Life of Pi

MPAA Rating:

for emotional thematic content throughout, and some scary action sequences and peril.

Reviewed by: Spencer Schumacher
CONTRIBUTOR

Moral Rating:

Better than Average

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Moviemaking Quality:

Primary Audience:

Teens Adults Family

Genre:

Fantasy Adventure Drama Adaptation 3D

Length:

2 hr. 6 min.

Year of Release:

2012

USA Release:

September 28, 2012 (festival)
November 21, 2012 (wide—2,700+ theaters)

Copyright, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Relevant Issues

being shipwrecked and adrift in the ocean, alone

based on Yann Martel’s bestselling/prizewinning novel Life of Pi

hope

faith

Pi is born a Hindu, but as a child is introduced to Christianity and Islam, and starts to follow all three religions, as he “just wants to love god.” He is trying to understand God through each religion. Are there truly many ways to God? Are all religions basically the same? Answer

God

How can we know there’s a God? Answer

What if the cosmos is all that there is? Answer

If God made everything, who made God? Answer

What does God say? Answer

Is Jesus Christ God? Answer

Why does God allow innocent people to suffer? Answer

Religion

answers about RELIGION, including Islam, Hinduism, and Christian

sharing Christ with Hindus

an open letter to disciples of Hinduism

What is Monism and Pantheistic Monism? Who believes in Monism? Is it biblical? Answer

MYSTICISM—Can mysticism lead to God? Answer

animal psychology / being the alpha

animals in the Bible

zookeeping / taking care of diverse types of animals

Teens—Have questions? Find answers in our popular TeenQs section. Get answers to your questions about life, dating and much more.

Featuring:	Gérard Depardieu … Frenchman Rafe Spall … The Writer Irrfan Khan … Older Pi Adil Hussain … Pi’s Father Suraj Sharma … Pi Patel Tabu … Pi’s Mother Shravanthi Sainath … Pi’s Girlfriend Andrea Di Stefano … The Priest Ayush Tandon … Young Pi Ayan Khan … Pi’s Younger brother Vibish Sivakumar … Ravi Patel Gautam Belur … Young Pi (at 5 years)
Director:	Ang Lee—“Brokeback Mountain, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”
Producer:	Rhythm and Hues Fox 2000 Pictures more » Kevin Richard Buxbaum … associate producer William M. Connor … associate producer Dean Georgaris … executive producer Ang Lee … producer David Lee … co-producer Michael J. Malone … associate producer Gil Netter … producer Tabrez Noorani … line producer: India Pravesh Sahni … associate producer David Womark … producer
Distributor:	Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

“Believe the unbelievable”

Anyone who has either read the best-selling novel by Yann Martel or has seen the trailer to the film “Life of Pi” should be utterly familiar with it’s seemingly impossible premise. Simply stated, the movie follows the adventure of a zoo keeper’s son who finds himself stranded on a lifeboat with a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Sound implausible, well not in the capable hands of director Ang Lee.

Pi Patel, is the curious son of a zoo-keeper in Pondicherry India. When the family is forced to move from India to Canada, Pi, his family and their zoo of exotic animals find themselves on a large ocean liner crossing the Pacific Ocean. When the vessel is swallowed up by a large storm Pi is tossed into a lifeboat with a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and Richard Parker, the aforementioned 450-pound Bengal tiger, and thrust into the adventure that will change the course of both their lives.

The film itself is rated PG primarily for the action sequences in the film and the thematic premise of the protagonist being alone on a life boat with a 450-pound tiger ready to eat him for dinner. There are a handful of minor “hells” and “damns”, but other than that the film is non-objectionable to most general audiences.

An aspect of the story that some Christian audiences may find troubling is how the film deals with religion and faith, which play a key role in the story. In the course of events leading up to Pi and his family finding themselves on an ocean liner traveling from India to Canada, Pi is on a journey himself, one to find religious “truth.” In his quest he researches Hinduism, Islam and Christianity and finds himself identifying with aspects from all three major religions. The film does not take a particular stance as to which religion is best or bring Pi what he is searching for, but the role of God, capital G, plays a major part in Pi’s adventure.

To those who have read the book and were pleased with the book, chances are the film will not live up to the expectations one would have from the novel. However, it will probably not disappoint as the adaptation is very true to the book, except for a couple liberties taken by the screenwriters/director to bring the story from page to screen.

If available, do yourself a favor and see the film in 3D, though the film’s backdrop for a majority of the film is the Pacific Ocean, there are sequences in this film that are visually spectacular and only made more stunning through the perspective of 3D.

Violence: None / Profanity: Minor / Sex/Nudity: None

Editor’s caution: Pi is born a Hindu, but as a child is introduced to Christianity (via Roman Catholicism) and Islam, and starts to follow all three religions, as he “just wants to love god.” He is trying to understand God through each religion. This is the book author’s way of looking at religion, and it is promoted in the film. Are there truly many ways to God? Are all religions basically the same, as some claim? No. See our answer!

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.

Comments below:

Positive
Neutral
Negative
Non-viewer comments

Positive

Positive—This beautiful film demands serious attention, as it is about God and a search for God, and is clearly set up allegorically. The young hero Pi in fact seeks to embrace Hindu, Christian and Islamic faiths, as well as his family’s secular modernity. While this may upset some American Christians, the Christian priest in the film does a good job modeling Christian love while explaining some challenging doctrines. Director Ang Lee left out a scene from the book where Pi encounter’s clerics from all three faiths at once, and all three act competitive and petty. The main part of the story finds Pi on the lifeboat, with attached jerry built raft, with four surviving zoo animals, soon reduced to one large dangerous tiger, in a scary but often magical sea that delivers rescuing food and land at the most necessary moments.

Allegories abound as Pi confronts himself, the Tiger and God, in a kind of Indian Pilgrim’s Progress, but what does it all mean? (or as the survivor Pi says, does it have to mean anything?) What about tiger and Pi’s “relationship” with it, his “training” it, his inability to kill it when it is vulnerable, his giving it food and water, taking its head in his lap, his thanking it and his fear of it for his survival, his feelings of sadness when it goes into the jungle after their rescue. What about the fantasy island with its false feelings of long term rescue? What about the dark alternative story he tells the investigators? Why is the interviewing author in the movie at all? What does it mean when the author chooses which is the best story, and Pi says “so it is with God”?

This is a film that demands serious attention, and hopefully its many Indian cultural aspects will not get in the way.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Good / Moviemaking quality: 4½
—Stanley Hirtle, age 67 (USA)

Positive—I will admit, this was a hard movie to watch, one because it started off really slow before it got to the graphics, and two because of how intense it was with the animals fighting for their lives. No, I certainly do not like movies that talk about other religions, however that is a reality of our world. At least they even talked about Christ, which might make Hindus that watch this think about Him, too. I was really glad they did talk about Christ, even though they did not point it out as the only way to heaven, of course, they are not going to, this was not a Christian movie. The graphics were amazing, and the story kept you intrigued. This is NOT a movie for children, for the scenes with the tiger are very intense and scary, until they become friends. Overall, it was a pretty good movie, suspense was good, it was funny at times, and the graphics were awesome.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Average / Moviemaking quality: 5
—Samantha, age 38 (USA)

Positive—I loved it. I’m a Christian, and I saw nothing offensive in the film’s respectful approach to religious faith. We can be secure enough in our own beliefs to allow the existence and exploration of other faiths. I personally find Christians that knock anything other than their own specific views very off-putting. Pi was a lovely young man on his own journey. It was visually beautiful, and it is great to see modern movies exploring spiritual and religious themes. It was a stunning and thoughtful movie, and, again, it is not meant to promote Christianity, but to tell a story and to explore the nature of faith.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Excellent! / Moviemaking quality: 5
—Debbie, age 54 (USA)

Positive—Full of symbolism, the harsh ravages of loss, survival, animals eating each other and human death, and with a mix of faith suitable only for the mature mind, this is not really a movie for children. I took my 14 year old to see it, and, at first, she could only see the beauty of the visual aspects of the movie, and the sadness of the losses and difficulties. However, it also opened a gateway to some more in depth discussions about truth, faith, and the struggles of comprehending or believing what we have not experienced for ourselves, or at least as part of our human lives.

I was glad I didn’t take my 11 and 8 year olds, as it would have given them nightmares, at best, and confused them on their own journeys of faith, at worst. Although, in their simple childlike faith, they may have just come away asking why Pi couldn’t understand that Christ’s death for us meant he didn’t need to worry about reaching out to God through other religions. more »

Now, I don’t know the intention of the story’s author in writing this, nor the producer’s intention in the way they decided to present it in film. It was a beautiful movie, with amazing visuals, beautiful acting and an intricate, thought-provoking mix of ways to interpret the message. As a Christian, I believe that there is an absolute truth, but that we as humans struggle to embrace this truth, and even when we do we often interpose our own notions and our human logic, in order to make sense of it for ourselves. This means we don’t always get it right, but, at the end of the day, God continues to guide each of us on our own journey with him. Through a Christian lens, “The Life of Pi” tells the story of the incredible and highlights how, in our humanity, we find it easier to believe something that is familiar to ourselves and our way of thinking. Pi goes on an incredible journey, firstly through the discovery of faith, then love, then a terrifying adventure of survival with a bunch of zoo animals, who are quickly mauled down to just a Bengal Tiger. There is a beautiful but incredible truth; there is a story people are willing to believe, even in its horror, and there is as its heart the question of what faith means and even trying to find the gem of truth that is in that faith.

While on his Spiritual journey Pi discovers the Love of God through Christ. Pi emphasises how it is too incredible to believe that God would love us enough to send his own Son to die for us, and struggles to comprehend the incomprehensible act for which Jesus was sent, as an innocent scapegoat willingly suffering and dying for the sins of the guilty. While Pi states that he learnt of God’s love through Christ and considers himself a Christian, his own humanity fails to fully comprehend the fact that this means he does not need to follow rituals or works demanded by man-based religions.

Accordingly he also considers himself a Hindu and a Muslim. In other words, he still finds the unfathomable depth of God’s love and his seemingly simple message of Christ too impossible to fully accept and continues to try to reach God through human effort. 1 Corinthians 1:18 points out how the message of the cross seems foolish to those who reject him, but is power to those who accept. But, as any Christian would know, once God has your heart, he will keep working with you and letting the chaff fall away as we continue to really embrace his love and lean into his Grace as the only way to becoming more Christlike in our journey with Him.

If Pi really digs into each of the religions he follows, he will come to learn that they contradict the relationship that the Christian has with God and understand that at best they are ineffectual, and, at worst, they spurn the sacrifice of God—meaning he will have to make an ultimate choice for or against God and the sacrifice of Christ. The movie may have been trying to water down this ultimate need to choose truth, however even in the movie’s attempt to do this it is displaying the difficulties we have in coming to accept the true depth of God’s love and sacrifice for us—and that this means “it is finished”.

Pi’s incredible journey over the ocean marvellously reflects this Spiritual struggle. His story of survival is incredible, and, at times, he becomes delusional amidst the beauty, the horror and the starvation that assault him, struggling to distinguish reality from dream, as he sees both the wonders of the sea, the familiar images of home and the depth of his despair in the loss of his family, all wrapped up in a cinematic image. His incredible story is presented as the actual truth. When later, men refuse to accept his account, he transposes human identities onto the animals and tells the story as if it were men on the boat. The human mind immediately jumps to the notion that this story is more plausible, akin to something we have actually experienced ourselves and can imagine feasibly happening, even in the repulsion and horror of that human tale.

It is similar with religion. God loving man enough to become man, suffer and die for us is something that makes no sense. It is far easier to believe that we must follow rituals, pay penances, do something to alleviate our own guilt to reach out to God, instead of accepting the hand He has already reached out to us. In this way, it is often easier to believe religious teachings above the relationship-based faith of Christianity. This is easily seen in the fact that—even within the Christian faith—Christ’s followers fall into the trappings of human thinking and in failing to comprehend the incomprehensible love of God—we split ourselves into multiple denominations over details outside the central fact that God died for us and his Grace empowers us to live as his followers.

The story of incredible truth is even reflected in the way Pi does not know how the ship he was on could have sunk, and the men who question him about it find it hard to believe that such a ship could have sunk. Pi cannot give them answers that will satisfy their need to understand, but the fact is that the ship did sink. It is an interesting and powerful story and a beautiful movie to watch, but it does require a level of maturity, particularly in not falling for the same trap that the movie presents, in being led astray by the seemingly easier to accept notions of man.

My Ratings: Moral rating: Better than Average / Moviemaking quality: 5
—Ruth, age 33 (Australia)

Neutral

Negative—Though this movie has some of the most awesome scenes I’ve seen in a movie, not unlike a lot of Indian/Bollywood films, which love creation and spiritual things, still I wasn’t expecting such a “aggressive” attempt at teaching Indian/Eastern religion. After the film watered down the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ by making it “another” option and putting it on equal terms with Hinduism, Islam and maybe some others, I knew I had to give a heads up here for those concerned with spending money on films like this. I don’t mean just a passing comment, but about a 30 minute presentation designed to leave a strong impression.

I don’t have a problem dealing with strong issues, and we want to and do, but I’m just saying I wasn’t expecting this from what I saw from the trailer and from reviews. I thought it was just stunning scenery with a boy and tiger shipwrecked out to sea. Maybe sites like this are having an impact so much that they have to hide what the film is really about by making the movie seem like something else in the previews.

But I want to take this negative and turn it into a positive, and maybe you’ll join me. Movies are a great pastime when they are “good”. But I’ve been meaning to make more of an effort to do other things for pastime, especially considering how much I spend on movies, sometimes. Things like going to a local ball game (high school, college, professional), concert and plays, some restaurants I’ve been meaning to visit, events of interest (cultural, arts, history, science, games, , etc.), take a short trip to explore somewhere I haven’t been, take my telescope out and go to the mountains or desert, go to the gym and play basketball/volleyball, go over to some friends or families house for a visit (hmmm, maybe that shouldn’t be last). Pretty much just start living life more actively, instead of just watching it on film. …Make your/my “movie” great(er) !!
My Ratings: Moral rating: Average / Moviemaking quality: 4½
—Des, age 38 (USA)

Negative

Negative—I agree with much of what’s written above, both positive and negative. Visually, the movie is stunning, at times, and some of the action sequences are riveting. However, the negatives outweigh the positives, in my judgment. One of my biggest concerns with the movie as a whole is that it’s rated PG. These days this usually means “bring your small children,” even though only G is supposed to mean that. My teenagers are able to see the attempt to portray all religions as a legitimate path to God as derisively ludicrous, but small children may not. While not portrayed visually, the actions discussed by the main character at the end are grossly brutal and completely unfit for children. Be warned.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Very Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 4½
—Jeremy, age 57 (USA)

Negative—The movie was very disheartening and dangerous for this reason: I would never want my children or anyone I love to think they can just choose whatever god they think will suit what they want in this life. The God who made man and who lovingly teaches that we are to acknowledge Him as the ONLY true God is the God who demands us not to worship any other god. It is understood that Hinduism can embarce many gods to the angst of those who know what is truth. It is also understandable for a person raised as a Hindu to not know the truth. That is where the Christian can help them and challenge them with the truth.

Ask any converted Hindu who knows Jesus, and they will tell you without hesitation that He alone is God whose power is far above all the powers of the gods they once believed in. Ask Rabi R. Maharaj who wrote Death of a Guru. His story is a fascinating story of the supernatural evil he experienced in following his father's life example of a Guru who experiences what living according to the Hindu religion results in. Mr. Maharaj is respectful and loving toward those who are of the Hindu religion knowing well the lies they believe and the power of those lies, but rejoicing in his knowledge of JESUS CHRIST who rescued him from the supernatural misery of the life of a Guru and the false teaching of Hinduism.

Truth exposing the lie is what makes good stories—stories of knowing Who God is—good and loving toward all He has made and wanting them to know what is truth so they will be saved from the destruction that man is born into. Only those who follow the Truth have the hope of eteranl life. That is how important it is for us to know truth. That is why this movie was very offensive. It has the potential of keeping people in the darkness of the lies they believe. It seems like such a “nice” story, and if a false premise of religion had not been so prominent in it—it would have been ok.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Very Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 4
—Claudius, age 67 (USA)

Negative—I went to this film partially because of this review, from other reviews, and because a couple of personal acquaintances encouraged me so. No problem with the quality, but the whole premise of this film is in question. There was plenty of adventure and danger, but the whole story became contrived and unbelievable. Really, in the end, it is an attempt at syncretism of Hinduism, Catholicism, Islam, and even Kabbalah. This director’s works should be avoided; be warned: you will be wasting your money and time. I think the boy actually did kill the ship’s cook…
My Ratings: Moral rating: Better than Average / Moviemaking quality: 3
—Roy, age 63 (USA)

Negative—Please do not waste your money or time on the popular movie the “Life of Pi”; and certainly DO NOT take your children to see it! I went to see it because many said it was a “spiritual” movie. While the movie was cinematically beautiful to watch (at times), it was mostly preachy, depressing and too violent for children. As for its “spiritual” aspects; the movie was more of the same “all religions are from God… ya dah… ya dah” that we have all heard from ignorant people who have made a shallow attempt at religion. But more sadly, while this movie sent the message that all religions are legit ways to “God,” in reality… they are all just human fantasy. Life is cruel and religion is just a coping mechanism… and that’s OKAY. Whatever gets you by in this horrible life. I personally think the writer had a lot of bitterness against God and this was a jab at Him for allowing such cruelty. But that is natural for people who only relate to this world.

Indeed, it is a cruel world! But Jesus Kingdom is NOT of this cruel world, and never will be. This world is cursed and the only true remedy is to KNOW Jesus. Then we are to keep our eyes and hearts on Him and His heavenly Kingdom. Indeed, Jesus can be as Noah’s Arch during a flood. He can even prepare a lush banquet (table) before us in the presence of our enemies. We just have to stay in His Spirit! Otherwise, we too can become bitter as this life can truly deal us some severe blows!
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 5
—Chris, age 49 (USA)

Comments from non-viewers

Negative—While the story looked OKAY, at first, from what I saw in the commercials, I read that the boy becomes sort of mix in Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. Spiritually speaking, this is like mixing electricity, gasoline, and fire; the result is explosively deadly. If not for that, I would see the movie. Christ cannot be mixed with Muhammad or Buddha, the latter two were false teachers, leading millions to damnation and perdition to this day.
—Peter, age 22 (USA)

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