Sound of Freedom

Sound of Freedom (2023) presents itself as a true story, and that claim is the most contested thing about it. There are things worth knowing before watching. The film follows Tim Ballard, who leaves a government job to rescue children from traffickers. Ballard is a real person and the founder of an organisation called Operation Underground Railroad. Shortly after the film's release, Ballard left that organisation. The reason was complaints of inappropriate conduct from multiple women who had worked with him, including allegations that he asked women to pose as his wife on missions and then proposed sharing a room. Five women subsequently sued and a criminal investigation followed. Ballard denied some allegations and defended others as necessary to the work. The church he belonged to declared his conduct unacceptable. Separately, specialists who work on trafficking objected to the picture the film paints. The central criticism is that real trafficking mostly does not work the way it does here, through strangers abducting children, but through people the victim knows and through debt. The rescue raid model has been questioned on results, and the care given to children afterwards has been criticised. As an action drama it functions, and Jim Caviezel's performance is serious. But the claim to accuracy is disputed and this should not be treated as a source of information about the subject. It runs 131 minutes. Good for: thrillers and dramas based on real events. Less good for: child abuse and trafficking are the central subject.