Q-anon of course being one of the CIA's more effective psyops of recent.
The word "Freedom" itself is a trigger for the totalitarian Left as it not only implies but emphatically defines the essence of the individual and their inalienable rights and responsibilities, along with the very foundation of this nation. All of which are anathema to the collectivist progs and their agenda.
“Freedom aggravates at least as much as it alleviates frustration. Freedom of choice places the whole blame of failure on the shoulders of the individual.”
Thank you, Sasha. I think many of us have been frustrated and angry with Hollywood (along with our government and MSM) for at least a couple of years. Film is a very, very powerful medium (think Nazi propaganda like “Triumph of the Will”) when used intelligently and effectively.
I often feel like we’re living under Taliban-like cultural constraints (the Tali-Woke?). They’ve been incredibly successful at changing our vocabulary to WokeSpeak, and the long march through the institutions is nearly complete (with the exception of SCOTUS, and that’s well underway). For whatever reason, though, the Woke have not truly mastered the movies...they’ve pumped out ample numbers of woke-themed and woke-cast films, but nothing has truly captured the people (except maybe Black Panther, but I think that was 90% timing at the height of the BLM panic).
Why is this? I think you touched on it with your comments on AI: woke Hollywood lacks HEART, and the audiences can feel it. The Sound of Freedom is all about heart; instead of a fake superhero, we have a real life human who decides to DO SOMETHING about the injustices he sees around him (instead of like, you know, hashtagging).
Only in our screwed up woke value system could people who adopt children of a different race/culture in order to give them a better life be seen as “harming” them by “depriving” them of their original culture, as Tim Ballard and his wife did.
I forgot to include a couple of things... Firstly, ten years ago, child sex trafficking was very much an issue of the left; in fact, Nicholas Kristof of The NY Times was known for exposing it. Now that our border is wide open, allowing more trafficking to happen, it’s (strangely) not an issue for them any more. Hmmmmmmmm.
It’s also really nice to see Mira Sorvino doing well because she was blackballed for refusing Harvey Weinstein’s casting couch, and missed out on years of potential work. Having been “cancelled” long before cancel culture was a thing, she seems to have come out of it with a drive to make more meaningful movies, rather than just “money-driven” films. Good on her.
I do occasionally check with John Anderson of the WSJ for film reviews. His woke index is low, and when it rises, you can spot it coming. But otherwise, movie journalism is as bad as journalism everywhere.
Sasha asks how these people have invaded the media world everywhere, and it’s simple--they’re all that’s available. Most writing jobs require a humanities degree, and the universities have choked all of the humanity out of their humanities. It always comes back to education.
Yes… Sasha is an extremely talented writer. I think she also loves baseball (as do I) with all these great Bull Durham and Field of Dreams clips. Love it !
I am a (long suffering) MLB Mariners fan. I recall my dad taking me to 1979 all star game at the tippy top of the old Kingdome. But I also grew up watching AAA Tacoma Tugs/Tigers and now enjoy most the single- A Hillsboro Hops. Some of my most fond memories of baseball thou, are American Legion games. My dad umpired when I was a kid, and my other sport love is women’s fast pitch softball. I have been to more of these games than any other, as my sister played too. They had chant/cheers in dugout that I can still recall to this day. Those cheers are a rich part of my Americana
The best part of the '21 world series was watching manfred give the trophy to Atlanta. He looked like peter paul montgomery buttigieg in East Palestine.
Yes, it should be stressed that when one ideology--in this case, woke leftism--gets control of higher ed for a generation or more, those that come through it will reflect that ideology in their "real world" jobs.. In all too many cases, it is literally all that they know.
Yes, but trying to change the direction at that point in the educational process is futile, if nothing has been done at the K-12 level. That's why I suspect groups like Moms for Liberty are going to change the world, save the planet, and all that. God only knows what the eventual result will be, but it can't be much worse than the paradoxically shallow quicksand we're wallowing in now.
Agreed, change must come from the pre-college level, universities are too corrupted and too independent to be reined in at this point. But I am optimistic--groups of motivated moms have changed the course of American History in the past, and I 'm expecting they will do it again.
Great article in regards to this excellent movie. Saw it last week and I felt very emotional during and after watching it. Stay for the ending message. This movie also points out US as biggest consumer of child porn, quite embarrassing and disturbing. We need prayer and God back in our country; salvation deeply needed.
I love your reference to The Summer of 2020 as if it were a movie. That would be one hell of a blockbuster if it weren't made by the woke tyrants in Hollywood. It would combine all the elements of a disaster movie with the tragedy of historic drama, a Gone with the Wind of our time. A true crime story that was heartbreakingly real.
The globalists don't like stories or want us to have heroes.
None of the "strong woman" characters in recent movies act heroically. They don't take risks or sacrifice themselves for the love of others. It's about "empowerment" and "self-fulfillment."
I don't care how well defined her biceps are or how loudly she sings her own praises in front of the camera. Why should I route for a gender swapped version of Gaston from Disney's Beauty and the Beast 1991?
"None of the "strong woman" characters in recent movies act heroically."
It's interesting how Hollywood portrays a "strong woman" as being everything they claim they loathe about masculine men.
I also find the contrast between Hollywood's portrayal of a "strong woman" with female heroes from European films I've seen and liked very much.
Here's a few European action movies/shows I highly recommend with female leads:
-'The Dragon Tattoo Trilogy' (extended edition) with Noomi Rapace
-'Black Book' with Carice Van Houten
-'Annika Bengtzon Crime Reporter' with Malin Crépin
-'The Bridge' with Sofia Helin
-'Female Agents' with Sophie Marceau
All of these are truly outstanding and show that a female lead can very capably handle carrying an action movie - but by realistically portraying a woman, not a woman trying to be a man.
As many readers probably know, Catherine Austin Fitts and Carolyn Betts do a weekly show for Children's Health Defense TV. They also do the weekly "Ask Catherine" conversation, answering subscriber questions on solari.com. During the episode released on July 14, they talked about how Carolyn had seen Sound of Freedom recently and the volume was very low. Her friend with her also could not clearly hear the dialog. They said they had gotten similar reports from their network, and also reports that the air conditioning was not on in some theaters showing SoF, while it was on in other theaters in the same cineplexes. They were wondering whether these tactics are being used to inhibit the success of the film.
Thank you Sasha for what you do. Please allow me give you a different perspective on the power of this movie, and why it is, IMHO way more than just great theater, although it was that. I was never jarred out of the story by anything on the screen, but I was occasionally distracted by things in the theater.
My Wife and I are in our Early 60's. Generationally I like to call myself a Proto-X. My wife suffered some hideous abuse as a child and still suffers PTSD from it. Despite that she bravely joined the Navy where she fought of a rape gang with her buck knife. She is my hero, and she bravely chose to watch this movie knowing it might "trigger" some things, more intense than hurt feelings.
In front of us was an older couple, and my wife pointed out later how she would start shaking during certain scenes. Her husband would hold her hand and she would lay her head against his.
A woman somewhere behind me, would laugh out loud, at odd moments, like where the Creepy Pedo finally got busted. It was an uneasy laugh, a release I suppose. I heard that laugh a couple more times during the movie.
When the credits were done. there was a stunned silence. Folks didn't want to be the first to leave. I felt a momentary impulse to applaud, that immediately was replaced by the feeling that it would defile something, too sensitive, too special, not sacred in the Religious sense but in the sense we had just been part of something, we were still wrestling with.
Never have I felt more apprehensive at start of a movie, or more uncomfortable than the early scene where Jim/Ballard is crying while transcribing the video and I thought of Nietzsche and of some combat vet friends with PTSD, and felt myself squirm for a moment as my legs wanted suddenly to leave. When we left theater the mood was a bit sullen. People didn't want to look at each other but seemed slow to leave, granted a lot of men were milling about awkwardly waiting for their wives to use the restrooms. In my experience, strong emotions can have that effect.
This was unlike any movie I have ever experienced. This movie WAS an experience.
"Do you think that stopped them from attempting to discredit the film? Why were they so threatened? Because that’s their default in the post-Trump era: attack first, ask questions later."
Q-anon of course being one of the CIA's more effective psyops of recent.
The word "Freedom" itself is a trigger for the totalitarian Left as it not only implies but emphatically defines the essence of the individual and their inalienable rights and responsibilities, along with the very foundation of this nation. All of which are anathema to the collectivist progs and their agenda.
“Freedom aggravates at least as much as it alleviates frustration. Freedom of choice places the whole blame of failure on the shoulders of the individual.”
-Eric Hoffer, 'The True Believer'
"Perhaps in their contract negotiations, they can ask for their freedom back."
Awesome line Sasha!
But I wonder, once you've sold your soul, would you want your freedom back?
Thank you, Sasha. I think many of us have been frustrated and angry with Hollywood (along with our government and MSM) for at least a couple of years. Film is a very, very powerful medium (think Nazi propaganda like “Triumph of the Will”) when used intelligently and effectively.
I often feel like we’re living under Taliban-like cultural constraints (the Tali-Woke?). They’ve been incredibly successful at changing our vocabulary to WokeSpeak, and the long march through the institutions is nearly complete (with the exception of SCOTUS, and that’s well underway). For whatever reason, though, the Woke have not truly mastered the movies...they’ve pumped out ample numbers of woke-themed and woke-cast films, but nothing has truly captured the people (except maybe Black Panther, but I think that was 90% timing at the height of the BLM panic).
Why is this? I think you touched on it with your comments on AI: woke Hollywood lacks HEART, and the audiences can feel it. The Sound of Freedom is all about heart; instead of a fake superhero, we have a real life human who decides to DO SOMETHING about the injustices he sees around him (instead of like, you know, hashtagging).
Only in our screwed up woke value system could people who adopt children of a different race/culture in order to give them a better life be seen as “harming” them by “depriving” them of their original culture, as Tim Ballard and his wife did.
I forgot to include a couple of things... Firstly, ten years ago, child sex trafficking was very much an issue of the left; in fact, Nicholas Kristof of The NY Times was known for exposing it. Now that our border is wide open, allowing more trafficking to happen, it’s (strangely) not an issue for them any more. Hmmmmmmmm.
It’s also really nice to see Mira Sorvino doing well because she was blackballed for refusing Harvey Weinstein’s casting couch, and missed out on years of potential work. Having been “cancelled” long before cancel culture was a thing, she seems to have come out of it with a drive to make more meaningful movies, rather than just “money-driven” films. Good on her.
Taliwakers.
The media hates this story because it comes people they hate. A Christian subject being portrayed by a Christian man, doing the lords work.
be sure to consider manipulation through fear,
https://conspiracysarah.substack.com/p/chip-your-kid&
I do occasionally check with John Anderson of the WSJ for film reviews. His woke index is low, and when it rises, you can spot it coming. But otherwise, movie journalism is as bad as journalism everywhere.
Sasha asks how these people have invaded the media world everywhere, and it’s simple--they’re all that’s available. Most writing jobs require a humanities degree, and the universities have choked all of the humanity out of their humanities. It always comes back to education.
Thank God for Substack. I like to think that I can write, and my degrees are not in the humanities.
Tell me about it.
I like to think I can write - then Sasha posts a new essay, and I am quickly disabused of that notion.
Yes… Sasha is an extremely talented writer. I think she also loves baseball (as do I) with all these great Bull Durham and Field of Dreams clips. Love it !
I LOVED baseball until both MLB and MiLB went woke.
WARNING - shameless plug alert - I wrote of this in an earlier essay.
I am a (long suffering) MLB Mariners fan. I recall my dad taking me to 1979 all star game at the tippy top of the old Kingdome. But I also grew up watching AAA Tacoma Tugs/Tigers and now enjoy most the single- A Hillsboro Hops. Some of my most fond memories of baseball thou, are American Legion games. My dad umpired when I was a kid, and my other sport love is women’s fast pitch softball. I have been to more of these games than any other, as my sister played too. They had chant/cheers in dugout that I can still recall to this day. Those cheers are a rich part of my Americana
Off topic, but can't resist.
The best part of the '21 world series was watching manfred give the trophy to Atlanta. He looked like peter paul montgomery buttigieg in East Palestine.
RIP mlb, or rather, take a knee.
Yes, she is really good.
Yes, it should be stressed that when one ideology--in this case, woke leftism--gets control of higher ed for a generation or more, those that come through it will reflect that ideology in their "real world" jobs.. In all too many cases, it is literally all that they know.
Yes, but trying to change the direction at that point in the educational process is futile, if nothing has been done at the K-12 level. That's why I suspect groups like Moms for Liberty are going to change the world, save the planet, and all that. God only knows what the eventual result will be, but it can't be much worse than the paradoxically shallow quicksand we're wallowing in now.
Agreed, change must come from the pre-college level, universities are too corrupted and too independent to be reined in at this point. But I am optimistic--groups of motivated moms have changed the course of American History in the past, and I 'm expecting they will do it again.
Great article in regards to this excellent movie. Saw it last week and I felt very emotional during and after watching it. Stay for the ending message. This movie also points out US as biggest consumer of child porn, quite embarrassing and disturbing. We need prayer and God back in our country; salvation deeply needed.
I just saw it tonight. The small theatre was almost filled to capacity. Terrific movie.
"We need prayer and God back in our country"
We've certainly paid a lot of lip service to him and sent him millions of souls.
Lip service doesn’t work, only repentance and accepting Jesus as your Savior. Prayers for redemption needed.
I love your reference to The Summer of 2020 as if it were a movie. That would be one hell of a blockbuster if it weren't made by the woke tyrants in Hollywood. It would combine all the elements of a disaster movie with the tragedy of historic drama, a Gone with the Wind of our time. A true crime story that was heartbreakingly real.
She should write a book about it. Would be awesome.
The globalists don't like stories or want us to have heroes.
None of the "strong woman" characters in recent movies act heroically. They don't take risks or sacrifice themselves for the love of others. It's about "empowerment" and "self-fulfillment."
I don't care how well defined her biceps are or how loudly she sings her own praises in front of the camera. Why should I route for a gender swapped version of Gaston from Disney's Beauty and the Beast 1991?
"None of the "strong woman" characters in recent movies act heroically."
It's interesting how Hollywood portrays a "strong woman" as being everything they claim they loathe about masculine men.
I also find the contrast between Hollywood's portrayal of a "strong woman" with female heroes from European films I've seen and liked very much.
Here's a few European action movies/shows I highly recommend with female leads:
-'The Dragon Tattoo Trilogy' (extended edition) with Noomi Rapace
-'Black Book' with Carice Van Houten
-'Annika Bengtzon Crime Reporter' with Malin Crépin
-'The Bridge' with Sofia Helin
-'Female Agents' with Sophie Marceau
All of these are truly outstanding and show that a female lead can very capably handle carrying an action movie - but by realistically portraying a woman, not a woman trying to be a man.
"The globalists don't like stories or want us to have heroes."
They try to make confused kids who are subjected to "trans" nonsense into "heroes" if they sterilize themselves.
There is an agenda here.
I saw it last week. Very good film. I’m hopeful the buzz creates motivation in people to do something about the problem.
Objectives that are more in reach of everyday people, in order:
1. protect children
2. observe and report potential abuse so pedos can be jailed
3. disrupt the child sex slavery industry (through 1 and 2)
To that end, I suggest some practical things each of us can do regarding 1 and 2:
https://open.substack.com/pub/lachevaliervit/p/the-war-on-the-child-battlefront
Brilliant synopsis. Thank you for saying so well what so many of us think about the state of Hollywood films.
“Perhaps in their contract negotiations, they can ask for their freedom back.”
Sasha, you nailed it in one perfect sentence. But they must want their freedom back. They seem to want to cling to their chains.
Bravo Sasha! So well done! A perfect accompaniment to a great movie. I’m sending this to everyone I have told about Sound of Freedom.
Sasha, nice swing. Knocked it out of the park!
As many readers probably know, Catherine Austin Fitts and Carolyn Betts do a weekly show for Children's Health Defense TV. They also do the weekly "Ask Catherine" conversation, answering subscriber questions on solari.com. During the episode released on July 14, they talked about how Carolyn had seen Sound of Freedom recently and the volume was very low. Her friend with her also could not clearly hear the dialog. They said they had gotten similar reports from their network, and also reports that the air conditioning was not on in some theaters showing SoF, while it was on in other theaters in the same cineplexes. They were wondering whether these tactics are being used to inhibit the success of the film.
Wouldn’t put past some theaters doing that. No problem here in TX tho.
Can’t wait to see it! Someone here must have mentioned that the film was completed in 2018!! Disney shelved it. What possibly could be the reason?
Thank you Sasha for what you do. Please allow me give you a different perspective on the power of this movie, and why it is, IMHO way more than just great theater, although it was that. I was never jarred out of the story by anything on the screen, but I was occasionally distracted by things in the theater.
My Wife and I are in our Early 60's. Generationally I like to call myself a Proto-X. My wife suffered some hideous abuse as a child and still suffers PTSD from it. Despite that she bravely joined the Navy where she fought of a rape gang with her buck knife. She is my hero, and she bravely chose to watch this movie knowing it might "trigger" some things, more intense than hurt feelings.
In front of us was an older couple, and my wife pointed out later how she would start shaking during certain scenes. Her husband would hold her hand and she would lay her head against his.
A woman somewhere behind me, would laugh out loud, at odd moments, like where the Creepy Pedo finally got busted. It was an uneasy laugh, a release I suppose. I heard that laugh a couple more times during the movie.
When the credits were done. there was a stunned silence. Folks didn't want to be the first to leave. I felt a momentary impulse to applaud, that immediately was replaced by the feeling that it would defile something, too sensitive, too special, not sacred in the Religious sense but in the sense we had just been part of something, we were still wrestling with.
Never have I felt more apprehensive at start of a movie, or more uncomfortable than the early scene where Jim/Ballard is crying while transcribing the video and I thought of Nietzsche and of some combat vet friends with PTSD, and felt myself squirm for a moment as my legs wanted suddenly to leave. When we left theater the mood was a bit sullen. People didn't want to look at each other but seemed slow to leave, granted a lot of men were milling about awkwardly waiting for their wives to use the restrooms. In my experience, strong emotions can have that effect.
This was unlike any movie I have ever experienced. This movie WAS an experience.
Thank you for your sharing your experience... very moving. Now, I must go to the theater!
"Do you think that stopped them from attempting to discredit the film? Why were they so threatened? Because that’s their default in the post-Trump era: attack first, ask questions later."
Truth.
Excellent piece, as usual!!