About End of the Spear  
 

The movie, End of the Spear, opened January 20. It has been well received.  If you did not see it, the DVD should be out soon.

I have a special affinity for this story since my first missions service was in Ecuador.  I got to meet many of the people involved in this story. Over the years I have talked with a number of people who answered the call to missions service because of the witness of the five men who gave their lives to reach the Waodani people.  Praise God that the story is being continued on the 50th anniversary of the death of these five saints who gave all for the Gospel.

Dorcas

-------------------------------------

Dec 22, 2005

by Ryan Zempel (bio | archive)

To many Christians, it's known as the Jim Elliot story.

But when the tale of five murdered missionaries comes before a general audience on the silver screen in January, different characters in this true story will take center stage.

First, a bit of background for the uninitiated.

In 1956, five young missionaries -- Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Pete Fleming, and Ed McCully -- were killed when they "dared to make contact" (as the movie puts it) with the Waodani (known at the time as the Auca), an isolated and extremely violent tribe in the Amazon.

At the invitation of Dayumae (a female member of the tribe), the widow of one of the men (Elisabeth Elliot) and the sister of another (Rachel Saint) subsequently visited the tribe.

Dayumae had spent time among foreigners and was trying to convince the tribe to forsake violence. With the help of these women and the forgiveness they demonstrated, she succeeded.

The story was popularized when Elisabeth Elliot published Through Gates of Splendor, followed by Shadow of the Almighty:The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot and The Journals of Jim Elliot. Quite naturally, this centered the focus on Jim Elliot.

Other tellings of the story have also made the rounds, including a stage show titled Dayuma, focusing on her role in the story.

In End of the Spear, the filmmakers have chosen to follow the tale from the points of view of Nate Saint's son, Steve, and a character named Mincayani.

In 1960 (four years after his father's death), Steve Saint began making summer visits to his aunt Rachel, who lived with the tribe. After her death in 1994, he was then invited by the tribe to come live with them.

He subsequently moved his family to the jungle and now (at 54 years of age) lives as the "adopted" son of Mincaye, one of the men who killed his father. Steve and Mincaye have traveled throughout the U.S., sharing the story of how the Waodani departed from violence.

The movie's Mincayani character (whose name means "Mincaye and the people") combines several people and stories into one character for the purposes of telling the greater story.

As exciting as it is that this story is coming to a movie theater near you, it's even more exciting in that it brings to light another film company that realizes a film doesn't have to be explicitly Christian or include the cinematic equivalent of an altar call to advance the Christian belief system.

CEO Mart Green formed Every Tribe Entertainment, the company that produced the film, upon hearing Steve Saint's story. Every Tribe is devoted to creating "motion picture experiences that affirm life and inspire hope for a broad international audience through true stories presented in highest quality on film."

In creating End of the Spear, they seem to have caught on to the direction the wind is blowing in the world of filmmaking.

The success of The Passion of the Christ woke Hollywood up to the vast, underserved Christian audience that it had been ignoring for decades.

Now, along comes Walden Media (financed by Christian billionaire Philip Anschutz) and its blockbuster success The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Partnering with Disney, Walden pursued a dual marketing strategy that showed Hollywood it can hit the lucrative sweet spot by making a movie that excites Christians while also appealing to a broader audience.

Every Tribe Entertainment has harnessed this approach by making not one, but two movies. In addition to the feature film End of the Spear, which will appeal to general audiences, Every Tribe's affiliated Bearing Fruit Communications has produced Beyond the Gates of Splendor, a documentary of the same events that has been marketed to churches and other Christian audiences. Naturally, it comes with a trailer for End of the Spear attached.

So can this small film company, which doesn't have the resources of Disney behind it, pull it off? When End of the Spear is released to a planned 1,200 theaters on January 20th, we shall see.

In the meantime, they surely wouldn't mind if you "joined the tribe" and spread the word.