The tales told by buccaneering global saviors should always be taken with a grain of salt, but that Ballard’s heart is in the right place and that he’s put his money where his mouth is cannot be gainsaid. Unless you’re a jerk from Jezebel or the Guardian determined to assassinate this movie because it (a) mentions God twice, (b) salutes a cause taken up by social conservatives at a time when liberals are far more concerned with helping authority figures castrate children rather than save them from international criminals, and (c) stars an actor sympathetic with QAnon conspiracies playing a person who has said QAnon ideas have brought people to his cause and given him an opportunity to educate them in the realities.

Now, I hate QAnon, and I’m sorry Jim Caviezel is a nut who goes on Steve Bannon’s podcast, and I really wish Ballard wouldn’t play footsie with any of this. But seriously, when I see liberals actively seeking to suppress a movie because its star and subject are not aligned with them politically, it makes me want to throw a pie in their faces. I’ve spent 50 years tolerating political views I find repellent from actors who make creditable movies and acknowledging the value of movies whose politics I might abhor. Give cultural and creative open-mindedness a shot, you idiot commissars. And screw you besides.

[Amen, brother. This is just a small part of John’s review for “Sound of Freedom,” so be sure to read it all. — Ed]