Name a Movie that Changed Your Life

This morning something caught my attention - conversation starter: "Name a movie that changed your life." I had to think about that.

One of the most memorable was the missionary film Through Gates of Splendor. Although it was remade in 1967, the first version came out in 1961 just five years after five missionaries were killed by the Auca indians in Equador.

Of course I had been raised with a succession of missionary speakers who brought slides showing pictures of smiling dark-skinned people. I understood that the message of love and forgiveness had changed them, but it was somehow rather fakey.

But this movie was the real deal. I was in junior high, a time of life when everyone makes some important decisions about the kind of person they are going to be.

Here was real movie footage of naked people (we could hardly believe the church allowed this to be shown, right?) interacting with foreigners for the first time in their lives. It is not a fictionalized account. The camera was recovered and film salvaged from the actual initial encounter.

Here were young husbands and wives with children putting their lives on the line to bring caring and hope to a tribe who had an astronomical murder rate. Other tribes wouldn't even go near them. And the missionaries paid the ultimate price. After the initial friendly contact, the next day the Aucas killed the five men: Jim Eliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Roger Youderain and Pete Fleming. This wasn't the kind of happy missionary story we were used to. This was brutal and demanded that I think about what I was going to be willing to do if God asked something like this of me.

Here's the original movie. It was remade in 1967 with some small additions. You can watch it for free (only 35 minutes long). It is age restricted. I'm including a still shot from the film so there is an image in this post.

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Some of you may know the end of the story. Surviving wife Elisabeth Eliot with young daughter Valerie, and Rachel Saint (sister of Nate) went back to the Auca and in just a few months, God changed their entire culture from one of constant murder to caring and helping.

Two more movies were later made with more of the story. They can both be found on YouTube.

One is Beyond the Gates of Splendor, narrated by Nate Saint's son, Steve.

The other is The End of the Spear, also narrated by Steve Saint. The title has a double meaning, as Nate learns the identity of the tribesman who had killed his father. Mincaye demands that Steve spear him to avenge his father, but Steve forgives the man. This is the dramtic "end of the spear," as the solution to disagreement.

Elisabeth Eliot became noted as a Christian author, often taking a hard stance on obedience and morality. I've always thought she had every right in the world to take such a view, having been "tried in the fire" of personal experience, and she found God's strength sufficient. In the cultures of "Prosperity Gospel" and "God wants us to be happy," she was a voice for higher standards.

Name a movie that changed your life.

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