David and Goliath

I’m not a movie junkie but I do enjoy a good flick and like to experience it on the big screen.  There’s just something special about getting out of the house and being around people. This is an even better experience if the movie has meaning and value and the actors truly turn a story into an epic. Last week I enjoyed just such an event.

Earlier, the last of the Indiana Jones sequel hit the theaters and it was mandatory that I be there. It was good, it was enjoyable but it still lacked the fascination of the original movie that launched over thirty years ago. The day after attending Indi’s movie the story on the media was not about Professor Jones. The buzz was about  a low budget movie that had no pre-marketing or advertising. The central story line was not new as the background for the story  had been in the press for years. What was not realized was that the true-to-life story had been made into a movie.

The show, Sound of Freedom, tells the story of the real life ex-Homeland Security agent Tim Ballard and how he began rescuing children from the dark world of child trafficking. A life that leads to childhood prostitution, pornography and in some cases organ harvesting. The organ harvesting was not depicted in the movie but has been speculated in other chronicles and even identified in the stories of the Weighers at slave camps in China. 

What makes this movie so special is twofold. First it sends a message in clear terms that we have a problem in this world and one of the biggest culprits resides in the good ole United States. The second is that David can take on Goliath and win.  Sound of Freedom does not fit the Hollywood model. The project was low budget, no red carpet rollout with glitz and glamour and provides a message that is full of ethics and moral value. It makes us walk away asking ourselves how could we let this happen and cringing as we think of the horrors that these children are going through even as we walk out of the theater, drink in hand and looking forward to a good meal and enjoyable evening.

The message of the movie is clear. Child trafficking is taking place around the world and steals the innocence of our children. Television shows such as the View and guest analyst on CNN refute what the movie portrays and even went so far as to deny a problem. It’s time that we take our heads out of the sand or other parts of our human anatomy and resolve that the only side we take is to tackle this problem head on.  We need to do this without accepting the side of some political narrative. Instead, the only thing we need to do is to take the side of the children. 

Unfortunately, I have witnessed from afar the horrors of trafficking. While on a pipe line project that crossed Saudi Arabia a friend told me of an Arab man coming to the construction site. He offered to sell his daughter for a night to anyone that wanted her. No one took him up on his offer. Then a few years ago while waiting for a flu vaccination Bonnie and I talked to a lady that was also waiting. She was some type of social worker.  She said they had just rescued a twelve or thirteen year old girl from a motel room in I-20 that was servicing three, four or more men a day. Child trafficking is in our own back yard.

The second aspect of the movie that makes it so special is how a small David-style movie can take on Hollywood’s Goliath movie model and win. A low budget $14.5 million movie took on my $400 million Indiana Jones and hung in financially with the giant. This shows that good can be successful. It shows that there is a pent-up demand for faith based movies and faith-based interaction within a community. The type of religion is not a subject of the discussion but the feel-good aspect of living life according to a greater power and letting our children grow up in a free and safe environment is the key take away. We don’t need to be dictated to by a woke set of Hollywood moguls that enjoy the power to influence our daily lives.

The stars of the show are no strangers to Christian values. Tim Ballard was played by Jim Caviezel.  Jim also played Jesus in Mel Gibson’s hit the Passion of the Christ.  His wife was played by academy award winner Mira Sorvino. She has personally felt the stones and arrows of sexual harassment. Her rebuffing the advances of Harvey Weinstein is said to have hurt her career; however she did publicly come out against Weinstein which saw his destruction. From 2009 to 2012 she was a United Nations Goodwill ambassador for combatting human trafficking

When Bonnie and I went to the movie at 12:00 on a Tuesday the good seating section was packed. Never have I seen that in the middle of the day in the middle of the week.

Thank you Sound of Freedom for the wake up call to a horrific crime perpetrated on our children and thank you for taking on Goliath and winning. Good people can win.

God Bless America and Pray for the Ukraine.