In a society deeply divided along ideological lines, even a film that seeks to highlight the evils of child trafficking has been denounced by one side as some sort of political propaganda piece.
Despite a dearth of mainstream endorsements or traditional marketing tactics, “Sound of Freedom” has been a resounding success at the box office since it premiered about a week ago.
One recent CNN segment, however, sought to castigate the movie, which tells the real-life story of a former government agent who dedicated his life to saving victims of human trafficking, and denigrate lead actor Jim Caviezel.
Author Mike Rothschild appeared on the cable news network with the clear intention of downplaying the evils associated with child trafficking. He claimed that “Sound of Freedom” exists only to perpetuate a “moral panic” while advancing “QAnon concepts” and far-right conspiracy theories.
Without offering evidence to the contrary, he insisted that the movie relies on “bogus statistics” to make its case.
Furthermore, Rothschild denounced Caviezel as a conspiracy theorist who uses the “catchphrases” of fringe far-right groups.
“He’s speaking at QAnon conventions,” Rothschild said. “And this film is being marketed to either specific QAnon believers or people who believe all of the same tenets as QAnon but claim they don’t know what it is.”
A number of other mainstream media outlets have similarly targeted the film and its star.
The Washington Post hates films that expose children being kidnapped and raped.
— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) July 7, 2023
Belittling the plot of the movie, which is based on a true story, the Rolling Stone wrote: “Therefore, to its boosters, the movie checks many satisfying boxes at once. Caviezel, a devout Catholic allegedly blacklisted by the entertainment industry, back for a mythology-burnishing biopic of Ballard; a call to action in an imagined global war against sexual predators; a blow struck at the heart of ‘woke’ Hollywood, the den of iniquity that snubbed it and (lest we forget) is thought to produce the wealthy deviants who serve as villains in this story.
The Guardian also got in on the action, complaining: “The trafficking follows no motivation more elaborate than the servicing of rich predators, eliding all talk of body-part black markets and the precious organic biochemical of adrenochrome harvested as a Satanic key to eternal life. The first rule of QAnon: you don’t talk about QAnon where the normals can hear you.”
