Movie Review: End of the Spear

Stars: 2 out of 5

Pros: Good acting; lovely scenery

Cons: Screenplay misses the point of the story

The Bottom Line:

Based on true story

But seems to miss story's point

At least in my eyes

Not Nearly as Powerful as It Could Have Been

During the 1950's, the Waodani Tribe in Ecuador was facing extinction. Still a tribe untouched by the modern world, they lived deep in the jungle. Unfortunately, they were constantly fighting other tribes and even each other. All the violence meant that life expectancy was very short for the males.

While they knew little of the outside world, the Waodani Tribe was known in the surrounding areas. They had a reputation for being extremely violent and treating all those outside their tribe with hatred on sight.

Despite this reputation, five American missionaries feel called to share the Gospel with them. Lead by Jim Elliot (Sean McGowan) and pilot Nate Saint (Chad Allen), they begin to make plans to win the tribe over as friends. Nate and Jim spend weeks flying overhead and lowering things down in a bucket. Once they feel they have won them over, the five plan to land on a nearby sandbar and try to make contact face to face. But can these natives be trusted?

This movie is based on a true story made famous in Christian circles by Elisabeth Elliot in her book Through Gates of Splendor. In recent years, Christian recording artist Steven Curtis Chapman has written a song inspired by the story and Nate's son Steve has been touring the country with one of the men from the tribe. So those within the Christian community are quite familiar with the story.

I went into the movie with high hopes, but left feeling unsatisfied. This is not the fault of the actors. I had never heard of any of them before, but they all do an excellent job bringing the story to life. The movie was shot in South America, and the scenery is beautiful.

The problem comes with the story. While I haven't read the book, I have heard the story multiple times. I knew what was coming and dreaded it the entire time. At the same time, the story felt slow. It spends equal time with the tribe and with the missionaries. Ironically, I felt we got to know the tribe better and understood them more then the Americans. Too many of the actors, both the natives and the Americans, looked alike, so it was hard to tell them apart. In fact, I would have had a very hard time following the story if I had not known it before hand. This made it hard to get emotionally involved in the story.

Then comes the final act. In real life, this is a powerful story of God's love and forgiveness shining through some very tough circumstances. However, that ending is watered down in an attempt to not offend non-Christians. The entire reason for making this movie is negated by the decision to sell out the ending.

Ultimately, End of the Spear fails on every level. It doesn't truly show the difference God can make in a life, so it won't appeal to Christians. At the same time, the subject matter will turn off non-Christians. It's a shame such a powerful true story was turned into such a poor movie.