Just got back from seeing the movie. It was pretty good. For those of you who don't know what the movie is about, let me fill you in. In the 1950s, 5 men and their wives went to Ecuador as missionaries.
Here are some pictures of the real people:
Jim Elliot
Ed McCully (this may be, and actually looks like, a portrait of Jim Elliot - it looks too much like him to be someone else. If that's the case, I couldn't find a picture of Ed McCully, although I looked)
Nate Saint
Pete Fleming (and the plane they took to meet the Waodani people)
I couldn't find any pictures of Roger Youdarian, but he was the fifth missionary.
These missionaries made contact with a people group who had one of the highest homicide rates in the world - something like 6 out of every 10 Waodoni male death was due to homicide. When the missionaries made contact, the Waodoni were almost all dead because of the cycle of revenge killings. No one who had gone into their section of the jungle had ever returned. Nate, Pete, Jim, Roger, and Ed flew a small plane into the area, landing on a sandbar near a Waodoni village. After contact with three of the Waodoni, they were speared to death by the rest of the people. Their bodies were found by searchers and buried near the Waodoni village. After their deaths, their wives went in to the village with a couple of Waodoni women - they were accepted into the group. One, Rachel Saint, Nate's sister, stayed the rest of her life with the Waodoni, dying there in 1994 of cancer.
I think this story illustrates one further important principle (further than - to stop violence, we must change hearts - well, that's badly put - God must change hearts) - there will be no reaching different people groups without martyrs. I'm sure, since it's been so long since this happened, that this angle of the story has been covered, but I'm not sure that I've heard it. Anyway - who's ready to reach the Islamic world now? :). This is really an encouraging, inspiring story, even though there is a lot of death in it. My favorite line in the movie (I'm not positive he actually said it, but I'm guessing he did - Steve Saint, Nate's son, wrote the book) was in response to the question "if they attack you, will you defend yourselves?" Nate Saint replied - "we can't. We're ready for heaven. They're not."
That's the attitude I want, and hope to have, as I attempt to reach out to the world - even in my everyday discussions with people (not that I'm worried that the people I meet and talk to everyday are going to kill me, for my faith or some other reason, but, you never know - death comes for us all in the end).
Comments on the movie:
The story was well done (of course, the story was pretty much out there, since it was based on an historical event).
The story focuses on Nate Saint (which is natural since his son wrote the book). It was pointed out to me that this was probably a good thing, since it allowed more about the story after the killings, rather than a focus on the story before the killings. I think this focus made the story interesting, since Beyond the Gates of Splendor seemed to focus almost more on the men than on the story. At any rate, they did a good job with the story. I'd say this would be a good movie for a family because the violence is fairly sterile and there's not really that much of it. (not that anyone expects movie reviews from me :).)
One minor issue: apparently the actor who played Nate Saint is homosexual. I don't think that was the best choice of the producers, but I also don't think that would have kept me from seeing this movie. If you want the documentary version of the story, check out "Beyond the Gates of Splendor," it's very good as well.
I enjoyed the movie.
