In The Jungle. Review on Beyond The Gates of Splendour Movie

Wow, finally a documentary that's worth all your money. I saw it this saturday and wanted to watch it all over again once this DVD was done. Firstly this documentary is a record of a series of actual amazing events that took place in the amazon rainforest around 1950 and whose effects are still felt today in the area.

The movie starts of with the narrator describing life in the amazon area of Equador around 1950 followed by testimonials of people from various backgrounds i.e various tribes describing life around that time. So we come to know of the hardships they faced. We come to know of homicide among tribes as being fairly common. We also come to know that there existed in the jungles an especially violent tribe called the Acua that not only killed people of other tribes and villages but themselves as well- indiscriminately. This particular tribe can be described as the most remote and violent tribe in the area at that time.

The movie then goes on to trace the lives of five young christian men from their college days onwards as narrated by their wives and surviving relatives. Thanks to the relatives we are able to observe a number of photographs and video clips of these men throughout this part of the film. As we go through short bios of these men, we come to know what kind of people they were, how successful and loving they were, when they settled down and started families of their own and when they decided to become missionaries and travel to Equador.

We are then taken through the missionary work by these men and their families as they set up different bases in Equador and start administering to the various tribes there with medical supplies, etc - all except the Acua whom they can't find and whom they are warned against meeting. Finally, on a plane ride delivering supplies, the Acua village is spotted and plans are made to visit them. The missionaries start off slowly - by air dropping food and tools to the Acua. Later, they decide to make contact with the tribe. They visit them and are martyred the same day. When their wives learn the news and recover their bodies, they are determined to continue their missionary work and resolved to contact the tribe again.

The rest of the documentary is a record of reconcilliation. Of how the wives managed to contact and change the people of the most violent tribe in the area and make them value human life. They live with the tribals and bring their own children to live with them, winning them over. Eventually, one of the daughters is even baptised by the same men who killed her father. All in all, an amazing story of self-sacrifice and selflessness. The man who made this movie is the son of one of the missionaries who was killed and has a son of his own who has also visited with the tribe. A movie based on this story called 'End Of The Spear' has already been made and was released this year.