Sound of freedom

pjohnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120957737#Comment_120957737

Of course its a grift.

This time they had enough braincells to try and thinly disguise it.

BruteStock

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120957845#Comment_120957845

Do you believe harvesting child organs for the black market is a conspiracy theory?

Sudden Valley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120957947#Comment_120957947

According to wiki the theory is a cabal of Satanists rapes and murders children, using the adrenochrome they "harvest" from their victims' blood as a drug[23][24] or as an elixir of youth.[25] Cavaziel even mentions fighting back against Satanists when talking about the theory.

I believe that to be bonkers and dont believe there is a secret organisation of Satanists.

BruteStock

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120957963#Comment_120957963

Yes it is bonkers and it has nothing to do with the movie. So you need to ask yourself why there's such an effort to associate a movie based on a true story to bonkers conspiracy theory. What is achieved from belittling a topic so sensitive?

nachouser

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120957947#Comment_120957947

Child organs? Do you mean a baby grand?

Sudden Valley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120957990#Comment_120957990

Just like the Flash was damaged by Ezra Millers antics then Sound of Freedom is going to damaged by the association with Cavaziel. Who it stars!

The controversy regarding Cavaziel has made the movie successful much like interest in controversies surrounding Barbie only added to its box office.

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120958020#Comment_120958020

If they didn't want to actively court this controversy, they wouldn't wheel Caviezel - a well known nutbar - out at every occasion to talk about it, and have him pleading to camera for people to buy more tickets 'for the greater good'. If they actually wanted to remove Qanon from the conversation, he'd have obviously been sidelined from the marketing, much like how Miller was from anything Flash related.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120958020#Comment_120958020

We don't even know that though: the QR stunt makes "genuine" box office hard to guage and outside of narrow internet circles I haven't seen any kind of buzz, chatter or discussion of the film - beyond "yeah it's that indie film with a really sketchy background and grifty method to juice the numbers". What I've seen has been negative, and mostly around the conspiratorial angles.

There are obviously people going to the movie, but I'd debate just how large an audience it's getting given we can't be sure of the numbers in the first place.

Just even down to basic impulses: do you wanna see the fun bubblegum movie about Oppenheimer, the epic historical biopic about Barbie or ... the child sex thriller your crazy uncle won't stop talking about?

Sudden Valley

I dont want to see it, or at least pay for it because of Cavaziel. It has made $165m off a $15m budget so far and its success is not based on that it is most innovative thriller out there but its association with the Christian organisation that is the subject of the movie. But the hate that it got from some media certainly helped publicise it.

tesla_newbie

Will be amusing to observe every media worthy here condemn it ( should it be released) , they all desperately try to signal they both love and hate the approved things

Hangdogroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120957990#Comment_120957990

You didn't answer my question about Andrew Tate, but then Qanon is more interested in makey up sex traffickers than real ones.

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120958050#Comment_120958050

Did spot the Red Letter Media lads in the US describe it as "that movie with sold out screenings, but empty theaters".

Tony EH

Hmmmm...

So, as well as one of the financial backers being arrested for kidnapping, an executive producer has plead guilty to medicare fraud in 2020.

https://www.insider.com/sound-of-freedom-tim-ballard-qanon-medicare-fraud-2023-7

In other news, Ballard has "stepped away" from OUR and has joined "The Nazarene Fund", an organisation founded by Glenn Beck from Fox News.

:/

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120989291#Comment_120989291

you have to love the US media

https://twitter.com/lporiginalg/status/1688929433359704064

https://twitter.com/teacherinRI/status/1689267756485525506

pixelburp

1000 years from now, digital archaeologists are gonna trawl through this era's social media shít and wonder: WTF was with all those crappily drawn pictures? I am ever so sick of memes authored and presented as Big Brain Gotchas.

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120989755#Comment_120989755

thats your takeaway point?

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120989783#Comment_120989783

Does it bother you if it is? Crappy MS Paint memes are annoying, and the stupidest, most antagonistic way to present a retort. You chose to shoot down Tony's point with a stupid meme; at least own that aspect.

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120989802#Comment_120989802

its how I saw it, so might as well credit the tweet, whether you like the "art" of it is subjective but clearly the more interesting point is the desperation to smear the movie with fake reporting , though its fun watching the news bubbles over there and that people can be hypnotized in various ways

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120989909#Comment_120989909

The most interesting aspect of the film has been its ... questionable background between the hyper-christian or plain conspiratorial q-anon angles of the production & lead star; or just the obvious grifting and astroturfing with the box-office "success" based on QA codes & empty theatres. And when it mades a point to pull a Maude Flanders, I'm not surprised the media has latched onto stories of hypocrisy or irony.

You can debate into the night why Tom Cruise's scientology gets a pass, when it has that religion is itself a cult & abusive clique, but clearly this film invites questions. Cries of propaganda or smearing are just muddying the waters and trying to shutdown cynical takes as somehow polemical, emotive or ideological. This entire film's production is suss as F.

johnny_ultimate

The director of the film has recently done a few interviews and op-eds with the Hollywood trades, largely to express frustration at how the film has been caught in the culture war crosshairs. He has been very complimentary of Caviezel's commitment to the role during production, but also expressed his frustration at how the actor's overt courting of the QAnon set during the promotional tour has 'hurt' the film.

https://variety.com/2023/film/features/sound-of-freedom-director-controversy-calls-qanon-untrue-1235694549/

As I said earlier in the thread, I think there are likely plenty of people involved in this film who approached it with genuine intentions - I have no reason to doubt the director's word here, even if I disagree with his worldview (his past films have also veered towards a conservative religious point of view). I do think there are very genuine concerns to be raised about Ballard, his (former) organisation, the veracity of their accounts and indeed the productiveness or usefulness of their methods in combating child trafficking (many child trafficking experts have expressed frustration at their vigilante-style approach). Whether their work should be promoted in the form of an action film being sold as a serious look at a sensitive topic is a worthy discussion to have. But hard to have those conversations in good faith when the film has been so dragged through the conspiratorial, far-right dirt by Caviezel and other US cultural warriors/zealots.

Also: interesting nugget that the director expressed doubt about the 'pay it forward' approach adopted by the distributor. He doesn't know exact figures, but believes it has accounted for 'less than 10%' of the film's US takings.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120990021#Comment_120990021

Also: interesting nugget that the director expressed doubt about the 'pay it forward' approach adopted by the distributor. He doesn't know exact figures, but believes it has accounted for 'less than 10%' of the film's US takings.

Given the anecdotal comments of sold-out but empty screenings, I'm sceptical about that spitball percentage. ~$150 million domestic is serious cheddar, so you'd think there'd be similar confirmed comments of heaving theatres - or at least better than stark empty.

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120990038#Comment_120990038

I actually wouldn't have any doubt the film has been a success - alongside the anecdotal reports of 'ghost' screenings, there are also anecdotal reports of busy screenings (the author of The Guardian report on the film noted his screening in NYC was packed). There's no doubt a big audience for red-state friendly, 'faith-based' films in the US. And there's good reason to believe this has also crossed over to a more general audience just looking for a serious-minded action film.

I think if this had just been normal box office numbers it would be a hit by any metric. The problem is the absolute secrecy around the 'pay it forward' side of things makes it seems like the distributor is hiding something, backed up by said reports of empty theatres. So while I have no doubt it has been a success, it's hard to tell how big a success it has been due to that suspect scheme. More importantly, I don't think anyone has made anything resembling a convincing argument that buying a bunch of strangers movie tickets is in any way going to turn the tide on child trafficking as opposed to simply juicing box office figures.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120989679#Comment_120989679

The article, if you bothered to read it, was about Andrew McCubbins.

Funny though. You talk about "propaganda" and think posting a tweet from some random guy is somehow the bulwark against that. 🤣

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120990471#Comment_120990471

once I saw that that randomer donation to a movie was pumped up to be something it wasnt , that ended my interest in it, you fell for it. A pro tip, a story that looks to good and appeals to all your biases, is probably bullsh1t.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120990657#Comment_120990657

Didn't fall for anything sonny.

The fact of the matter is Marta gave money to the production and was a kidnapper himself, which is the salient point. The executive producer Andrew McCubbins, which was the thrust of my post, pleaded guilty to medicare fraud.

But you fire away with white knighting for your little movie. Go ahead, pull the stomach out of yourself. It won't be getting a penny from me either way. 😉

And as for you talking about "biases"...that's fucking rich.

johnny_ultimate

Mod note: Keep it civil, please.

Silverharp, you're clearly not engaging in good faith - if you can't discuss the film without trolling we will issue a thread ban.

pixelburp

As the topic has circled around the Bible Belt Demographic and the healthy cottage sub-industry in Hollywood that produces films for Conservative America, I was looking at boxoffice mojo's dailies and spotted this, right at the bottom. Not exactly Sound of Freedom money mind you, being a "documentary".

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1050313473/?ref_=bo_da_table_22

When governments use Covid emergency act edicts to restrict the gathering and worship of the Church, three pastors facing the risk of imprisonment take a courageous stand. 

Watched the trailer and Yikes. This approximate umbrella of films do tend towards a distinct political and social perspective that's often ... at odds with even basic recognition of central authority.

Hotblack Desiato

At odds with any semblance of reality more like 😁

Its detractors will even salivate over a TV show that glamourizes the Islamic faith by a company who detests the religion of christianity.

@BruteStock Are we supposed to know what you're talking about here?

SheepsClothing

So I went to see this yesterday, and it turned out to be quite the experience.

The film itself is a bit of a damp squib, and while it looks like it had a production budget and some care put into it, unfortunately there are many baffling filmmaking and story choices taken that are much more in line with a B movie. Overall I'd describe it as Taken, but 40 minutes too long, with very little action and with a lead actor with zero charisma. To give some credit out, I thought the child actors do a good job in some fairly harrowing scenes.

Now to the cinema experience, all was going fine, when 40 minutes into the film a fire alarm started going and the screen shut off. At this time I was laughing to myself thinking about the American conspiracy lunatics that were complaining about their cinemas being deliberately too hot and how much of a field day they'd have with this.

Of course being Ireland, nobody moved at the sound of the alarm and about 2 minutes later the manager came in along with another member of staff and explained that it was a false alarm that had shut down all screenings and they'd get the movie going again in 5 minutes. Before they had a chance to finish explaining, a woman up the front stands up and screams "THIS IS HAPPENING EVERYWHERE, THEY'RE TRYING TO HIDE IT, YIS SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES!", the implication here seemingly being, that the staff of Movies@TheSquare were trying to stop people from seeing the pedo movie they'd read about online. I think some people were a bit stunned by this as there was a brief silence for 30 seconds, before out of nowhere I hear voice a few rows behind me and turned around to see a woman stood up giving a sermon about how all of us in the cinema needed to repent and accept Jesus into our lives. Now most people were fairly dumbfounded at this point, but a group of women in front started muttering in agreement "fair play to her, fair play to her!" and then proceeded to break into song, singing lyrics about how great Jesus is, with your one down the back who had been preaching joining in with them!

It was around this point that I couldn't take anymore and dipped out to the bathroom out of second hand embarrassment. I got back in time for the restart, but to be frank I could have gone home at about that point as I slowly learned over the remainder of the runtime, that the first 40 minutes is by far the best of what this movie has to offer.

Anyway, it just goes to show you the power of cinema in bringing like minded people together. You wouldn't get that kind of 3D experience streaming at home.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121058511#Comment_121058511

Out of curiosity, what age would you have reckoned these people were? And I presume they had Irish accents?

Suppose Dublin is diverse enough that this whole narrative of "the movie the MSM don't want you to see!" is always gonna pop up.