Life of Pi

[knowledge_of_self]

Just got back from seeing Life of Pi. I thought it was a very interesting movie and very symbolic ( I have not read the book). I really liked it.

Without spoiling it, I'll just say that it was a spiritual movie, and portrayed many things to do with spirituality/religion/God and to some extent science.

It had a lot of beautiful scenes and great special effects.

Definitely worth the watch.

 

[Carl]

I went to see this last week, what a cool movie :). I didn't find it to be particularly deep or engaging, but it was quite relaxing with lots of eye candy. Some of the scenes out at see were absolutely beautiful, such as the glowing fish and the floating island scene. The soundtrack was also very enjoyable, I've listened to it a few times since.

 

[Kisito]

The movie is very beautiful. To be few that the movie is spiritual, but I didn't find... I think that the movie arises from a story really, that the young man had had to be shipwrecked with a cook, a sailor and her mother, and that they had to be eatable to survive. The young man was the only survivor. To repulse the atrocities that he saw and that he made, he invented a fantasy story with of animals... The survival deprives us any humanity.

 

[knowledge_of_self]

The movie is very beautiful. To be few that the movie is spiritual, but I didn't find... I think that the movie arises from a story really, that the young man had had to be shipwrecked with a cook, a sailor and her mother, and that they had to be eatable to survive. The young man was the only survivor. To repulse the atrocities that he saw and that he made, he invented a fantasy story with of animals... The survival deprives us any humanity.

Interesting Kisto. I think the movie was portrayed in that way so that we as viewers decide which version of Pi's story we want to believe actually happened.
Perhaps it was a combination of both stories, perhaps not. I chose to think about the animal story, because of several things I picked up in the movie.

SPOILERS:

I thought that in the end Pi was telling the Japanese men only what they wanted to hear. Several people argue that the "human version" of the story was what actually happened because of the pain on Pi's face as he described the events. But I think anyone would have pain on their face if they had to take back what was true to them, and to lie to others for their benefit because they just can't 'go there'.

To me the movie was about God and whether or not you choose to except that there is a higher power that at some extent guides you, or you purely believe what you can see/touch. This was also presented as Pi's father and his belief that science was the true God, because "it had done more for humanity in 100 years than religion had over thousands of years."

So Pi used a combination of these things to survive on that boat. He used science to survive sharing a boat with a predator (making the attached raft and the little instruction manual he was reading) and he used spirituality/faith/God to survive as well (the island/seeing the universe within the ocean and stars and how all was essentially one and part of God).

Pi's dad had an argument with him that the soul of the animal is your own soul staring back at you, but Pi believed differently. He believed the animals did have souls. So Richard Parker could really have been a tiger and he did have a soul. To me this was shown when Richard Parker was looking at the stars and Pi asked him what he was looking at, "what can you see?".

Another interpretation could be that Richard Parker represented the predator mind. The predator mind can be cunning, intelligent and can consume us if we don't stay one step ahead of it and the life-boat represented life itself. At one point Pi said something along the lines of "I knew I couldn't tame Richard Parker, but maybe I could train him."



Fwiw, there is this article that tries to put the ending into some perspective, although it also states that the ending is ultimately up to the viewer's interpretation.
_http://screenrant.com/life-of-pi-movie-ending-spoilers/

 

[Foxx]

Interesting Kisto. I think the movie was portrayed in that way so that we as viewers decide which version of Pi's story we want to believe actually happened.
Perhaps it was a combination of both stories, perhaps not. I chose to think about the animal story, because of several things I picked up in the movie.

SPOILERS:

I thought that in the end Pi was telling the Japanese men only what they wanted to hear. Several people argue that the "human version" of the story was what actually happened because of the pain on Pi's face as he described the events. But I think anyone would have pain on their face if they had to take back what was true to them, and to lie to others for their benefit because they just can't 'go there'.

SPOILERS:

I saw this movie some time ago with my mom and really didn't like the ending. My take on it was that it was very much spinning the You Create Your Own Reality nonsense. Ultimately, there's a factual story about Pi's time on the boat, but the movie leaves it such that the viewer thinks that they can choose to believe one story or another, as though both are equally probable and as though it's acceptable or "believing in God" to pick the pretty, fantastical story over the brutal "mundane" one, filled with nearly unbearable pain and suffering.

I think being left in the middle of the ocean, alone, after watching your family die (especially with those survivors on the boat going crazy and most likely watching his mother get killed, and then possibly killing the chef(?) himself) and your entire life as you knew it come to an end would be extremely traumatizing and leave Pi with the time and emotional pain-as-motivation to create a fantastical story to avoid the brutal reality of what actually happened. In such a situation, it most likely would be quite easy for Pi to even believe that the fantastical story was true and that he was telling the Japanese men "just a different story". So, for me, really the whole end was just too much YCYOR for me.

But that's just my take--perhaps I just want to believe that the brutal, painful story is true.

 

[foofighter]

I saw this movie some time ago with my mom and really didn't like the ending. My take on it was that it was very much spinning the You Create Your Own Reality nonsense. Ultimately, there's a factual story about Pi's time on the boat, but the movie leaves it such that the viewer thinks that they can choose to believe one story or another, as though both are equally probable and as though it's acceptable or "believing in God" to pick the pretty, fantastical story over the brutal "mundane" one, filled with nearly unbearable pain and suffering.

Me and Starlight watched it last night, and our conclusion was exactly the same as yours Foxx. Pretty pictures, for sure, but spiritually shallow and YCYOR-ish.

 

[Drazen]

I saw this movie some time ago with my mom and really didn't like the ending. My take on it was that it was very much spinning the You Create Your Own Reality nonsense. Ultimately, there's a factual story about Pi's time on the boat, but the movie leaves it such that the viewer thinks that they can choose to believe one story or another, as though both are equally probable and as though it's acceptable or "believing in God" to pick the pretty, fantastical story over the brutal "mundane" one, filled with nearly unbearable pain and suffering.

Me and Starlight watched it last night, and our conclusion was exactly the same as yours Foxx. Pretty pictures, for sure, but spiritually shallow and YCYOR-ish.

I agree. Pi is ignoring the truth and choosing a lie to believe which can't be a way to heal his wounds. What's interesting, in the first part of the movie when he, as a kid, is adopting a few religions to himself without much reconsideration or comparison between them or are they representing the truth or a lie, because it feels good living in wishful thinking. I know, he's only a kid back then and curious, but it's interesting to compare his character in three stages: as a kid ready to believe anything that feels good; young man surviving shipwreck unable to deal with the horror of witnessing and himself murdering other human being so making up false story returns him to 'everything's ok world'; an adult with family of his own still living his life based on lies. What message does it send?!

 

[Maya]

I saw this movie some time ago with my mom and really didn't like the ending. My take on it was that it was very much spinning the You Create Your Own Reality nonsense. Ultimately, there's a factual story about Pi's time on the boat, but the movie leaves it such that the viewer thinks that they can choose to believe one story or another, as though both are equally probable and as though it's acceptable or "believing in God" to pick the pretty, fantastical story over the brutal "mundane" one, filled with nearly unbearable pain and suffering.

Me and Starlight watched it last night, and our conclusion was exactly the same as yours Foxx. Pretty pictures, for sure, but spiritually shallow and YCYOR-ish.

I agree. Pi is ignoring the truth and choosing a lie to believe which can't be a way to heal his wounds. What's interesting, in the first part of the movie when he, as a kid, is adopting a few religions to himself without much reconsideration or comparison between them or are they representing the truth or a lie, because it feels good living in wishful thinking. I know, he's only a kid back then and curious, but it's interesting to compare his character in three stages: as a kid ready to believe anything that feels good; young man surviving shipwreck unable to deal with the horror of witnessing and himself murdering other human being so making up false story returns him to 'everything's ok world'; an adult with family of his own still living his life based on lies. What message does it send?!

Agreed. But all of us went to see it ;D