BEYOND THE GATES OF SPLENDOR
US, 2002, 96 minutes, Colour.
Steve Saint.
Directed by Jim Hanon.
At the beginning of the 1950s a group of eager and earnest young evangelical men went from the US as missionaries to Ecuador. They wanted to make contact with a group of Indians, the Waodani, an isolated tribe of warriors who lived by a violent culture of the spear. The missionaries brought their wives and established their families. One, Nate Saint, was a pilot and flew over the Waodani area and discovered their whereabouts. The missionaries also took a great deal of film footage of their lives.
In 1956, they made more direct contact and their efforts seemed to be paying off. However, internal trouble in the tribe led to an attack and the massacre of the five men.
This is the subject of this very well-made and interesting documentary.
The early part of the film offers background to the Waodani and their customs. The bulk of the film gives explanations and the characters of the men, with plenty of excerpts from their home movies. Much of the film consists of interviews with the men’s wives and with Steve Saint, with the memories forty years or more on from the events. The structure of the film enables us to follow the progress of these years, the massacre, the decision by some of the women to go to live with the Waodani and give a testimony of peace and service which led to the tribe abandoning their spear culture.
In the 1990s, Steve Saint, Nate Saint’s son, who had spent childhood years with his mother and his aunt, Rachel Saint, with the Waodani, returned and decided to live in Ecuador. The film also traces the history of the Waodani who knew the men and some who killed them.
While the style of Christianity is evangelical, there is a minimum of preaching or proselytising here which makes it accessible to all Christians and to interested audiences who are not Christian.
Three years later, writer-director, Jim Hanon directed a feature film on these events, End of the Spear. End of the Spear gives more of its running time to the Waodani characters than the missionaries and invites its audience into the tribal way of life and dramatises the build up to the massacre.
Seeing the documentary first makes sense of the feature. Seeing it after End of the Spear (as this reviewer did) means that the documentary takes on a lot more meaning.
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 …?
