Movie Review Redux

The other movie I recently saw was “Beyond the Gates of Splendor.” It told the story of 5 Christian missionaries, among them Nate Saint and Jim Elliot, who reached out to the Waodani Indians of Ecuador. They lowered gifts to them from their airplane. After a time of reaching out they landed and gave a couple of the Indians rides in their airplane. Because of a series of lies the Waodani killed the 5 missionaries with spears. (Hence the name "End of the Spear," the fiction movie based on the documentary.) Their wives continued to live in Ecuador, first in a nearby village and later among the Waodani themselves.

This was a two sided DVD. One side was a condensed version that was more like a family scrapbook. The wives talked about how they met their husbands. They told the basic story of the missionaries. They also talked about the loss of their husbands and how it affected them and their children. Steve Saint, son of Nate Saint, explained that when his mother told him that his father was killed by the Indians they lived among he felt a kinship with them because Steve knew that just about every tribe member had family who were murdered.

The other side of the DVD filled out the story. A pair of sociologists explained that conflict resolution was not a part of Waodani culture. They simply murdered each other during disputes! I was touched by the sadness that the missionary crew still show when talking about how they recovered the bodies of Nate Saint, Jim Elliot and the others. Steve Saint’s daughter wanted to be baptized in Ecuador. The Saint family moved back to the jungle, and she was baptized by Mincaye and another of the Indians who killed her grandfather in the 1950s. The best part was the story about Mincaye. Steve Saint and his family took Mincaye with them back to the U.S., and he experienced an utterly different world from the rainforest. Mincaye’s interpretations of commonplace American things like fast food drive thru windows were funny!

“Beyond the Gates of Splendor” was a good movie, but it did leave me wanting. The most obvious thing missing was any reference to God! The 5 missionaries said that they would not take guns to defend themselves from the Indians because “We are ready for heaven and they are not.” Elisabeth Elliot mentioned having church with the Waodani Indians. That’s it. I was kind of puzzled why they used sociologists in the movie. I was disappointed that there was no mention of Jesus Christ. There was no explanation of what caused the Waodani to stop their murderous ways, either. I really wished they would have talked about how Steve Saint and his family came to love the people who killed Nate and the other missionaries. Steve’s children think of Mincaye as their grandfather. A natural human reaction would be to avenge the murder, or at least feel anger toward the killers! I heard part of an interview on Focus on the Family with Steve Saint when “End of the Spear” was released. He talked a bit about these issues, but I wish it would have been in the documentary. A testimony of God’s grace to overcome would have made the movie more powerful, that’s for sure!