Moral Premise Storycraft Podcast Ep. 2: Can Historical Fiction Be True?

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Sound of Freedom vs. Indiana Jones: The Dial of Destiny

This blog post is a cry for reason in the pursuit of excellence and a plea to destroy the love of mediocrity. The Sound of Freedom movie, starring Jim Caviezel, is a good movie, and I'm glad to see the good it is doing to raise the salience of sex trafficking evil in the world. 

However, in terms of its story execution and its promotion I believe it could be better. For writing that, I've run amuck of "ideologically" driven Christians. For pointing out things that should've, could've been better I've been called a pedophile, and a MAP. I've been told to STFU, that I'm wrong, and that I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill. (BTW: mole hills can break your ankle if you step in one just right; underneath the small pile of dirt is an unseen hole.) The worse argument I've encounter, however, is this: "If it's doing some good, why criticize it?" 

Why indeed!?  Because the end never justifies the means. Because the movie could have done a lot more good. Why settle for affecting six-million minds when you could reach twelve-million? Is that the bane of the human condition? Settle for just good enough...let sleeping dogs lie...don't cause trouble...you can't do anything about it...just shake it off...critical thinking is too hard...go with your gut.

A. SANITIZED STORY

Last week, Pam and I screened SOUND OF FREEDOM (SOF) at the local multiplex. My lovely and sensitive wife loved it and wept. I though it was boring...very little action, some scenes were a stretch to believe. The initial luring of children, however, almost had me walking out of the theater. I was easily angered at the gall of the traffickers and the stupidity of the father. But horror of all horrors (in terms of filmmaking) the Act 3 climax (the final and necessary hand-to-hand fight between the hero and the villain) was sanitized by several SILENT and BLACK screens for seconds each...no doubt so as not to offend the easily offended Christian audience. I'm a Christian and I found the sanitized black offensive. Why? Because they hid the real sacrifice that Tim Ballard was making to save the girl, and it hid the real sacrifice called on all of us to stop the evil. It was too quick, too neat, too tidy, too bloodless, too neatly packaged to reveal the reality of the situation. Shame on the filmmakers. (cf: complaints about the violence in The Passion of the Christ)

B. EMOTIONAL IDENTIFICATION

SOF tells a true story (documented with actual footage at the end), but it isn't TAKEN (2008 - Pierre Morel, Director, starring Liam Neeson). Both films are rated PG-13. TAKEN went on to earn $226M worldwide over 20 weeks plus several sequels which together earned $928M plus two TV series. Let's see if SOF does that well. The big difference aside from the verisimilitude of the TAKEN story is that SOF is missing the key emotional connection of fatherhood. Bryan Mills (Neeson) is trying to rescue his daughter (whom he had been trying to reconnect with due to a divorce) from the sex traffickers. The SOF filmmakers try to make that connection but fail because Tim Ballard is trying to save children unrelated to him. Yes, it's "based" on a true story. But there is a serious lack in emotional connection with the audience; the audience will NOT emotionally identify with Ballard as they did with Mills.  

C. ALEJANDRO GÓMEZ MONTEVERDE

Part of the reason for an imperfect understanding of story structure is that SOF comes from Writer-Director Alejandro Gómez Monteverde  whose earlier two films, BELLA and LITTLE BOY (links are to my Moral Premise analysis) tried to appeal to Christian audiences, but bombed at the box office with poor story structure. Otherwise Alejandro is an excellent filmmaker. 

D. BOX OFFICE COMPARISONS

I also found the filmmakers (and Angel Studios) of Sound of Freedom dishonest in their ballyhooing of how they supposedly beat out Indian Jones: The Dial of Destiny (IJ:TDOD) and every other film on July 4.  On the Angel Studio website (the day I wrote this) they claim that SOF was Number 1 at the box office on July 4. While technically true for the domestic box office, it is misleading considering the overall performance worldwide of other films, like the Indy film. When the box office receipts are compared fairly, IJ:TDOD whipped SOF. Here are a few details.

Different Films Not Comparable

The factors are many: The release frames (day and date schedule) were not the same, the genres are not the same, the screen count is not the same, the star ratings are not the same, the balance between drama and humor are not the same, and the release countries were not the same. 

For starters: SOF opened domestically (2,634 screens) on Wednesday, July 4, 2023 with $14M in pre-sales to their core Christian audience. IJ: TDOD opened internationally (with 4,600 domestic screens) five days earlier on Friday, June 30, 2023 with $124M worldwide.  (the number of international screens is not tracked.)  

Domestic Comparisons:
IJ: TDOD first seven days = $94.7M.  SOF first seven days (domestic only) = $45.7.
IJ:TDOD per screen/per day average  = $2,941.   SOF per screen/per day average = $2,479.

International Comparisons: (2X domestic extrapolation)
IJ: TDOD first seven days = $189M.  SOF first seven days (domestic only) = $45.7.
IJ:TDOD per screen/per day average  = $5,880.   SOF per screen/per day average = $2,479.

July 4 (Opening Day Comparisons
Opening day for SOF, was Day 5 for IJ:TDOD
IJ:TDOD did $11M domestically with $22M projected Worldwide.
SOF: $14.2M domestically with no International.

As of Sunday, July 9 (totals)
IJ:TDOD WW: $249M
SOF WW (actually only domestic) $41M. 

Based on these reported numbers the SOM promoters have misrepresented the truth. In a very narrow way one can say that SOF beat IJ:TDOD.  But by passing on and repeating this narrow window of comparison, the general impression is that SOF is the better movie by far. 

But that is far from the truth. The SOF filmmakers should stop comparing the the two. When compared at face value the comparison puts SOF at a disadvantage. It's really not possible to compare them fairly because they are so different in many ways.  As Jordan Peterson would say, "Tell the Truth, at least don't lie." 

(All numbers from https://boxofficemojo.com the industry reporting standard, which are also reported on pro.IMDB.com)

E. DISNEY'S INVOLVEMENT

My take (without inside information) is that the SOF filmmakers also misrepresented Disney's involvement in the film's distribution, and some minor matters of fact which lessen the SOF promoters credibility. According to IMDB Pro, SOF was completed on Nov. 28, 2019, not 2013 as some have claimed. It's also been claimed that Disney shelved SOF because they are supporters of sex trafficking. I think this is a hubris conspiracy theory started by conservatives, if not Christians.  In 2018, 20th Century Fox picked up SOF for distribution, but when Disney purchased 20th Century Fox in 2019, SOF was put aside. Per Fox Business a Disney spokesperson told Newsweek that Disney had no knowledge of the film given the nature of the international acquisition pre-merger agreement. The SOF filmmakers reclaimed the film from Disney's shelf, and shopped the film around for three years before making a crowd finding deal with Angel Studios for distribution.  It is hard to know what or how the actual decisions were made at Disney about SOF. Disney has proved to be morally corrupt in a number of its decisions, both filmmaking and entertainment parks. I can say that IJ:TDOD is far from woke, and an excellent family film with clear emphasis on family and the fight between good and evil. 

F. SOCIAL DIALOGUE

Finally, a comment if Instagram thread participants on this topic come here to read this. I participate in an occasional social media thread, but it is very unsatisfying. I'm convinced that most commenters do not read the entire thread of a conversation but react subjectively and ideologically, making wild, irrational and irresponsible remarks to score a point or a like, like those I mentioned at the start of this post. Social media threads have contributed largely to the dissolution of culture and rational dialogue. It would be different if the social media engines would somehow thread together a conversation so it could be logically followed—a difficult task when multiple people are making comments simultaneously. I got wrapped up in an Instagram thread because of the issues I raise above.  The real corruption is society is the lack of intelligence.