A 'Spear' Without Sharpness

"End of the Spear," directed and co-written by Jim Hanon, is based on a true event in 1956, when five American missionaries were speared to death by the very Ecuadorean tribesmen they had hoped to convert. Anyone who wants to see this story in unequivocally glowing terms -- five honorable men martyred for spreading the Gospel -- should be satisfied. The film takes pains to reprise the events that led to the tragedy and the moral victory that followed, in which the wives and children of those slain -- James Elliot, Peter Fleming, Edward McCully, Roger Youderian and Nate Saint -- prevailed upon the natives to stop their deadly infighting, which threatened the very survival of the Waodani people.

But those seeking a more secular perspective will be disappointed. Although the film invests time among the tribesmen, it never really explores the idea that one man's missionary work is another's ideological aggression. And the movie is tentative, dramatically speaking. The violence happens off-frame, and the Waodani tribesmen cast spears with all the intimidation of pee wee league pitchers. The music is relentlessly syrupy, and never did a rainforest look more like a backlit soundstage. The most powerful moments come at the end -- documentary excerpts of Steve Saint, the son of one of the missionaries, and his friendship with Mincayani, the man who killed his father.

-- Desson Thomson

End of the Spear PG-13, 108 minutes Contains violence. In Waodani, Spanish and English with subtitles. Area theaters.