Etcetera @ The Movies: End of the Spear - [Matthew]

End of the Spear recounts a true story of the Waodani, an Ecuadorian tribe whose extraordinarily violent cycle of revenge nearly resulted in the extinction of their people

Back in 1956, a group of young missionaries tried to make inroads to the tribe, but five of them were brutally speared to death.

Remarkably, the slain missionaries’ families not only forgave the killers, but some eventually lived among them. The tribesman who murdered missionary Nate Saint, Mincayani, was eventually ‘adopted’ by Saint’s surviving family, even to the point of calling him ‘grandfather.’

The film is told in flashback, bookended by two segments set in 1995. The last section provides a unexpected revelation that makes for a gut-wrenching scene and conclusion to the film.

The surprising thing is that this story is not about the missionaries, or even impact of Nate Saint’s death on his son, Steve. Instead the film centers around Mincayani and the impact of the family’s forgiveness on him and his tribesmen.

Overall the acting is good, not amazing. But the casting of the Waodani people is fantastic, particularly Louie Leonardo who plays Mincayani. Chad Allen portrays both Nate Saint and the grown-up Steve Saint. He has a recurring voiceover that gives the film a pensive, elegiac feel similar to The Thin Red Line.

Jim Hanon provides confident direction and you’ll definitely enjoy the gorgeous, lush cinematography by Robert Driskell of Panama (doubling for Ecuador). The real Steve Saint actually did the stunt flying for the film. And it is impressive.

There’s quite a bit of violence, most of it off-screen, but it’s still brutal. In the opening sequence, one warrior machetes a crying baby. But despite the rawness, in some scenes the action comes across as stilted and staged.

The writing is spare, but what's there is tight. The Gospel is there on a DNA-level, so it’s powerful enough not to need someone on camera saying what the whole thing means.

A downside is End of the Spear presupposes prior knowledge of this story. That’s certainly something films sometimes do (the latest Harry Potter for instance). And given the target audience, this may be a safe bet on the part of the writers. But a few times when we skip forward in time, see characters who are never explained or introduced, etc., it’s a little hard to follow.

On the whole, the film doesn’t pack the emotional impact it seems like it would (or should), though the massacre scene comes close. I had braced myself for something emotionally devastating on par with Schindler’s List; it didn’t hit me on that level.

Overall, End of the Spear is a solid film. The filmmakers show a great deal of confidence in letting events speak for themselves and not being on the nose by overexplaining things, the perennial Achilles’ heel of films made by Christians.

In the end, you may find the undeniable power of this story transcends any shortcomings in its telling.

*** 1/2 out of five stars.

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence
Running time: 1 hour, 48 minutes
Opens nationwide today, January 20

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