Film Review: Life of Pi
In November, on the sidelines of the New York Film Festival, Tom Rothman, Chairman of Fox Studios said brightly to an interviewer in response to a question on the risks of spending a large budget on a film 'like this one', "Believe me, people are going to be eating a lot of popcorn watching this movie!". It sounded very unlikely at the time and smacked of marketing hype. Well, it turned out Tom Rothman knew what he was talking about. Life of Pi, made with a reported budget of $120 million has made gross earnings of over $166 million (10 Dec) since its release on 21 November, with many screens still screening it in its 4th week, and with many markets yet to start screening. In India and China, the film is a blockbuster, competing head to head with powerful local and Western productions for the audience's attention and money.
Earlier on, in September, Director Ang Lee said in a press interview: "I want this to be a film that people go to with their families and talk about for many days after they have seen it." Today, people all over the world are queuing up to see it a second time, sometimes a third. In India, kids are dragging parents to the cinema. (On right is 'home-work' on the movie by one 6-year old from India who 'took' her parents to see the film.)
If you haven't read the book, you'll probably miss the twist in the tale at the end of the film. From the folks I spoke to, I figured that most had. Only those who had read the book to its end really knew what was going on in the movie. It was not just an adventure story about getting lost in a boat along with a tiger, although that was a fine story to tell anyway. The people who took it to be only that however would have found the final monologue of Pi exasperatingly slow, and incomprehensible.
To really appreciate Life of Pi (the movie) one has to see it backwards, starting at the end.
The story is really about a power struggle between the 'human' and 'animal' side of the teenage Pi, as he struggles to survive in the middle of the ocean with almost nothing to keep body and soul together. To avoid a spoiler, I refrain from expanding further.
"O Avatar of Vishnu, in the forests of my mind are the wild animals of Ego and Violence. Help me O Lord of the Spirits, to quell these wild animals and dwell upon You!" -- thus goes a Sanskrit chant that is common in India. Hunger is not mentioned as engendering these wild animals that haunt the mind, yet it is the same prayer that Pi sends up to the gods when he calls upon them in the middle of the "Storm of God" sequence in the movie.
The tiger shoots into into the boat-life at a momentous point, when Pi, fed up, disgusted and infuriated with the hyena's wanton behaviour and ruthlessness, taunts and challenges it to fight with him. The wild side of the boy shoots into the picture, playing the hyena's own game against it, and thereby becoming like the hyena, albeit in a nobler external form.
The rest of the movie is about the split personality of Pi - the spiritual side versus the animal side. It is the animal side that keeps the body alive. It is the spiritual side that keeps the soul alive. Pi the boy recognises his two aspects. He prays to the gods to keep him sane, to protect him from himself. He prays for grace, but not for food or rescue. He prays to save himself, literally for his soul or spiritual aspect. He does not want his being to be 'swallowed up' by the tiger. Nor can he kill the tiger. It is next to impossible. He must find a way to bring the tiger under control, to live with it, recognising interdependence. The animal, however dreadful, is a part of us, but ah, let it not be the whole of us.
The genius of the movie is that the entire film when viewed backwards makes perfect sense, stands together solidly.
Now you know why Pi, in relating his 'other' story, speaks with disgust, venom towards the events that 'brought out the worst in me', instead of with sadness about having lost his family. He tells the story of how his personality split into two distinct poles. The story is about the dynamic relationship between the two poles. The tiger does not exist without Pi the person, and Pi the human cannot exist any more without the tiger. Without the tiger, Pi would die of plain starvation. Without Pi the boy, the tiger is just an animal, there is no human left to tell a story.
The power struggle is demonstrated in the many episodes: Pi's shock at discovering the tiger, the tiger swimming towards Pi on the raft, the training of the tiger,the images in the water, the competition for food, the shared gait and increasingly similar demeanour, the joint journey towards imminent death.
Retrospectively, I find the poster of Life of Pi, in which Pi is shown standing on the boat, with the tiger occupying the other end, as rich and powerful in metaphor. The poster shows the balance of power in the boat, with both sides demonstrating territory and jurisdiction. Body and soul.
Go watch Life of Pi. Watch it a second time. Back to front.
In November, on the sidelines of the New York Film Festival, Tom Rothman, Chairman of Fox Studios said brightly to an interviewer in response to a question on the risks of spending a large budget on a film 'like this one', "Believe me, people are going to be eating a lot of popcorn watching this movie!". It sounded very unlikely at the time and smacked of marketing hype. Well, it turned out Tom Rothman knew what he was talking about. Life of Pi, made with a reported budget of $120 million has made gross earnings of over $166 million (10 Dec) since its release on 21 November, with many screens still screening it in its 4th week, and with many markets yet to start screening. In India and China, the film is a blockbuster, competing head to head with powerful local and Western productions for the audience's attention and money.
Earlier on, in September, Director Ang Lee said in a press interview: "I want this to be a film that people go to with their families and talk about for many days after they have seen it." Today, people all over the world are queuing up to see it a second time, sometimes a third. In India, kids are dragging parents to the cinema. (On right is 'home-work' on the movie by one 6-year old from India who 'took' her parents to see the film.)If you haven't read the book, you'll probably miss the twist in the tale at the end of the film. From the folks I spoke to, I figured that most had. Only those who had read the book to its end really knew what was going on in the movie. It was not just an adventure story about getting lost in a boat along with a tiger, although that was a fine story to tell anyway. The people who took it to be only that however would have found the final monologue of Pi exasperatingly slow, and incomprehensible.
To really appreciate Life of Pi (the movie) one has to see it backwards, starting at the end.
The story is really about a power struggle between the 'human' and 'animal' side of the teenage Pi, as he struggles to survive in the middle of the ocean with almost nothing to keep body and soul together. To avoid a spoiler, I refrain from expanding further.
"O Avatar of Vishnu, in the forests of my mind are the wild animals of Ego and Violence. Help me O Lord of the Spirits, to quell these wild animals and dwell upon You!" -- thus goes a Sanskrit chant that is common in India. Hunger is not mentioned as engendering these wild animals that haunt the mind, yet it is the same prayer that Pi sends up to the gods when he calls upon them in the middle of the "Storm of God" sequence in the movie.
The tiger shoots into into the boat-life at a momentous point, when Pi, fed up, disgusted and infuriated with the hyena's wanton behaviour and ruthlessness, taunts and challenges it to fight with him. The wild side of the boy shoots into the picture, playing the hyena's own game against it, and thereby becoming like the hyena, albeit in a nobler external form.
The rest of the movie is about the split personality of Pi - the spiritual side versus the animal side. It is the animal side that keeps the body alive. It is the spiritual side that keeps the soul alive. Pi the boy recognises his two aspects. He prays to the gods to keep him sane, to protect him from himself. He prays for grace, but not for food or rescue. He prays to save himself, literally for his soul or spiritual aspect. He does not want his being to be 'swallowed up' by the tiger. Nor can he kill the tiger. It is next to impossible. He must find a way to bring the tiger under control, to live with it, recognising interdependence. The animal, however dreadful, is a part of us, but ah, let it not be the whole of us.
The genius of the movie is that the entire film when viewed backwards makes perfect sense, stands together solidly.
Now you know why Pi, in relating his 'other' story, speaks with disgust, venom towards the events that 'brought out the worst in me', instead of with sadness about having lost his family. He tells the story of how his personality split into two distinct poles. The story is about the dynamic relationship between the two poles. The tiger does not exist without Pi the person, and Pi the human cannot exist any more without the tiger. Without the tiger, Pi would die of plain starvation. Without Pi the boy, the tiger is just an animal, there is no human left to tell a story.
The power struggle is demonstrated in the many episodes: Pi's shock at discovering the tiger, the tiger swimming towards Pi on the raft, the training of the tiger,the images in the water, the competition for food, the shared gait and increasingly similar demeanour, the joint journey towards imminent death.
Retrospectively, I find the poster of Life of Pi, in which Pi is shown standing on the boat, with the tiger occupying the other end, as rich and powerful in metaphor. The poster shows the balance of power in the boat, with both sides demonstrating territory and jurisdiction. Body and soul.
Go watch Life of Pi. Watch it a second time. Back to front.
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