This article was written in March 2013… but I find that the ideas are worthy even today. Please bear with the “datedness” of the writing and dig for the more philosophical meaning lying within.
Its been less than 6 months since Cloud Atlas was showing in theaters but not a person talks about the grand ideas brought out in that film. Life of Pi came out in November and won Best Picture for 2012 at the Oscars. I will grant you this, Life of Pi is a better film and in my estimations, being a Literature major and not a Film major, deserved the award.
“When you begin explaining life experiences in metaphor you will find that you have indeed become a writer of consequence.” A paraphrase to be sure, but that is the lesson I learned from one of my favorite and best writing teachers. When I began writing about my life as a series of miniture nuclear bombs going off at particularly critical points in my life, my writing teacher was quite pleased.
Life of Pi cements this idea to my writer’s heart. It is in the “how” we relate a story much more than the intent that comes across for our audience.
Clearly the audience of Life of Pi got it and the audience of Cloud Atlas did not. However, what I find a bit sad is that the metaphor had to be explained by one of the only human characters in Life of Pi. Cloud Atlas had no such character therefore left the ideas and conclusions strictly up to the audience. Clearly that was a mistake.
Life of Pi was visually stunning. No doubt about that, but so was Cloud Atlas. I remember how I gasped in wonder at the futuristic city and the beauty of the natural world far, far in the Earth’s future. As everyone I loved the gorgeous jellyfish scene in Life of Pi and marveled also at the beauty and desctructiveness of the whale. All metaphor. All beautiful. All sending some sort of message.
As I thought over the gorgeousness of Life of Pi and its extraordinary tale of survival I began to recall Cloud Atlas and its extraordinary tale of survival. One story is of the survival of a single human in tragic circumstances, and the other is a story of survival over the ages by several humans in tragic circumstances.
So, what makes these two films completely different? What makes these films generate such love and hate when both strive to send nearly the same message? Execution? A single straight forward form of story-telling verse a much more complicated layering of story-telling? Is it because Pi is a much easier character to like and identify with rather than the many incarnations of Halle Berry or Tom Hanks? Is it that audiences are lazy? Is it that the modern human does not like to think profoundly and would much rather have its ideas served on a silver plate?
These are questions I believe I know the answer and yet I pose them to your, dear reader, since it is to you I write these phiosophical musings. Is your life filled with wonder? Can you witness the extraordinary in an ordinary day? Can your neighbor? Your best friend?
Watching Life of Pi opened my philosophical mind and I find that I cannot write a plot review without giving too much away. All I really wish to relate is that its a film worth spending your time watching and the end is worth thinking about. Is meaning in your life, to your life, worth some profound thought? For me it reopened the ideas I had after watching Cloud Atlas and find that to be a very good thing indeed.
Vick's Pen 