END OF THE SPEAR

—1. Overview
—2. Cast and Crew
—3. Photo Pages
—4. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—5. Posters (Current Films)
—6. Production Notes (pdf)
—7. Spiritual Connections
—8. Presentation Downloads

I am a graduate of Wheaton College, the same college attended by Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Pete Fleming, and Roger Youdin, five missionaries who gave their lives for Christ in the jungles of Ecuador in 1956. Therefore, I naturally had a great interest in viewing their story as depicted in the movie END OF THE SPEAR. I was dismayed, therefore, when my zeal and anticipation for a great story were usurped by the realization that this movie suffers on several fronts. The movie may inspire some of the faithful, but may confuse and let down most attendees.

Here’s the story as told in the movie. The five aforementioned American missionaries and their wives and kids set up camp in remote Ecuador. A pilot, Nate Saint (Chad Allen), flies over the jungles looking for a warring tribe of indigenous people, the Waodani. Led by the fierce Mincayani (Louie Leonardo), the code of this people is to spear or be speared. After Nate makes contact and delivers a few gifts to the Waodani, the American men land on a sand bar in a river near the Waodani village. Mincayani thinks that the Americans are cannibals who kidnapped a female tribal member, Dayumae (Christina Souza). Dayumae, however, lives safely among the Americans as a sort of assistant and tutor on Waodani culture. Mincayani and other Waodani approach the men and spear them to death. Even though the Americans have guns, they don’t use them. The wives and children are informed, and continue to show non-violence to the Waodani. Decades later, the Waodani are slightly “Westernized� and Nate’s son Steve (also played by Chad Allen) discovers who killed his father.

By shying away from understanding the real motivation of the missionaries, namely Christ, the movie seemed to loose punch by making their mission more of one of “peace� than bringing Good News. At the very end, during the credits, the real Steve Saint tells about taking the real Mincayani on a tour of American fast food restaurants and supermarkets. I left feeling like perhaps they only ended up Americanizing these natives, rather than introducing them to the Prince of Peace. This is no indictment of missionary efforts. It’s a rebuke of this movie, and perhaps of Steve Saint who might have lost his father’s objectives

Another thing the movie lacked was visual artistry. The photography, color, lighting, and composition, must add to the action on screen in conveying emotion, poignancy and strength. While its hard to mess up picturesque jungle vistas and rivers, cinematography seemed merely serviceable and by the numbers. The most power films thrill us with beautiful shots, cleverly composed.

But, what I’m really asking is, “What will non-Christians, who don’t understand the real story, think of this movie?� Will they ask, “Uh, what do missionaries really do?� Will they merely shake their heads and say, “Stupid Americans. They should have stayed home.� Or, will others mention, “If only today's Christians preached non-violence." Only the last question has value, but they all miss the real point. These missionaries came to preach Christ and Him crucified, and the movie hardly mentions that and its implications.

In one brief scene, Christ is mentioned, but is it enough? Dayumae briefly tells others about a God who had a son who was speared and didn’t fight back. The ramifications of Christ’s non-violence run much deeper. These deeper spiritual questions go unasked and un-answered. I’m not advocating for a movie that preaches more, I just want a better, richer one with more truth in it.

Director Jim Hanon has only directed one other film and that’s a documentary on the same subject called BEYOND THE GATES. I saw that documentary, and lacked a certain power and inspiration too. Perhaps I’ve got that “The book’s better than the movie� syndrome, but the beset telling of this story so far is in Elizabeth Elliot’s book THROUGH GATES OF SPLENDOR.

Having ripped on this movie long enough, I’m very glad it was made. I applaud that it had as large a budget as it did and that it had as good of talent as it had appearing in it. Success and progress come by inches in the world of Christian filmmaking and I think this movie is a step in the right direction. It had echoes of the superior TO END ALL WARS, directed by David Cunningham, son of YWAM founder/missionary Loren Cunningham. Both films have themes of spiritual restoration, a topic that needs more exploration in major filmmaking. Hopefully, long gone are the days of LEFT BEHIND films and other apocalyptic low budget flops. I pray END OF THE SPEARE becomes a success because every time a movie with a Christian theme earns money, Hollywood listens. And if they listen, they’ll want to know why.

— Overview

MOST (The Bridge)

A simple but beautiful and profound story, MOST quietly stuns audiences everywhere it plays. Rich with meaning and symbolism, some viewers have said its better than many feature films they have screened. Indeed, this 2003, 33-minute short earned an Academy award nomination for best short film and went on to win top prizes at three other film festival competitions – Dances with Films, Heartland Film Festival and Palm Springs International Short Film festival.

You may have heard the story in church. It’s based on a sermon illustration. But here, Hollywood veterans, producer/director/co-writer, Bobby Garabedian and producer/co-writer, William Zabka (Johnny Lawrence from the KARATE KID movies) craft a picturesque, heart-wrenching, fairy tale-like fable among the Old world charm of Prague, Czech Republic and Poland.

A father and son love each other very much. Stargazing or enjoying tea together, the two are nearly inseparable. One day, Lada, the son, asks his father if he can join him at the bridge. The bridge is where the father works as an operator, raising a drawbridge when a boat must pass and lowering it when the train arrives. On the one day that Lada joins his father at work, a train arrives early. Lada tries to alert his father that the train is early, but his father cannot hear him. Father is away, inspecting some machinery. So, the boy rushes to throw the switch manually, enabling the drawbridge to drop and let the train safely pass. But, by the time the father discovers the problem, Lado has accidentally fallen into the drawbridge wheel and pulley mechanisms. The father must make a choice. Save his son and let the train wreck. Or, lower the bridge, save the train and sacrifice his son to the crushing wheels.

Some may guess the ending already, but I won’t spoil it by saying it here. However, MOST goes the extra mile in packing the story with strong symbolic images. Many of these symbols are left unexplained, but the discerning viewer will understand them. MOST lets the viewer see some of the sin and depravity of some of the train passengers. And, it also depicts new life and new hope to one of the train’s most desperate passengers.

MOST is not a frontal assault, blatant in its storytelling. It creeps up on your and enters your spirit through the backdoor. Director Bobby Garabedian told me “secular� audiences or film critics have never accused him of making Christian propaganda. After seeing MOST, I can understand why. But those “who have eyes to see and ears to hear� can clearly see the parallels to God’s redemptive love for us sinners.

MOST stands up there with PASSION OF THE CHRIST and THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA as a re-definition quality Christian filmmaking. It’s that good. (In fact, I think its better than those two feature films because it fulfills its modest goals more fully than those overreaching efforts.) And any Christian filmmaker who is blessed to watch MOST will be challenged and inspired to create equally beautiful and poignant pieces of work.

What should Christian film be like in order to inspire and challenge audiences? It needs to be very, very good, and MOST is just such a film. The acting if first rate, especially the adorable boy Lada (played by Ladislav Ondrej). The performance of the father, Vladimír Javorsky´, will make every parent who watches MOST cringe, cry and hug their children closer. The locations, sets and trains all induce whimsical feelings of European enchantment. The use of color and lighting furthermore, create a storybook quality. But, the story here is key and it’s a doozy. Bathrobe epics, underwhelming apocalyptic thrillers and manipulative treacle may have defined Christian film as it once was, but MOST now sets the bar up where it should be. You can order it by going to www.mostthemovie.com.