END OF THE SPEAR
PG-13, 96 minutes

The overwhelming success of “The Passion of the Christ” may have uncovered a huge desire for Christianthemed cinema, but the latest entry in the genre, “End of the Spear,” ill serves this audience with its condescendingly shoddy missionary fantasy. And other viewers will feel alienated by this full-throated evangelical parable.

The film builds upon a legendary story about a group of missionaries who died in a South American jungle in 1956. An attempt to convert warriors from the Guarani tribe resulted in a massacre of the Americans. Yet their widows bravely moved into a native community, successfully made peace, and converted large swaths of tribesmen. Their shedding of their warrior ways was lauded as a demonstration of the power of the Gospel.

“End of the Spear” turns the story into part martyrdom exercise, part action movie. Pilot Nate Saint (Chad Allen) races to save the Guarani before they slaughter each other into “extinction.” Despite the entreaties of his adoring son, he flies into the jungle with other missionaries. “I am your friend,” Nate says, too late, to the man who spears him.

Director Jim Hanon draws his suspense from the threat of Mincayani (Louie Leonardo), who agitates against peace with the remaining Christians. The film’s cynical use of the Guarani is epitomized by the different portrayals of violence. Swooping tracking shots and menacing drum beats turn the Guarani’s fights into titillating, indiscriminate spear-’em-ups. But when missionaries die, they are bathed in light: Slo-mo shots linger on Nate’s face from a triptych of angles.

“The New World,” problematic as it was, beautifully questioned the benefit of contact between natives and Westerners. “End of the Spear” forces the viewer into the dramatically and spiritually unsatisfying position of agreeing with its protagonists’ values, or else. If the Guarani do not get religion, they will die out.

– Nicolas Rapold

THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN
unrated, 83 minutes

“The Real Dirt on Farmer John” both reaps the benefits and suffers from the drawbacks of access.

This documentary on the life of Illinois farmer John Peterson was filmed by his close friend Taggart Siegel over the course of 25 years. It is a lovingly rendered portrait of a nonconformist Midwesterner torn between his loves for traditional family farming and psychedelic artistic expression. As the arc of the story goes from his ruin in the 1980s farm bust to his reincarnation in the 1990s as an organic farmer, Mr. Peterson’s life is presented as an allegorical history of the American Midwest.

But the film’s portrayal of Mr. Peterson leaves a lot of unanswered questions and glosses over some of the darker aspects of Mr. Peterson’s life. It doesn’t deliver the real dirt, but it does offer an interesting perspective on the future of the American farmer.

– Stephen Spruiell