Would you rather have a fictional story be true, than a true story being fictional? I ask myself this question now as I uncover deeper meaning in the movie "The Life of Pi." If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it, if only for the stunning cinematography. Usually I catch things in movies, like the symbolism. In "Sixth Sense"; I did not catch onto the fact that Bruce Willis was actually dead, until the ring rolled on the floor. But you look back when they are showing things, and it made absolute sense.
In Life of Pi, it was somewhat different. Now this is a spoiler alert, so if you do not want to find out, then don't read from here...though even so, you might not get anything from what I'm about to say.
And was it that I am trying to say? Well, this movie worked on several different levels for me, there was the "Man vs. Nature," where Pi had to fight with the animals and himself to survive. Then there was "Man Vs. God," where Pi from a very young age, tried various different paths to God. But that is not really where I'm focusing the point of my "review."
Which is that I ended up liking the fiction better than the reality. And I came to the conclusion that the first story was the fictional one, because when the storm first hit and the alarms sounded, I believe his family would have been able to get to where the lifeboats were; except for maybe the father, who had polio thus a pronounced limp. So I think the part about the alarms etc was true, it just was changed in Pi's mind slightly, perhaps to forget the reality.
I do think that making him divulge the "Truth" to the Japanese Inspectors was horrible in the extreme. I say allow him his fantasy, because the "truth" he told them was just too terrifying to bear.
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