The movie has also been unjustly associated with certain extreme conspiracy theories. We wrote the movie in 2015 and shot it in 2018, well before anyone involved had ever heard of such theories. It is therefore literally impossible for the movie to reference these theories, and anyone who has seen the movie knows it does not. In fact, NPR, Rolling Stone and just about every other media outlet that has written about the movie, either positively or negatively, has made it clear in their stories that Sound of Freedom itself doesn’t contain any references to conspiracy theories. We took our inspiration from actual events, many of which were reported by major media outlets at the time.
Did we compress the time frame of Tim’s actual story and adjust certain events for creative reasons? Of course. This was never intended to be a documentary. As the Los Angeles Times wrote: “As with just about any film ‘based on a true story’ — there have been questions about the accuracy of its depiction of the real-life Ballard, whose organization Operation Underground Railroad claims to have saved hundreds of victims to date. On balance, though, Sound of Freedom directed and co-written by Alejandro Monteverde, and co-starring Mira Sorvino and Bill Camp, tackles a brutal if uncontroversial topic: Everyone agrees that the exploitation of children is a horrific crime that must be stopped.”
That, to us, is the bottom line. When the movie rolls, we trust that clear-eyed viewers will agree with the LA Times and see the work for what it is. Many millions already have.
[Reported *and celebrated* by major media outlets at the time. These criticisms are nonsense. See the film, and judge for yourselves. As for the supposed inaccuracies, that standard has never been applied by these critics to other “based on a true story” epics. For instance: The very excellent film “The King’s Speech” is based on a true story, but almost everything in the film is fictional. According to a book written by Lionel Logue’s son Mark based on Logue’s diaries, press reports, and official papers: the then-Duke of York was largely ‘cured’ after two years, Logue’s involvement was well known from the beginning, there was no falling out between them, and Logue was recognized as a pioneer in the field of speech therapy well before the abdication of Edward VIII. It’s still a great story about friendship and perseverance, but it’s largely untrue in the details. Sound of Freedom comes closer to the factual record. — Ed]
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