye.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
Yeah, it is disappointing to note that Sound
of Freedom didn't receive themarketing or promotion it
deserved from Hollywood.
The only reason I know aboutthis film is because of YouTube.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
really, it's hard to get sort of consumerism or the
economic incentives behind themarketing and stuff too, because
this is a movie that is notexisting for like financial
gains and stuff.
This is a public awareness sortof piece.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
That's why I'm so shocked that there was like
controversy about it.
When I looked at reviews for it, it was such a massive
difference between audiencereviews and actual critic
reviews.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
And like how they were describing the movie.
Yeah, the critics were justlike.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
So what were they saying?
They were just like oh, it'scomplete shit, blah, blah, blah,
actings, terrible.
Like you had one end of thespectrum and then you had a
completely opposite end.
Critics were not in between.
They were either reallyshitting on the movie or thought
it was the best thing ever.
And then when you looked ataudience reviews, they were all
(42:51):
unanimously like giving the.
It got a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
Oh, man, I hate to say it, but like those, if the
shoe fits those who protest theloudest, I'm just saying Well, I
just don't know what.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Unless, I don't see anything bad from a story point
of view the acting, anythinglike that I don't understand how
you could rate it so low orthink it's a terrible movie.
Of course, like you can say youdon't like the movie, that's
not.
Like I wouldn't say to criticsout there, like YouTuber critics
(43:27):
or anything like oh, if youhate the movie, you're part of
the problem, Like you're allowedto not like the movie.
I'm just saying I thought it wasa bit fishy that critics were
either completely loving themovie or completely hating it
and that there was such a hugedifference between audiences and
critics.
When I see that big of adifference, I usually think to
(43:51):
myself something's not right.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
Yeah, they'll doft protest too much.
Exactly, some things are amiss.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
Like maybe they didn't get paid off enough.
Maybe the critics didn't getpaid enough by the studio
because there wasn't a budget topay off the critics to give
great reviews.
Maybe they had issues, becauseI don't know.
People were saying the moviewas right.
I'm like the movie's not rightor left, it's just dealing with
an issue.
I don't see any of that in thisfilm, so I don't understand all
(44:20):
of that.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
Yeah, it's getting conspiratorial.
It's like about is it that itcomes from?
It comes from higher up, wheresome people from the top don't
want a certain widespread youknow awareness of certain
contentious issues to be outthere and therefore does a bit
of 4D chess to then stifleconversations around a topic
(44:44):
that has to be discussed.
It's tinfoil-y, conspiratorial,I know, but just if the shoe
fits, man, if the shoe fits, I'mjust saying yeah, I just don't
get it, but I'm glad to have tohave watched this film or and to
know this film exists at all.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
You know, yeah, just for every person that watches
this, they're going to be moreinformed, they're going to know
more about this.
They might want to researchwhat actually happened, find out
what's real, what's not, andthat's that's going to make a
difference.
Yeah, but the fact that I wasseeing news outlets kind of
saying like it's a conspiracy,they're trying to drag this
movie, you know, through the mud.
(45:21):
Yeah, I just don't know why,other than the obvious people in
positions of high power tryingto stop the message being
spreaded.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
You know, probably trying to, it struck a nerve
with some of these top people,maybe again tinfoil-y
conspiratorial, I know.
I'm just saying you know, thosewho wants to stifle a certain
messaging, they've got bones intheir closets, exactly.
So yeah, I'm just saying, man,I guess it's also skeletons in
their closets, it's also certainpeople in that world thinking
(45:54):
ignorance is bliss.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
I don't want to know that this stuff happens, I just
want to turn the blind eye.
And it's like this movie issaying, no, you're going to
fucking know about it.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
Yeah, and the mid-cred scene, you know,
acknowledges as well Exactly,this has to be.
This is a message that has tobe heard.
Get people talking about it,including you know, this very
podcast, you know.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
Yeah, I mean there were.
There were reviewers I wasseeing and people were
commenting applauding them fordoing the review because they
thought they weren't going to doit because of the subject
matter, and I was kind ofshocked because this was
probably one of the better filmsI've watched this year.
Speaker 2 (46:31):
Oh yeah, even if not for like the subject matter of
it all, just like completelyenamored by how technically well
executed this film was.
And again, just to emphasize, Iam so shocked you told me this
was $14 million budget.
Look it up, far out you wouldthink this is a multi like
(46:51):
hundred million dollarproduction, with the amount of.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
It makes sense, though, because it would have a
small budget, because no onewants to kind of fund this, and
it makes sense because itdoesn't have the marketing
behind it.
But thanks to YouTube, socialmedia and whatnot, a film like
this can still be marketeddespite the low budget.
One of the things that the filmskillfully did was juxtaposing
(47:18):
these horrifying moments withmoments of euphoric celebration.
You got the inspiring with thetraumatic.
Speaker 2 (47:26):
For me, though, they felt like it was mostly very
depressing of a movie, and thenthe moments of celebration are
very short lived.
The movie, very soon after it,reminds you that the war rages
on.
There is no time to celebrate.
(47:48):
We see that in Tim's innerconflict as well, so I never
felt like there was a moment tofeel happy.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
No, I couldn't allow myself to.
There are small moments whereyou have a little bit of time to
celebrate the victory.
Speaker 2 (48:02):
But it just felt as a viewer, as an audience, that I
can't allow myself to feel happybecause it's just a drop in the
bucket.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
Knowing that it's a real life issue means that you
might not, as an audience member, be able to be like.
I can go home feeling goodabout that, because you just saw
all these stats at the end ofthe movie saying how this is a
very real issue that's stillongoing.
So, like you said, the warrages on.
So you can't exactly go homeafter watching this movie, you
can't relax, but that's thewhole point.
(48:33):
You're not meant to.
Speaker 2 (48:35):
You have to keep on going, but I will say there was
like, at the very least therewas one scene that offered a
moment of levity, where theywere practicing greeting that
Miss Columbia, or whatever thatmodel.
They were practicing undercovertactics for when they meet with
these traffickers, and I waslike, okay, hello, oh, I see
(49:00):
your is like I think the kiss isis a bit much.
And then I, for that moment, Ifelt it was okay to laugh.
It was okay to just like letloose all this tension that's
been built up for like over halfthe movie.
It's like it's okay to justokay, let's get some, let's get
some humor back in.
It's not all serious, or DebbieDowners and stuff.
(49:21):
Let's just, let's just laughabout something.
Speaker 1 (49:24):
It's so hard to give the audience permission to let
out a chuckle, a bit of levitywhen it's something so heavy
Because it feels inappropriateto laugh for a movie like this.
Speaker 2 (49:36):
But then that one scene, I felt it was, it was, it
was all right we needed.
We needed that like light atthe end of the tunnel.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
It wasn't like that.
I really wasn't like a Marvelsuperhero movie where they just
undercut every dramaticemotional moment with so this is
the bad guy right.
Looks like this is going to bea big job.
Yeah, no, no characterassassinations, you know, they
just look at the fucking cameraand like, yeah, yeah, this movie
(50:05):
restored my faith in like, newmovies being good yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:11):
And well, actually it's technically not new,
because it was made forever ago,and then you know through a
change of leadership, you know,getting lost in a shuffle and
somehow has wormed its way outto our own, it's way out to our
screens.
I mean time will tell,distribution wise, what happens
to this movie if this gets youknow, buried by executives for
(50:32):
various reasons.
Speaker 1 (50:34):
Whoever tried to bury it didn't do a good enough job
because we were able to watch itand the sound of freedom is not
an easy watch, but is essentialfor understanding real life,
global and social issues.
It offers a thought provokingmessage instead of I don't know
me virtue signaling.
Speaker 2 (50:56):
Yeah, the whole time you watch it, if you feel like a
dementor has like absorbed allthe happiness out of you, but
something within you, somethingprimal, compels you to just like
keep on watching, to see thisscenario play out.
You feel, I guess, a sense ofduty to just see this to the end
, despite how uncomfortable youget.
(51:17):
You have to confront theuncomfortable reality and just
yeah, the same with like reallife.
Speaker 1 (51:25):
I mean, if you, if you were in a war, you have to
keep going and not to say thatthe film is like war or anything
.
But sometimes in life you haveto confront the harsh realities
and that the world's not perfect.
There are issues still going on.
We can, we can't blindourselves into thinking that the
(51:48):
world is one way when it's not.
Speaker 2 (51:50):
And again, you know, ends on a hopeful note for us to
like a quarter action.
You can be as idealistic as youwant, but you also, you know,
have to.
What's that for be the changeyou want to see in the world?
Speaker 1 (52:02):
But yeah, Well, what do?
What do you write the sound offreedom out of, out of five?
Speaker 2 (52:10):
I mean quite easily, quite easily a four.
Yeah, I'd say four out of five,or four or four point five.
The only only thing that takesa few points away is just like,
well, the how harsh matter.
Speaker 1 (52:23):
The harsh subject matter.
Speaker 2 (52:26):
It's you know, the lack of mass market appeal of it
.
So that knocks it down a fewpegs.
What else?
I think I guess the length ofthe movie as well.
But like all these points, allthese things that takes points
away, for me they're kind of Iguess the best way to phrase it
is like necessary evils, like it.
The movie had to be as long asit was because to showcase just
(52:49):
how long of a journey it tookTim to get back to girl and so
on and just how many things likecomplicates the matter and has
and results in him constantlyhaving to fight an uphill battle
as well.
And again with the lack of massmarket appeal, because, well,
it had to be an uncomfortablemovie.
So it's in a way, had to be animperfect movie.
(53:12):
That's where I can put it.
It's not perfect, because that'skind of.
That's kind of the point, Iguess to put it.
Speaker 1 (53:20):
Yeah, like it's not going to be a movie that you
just watch at any time, like I'min the mood for yeah, that's
the other thing I don't.
I don't see myself wanting tosee this multiple times.
The only reason I'd want towatch this again is to show
someone.
I was talking about the filmwith my partner and when I told
(53:42):
her about it I could tell shewas really interested in seeing
it.
I would watch it again just tosee how it affects her, because,
watching it to spread themessage, yet to spread the
message, but also because I knowshe's someone who's very
passionate about social issuesand social issues and like human
suffering and those type ofthings.
(54:03):
So, being that, I went to seethe film by myself.
It would be interesting to seehow other people react.
Can they handle theuncomfortable nature, or can it
be too much for some people?
That that intrigues me, yeah.
Speaker 2 (54:19):
So unfortunately, I will have to knock the score
down a few pegs, because this isnot a movie you watch for
entertainment, it's your movieyou watch to be educated and to
spread awareness of you know.
So I'm still on.
Okay, let's just say 4.5 out of5.
Speaker 1 (54:37):
Yeah, I'm going to say I'm going to give the sound
of freedom 4.5 out of 5.
It's an absolute, incrediblyimportant film that left a
profound impact on me personally.
It's ability to convey acrucial message about child
trafficking, while maintaininghigh quality storytelling and
(54:58):
cinematography, is commendable.
It's a stark reminder thatbudget size doesn't necessarily
equate to outstandingentertainment, especially
nowadays, with all the horribletrash that's just pumped out of
the Hollywood machine.
This film served as a powerfulcall to action for a pressing
(55:20):
issue that needs our attention.
It has rekindled myappreciation for films with a
clear purpose and message,reminding me of the true
potential of cinema.
Performance is a phenomenal.
It's not going to be acomfortable watch, but it's
definitely going to be a filmthat stays with you long after
the credits roll, and I thinkthat means a lot.
(55:43):
So, yeah, that's our thoughtson the sound of freedom.
We'd love to know what youthink.
Comment below, let us know.
Did you like the sound offreedom?
If not, let us know why.
And please like, share andsubscribe for more content like
this.
Speaker 2 (56:02):
Hey guys, later, watch this movie, however we can
, if it's available at yournearby cinema at all.
We really have to like, becauseif you don't search for this
movie, it won't pop up in yourrecommended.
Don't listen to the critics,just judge this movie for
yourself, and that's the mostimportant part.
It's like yeah, don't go inwith this movie with any
(56:24):
preconceived bias as well, andyou might be in for a surprise,
you know I was in for a surprise, you know, $14 million Looked
like a multi-hundred milliondollar movie production value
alone.
But yeah, anyways, yeah, take iteasy guys, Watch this movie
Watch this movie.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.