Thursday, November 22, 2012

Life of Pi: The movie

After Thanksgiving dinner today we went to see "Life of Pi" today. I was very taken with it. The psychology of the boy depicted reminded me in some ways of myself when I was young. But he grew up in India and his family owned and ran a zoo. But the way in which he related to people and animals I found I shared in some ways and also in the way he related to God in the way he found God in all religions not just the Hinduism he was raised in. This is a very beautiful movie. And in the end you hear two stories and wonder to yourself whether the first one was true or the second. But, in the end you know that no one would have survived remembering the 2nd story all that time. So, most people prefer the first because that is the story he believed that saved his life. It is a story about life and about discovering God in one's personal experience to survive. But since this is after all a very human story it really doesn't matter whether you believe in God or not in the end. If you believe in humanity and compassion and our relationship with animals and people that is enough to enjoy this movie. It is a very beautiful movie in it's cinematography and I feel it was very accurate in the way educated East Indian people are depicted in multiple ways because I lived there with my family for about 2 months in Nepal and 2 months in India in 1985 and 1986. So, I met hundreds of Indian and Nepali people there as well as many Europeans, Canadians, and other Americans while traveling there with my family.

There is an aspect to this movie that reminds me of the movie "Castaway" with Tom Hanks if you have seen that one as well. But this is a child and a young man's experience so it takes you to a different kind of place that is both heartrending and beautiful at every turn, sort of the way life actually is as we live it.

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