One of the smash movie hits of the summer was “Sound of Freedom,” the biopic of former Department of Homeland Security agent Tim Ballard and his push to save children trapped in sex-trafficking schemes.
Ballard came to prominence outside of law enforcement, as he quit the government and ventured into the dark realm of child sex slavery as the founder of an anti-trafficking group called Operation Underground Railroad.
The movie of his story, which also depicts Ballard’s Christian faith as central to his life, has generated roughly $211 million on a budget that was less than 10% of that.
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Yet despite its uplifting story and box-office success, the U.S. military opted against showing it to troops.
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio was not amused.
The Military Times reported last week that the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command scheduled and then canceled two free screenings of “Sound of Freedom.”
In originally promoting the events, SOUTHCOM said that the showings were offered “in support of SOUTHCOM’s mission to promote respect for human rights and combating trafficking in persons in Central and South America and the Caribbean.”
Commanders added, “The showing of this film does not imply or constitute endorsement by the U.S. Army nor SOUTHCOM.”
SOUTHCOM spokesman Jose Ruiz told Military Times, “The subject of the movie is something that’s of great concern to the command, in that it follows as part of its mission of countering transnational criminal organizations — because of the way these transnational criminal organizations exploit migrants — the hopes of migrants — in ways that end up being serious violations to their human rights, and unfortunately in some cases lead to the deaths of the migrants.”
Yet SOUTHCOM canceled screenings to “prevent the appearance of copyright infringement.”
The article does not explain how the military reached that conclusion. But SOUTHCOM did encourage troops to go see the movie at local civilian theaters.
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Rubio, in a letter dated Wednesday to SOUTHCOM’s commander, Gen. Laura Richardson, called out the military for its explanaiton, and argued that the cancellations should be reversed immediately.
“While reporting suggests that SOUTHCOM unexpectedly cancelled the movie due to concerns about ‘copyright infringement,’ I am aware that its producers and the studio have communicated that this is not an impediment for the movie to be shown at SOUTHCOM to service members and their families,” Rubio wrote.
“As such, since the concern which led to the cancellation has now been addressed, I urge you to rectify this situation and ensure that the screenings of the film be rescheduled without delay.”
The senator noted that the movie aligns with SOUTHCOM’s mission to combat trafficking and transnational criminal organizations in its area of responsibility, or AOR.
“SOUTHCOM identifies promoting respect for human rights in the AOR as one of its top priorities, and all U.S. military personnel assigned to SOUTHCOM or deployed to the AOR are required to participate in human rights awareness education,” Rubio added.
“Given SOUTHCOM’s robust leadership on combatting trafficking in persons, and the relevance of the ‘Sound of Freedom’ movie to SOUTHCOM’s mission, I was alarmed to learn of the decision to cancel the film’s screenings at SOUTHCOM. Especially given the fact that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) regularly works with movie studios to host viewings of films on U.S. military installations for service members and their families.”
He cited as an example the advanced screenings of “Elvis” at more than 20 Air Force and Army bases in 2022.
“This is not a novel concept – and one in which DoD has a long history of supporting such events for service members and their families,” said Rubio.
“As the producers and distributors of ‘Sound of Freedom’ have consented to screening the movie at SOUTHCOM, there is no issue with copyright infringement claims.”
He pointed out that the producers at Angel Studios offered to send a representative to meet with SOUTHCOM personnel and their families after the screenings to answer questions.
“I hope you agree that what matters is whether the movie is worth showing to the troops and potentially meeting the filmmakers, not whether the troops can buy a movie ticket or stream the film on their own,” Rubio concluded.
“As such, I request immediate confirmation that ‘Sound of Freedom’ will be shown at SOUTHCOM as originally planned.”
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