Comments on: The End Of The Spear – Movie Review

By: Lindsey

Lindsey — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 21:31:34 +0000

Excellent review, Tim! It was a wonderful, very powerful movie!

By: Wes Langdon

Wes Langdon — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 04:45:31 +0000

Tim–

I think you largely overrated this film. The characters were shallow, the story was undeveloped, and there was far to many tribal thongs…. Saint’s ‘conversion was depicted as some sort of tribal resurrection, not a conversion. THE WHOADANI PEOPLE ONLY LOST THEIR LUST FOR VIOLENCE afet this ‘conversion’. Did the tribe convert (in real life)? Yes. I do not think the movie touched on the ‘God aspect’. As for Chad Allen’s casting, I see no difference in that than when two STRAIGHT actors, (Heath Ledger, Jake Gylenhaal) portrayed gay men in Brokeback Mountain! Yet there was no conroversey over that; just over the content of the movie, not who was executing it.

By: MM

MM — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 19:24:31 +0000

It doesnt seem beyond the pale that God may indeed use this opportunity powerfully in the life of Mr. Allen. Any engagement with the Gospel is bound to be frutiful for the healing of this man’s soul. How could Christians not support such an opportunity? Thanks for your perspective and valuable information!

By: Virginia

Virginia — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 17:02:36 +0000

“I believed that the knowledge that this was a gay man would ruin my experience. But it did not. The man was just like any other actor, a sinner, who was doing his job. The acting was superb, and I was glad that this manâ€™s lifestyle had no affect on me as I watched the movie.”

Very astute comment. Reminds us that God sees all sin equally, and that homosexuality is no worse than other sin.

By: April

April — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 02:50:15 +0000

Thanks for an insightful and balanced review, Tim.

By: Jon Winslow

Jon Winslow — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 00:21:06 +0000

I came into the movie not knowing of Chad Allen’s gay lifestyle, so it did not figure into my thinking at all. Even now after the fact, it doesn’t even begin to change my way of thinking. I agree with the above comment, if God can speak through a donkey, then God can speak through a gay man. While I agree in opposing all his other agenda’s outside of the theater, I detected nothing of a gay agenda in the movie, or in Mr. Allen’s actions. And as such if anything, I agree and support Steve Saints decision to leave him in the movie.
The message of the movie as I saw it was, Christian love/forgiveness, conquers tribal hate and killing. Now there are those even as I was walking away for the theater who expressed disappointment at the movie not showing the gospel more, but I would like to raise a question here. First, what really happened, when they were visited at Palm Beach, they did just try to gain friendship, and when Rachael and the others went into the forest, that is when they shared the gospel, and they showed they with Dayumaâ€™s Waodani version of the gospel. While this was incomplete, consider something of the alternative. If Rachel had taken five minutes of the movie and gone through the four spiritual laws what would have been the effect? What is it that we want these movies to do? Do we want these movies saving people? Or planting a seed? In my mind, a lot of people would have been turned away from a blatant sharing of the gospel, shunning the movie as soapbox. Is there a place for such movies to blatantly share the gospel, yes, but that was not the point of this movie. Movies like The Passion of Christ are Perfect for that, this movie was not. I am not trying to weaken or stray away from sharing the gospel, quite the opposite, this movie works as a perfect seed. The seed planted begs the question, why would men die for their Christian faith. Because the movie makes it clear enough that no doubt can be had that they are Christians. The seed planted is powerful, and Christians should jump on it to share their faith with those who do see the movie. A quick comment I would make is that I do believe the movie could have done more, but much more, and I honestly believe people would have started to be repulsed by the gospel, and take offence. Without getting issues of sensitivities, I would give the movie an A-.

An interesting question is why do we as Christians wait for a movie like The Passion of the Christ to decide to actually get up and share the gospel. Why do we have to wait until we have something blatant that screams the gospel? Why do we find ourselves unable or more truthfully, unwilling to share the gospel with every opportunity. Opportunities, such as this one, or the dozens, aye hundreds of movies that give us platforms for sharing the truth. Why do we wait for a movie that we feel shares the gospel for us, that does all the work, and all we have to do is real them in? When will get over our fear, and share the gospel after almost any movie? You can share the gospel off a movies that twists the gospel just as well as those who portray it correctly. Why? Well that’s a completely different question for another time.

By: MVB

MVB — Sun, 22 Jan 2006 02:01:28 +0000

Good review, Tim! I’ll have to go see it when I have a chance.

The fact that Chad Allen is in the movie isn’t that big of a deal to me. You can dig up “dirt” on any actor out there… I don’t know why he was specifically chosen to play Nate Saint, but maybe it is God’s plan for something. Maybe God will touch Allen’s heart through this movie.

By: Rebecca LuElla Miller

Rebecca LuElla Miller — Sun, 22 Jan 2006 01:44:19 +0000

Tim,

I dropped in from Sally’s site at http://paraklesis.com/childrens_publishing_news/

Just a thought–might not Chad Allen’s reputation bring some people very much in need of the Savior to the movie, when they would otherwise have shunned it?

I for one, applaud anything that portrays Christians as forgiving people. In our culture, we have gained a reputation for judgmentalism and bigotry when what God asks of us is to love our neighbor, to let our light shine. The job of judging is His.

Sometimes I think too many of us, if we found ourselves in the shoes of the good Samaritan, would stand on the far side of the road and shout out a litany of questions to the wounded man, like, What do you think about homosexuality? What’s your stand on abortion?

Of course these are sins. If given the chance, I would preach against them, too. But didn’t Jesus say the physician didn’t come to the healthy and whole but to the sick? How is it we think that is OK for Jesus but not for His followers?

If He were walking the earth today, would He be more likely to hang out in churches or on the corners of inner city streets? Would He shun this movie about self-sacrifice and forgiveness because a gay man was in it?

Thankfully yours is a voice of reason amidst this silly Christians-bashing-Christians foray.

By: Agent Tim

Agent Tim — Sun, 22 Jan 2006 01:34:33 +0000

Ah yes, that end part was quite humorous. I really didn’t want to give away all the good parts, so I didn’t mention that extra. After that, everyone did leave the theatre with smiles. It really helped relieve the anguish you felt.

By: Spunky

Spunky — Sun, 22 Jan 2006 01:22:21 +0000

Good review Tim. We saw the movie today. It was an emotional movie that I thought was decently told. The scenes between father and son were powerful. I have to say if I didn’t know the story ahead of time I would be left with a few questions. While I’m not one to need a direct presentation of “this is what you need to do to be saved”, I did feel that the connection to Christ as Savior was weak. My friend who saw it with me thought the same thing. In the end Chad Allen was not as big a factor as I thought he would be. Although both my friend and I did say it was a little distracting when he interacted with his wife. I found myself feeling sorry for the woman actress. I know its all acting but it still seemed a little odd. Overall I give it a B.

Our audience was not quite as silent at the end. The grocery store scene and Steve Saints dialogue about fast food and fat Americans was humorous and a nice touch. We all left laughing.