Taken

On Friday night my roommate and I were in a discussion on whether we should see Slumdog Millionaire or Taken that night in the theater. I proposed the question on Twitter and Facebook and got the same amount of votes for each, so we decided to see Taken . Not sure if that was a mistake or not.

Liam Neeson plays an anal retentive father who was progressively absent throughout his daughters life. When she needs permission to head to Europe for the summer he grants it to her reluctantly. Within minutes of arriving in Europe, Neeson’s on screen daughter played by Maggie Grace a former LOST cast member, is taken hostage. Set in Paris the movie is centered around the theme that a group of Albanian profiteers have an underground world of capturing women and then selling them as sex-slaves. Neeson is on a mission to track down his daughter and save her from being permanently lost as a sex slave.

Besides the obvious rants that Neeson shoots his target dead with almost every shot and rarely gets hit himself. Or that the writers and producers overlook so many continuity issues. Or the fact that there was barely a secondary plot line and it was poorly developed at best. My biggest beef with Taken is the fact that the producers opened the door to a subject that is rarely talked about in main-stream media: sex-trafficking. There are very few movies like Taken that deal with the subject. A couple that come to mind are Trade and Eastern Promises. Taken is an action packed flick that is getting lots of numbers at the box office, but I guess I hoped that the movie would shed some light on this heinous industry that generates billions of dollars of profit each year.

BUT IT DIDN’T DO THAT.

So here I am to trying to give a voice to the voiceless. I don’t even know where to begin. . .

Did you know that sex-trafficking generates over 7 Billion dollars a year in PROFIT in the US alone?
Did you know that in the next 12 months somewhere between 2-4 million women will be sold into sex-slavery?
Did you know that every year over 1 million CHILDREN are sold into sex slavery, some for as little as $10 dollars?

I believe that this situation is only getting worse. My prayer is that in the years to come the church in America will grab hold of this injustice and shed light on it. I just wish Taken would have used its platform to make a stand against this evil. I would recommend that you watch Taken if you want to see Liam Neeson kick some tail. After you watch the movie I would hope you would stop by a few of these websites and educate yourself on how you can help make a difference. . .

International Justice Mission
Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking
Somaly Mam Foundation
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
Human Trafficking

(According to the various sources I read that the numbers have increased since this graph was published, but it gives a good reflection of what happens with those trafficked into the United States)

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