END OF THE SPEAR

US, 2005, 111 minutes, Colour.
Louie Leonardo, Chad Allen, Jack Guzman, Christine Souza, Chase Ellison.
Directed by Jim Hanon.

There is a play on words in the title of this interesting and very earnest film. The end of the spear is, of course, the point which stabs and cuts anyone on the receiving end of the thrust. However, it also implies the ending of the prevalence of the spear by those who used it as a weapon. Both meanings are very relevant to what is presented here.

In 2002, Jim Hanon made a powerful documentary, Beyond the Gates of Splendor. Vividly photographed in Ecuador in the forests at the source of the Amazon, it recounts some of the history of the Amazonian tribe, The Waodani, as well as the story of some young American missionaries who went to work in Ecuador in the early 1950s. They made contact but were killed by the warriors with their spears.

Now Jim Hanon has made a feature film of this material. While Beyond the Gates told the story primarily from the American point of view, End of the Spear has a great deal more about the Waodani, their culture and life and what led up to the massacre.

The early sequences ( made before Apocalypto), will remind audiences of Mel Gibson’s portrait of the Mexican Indians, their battles amongst each other and their survival. The framework, however, is a meeting in 1994 between the Waodani leader responsible for the massacre and Steve Saint, the son of the missionary pilot, Nate Saint. As they go on a river journey to find the graves, the narrative takes us back and recreates the warrior’s boyhood in the 1940s and life in this rather isolated group in the 1950s.

The missionaries appear, eager young evangelical Americans (who recorded much of their activity on film which was used in the documentary) and their devoted wives.

It was the wives and some of the children who finally made an impact on the Indians. Nate Saint’s sister, Rachel, and some of the women ventured into Waodani territory and lived with them, showing a peaceful witness of service, helping at a time of a crippling polio epidemic. Missionary work can be evangelisation by preaching but it is the constant witness and living with people that can lead to conversion.

The film is in the tradition of more evangelical films where characters are much less self-conscious than, say, Catholics in their talking about their faith and Jesus as their personal saviour and will have an eager audience amongst members of those churches. However, there is a heroism in the story along with an ingenuous American simplicity in the missionaries that goes beyond a faith audience.

The postscript during the final credits, taken from the documentary showing the warrior visiting the US and modern supermarkets, is genial but a reminder of the enormous cultural changes the Waodani experienced in the 20th century.


1.The entertainment value of the film? Interest? Christian message? Evangelical perspective?

2.The location photography, the atmosphere of the Amazonian Basin? Ecuador? The river, the village? The period of the 40s, 50s, the 1990s? The atmospheric score?

3.The title – death at the end of the spear? The missionaries and their influence and ending the use of the spear?

4.The structure of the film: Steve Saint, his visit to Ecuador in the 1990s, his meeting with Mincayani, the framework for the film? The initial setting out on the expedition? Steve Saint’s voice-over? The flashbacks – and the bulk of the film set in the 40s and 50s? The return to the 90s, the death of Rachel, the funeral, Steve bringing his family, the request of the tribe for him to stay with them? Mincayani and his attitude? His taking Steve on the boat, showing him the site of the massacre, digging up the remains of the plane? Asking to be speared in revenge? Steve’s anger, refusal? The influence of his father? The reconciliation? The Saint family moving back to Ecuador?

5.The 1940s, the voice-over about Mincayani and his childhood, the tribe, Stone Age background, hunters? The rivalry between the tribes? The violence, the spears? The raids on the different tribes, especially to take the women? The deaths? The children running, escaping? Dayumae going back to get the bird? Mincayani trying to protect her? Her sister? The separation? The children and their fleeing, survival?

6.The 1950s? The missionaries and their enthusiasm, the young families, very American in their approach, emotional? Nate Saint and his ability to fly? Taking the plane on expeditions, searching for the tribe? His finally sighting them? Radio contact with his wife and son? The young boy, his father making the model plane, his admiration for his father? The celebration of the families when the tribe was found? The group going out to make contact, lowering the hen in the basket, the children hanging on to the basket, their cutting it loose? The return to make the approach – and their not knowing the language, or not knowing it sufficiently? The approach, the women, the men and their hostility, the attack on the missionaries, spearing them? Nate and his being speared? - and Mincayani’s later telling his son that he and the Indians had had a vision of Nate Saint “jumping the boa”?

7.The life of the tribe, Mincayani’s leadership, moving from place to place, the hunting and its detail, the fight with the jaguar? The distraction by the plane? The memories of Dayumae? The approach of the white men? Suspicions? The massacre? The fear of the white men returning? The ordinariness of their lives, raiding other tribes to get women? Their brutality? The arrival of Dayumae, Mincayani saying she was a spirit? The change of heart of Kimo? His welcoming the women? Their wanting to stay and live with the people? The suspicions of the warriors? The acceptance by the women? Dayumae back with her tribe? Settling down, the building of the houses, the presence of the children?

8.The warrior tribe, outside the village? The suspicions of the warriors? Wanting to attack? Kimo and his refusal? Mincayani saying that the missionaries wanted them to be weakened? The discovery that the tribe had polio? The American women, getting the medicine, the drops of food and medicine? Treating the victims, on the rocking bark? Mincayani and his destroying the fish, the monkeys, the hogs? His petulance? Fears?

9.Kimo and his collaboration, Mincayani’s puzzle? The healing of the tribe? The women and their staying with the tribe?

10.The overall impact of the witness of the women – sharing the Christian message – but via good work, by their lives? The overall effect for the tribe – and their survival? The observation that there had never been so many grandfathers in the tribe before? The early deaths of the warriors?

11.The missionary perspective of the film, the evangelical attitude – of not killing the Indians because they were not ready for Heaven? The bible message – but it not being made so explicit as in other evangelising films? The American missionaries and their enthusiasm? The nature of martyrdom, its long-term effect? The witness of Christian life? The success of the overall evangelical message through a story like this, based on a true story?

12.The amusing postscript during the final credits of Mincayani travelling to America, looking at the food, answering his wife’s complaints, the Americans being obese, the supermarkets …?