Hello everyone. How are you all doing? I hope this new year has been progressing rather well for all of you, and although a few bumps along the way are inevitable, I do hope everyone is on their way to accomplishing whatever goal they may have for their lives.
Moving on, I would like to write today about a piece of art that inspired me. Both positively and negatively. About a film that many people have been talking about these days and that seemed to come out of nowhere to give people new hope on life and new aspect on religion. I am talking about Mr Ang Lee's masterpiece, "The Life Of Pi".
I made sure I had the perfect setting to watch it. It was 3 o'clock in the morning, all the lights were off and I would have no interruptions. I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into since I didn't really enjoy "Slumdog Millionaire" and I was under the impression that this was going to be another film like that. I didn't even see the trailer but what I did know is that this film received a few Golden Globe awards and good critics, so I figured that since people where going to be talking about it, I may as well get it out of the way...
Now this is what we call a *SPOILER ALERT*. For anyone who hasn't seen the film and would like to keep the experience new for themselves, I would recommend you skip to the final paragraph. I am about to go into details of what goes on in this film and I know how annoying it can be to watch a movie knowing what will happen next.
The movie starts in quite a funny way, without even a hint of what's to follow. We have an author who's trying to find a compelling story and so someone recommends he goes to find Mr. Pi so that he can tell him the story of his friend Richard Parker. The potential author goes to Mr. Pi's house, they have dinner and so the story of Pi's life begins.
Saying that he was named because of his father's love for pools is one thing, but having all the kids mock him in school because his actual name was Piscine (it sounds like "pissin'" when you say it in french) is another. I mean, the parents never stopped to think what they were doing to the poor kid? So, in order to avoid further mockery the kid called himself "Pi" from the greek mathematical term π which is a neverending number to which he remembered all the digits! As if anyone could do that!
And if that wasn't bad enough, the kid became enchanted with all religions! Despite his father's warnings that "Religion is a very dark place", young Pi was a faithful hindu-muslim-christian, by the time he was 12! And as he told the author, later in his life he even taught seminars on Judaism. Yeah sure, why not? No one's getting offended by this, go for it Hollywood, get as many Gods in there as you can! See how many people you can make angry and how many lawsuits you end up with! (And this coming from an atheist!)
So, because of financial problems, Pi's family is forced to leave India and move to Canada. Pi must've been 16 or 17 at the time. Pi's father owned some animals at a nearby zoo. He had arranged to take those animals and sell them to a Canadian zoo, taking care of them as well so that he could provide for his family. Pi, of course, was not ok with this since he had found himself a little girlfriend, but daddy's orders are obsolete in these cases. And during the trip (they went by boat because how else are you supposed to carry a bunch of animals across an ocean), Pi came to embrace the fact that his life was just beginning. With a little help from his mother of course.
It took many days and many nights to cross the ocean. During one of these nights, Pi woke up to a massive thunderstorm. Pi tried to wake up his older brother (did I fail to mention he had a two-year-older brother? my bad..) so they could see the storm together, but all he got was a reply of "Don't tempt the forces of nature, Pi!". Always curious though, Pi climbed out on deck to see the rain and the massive waves hitting the boat. And his excitement swiftly turned to horror when he noticed the crew of the ship getting washed off-board by those waves.
Noticing that something's wrong, Pi tried to reach his family. But it was already too late. The room they were all resting in was underwater, and the boat itself was quickly sinking. Pi rushed outside to get help but instead he was put on a safety vessel (one of those smaller boats) along with a zebra that jumped on board and a pissed off hyena. Pi, having nowhere else to go and drifting away from the boat that his family was on, grabbed on to the edge of his little boat and mourned for the loss of his family.
Now this is where the really good stuff began. You would think that with just an Indian and a bunch of animals stranded in the ocean you really couldn't have much of a movie, but Pi began to learn how to survive, even find food, and eventually make friends with a wild tiger named... Richard Parker. Yes, I know, what the hell?
Some beautiful nighttime scenery, amazing music, the courage of a boy, his willpower not to give up no matter how many odds were against him and the way he put his life lessons to use, the communication between human and beast and how they become meaningless in the face of desperation, all this is what made a truly amazing film. I think that there wasn't even a single person, nor will there be, that didn't feel a little sad when they saw Richard Parker get off that boat at the end of the journey.
All the religion-gibberish was stuff this movie could've left out. It was already a great story, why ruin it with beliefs and morals and Gods? I suppose at the end of the day it was a story about survival. Whatever keeps someone going, whether it's a deity of a sort, or another person or just their own willpower, what matters is that they find what they need to make them reach into that hidden strength that's inside them. We all have it. We just don't know it. This movie is proof of it.
Moving on, I would like to write today about a piece of art that inspired me. Both positively and negatively. About a film that many people have been talking about these days and that seemed to come out of nowhere to give people new hope on life and new aspect on religion. I am talking about Mr Ang Lee's masterpiece, "The Life Of Pi".
I made sure I had the perfect setting to watch it. It was 3 o'clock in the morning, all the lights were off and I would have no interruptions. I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into since I didn't really enjoy "Slumdog Millionaire" and I was under the impression that this was going to be another film like that. I didn't even see the trailer but what I did know is that this film received a few Golden Globe awards and good critics, so I figured that since people where going to be talking about it, I may as well get it out of the way...
Now this is what we call a *SPOILER ALERT*. For anyone who hasn't seen the film and would like to keep the experience new for themselves, I would recommend you skip to the final paragraph. I am about to go into details of what goes on in this film and I know how annoying it can be to watch a movie knowing what will happen next.
The movie starts in quite a funny way, without even a hint of what's to follow. We have an author who's trying to find a compelling story and so someone recommends he goes to find Mr. Pi so that he can tell him the story of his friend Richard Parker. The potential author goes to Mr. Pi's house, they have dinner and so the story of Pi's life begins.
Saying that he was named because of his father's love for pools is one thing, but having all the kids mock him in school because his actual name was Piscine (it sounds like "pissin'" when you say it in french) is another. I mean, the parents never stopped to think what they were doing to the poor kid? So, in order to avoid further mockery the kid called himself "Pi" from the greek mathematical term π which is a neverending number to which he remembered all the digits! As if anyone could do that!
And if that wasn't bad enough, the kid became enchanted with all religions! Despite his father's warnings that "Religion is a very dark place", young Pi was a faithful hindu-muslim-christian, by the time he was 12! And as he told the author, later in his life he even taught seminars on Judaism. Yeah sure, why not? No one's getting offended by this, go for it Hollywood, get as many Gods in there as you can! See how many people you can make angry and how many lawsuits you end up with! (And this coming from an atheist!)
So, because of financial problems, Pi's family is forced to leave India and move to Canada. Pi must've been 16 or 17 at the time. Pi's father owned some animals at a nearby zoo. He had arranged to take those animals and sell them to a Canadian zoo, taking care of them as well so that he could provide for his family. Pi, of course, was not ok with this since he had found himself a little girlfriend, but daddy's orders are obsolete in these cases. And during the trip (they went by boat because how else are you supposed to carry a bunch of animals across an ocean), Pi came to embrace the fact that his life was just beginning. With a little help from his mother of course.
It took many days and many nights to cross the ocean. During one of these nights, Pi woke up to a massive thunderstorm. Pi tried to wake up his older brother (did I fail to mention he had a two-year-older brother? my bad..) so they could see the storm together, but all he got was a reply of "Don't tempt the forces of nature, Pi!". Always curious though, Pi climbed out on deck to see the rain and the massive waves hitting the boat. And his excitement swiftly turned to horror when he noticed the crew of the ship getting washed off-board by those waves.
Noticing that something's wrong, Pi tried to reach his family. But it was already too late. The room they were all resting in was underwater, and the boat itself was quickly sinking. Pi rushed outside to get help but instead he was put on a safety vessel (one of those smaller boats) along with a zebra that jumped on board and a pissed off hyena. Pi, having nowhere else to go and drifting away from the boat that his family was on, grabbed on to the edge of his little boat and mourned for the loss of his family.
Now this is where the really good stuff began. You would think that with just an Indian and a bunch of animals stranded in the ocean you really couldn't have much of a movie, but Pi began to learn how to survive, even find food, and eventually make friends with a wild tiger named... Richard Parker. Yes, I know, what the hell?
Some beautiful nighttime scenery, amazing music, the courage of a boy, his willpower not to give up no matter how many odds were against him and the way he put his life lessons to use, the communication between human and beast and how they become meaningless in the face of desperation, all this is what made a truly amazing film. I think that there wasn't even a single person, nor will there be, that didn't feel a little sad when they saw Richard Parker get off that boat at the end of the journey.
All the religion-gibberish was stuff this movie could've left out. It was already a great story, why ruin it with beliefs and morals and Gods? I suppose at the end of the day it was a story about survival. Whatever keeps someone going, whether it's a deity of a sort, or another person or just their own willpower, what matters is that they find what they need to make them reach into that hidden strength that's inside them. We all have it. We just don't know it. This movie is proof of it.
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