Here's a film I should be able to get my teeth into, it's film about a question of faith, it's a parable about choice. It's based on the book written by Yann Martell. I have the book on my shelf, I'm more eager than ever to read it but I keep getting distracted. I've seen a few films now where the book is on my shelf gathering dust, I will get round to reading it, honest! Reading is just something I never find the time to sit down and do. When I do have the time I'll read obsessively for a week or so then stop until I find time again, it's cyclical. Another cyclical thing in my life would be attitude to faith, it's probably a good place to start, this will be self-indulgence, skip ahead by all means.
Born and raised a Roman Catholic, went to secondary school built around a convent, taught by a selection of nuns and teachers, had a headmistress in a habit and used to read from the Bible to us, had to start every lesson with the 'Hail Mary' and went to church every Sunday. When you're a child you don't question things like religion as you never realise it's a choice until a drunken uncle points it out to you, being indoctrinated as I was, I never stopped to think that at some point in the past a bunch of bearded men wrote the Bible as a story, in fact a whole massive mess of them wrote a bunch of books decades/centuries apart and at some point certain bits were selected and meshed together to make the Bible. It never occurred to me that it was a story, when I hurtled through my teen years it became something I began to read about and learn about it. It was after my grandmother died I went through a 'crisis of faith', it's something that seemed really significant, I'd lost God, God had abandoned me in my time of need, that feeling of certainty had been rocked*. Anyways, this went on for a few years and I started reading when I went through a period of not having any friends... I really loved the mythology of angels for the longest time. Getting to the point, it became apparent that faith is a decision, it's not something that can be forced, it's not something you are born with, it's just something you have to figure out on your own. I know, I know faith is different to religion, but it's still a choice. Most people don't even do that nowadays, they just disregard it as archaic and ephemeral aspect of life, science has plugged a lot of gaps in our knowledge which religion used to fill and the universe has been explained to us, the human body has been explained to us and the whole of creation has a history now that has nothing to do with the divine. As ever there are things science can't answer, so we still cling to those unsolved riddles of existence by acknowledging religion but at the end of the day most can do without.
I came to my own decision, made my own story. I decided that something close to God did exist, long ago, He gave us that spark of conciousness, that wisp of a soul, the trick of science which lead us to feel alone in this giant universe. That, to me, it the work of God, and God gave us that, he gave us life and the ability to think and feel, but that took the whole of His power and now he's asleep, or he died giving us that, whatever, he's not here, he's not watching over us, he can't be. That's my belief, it's not something I want to debate, it just is what it is. I believe in religion to a degree, Catholicism, for all it's faults still excites some degree of religious fervour in me, but deep down I believe that whatever higher power brought us to this point is no longer watching over us, or hasn't for along time. That's my choice.
Which brings us to Life of Pi, the entire point of the film, or at least the message the film is giving us, is that religion/faith is a choice. The film presents you with a choice at the end and it's up to you to decide what you believe, that in itself is profound. My partner mentioned that I usually walk out of a film blabbering on and on, especially if I liked it, but this time, today, I was quite quiet. The question of religion always brings out a different side to me, I get really quite emotional about it, I get emotional about a lot of things but this is an untapped well. People don't really talk about faith or religion in the day to day. But the film is worth seeing not only because it asks you an intriguing question, not one oft asked in the cinema during this festive period, but because it's a visual masterpiece. It doesn't matter what your reason is behind your answer to the question posed, it just matters that the film made you consider it, and that's significant I think.
If someone asked me whether or not to see Life of Pi, I would demand they immediately went and saw it because nothing will quite take your breath away quite like this film. It's literally stunning, all the adverts keep showing is that damn whale throwing itself through the sky but the quieter less ostentatious moments really shone in this film. It's just visually amazing to see, the whole film gleamed like a big shiny bauble full of colour and excitement. There wasn't a point where I felt bored and uninterested, I was rapt throughout, perhaps my attention span is getting better these days. Did I mention what it was about? Oh damnit... Let's get to that very quickly then so I can ramble more about it.
A man is recounting his past to Rafe Spall (he's been getting a lot of big movie roles lately, I can count off seeing him in the cinema 3 times now!) The story goes he basically, boy named Pi, moves from India on Japanese boat to Canada with zoo animals aboard and family. Boat sinks, boy has to survive on lifeboat with coyote, orang-utan, a zebra with a broken leg and a Bengal tiger, the story goes that it's the boy and tiger stranded in the ocean on a lifeboat, alone together in the end. Obviously he survives to tell the tale, but there are two versions of the tale. The other involves human survivors from the ship sharing the life boat and it ending with the boy and alone. Clearly there are some deaths along the way. Sounds pretty boring but the visuals are stunning and the interactions with the tiger are just perfectly on the margin of believable and heart breaking. Did I mention it was a beautiful film? Reflections play a massive part in the film. Pi's father told him that animals don't feel the same as us, it's our emotions reflected in their eyes, throughout the film there are brief moments where the sea is completely calm and still and it's all endless sea or stars. Pi has a lot of time to reflect as he does battle with the elements and himself and mostly the tiger to survive, that's what the film essentially is, a reflection on life. An exciting beautiful reflection, or at least that's how I'm describing it, I'm being broad and nice about it.
The integral part of the film is, that without Richard Parker** he would not have survived. It's up to you if the boy needed a tiger to survive or his own strength of will? Or if he imagined the tale about the tiger to protect himself from the truth, he was alone with only his strength and mind. In my mind, I can't believe he would have survived alone, what's most important is not losing hope and the tiger being there was hope, at least that's what I thought. Loneliness can kill, and the will to survive was because he had Richard Parker's company to keep him going. So that's my small theory on it.
This is a film which made me relieved, relief that I fervently wanted to believe more than anything that the Tiger had existed, that such things are possible. Go figure, I felt something, faith, it was a warm feeling. That's what I took from it, I would want more people to do the same and take from it something, anything, because I reckon it's a film that'll stay with you, as it will me.
*I always prayed when I need help and this time it didn't help. It just made me feel alone.
**The Tiger's name, a name synonymous with ship wrecks in 19th Century it would seem.
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