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It might have been inspired by actual events, but "End of the Spear" is, literally and figuratively, simply too dull to make any impact.

Set in the Ecuadorean jungles of the Amazon rainforest during the mid-1950s, the film is a dramatically listless rendering of the events that lead to the brutal deaths of a group of American missionaries at the hands of the spear-crazy Waodani tribe, who would subsequently change their violent ways after the Americans' surviving family members come to live among them.

That story served as the subject of an attention-grabbing 10-page Life Magazine photo spread, but in the hands of commercial and short film director Jim Hanon, who also had a hand in the screenplay along with Bart Gavigan and former Columbia Pictures exec Bill Ewing, this repetitive and poorly plotted production fails to engage.

In spite of a considerable TV buy and an ambitious 1,200-print national release by indie Every Tribe Entertainment, the picture, lacking in recognizable names, will struggle to play beyond a decidedly nonsecular target demo.

The year is 1956, and five American missionaries, including Nate Saint (Chad Allen) and their families have relocated to Ecuador with the intention of establishing contact with the Waodani (then known as the Auca), a tribe on the brink of extinction at the hands of its own violent culture.

Contending that the foreigners abducted and subsequently ate a member of the tribe (Christina Souza) who had actually run away to live with the visiting families, the noble Mincayani (Louie Leonardo) incites his fellow tribesman to spear The Five Americans to death.

The story might have ended there if it hadn't been for the fact that Dayumae, that runaway Waodani, returned to her tribe, ultimately bringing the wife of one of the missionaries and the sister of another, as well as Saint's young son, Steve, to live with them and, in the process, affect a change that will finally break that cycle of violence.

It might have helped if the filmmakers had chosen to tell this potentially intriguing story from a consistent point of view, but instead it keeps shifting confusingly from the Waodani to those sketchily drawn missionaries seen mainly through the eyes of young Steve, whose constant and largely unnecessary adult voice-overs also are provided by Allen.

Considerably more compelling is some end credit footage taken from a companion documentary, "Beyond the Gates", which follows a real-life Mincayani on his first trip to America, the land of fast food and debit cards.

In the end, some vibrant cinematography aside, "End of the Spear" bears an unfortunate resemblance to those old '40s jungle B-movies, a quality underscored by composer Ronald Owen's overwrought and decidedly un-PC soundtrack, which goes awfully heavy on the drumbeats and tribal chanting save for the times it echoes John Barry's lush "Out of Africa" themes a little to closely for comfort.

End of the Spear

Every Tribe Entertainment

Credits:

Director: Jim Hanon

Screenwriters: Bart Gavigan, Jim Hanon, Bill Ewing

Producers: Bill Ewing, Mart Green, Tom Newman, Bart Gavigan

Executive producers: Kevin McAfee, Eugene Mazzola

Director of photography: Robert A. Driskell Jr.

Production designer: Clarence L. Major

Editor: Miles Hanon

Costume designer: Marian Ceo

Music: Ronald Owen. Cast: Mincayani: Louie Leonardo

Nate Saint, Steve Saint: Chad Allen

Kimo: Jack Guzman

Dayumae: Christina Souza

Young Steve: Chase Ellison

Rachel Saint: Sara Kathryn Bakker

MPAA rating PG-13

Running time -- 112 minutes...