Thursday 05 January 2006 at 4:08 pm
I was invited via e-mail to attend an advanced screening of the movie
"The End of the Spear". The movie tells the well known story of Jim
Elliot and the other missionaries who were killed in the Amazon in the
50s. The movie, however, does not stop there but goes on to tell the
story of what happened following their killing.
I went to the screening today with no little amount of cynicism and
doubt about the whole thing. I expected a big push for church based
marketing, which it really is. A third of the way into the film I was
getting a bit ornery about Christian "art" and sentimentality. Some of
it early in the film just seemed a bit too much Christianized Leave it
to Beaver and Andy Griffith but that changed. This is a powerful movie
that in my opinion gives a better gospel treatment than the vast
majority of Christian movies that are sent out there to save the world.
I could bring my non-Christian friends to this movie. It is much better
than "The Passion of the Christ" or "Narnia" in terms of witnessing to
the gospel. This is a movie I can endorse but be warned, bring the
tissue box, you'll need it.
It is rated PG-13 because of the violence essential to telling this story. It isn't for small children.
The website is
http://www.endofthespear.com/ .
More on the movie from the Willow Creek website:
http://www.willowcreek.com/wcanews/story.asp?id=WN08I42005
It is released on January 20. The makers of the film are hoping for
a large turnout on the first weekend release of the film so that the
movie has "legs" in terms of staying in the theaters longer for word of
mouth to work to get people to see it.
