Movie Review: End of the Spear
Published January 24, 2006
As Christians flounder in the world of politics, and with Pat Robertson on TBN and the American Idol clone Gifted to premier in March, they are floundering on television too. So it's a small wonder that the movie End of the Spear has received such negative reviews. Yet, The Chronicles of Narnia, which also contains a Christian message, was positively reviewed and a box office hit. So what was it about End of the Spear that made everyone so mad?
The movie chronicles the story of missionary Nate Saint, who along with fellow missionaries seek to reach out to the violent Waodani tribe of the Ecuadorean rainforest, and end the cycle of violence that has brought them to the edge of extinction. However, through a miscommunication leading the Waodani to believe that the missionaries ate one of their family members, they murder them. Undaunted, Rachel Saint, Nate's older sister and Elisabeth Elliot, the wife of a missionary murdered along with Saint, go back to the Waodani to set an example forgiveness and love. The movie ends with a dramatic confrontation between Steve Saint and Mincayani, the Waodani who murdered his father.
Criticisms ranging from bad acting, the perpetuation of colonialist ideology, and homophobia have surrounded this movie. Consequently, when I went to see it last night I was expecting the worst. We met my husband's conservative friend, who grew up as the oldest of eight children. The son of a missionary who had spent much of his life in Mexico and was homeschooled, he was everything a Christian Republican should be. So naturally, when we saw him at the ticket counter, I immediately asked him, "John, do you know the controversy about the guy who plays the lead role?"
He rolled his eyes. "Yes. He's gay."
"Yeah, I know, I heard that groups like the Christian Coalition are mad at the makers of the movie for letting a gay man star in this film."
"Why?" he practically shouted. "They chose the best person for the part. Get over it. I bet they had a boy grip who was gay, too, and I heard the director lied once. So what?"
I was taken aback by his passionate response. Just a week ago, I had been accused of infringing on his second amendment rights by saying he could never bring a handgun into my house, and now this. It made me seriously question the supposed red/blue divide.
"Yeah," I noted. "How does getting up in arms about that advance anything good or noble?"
"Amen," he sighed. "Amen."
We went into the movie.
I came out an hour later with tears in my eyes. True, the music was pretty awful but better than the music in Kingdom of Heaven, which shrieked and vibrated in my head during the contrived battle scenes. The acting could have been better, no Oscar-worthy performances, but not worth the horror it elicited from critics.
The movie is based on a true story and the makers of the film worked closely with the real Steve Saint and the real Waodani people to create the film. The native characters such as Mincayani and Gikita were more developed than the white characters such as Marj Saint and Elisabeth Elliot. Though the key moment of miscommunication could have used more clarity, Mincayani's struggle to understand the message of the missionaries is portrayed sympathetically. He is not the savage warrior "other," he is a man who has been scarred by years of violence and now feels he must be strong and continue the cycle or become a "termite" in the after life. Like the missionaries, what he does, he does for the sake of eternity. Additionally, the missionaries are portrayed as becoming like the natives. They don't pack 'em up and ship them to boarding schools, rather they live with them, learning more about them in the process than the most accomplished of anthropologists. This is no "white man's burden" - this is a story of pain, healing and redemption.
- Movie Review: End of the Spear
- Published: January 24, 2006
- Type: Review
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Culture: Religion, Video: Documentary, Video: Drama
- Writer: Lyz Baranowski
- Lyz Baranowski's BC Writer page
- Lyz Baranowski's personal site
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Comments on this articleComments
1. The events depicted in the movie took place in 1955 and if I'm not mistaken WWII ended in 1945, a full decade before.
2. It is a fallacy to point out that it was specifically "christians" killing in WWII because there were more than just "christians" killing.
3. The hourorani or waodani (whichever is acceptable, the tribe had a hand in the film and accepted that spelling, so I'm sure it's fine) state that no matter what the reason for their killings they were wrong and senseless. Much like columbine, which when the waodani people of today heard about colombine they encouraged the makers of the film to share their story to end such senseless killing.
4. Your point about the eucharist is moot. Of course they had reason to fear the foreigners. No one is denying that, the movie doesn't deny that. And there are things the missionaries could have done to prevent that misunderstanding, of course. But hindsight is 20/20 and based on anthropological practices of the time they were just as well equipped as anyone to go in there, they did their best and suffered. The point is not that they were brutal killers, its that they were caught in a cycle and brought out of that by non-violence.
5. I suppose you have to don some sort of a christian hat to see the movie for how it is. However, that is no different than the other hats I have to don to view other movies and there are some key universal themes that resonate in the movie no matter what god you believe in or don't believe in.
6. The story does ring true because it is. THis is not some Blair Witch "based on true events" it happened, like it or not it happened and the waodani are not objecting to their portrayal or the story and steve saint worked with the movie makers to make it true. This isn't James Freyian, this is true.
It's a movie. Movies are not The Truth. And although Rachel Saint may believe she knows the truth, we don't know what happened. But there are differing accounts by people who were involved. And their stories are just as true, but far more disturbing.
The "people involved" as you call them, all had a hand in making the film. Mincayani and his people worked with Steve Saint and the makers of the movie. This isn't a case of repressing a voice this is a case of a story being told as accurately as possible.
We don't know what happened in Hitler's concentration camps but we have eye witnesses and a pretty good understanding of the truth. Same with this movie.
I am not a religious man, but I thought this movie told one of the best stories I have ever heard...A few days ago I had never even heard of this movie, then I rented it from our local library. Today I think it's my favorite movie of all time. I love films based on real events. I've watched it three times now, and have cried all the way through every time. You don't have to be a religious person to appreciate this movie. It's a GREAT story!!!
Ray in WI.
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Narnia is a good story and you needn't view it as Christian. It can be enjoyed by all. But *End of the Spear* requires a Christian sensibility to be understood. There's that one-sided Sunday School aspect to it that makes a non-Christian suspicious. It's ironic that the Waodani (more properly, Huaorani)wars, that prompted the missionaries to go, began during WWII when Christians were killing each other in the millions. The Huarorani were ruthlessly hunted down by Spanish conquistidors, by rubber tree planters, and --more recently-- by oil companies. Their fierceness may be due to an over-developed survivor instinct. The killing of the five missionaries has remained sensational news for five decades, but it is far from clear what actually happened back then. "Miscommunication" is certaily the keyword. Perhaps the Huarorani didn't understand the whole business of the Eucharist; afterall, they viewed outsiders as "inhuman cannibals". "Based on a true story" seems to appear under the title of every other movie these days, I just wished this movie rang as true as the complete fantasy that is Narnia.