The story, told in flashbacks to an interviewer, follows Piscine Molitor Patel (he cleverly adopts the mathematical nickname Pi in order to stop his classmates from making fun of his name), a young Indian boy growing up in the French part of India (I did not know such a thing existed before this). His father (the local zookeeper), in the spirit of the "New India" is staunchly secular, warning his son that religion is darkness. His mother is a practicing Hindu, though as an adult Pi reflects that this was probably more a matter of culture than faith. As a boy he reveled in the vibrant ceremonies and mesmerizing myths of the Hindu God's like Vishnu and Krishna, told to him by his mother. He is hooked on God, if you will, and soon Pi discovers Catholicism, and a little later Islam. He doesn't reject any of them, but incorporates all of them together: Hinduism supplies the myths, Catholicism offers the concrete love of the God made Man, and in Islam he finds mystical spirituality (this is the most problematic part of the presentation, and I don't mean to down play it, but it didn't kill the movie for me, all the same).
His father, facing economic hard times, pulls up stakes, deciding to move the family to Canada. Taking a cargo steamer across the Pacific, animals and all, the family is wiped out when the ship is sunk in a typhoon. Only Pi survives, along with a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan and a Bengal tiger, all stuck on a small lifeboat. Before long it's down to Pi and the tiger.
At this point anything I write will be giving things away. Just see it, suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride. But be mindful of the kids (I'll get to that later).
What is most shocking about the film is that it actually presents organized religion in a positive light. It is through the outward expressions of faith, be it the Hindu festivals, Catholic iconography or the Islamic call to prayer ringing through the streets that leads Pi to his relationship with God. He is spiritual, not in spite of religion but because of it.
Obviously, from the Catholic perspective, once you accept Christ there is no more crying out to Shiva. You may appreciate aspects of the Hindu or Islamic traditions, especially their prayer life, but Christ is the only Way, Truth and Life because he IS those very things. Pi's mixing of religious faiths is a tip of the hat to our contemporary notion of religious relativism, and the idea that we can make a personalized faith to fit our tastes. But Christ demands a commitment. He is not like other religious or spiritual teachers who claimed to know a way; he said he actually was the Way, as I said before. Jesus is unique in that dimension of his teaching. I only hesitate in giving a full throated endorsement for kids, who are the movies target audience, because of the mixed message on Christ. And also for the intensity of the scenes with the Tiger, but more on that later.
The other positive aspect is the role myth plays in Pi's life of faith. When Pi finally hits dry land and is sent to the hospital he's questioned by representatives of the shipping company as to what happened. He tells his story, but they can not believe it. They tell him that he needs to give them an explanation of the events that will not make them look like fools with their bosses. He then gives them a much simpler, believable, if more brutal tale. Back in the present day he asks his interviewer which story he prefers. He replies, the first, more astounding account. Pi responds, "And so it is with God."
We live in a scientific age, and this is not a bad thing, for sure. But what Fr. Robert Barron calls "scientism," the belief that science is the sole means of finding the truth, is bad. It limits us, making us ignore the other ways of seeing the truth, either through music, poetry, art, drama or story. Pi's struggles on the boat, his discovery of God and himself, is something greater than can be told by just supplying facts in the conventional way we think of them. Which story he gives is true then? The answer is both. And you could argue the more fantastic tale was actually the truer one.
Christ knew this, and explained all his major teachings either by way of parable or in some form of metaphor or simile. There was no Prodigal Son, but can you find a better, more nuanced treatise on forgiveness in the history of Western thought? There was no Lazarus starving at the door and no rich man in he house gorging himself, but is there a better doctrinal pronouncement on generosity and social responsibility in any Church document?
When we turn to the Old Testament things get tricky. When it's suggested that Jesus used parables, so God could have done the same with stories like Jonah and the Whale or the story of Job some Christians get nervous. But they are falling into the scientism trap without knowing it. The Truth of Scripture is not in the "factual" details but in the bigger picture. We have to remember that the Bible is a library, not a single work, and so God communicates in different ways through the various books. Each has to be taken on its own terms; I'll read the Books of Samuel differently than the Book of Jeremiah, and that differently than the Psalms. Many people get hung up on if Jonah and the whale was a true story, and miss a much bigger point (several bigger ones, actually) than if a man can survive three days in the belly of a "great fish." (The answer: If God wants him to.)
Pi grew up on myth, he knew their power to convey truth and was able to filter his experience through that lens. This offers a truth deeper and more complex than can be offered by reason alone.
In the end, I recommend Life of Pi, with the caveat about the religious relativism. Prepare your children, and talk about it afterward. I can't think of a main stream movie in recent memory that has treated God, religion, and religious people with such compassion and respect. That alone makes it worth cheering for.
***
No comments:
Post a Comment