There are lots of movies that the girlfriend and I are wanting to see right now, and we’re trying to see if/how we want to prioritize End Of The Spear on our list.
The first thing I noticed about this film when I started being aware of it, was that Chad Allen was in it.
“Cool”, I thought. Always good to see openly gay actors working, especially those that I haven’t seen around that much.
The second thing I noticed was that it chronicled, among other things, a group of contemporary missionaries, including Chad’s character. I started seeing the movie promoted on the Christian channels.
“Meh”, I thought. Not really my favorite subject matter, unless it’s a film like Black Robe. I have a very low tolerance for even heavily diluted preachy dogma.
The third thing I noticed was that I was curious as to how and why Chad got involved with such a role. Would this be the kind of movie I could get behind, even if the story might not be my cup of tea, in a statement of support for conservatives and gays putting aside their differences and working together, etc?
And lastly, what I hadn’t seemed to pick up on until this morning, was the realization that the film was based on actual events, which led me to rekindle my interest in the film as I’m always interested in learning more about indigenous cultures and interested in film adaptations of actual events.
The message boards at IMDB.com for this film just made me roll my eyes and come here.
This is causing quite a fuss in some conservative C’tian circles- some are blasting the film makers for giving Chad Allen a platform to promote gayness, many others see it as irrelevant to the quality & integrity to the film.
As to the quality & integrity of the film- the two differing C’tian reviews I’ve seen agree on its technical excellence, disagreeing on how openly it upheld Salvation
by Christ’s Grace. One said it presented it well, but not overbearingly; another complained that it just made generic references to God & even less to JC.
I plan to see it, but then again, that’s because I want to support a Christian-friendly well done film. If it was about Peace Corps volunteers doing the same thing, I wouldn’t be an interested.
Is this based on the same true story that Boorman’s *The Emerald Forest *was based on? The one starring Naked McHotstuff–sorry, Charley Boorman?
No, in 1956, a team of five missionaries, Jim Elliot & Nate Saint among them, went to the Huaorani (then called “Auca”, literally “savages”) Indians in S America, an endangered warrior tribe, and were promptly killed. Their widows then came down with their children to establish the mission. They were spared & allowed to work by the Auca, resulting in a good portion of them accepting Christ & set aside therir warlike ways.
Accusations about the missions initial & growing connection to Ecuadoran governmental & oil interests have tarnished the story- apparently with some reason but not to the degree some anti-missionary persons & groups have claimed.
According to IMDB, The Emerald Forest is basically this…
*Based on a true story, Powers Boothe plays an American dam engineer in Brazil. Boothe’s son (played by Charlie Boorman - son of director John Boorman) is kidnapped by a rain forest tribe, and raised as one of their own. Boothe continues to look for him and after many trials and adventures, stumbles upon him.
An American businessman searches the Amazon rainforest for the Indian tribe that he believes has kidnapped his son and begins to understand the damage that a dam project is exacting on the forest and on its people.*
just because the movie has an actor who happens to be gay does not mean he plays a gay character or that the movie has anything to do with gay issues.
I agree- and I don’t know how truly numerous the anti-Spear/anti-Chad voices on the C’tian Right are, just that they are vocal. However, the C’tian conservatives I do respect have supported the movie. Even Falwell has come out for it. Heck, he also supported THE MISSION back in the day- and he wasn’t exactly a champion for the Church of Rome L