'Sound of Freedom' (2023) Review @ The American Postliberal
A difficult but well-made and important film about real world evil and hope.
I don’t know if you’ve heard, but this little film called Sound of Freedom has been making a big splash this week in conservative and Catholic circles! It has been completed for five years but only just now is getting a release due to several studios not wanting to touch its controversial subject matter: child sex trafficking. 100 Movies Every Catholic Should Watch’s very own Charlie Scott has a review this week for it at The American Postliberal, an essential follow on Substack if you are a Catholic interested in moving beyond the deadlocked liberal/conservative divide in American politics. Go check out Charlie’s review over there! Here’s a little taste:
The Sound of Freedom is a Schindler’s List type of film, where it is equal parts essential and devastating to watch. It is about arguably one of the most important but least discussed current world issues: child sex trafficking. Despite being a $150 billion industry, it is reduced to being discussed only in passing, and usually from one particular group. The Hollywood machine cowers away from the topic and would prefer to stick to the usual vices it's always shown (drugs, alcohol, adult prostitution, organized crime, theft). In fact the lack of content around such a serious and widespread topic is quite odd with the most recent portrayals being in Marvel’s Black Widow, where it is alluded to but never delved into, and the Taken series, where it is more for commercial consumption rather than promoting a message). Child sex trafficking is an aggressively ugly topic that only gets more disturbing and personal the more that it is looked into, and forces us as individuals and a society to look at the worst humanity has to offer.