Jesus walks in the jungle

As an amateur movie critic, I give very few points for trying. If you put a lot of effort into your film and it still sucks, then I'll call it as I see it. No hard feelings. Someone, you know, might value my opinion and base whether they see it themselves on what I have to say. It's possible. I can't, in good conscience, give a movie a decent grade because the people involved meant well.\nThat's how I feel about "End of the Spear." Good intentions will only get you so far, and then you're stuck with a hokey movie about Jesus in the jungle.\n"End of the Spear" is based on the true story of five American missionaries who were speared to death by the Ecuadorian Indians they were trying to convert. After their deaths, their wives and children took up the cause, and were able to convince the extremely violent Waodani tribe to end the inter-clan violence that had almost wiped them out. And, they also helped them accept Christ into their hearts. Bonus.\nThis all took place about 50 years ago, and that's all in the movie.\nAfter most of the Waodani bowed to a friendly (read: white) God, oil companies began scouting their ancestral homelands for potential fields. Most of the indigenous population in this section of Ecuadorian rainforest now live in protectorates controlled by Christian charities, and have only recently begun to represent themselves politically. That part wasn't in the movie. Maybe there was a mistake in editing.\nBut enough about the unintentionally funny omissions in the recent history of these people; let's talk about why you shouldn't see "End of the Spear." This is a movie built and marketed for a specific audience. If you are outside of that target demographic, you're not going to like it. It's going to strike you as overbearing, patronizing and obnoxious. If you are inside the target demographic, you may like it. But assuming you're not an automaton, and can call bullshit when you see it, you won't like it either.\nWith that in mind, I would like to point out that "End of the Spear" could have been a good movie. The reconciliation that the missionaries and the Indians experienced is nothing short of amazing. But instead of handling this situation as a living, breathing thing, we are presented with broad caricatures of nostril flaring savages being tamed by gentle, McCarthy-era housewives. And by the end, when you actually see angels taking people off to heaven, you'll have had enough. Because good intentions only get you so far, and then you are still stuck with a hokey movie about Jesus in the jungle.