In case you haven’t heard, Sound of Freedom, the surprise summer blockbuster starring Jim Caviezel, is getting a lot of attention. And as they say in ALL the Spider-Man movies, “With great attention comes great controversy.”
Ok, they say something like that.
You might say this is the little movie that could, despite the big movie companies trying to make sure it couldn’t. Moviegoers around the country have posted videos since it was released on July 4, showing all the crazy things that they’ve experienced while trying to see it. Reports of house lights being left on, movie theaters showing the film as sold out and then refusing to show it, and at least one person saying that the air conditioning was turned off servicing the one theater in the multiplex that was showing Sound of Freedom.
Of course, as with almost all things viral, it could just be a bunch of nothing that seems like something because it appears to be happening everywhere when it’s barely happening anywhere. (Wow! That last sentence was a ride, wasn’t it?)
But my point here isn’t to debate whether theaters are trying to keep people from seeing the movie (the company that produced the movie has issued a statement supporting the AMC theater chain that was linked to some conspiracy theories). Rather, my point is that there are people in power who definitely did not want this movie to be seen at all.
I won’t go into all the details here, but I’d encourage you to read about how Disney shelved the movie, and while we can’t know for sure, didn’t seem to have any intention of ever letting it get to the screens. Then there was the onslaught all over social media trying the movie to all things QAnon.
As I sat watching it, I kept thinking, “Why wouldn’t people want this released? Why was there such an attempt to discredit it? When did freedom become controversial?”
That’s a lot to think about during a movie, especially when the movie is already so compelling. But none of those questions made me want to write this. The question that prompted this post was a far more simple one:
“Why didn’t these same people make it hard to release Taken?”
Taken was the first release in a trilogy starring Liam Neeson, a man with a particular set of skills who used all of them to rescue his teenage daughter after she was taken by traffickers during a trip to Europe.
Same basic plot, but here are some important differences:
Taken is fiction.
Sound of Freedom is true.
Taken is about a father rescuing a daughter.
Sound of Freedom is about a man rescuing strangers.
Taken addresses human trafficking.
Sound of Freedom addresses pedophilia.
Taken shows a man relying on his strength to do the heroic.
Sound of Freedom shows a man relying on God’s strength to save the heroic.
Back to the question at hand: why wasn’t Taken linked to crazy extremists, or shelved by a major studio?
It could simply be because the world is different now than in 2008, the year the first Taken was released. Times have indeed changed, and we live in very polarizing times. But I think there is more at play here, and not necessarily by humans and movie studios.
We are at war with an enemy whose goal is clear: to steal, kill, and destroy (see John 10:10). Taken – while clearly portraying the value of a fictional daughter to her fictional father – didn’t expose that agenda. Sound of Freedom did. It speaks clearly about the value of every human being (even children we’ve never met), and boldly exposes the evil driving the very real world of pedophiles.
I think it’s the realness of Sound of Freedom that has rattled the cages of the enemy – and of those in his grip. As long as what we see is fiction, or far away, we aren’t moved. But when it hits home, we do something. That’s exactly what led to me running 50 miles on my 50th birthday, and I believe that it’s the movement of people to right the wrongs that has the enemy pulling out all the stops to, well, stop it.
If he can stop people from caring, then he can keep people in cages.
If he can stop us from shining the light, then he can keep people in the dark.
I refuse to let him stop me.
I refuse to live any longer like the problems aren’t right here in our own backyards.
I refuse to believe that one person can’t make a difference.
I refuse to believe that the goal of the gospel is my safety more than someone else’s freedom.
In short, I refuse to let the sound of freedom be taken, and I don’t think I’m the only one.
So stand up. Speak out. Shine on.
It’s time to let freedom ring…
…because God’s children are not for sale.
