Life of Pi (2012)

And that's the first 250 numbers of pi, including the 3, represented by the Greek letter π. Coincidentally, π is the main character in The Life of Pi (or as I'm calling him π!), just in case you were wondering. Joking aside, I liked this film visually, it's masterful and stunning. Just for an example, earlyish on in the film there is a ship that sinks (we never know Why though) and eventually π swims down to see it actually sink, and I just want to say, seen that ship sinking was AWESOME! I do mean that in the old sense too, as in, inspiring Awe. The blurry lights in the water slowly going down as π swims as if held in mid air by nothing and then seeing the lights going out a chunk by chunk, that inspires awe in me. And there are shots like this throughout the entire film, like there is a shot - I think before π finds the island - where it's night and π feels lost, and the establishing shot showing the ship on the water so clear it's reflecting the night sky telegraphing us how π feels right at the moment it perhaps some artistic genius on the part of the cinematoghrapher.

I'll be stating the obvious if I didn't say that The Life of Pi is a very metaphorical film and kinda ment to be taken with a pinch of salt, there's even a conversation about what I mean in the film. Along side this, people debate whether the tiger was real or not, and here's what I have to say: Why does it matter? All that matters is that the story is told in the way it's supposed to be told, and frankly it's told well. One of the topics that The Life of Pi chooses to discuss is religion, and this is reflected in the story with the tiger and π on the boat. I think the tiger, for the start of the film, represents humanitiy's tendance for violence, which is tempered by π acting as an athourity figure restraining the tiger's violence. Later on however, the story changes so that the tiger now represents a toxic person and π a victim of a toxic relationship.

My reasoning for this is, at some point in the film π's interior monologue says "Attending to the tiger's need gives me purpose." And while leaving the island π explains that leaving the tiger there would mean killing him, so π keeps the tiger around like a madman. And the tigar also happens to be named Richard Parker, but in the actual story it's explained that this was due to a paper work error, and the person who found the tiger was called Richard Parker and wanted to call him Thirsty, but the names got switched around and now Richard was called Thirsty and who would've been Thirsty is now called Richard.

And I'm not done with the metaphor. I've mentioned about an "island", but intentionally left details about this island a secret, well not any more! It is said in the movie that, by night, the island turns carnivorous, and once ate a guy who stayed on the island too long. I think this could be a metaphor about π joining a cult or other group and then realising that this is a very toxic environment.

Honestly, I think there's a lot to be discussed with this film and there's bound to be something I could be missing when dissecting this film. As even the film says, it's a lot to take in and we cannot be 100% sure if π's recollection of the events would be the true, even in the film π writes in his notebook: "I cannot differentiate between daydreams and nightdreams." Right before a storm.