Movie Review: End of the Spear (2005 Every Tribe Entertainment)
Running time: N/A
Price: $8.75 @ Century Theatres
Grade: 3/5

As I've stated before, I'm a sucker for any movie with a small plane in it. So, when I saw the trailer for this movie several months ago, I combed the movie website watching the multiple trailers and reading the various bits to understand the story behind the movie. It finally opened January 20th, so Erin and I took her folks out to the movies. They love independent and foreign films...anything out of the mainstream, so I thought this would be a good pick that would satisfy us all.

[imgwrap=left]https://www.backcountrypilot.org/i/screenshots/endofthespear1.jpg[/imgwrap]The story of Nate Saint is fairly well known I guess. He was a missionary and pilot who moved his family to a settlement on a river in Ecuador in the 1950's to search for an indigenous tribe of ultra-violent outside-world-distrusting warriors called the Waodani. He continually searched for signs of them by flying search patterns of the area with his Piper PA-12(I think) with hopes of making first contact. He did make contact, though the encounter turned ugly and he and his team of missionaries was killed with spears in an apparent case of miscommunication.

The great flying footage was what attracted me to this film, and the incredible scenery of the river and jungle. I was not disappointed, as there are many scenes showing short landings and takeoffs on the river bar. It is entertaining to see Nate Saint, played by actor Chad Allen, explain the technique for circling bucket drops, and then execute it in the movie(kinda. A circling bucket drop does not come straight down perfectly out the sky as if being lowered from a crane. )

[imgwrap=right]https://www.backcountrypilot.org/i/screenshots/endofthespear2.jpg[/imgwrap]Flying is only a byline in this movie though. The story is much deeper, but I felt the screenplay had a little trouble getting started and flowing like other good films I've loved. Part of that may have been that I already knew the outcome for Nate Saint and found myself wondering why I was watching a movie that was going to show the tragic loss of a main character as the pivot point. I also got the feeling that it was a film funded by a group with Christian interests, and the greater purpose of telling a very powerful story. It's no mystery, if you dig into some of the info on the website, there is a whole section of "Inspiration" from crewmembers. Some viewers are turned off by anything with an underlying religious theme, but I think that regardless of your beliefs, the final message is more about the human spirit and forgiveness and has meaning for anyone.

[imgwrap=left]https://www.backcountrypilot.org/i/screenshots/endofthespear3.jpg[/imgwrap]The story portrays the Waodani in a light not much different than modern day gangs, who suffer from seemingly perpetual eye-for-an-eye sparring and killing, with little more reason than to avenge the last death. The characters in the story are actually quite amazing. Each has suffered a very close loss, yet pursue their higher calling with strength and courage, for it is all they have left, and they risk their lives to be with a tribe of people who has killed their loved ones. Steve Saint, who is only a boy as portrayed in the film, is actually an active pilot and continues his mission with the Waodani to this day.

This is definitely a movie worth watching, though I'd recommend watching it on DVD. It's not really the kind of film that requires the big screen. Personally, I respect the work of missionaries who have made large sacrifices to do their calling. The feelings of isolation and being beyond the natural frontier are straight out of an early Alaska story. In the case of the Saints, the family lost a father but changed the entire existence for the Waodani, who for the most part ended their savage inner battles and overcame their distrust of the outside world. At least that's how the movie portrayed it. I'd be interested to hear additional reviews here from anyone else who's seen the film and/or knows more about the true story.

Zane,

I have not seen the movie yet but I know the story very well and some of the folks connected with it. Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming and the others are very well known in the Church and Christian mission world (which I grew up immersed in) and indeed have been an inspiration to many many people. This quote by Jim Elliot is well known by those who have gone to the field and given it their all:

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot loose.

'Jim Elliot'

The Waodani (Auca) Indians for the most part have become a Christian tribe and have been uncles and grandfathers to the children of the murdered men. There is of course much more to the story, but suffice it to say that the sacrifice has been redeemed.

The guy who built my old Cub is the same guy who pulled the original Saint airplane (PA-14 owned by MAF) out of the river in '96 and that airframe now sits in the MAF HQ in Redlands, CA. The PA-14 in the movie is rebuilt from one a friend of mine flew down from Lake Vermillion (near ELY, MN). He sold it to Steve Saint for the film. It has a 150hp O-320, seaplane door, PA-18 tail feathers and a few other mods compared to the original airplane. I was bummed they got rid of the Borer prop for the movie It does have the same tail number though. That was given to him by the lady who owned it after he called her to ask for it. She picked up the phone and he said, "My name is Steve Saint and..." "I know why you are calling." she said. "You want the n-number of our airplane." "Yes, you can have it, I have just read the book about your father." Pretty cool!

Thinking of the other film you mentioned, if there is a market who wants to see C.S. Lewis' blatantly Gospel (and classic literature) "Chronicles of Narnia" made into a film, why not supply that market? It's huge as evidenced by the revenues that the first film has taken in and the hunger for more of this kind of film making. A well run studio would have to be nuts not to make such productions and tap into this money source (especially as general revenues in Hollywood are down). I loved it! It was a very well done film adaptation of the book and true to the author's intent. If a non-Christian etc doesn't want to be subjected to the Gospel message, then they certainly don't need to go see it as juxtaposed with the zillions of blatantly non-Christian films out there. Anyway, you get the drift. Bye the bye, did you notice the detail of the HE-111's in the beginning of the film? The cockpits and uniforms were perfect as was the pilot dialouge. Even the way the bombs dropped out of the bomb bays was exactly the way German aircraft weapons systems were set up. I love that kind of attention to detail and we see more and more of it as digital film making progresses. Great stuff!

Brad

I feel that to get hung up on the religious message of the film or dwell on any commonality with current politics is to dilute the true universal theme of caring and forgiveness showcased in the movie. I just plain enjoyed it personally, especially the very end clips of the real Steve Saint and Micayani.

Zane,

Good job on the review. I also feel I need to compliment you on the BCP twostep. Way to try and stay on the fence.

Brad,

Your comments on the film are certainly enlightening and I'm glad I heard from you and Zane before I go see it. I agree with you that "A well run studio would have to be nuts not to make such productions". I think therein lies the problem. The Hollywood crowd is a bit too busy with their agenda to produce too many films that have any religous theme, no matter how good the story is.

Again, just my .02 (I know, I know, I'm up to about 1.50 on BCP)

Mark

BTW, The movie isn't in our theatre so I guess if Furnace Creek gets rained out I'll have to drive down the hill to see it.

Thanks for the review Zane. End of the Spear just got to town last weekend, but after reading the reviews we opted for The New World. Sounds like we should have went with my initial choice, The New World did not do much for us. Ebert gave it 4 stars, I would give it 1 1/2 stars. We will check End of the Spear out before it leaves town.

http://www.dtlinn.com/bucketdrop.html

Just so you know I have some experience with the Bucket Drop and would like to lead you to a site with some real photos from it taking place. Surprisingly the line does straighten out and you can raise and lower it like from a crane. I recieved a field approval with operating limitations for raising and lowering a bucket. Steve Saint did the flying in the movie and is the only other active person I know of who does the bucket drop.

You seriously have the ability to hit a target within 15 feet on good wind days and still within 25 feet on bad days with a lot of effort. The day I did it was for a ribbon cutting where we lowered the scissors in the bucket in front of a crowd of about three hundred. The wind was blowing 15 or so. On the first go around the bucket was a good 300 feet off and with one correction we had it back on track to the recipient. It took us two months of practicing to get the process dialed in, but after that you could drop the bucket into someone's backyard BBQ.

Please enjoy the pictures,

Kelly-

Funny, I've been to your website before and looked at those photos. I guess the web is small world.

That is cool that you can actually make such precision drops with that method. In my mind imagined the line at a pretty severe angle, but with enough rope that angle stands up quite a bit. I'd like to see a video from the pilot's POV.

zane

I am excited to see how the movie portrays it, because I haven't ever seen it done before. Other than from the pilot's seat.

I started working on it with the only instructions coming from the book "Jungle Pilot".

Movie was GREAT.

John

I'm finding out that a whole host of people use this method off and on. The guy I was helping last evening on his Cub used to supply fuel in cans with the "bucket drop" method.

Brad

How much rope are we talking??

Back to Narnia.... I guess this is the same (kid's) movie I watched a while back: The Lion the Witch & the Wardrobe? I enjoyed the movie, but didn't see (or recognize anyway) any religious overtones. What'd I miss?

Eric

That PA 14 was restored for the movie in my home town Coshocton, Ohio by MMS (Missionary Maintainance Service).

A couple years ago, it was at Oshkosh with the bucket winch mounted out side the right door.

I have had the DVD for some time now given to me from a friend. I always wondered why I had not seen much about this movie before. To me the movie dragged on a bit but in the end it made sense.
The movie "Battle of Britain" was an excellant film with lots of flying and not too much of the "mushy"stuff.
I believe one of the HE-111's used in the movie and also in "Patton" was the Spanish built plane with Merlins engines that belonged to the Confederate Air Force. I believe this plane crashed several years back attempting to land at Cheyenne Wyoming.
HC

Hot Rod. "The Chronicles of Narnia" were written by C.S. Lewis. He is considered one of the greatest apologists (defender) of the Christian Faith, especially in the modern era. He was an infantry officer in WW1 and later an Oxford don, author and member of the Inklings. He was an outspoken atheist until his friend J.R.R. Tolkein led him to Christ.

This particular series is an allegorical tale of the world, from it's beginning to end (though it never ends as the stories themselves indicate). "The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe" is an allegory of the sacrificial death of Christ (Aslan the Lion) to redeem the creation.

Some other great books by Lewis are:

Mere Christianity (his Magnum Opus)
The Great Divorce
The Screwtape Letters
The Abolition of Man
The Problem of Pain
The Space Trilogy
Suprised by Joy


Brad

(I was impressed seeing the HE-111's so perfectly rendered in the movie. Cockpits, crew procedures (in German) and even the correct way that bombs drop backward out of them. Somebody did their homework.)

So by your reference to JRR Tolkien, I guess that the Lord of the Rings is some sort of allegory to a religious theme too? Guess I missed that one too, except for the Anti-christ aspect of Sauron.
I read something that said the movie "Brother Where art thou" was a modernized telling of Homer's Odyssey. Missed that too, Guess I'm not a deep thinker.

Eric

Not to turn this into a literary discussion (or Zane will throw a fit), but no, "LOTR" is not an allegory (Tolkein always insisted it was not written as such), but is rather a story of hope against seemingly impossible odds from a Christian (subset Catholic) perspective. Tolkein was also a WW1 infantry officer and began writing it in the trenches.

Yes, "O Brother where art thou" is a retelling of the Odyssey.

Time to take Lucky Rose out of the lake before it has to land on ice at the float pond!

Brad

The PA-14 in the movie came out of Lake Vermillion north of us. Andy and Ted went up to get it originally as part of an estate sale. Later it was sold to Steve Saint and turned yellow! But that's why this airplane has a 150 A2B in it and a seaplane door.

Uh huh, but how much rope do you need to do the bucket drop???

enough...

CU, you need a lot. Better have a weak link in there also. It reminds me of my buddy's float plane purchase. (see story below). Snagging a rope on something scares me. jg

ONE OF THE WILDER AVIATION THINGS I’VE WITNESSED

I’m not sure, but it had to be either 1998 or 1999 when my friend Don bought an Aeronca Chief on straight floats. Now this plane had been in storage in a barn for a number of years in the Cincinnati area. The owner was a retired airline pilot as was my friend Don. They both had tons of experience with aviation. Way more then the rest of us put together.

This farm airstrip once had been an orchard decades before. Someone had cleared an 80 to 100 foot wide path through the trees for the runway, also years before. Instead of taking out a few rows of trees length ways, they made the runway crossing the rows of trees. I was told it use to be graded smooth, but over the years with freezing, thawing, and gravity, it was now fairly rough. One could not make a nice landing there. It was always a series of bounces, from one old row to the next row until you were slow enough not to bounce. The remaining orchard had grown up into tall trees lining both sides of the runway. Both ends of the property also had 80 foot trees, so that from the air, you had this narrow and fairly short 1800 foot grass runway in the middle of a big forest.

The seller, when he brought the Aeronca to his farm, picked a frosty fall morning and just landed with the floats sliding along the slippery grass. He then got it loaded on an old spoke wheeled farm wagon, where it had spent the years in the barn. That is where it was when we went to get it.

Two of us flew down there in my Scout, while Don and two more friends went in Don’s Dodge pickup. Up until now, Don would not tell us his “plan”. He only told us that he had plans A, B, C, and D.

We had a video man and a still camera man and two critical “crew” men. The seller pulled the airplane out of the barn on the wagon with a 1936 Case tractor. There was no loader. Next he drags out a couple of planks and we all lift and drag the airplane down them to the dry grass. After this was about when Don fired up the airplane and with full power and a couple guys pushing on the wing struts, it wouldn’t budge.

Now was when Don unveiled to us his plans A, B, C and D. He was unloading piles of rope and things. Plan A already failed. Plan B was to tie 300 of rope to the truck with a lose loop over the truck’s boat hitch. On the airplane he tied a bridle or a Y with a quick release from a hang glider tow device. From that quick release, there was a small line up to the pilot’s left side window. Now here was one dicey part. This release only worked when under tension. If the plane over took the truck's speed and made slack, it would not work.

Remember how rough this runway was? When you drove the truck at 50 mph, it too was flying more or less from bump to bump like the planes. This is where crew man #1 came in to play. This truck had a fiberglass cap on back, but instead of the standard set up with a tail gate and window lid, this one had a full fiberglass back with a small door in the center. Don was adamant that no one was ridding back there with the door banging around. Man #1 was ridding up front shotgun. His job was impossible.

Think about this. As the truck driver (critical man #2) accelerated from 0 to 55 mph, bouncing down the runway. His job was to then slam on the brakes as soon as the plane lifted off, and slide to a stop (55 mph to 0). The shotgun guy was to then get out, run to the back and flip the loop of rope off the ball hitch, and then toss it up over the cap as the plane was still flying (accelerating past 55 mph) and dragging only 300 foot of rope with a loop in the end, through 80 foot tall trees!!! All this stopping and unhooking the rope was in the span of 300 feet of rope. This was plan “C”.

I don’t think it could be done personally. This shotgun guy was also carrying a sharp hatchet just in case the rope didn’t get unhooked in time. In case of this event, Don was going to fly into a tight 300 foot circle like a string model. Just crazy! And the hatchet man was to chop the rope lose. That was plan “D”.

I think there were lots of prayers for Don. Up until this day, I always knew Don was more then a little wild, but this was going too far.

Plan “B” worked and the rest was fond memories.

Oh, yes, there were more uncertainties. That bridle “Y” of rope had the metal quick release tied to it. No one knew what would happen when it released? Would the prop suck it in before gravity to it south to bang against the belly for the next hour to the new home base. Well, it went south and banged. The new home base was another friend’s gravel pit. I flew my Scout along side to take pictures. I landed ahead at the grave pit so I could record the first landing. All went well.