Life of Pi (2012)
Directed by Ang Lee
The story of an Indian boy named Pi, a zookeeper's son who finds himself in the company of a hyena, zebra, orangutan, and a Bengal tiger after a shipwreck sets them adrift in the Pacific Ocean.
39 connections found
View:
39 films that influenced Life of Pi
What critics say influenced Life of Pi
The movie is engaging enough, though all the best visuals have been lifted from more imaginative movies—Cast Away and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button being two of the more obvious points of reference.
In that regard, it recalls “Cast Away,” the 2000 film that starred Tom Hanks as a thoroughly modern American stranded on a remote island.
It’s kind of like Cast Away, if Wilson had wanted to eat Tom Hanks.
In his big-screen debut, Sharma's an ideal find, holding the screen as well as Tom Hanks in "Cast Away."
To describe it in somewhat flippant (but not totally inaccurate) showbiz shorthand, basically this is “Cast Away” in a lifeboat, substituting a shipwrecked Indian teenager and Richard Parker for Tom Hanks and the volleyball he names Wilson.
Like Tom Hanks' arguably career-best work in 2000's " Cast Away ," Sharma is riveting to watch even in total isolation, the camera holding on him and his ordeal while the viewer grows more and more sympathetic to his plight.
But in order to figure out why I liked the film without loving it, I went back to one of my favorite human/animal adventure films, Carroll Ballard's exquisite "The Black Stallion."
Stories of human-animal bonds are most powerful when, like The Black Stallion or How to Train Your Dragon, they let the animal act like an animal, free of anthropomorphizing cuteness.
As a boy-and-his-animal tale, the director creates an inter-species relationship that is reminiscent of The Black Stallion ; Richard Parker becomes a fully-developed character in his own right, and the developing bond with his owner is extraordinarily compelling because of it.
It’s “Life of Pi” without the effects but just as thrillingly pieced together.
The movie is engaging enough, though all the best visuals have been lifted from more imaginative movies—Cast Away and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button being two of the more obvious points of reference.
Director Ang Lee ( "Brokeback Mountain" ) and cinematographer Claudio Miranda ( "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" ) use 3D not as a gimmick but as a legitimate filmmaking tool that reinforces the themes of separation and distance.
Whereas in some films the beauty strips the narrative of its human emotion, this is one that is only emboldened by its far-out sights, breathing newfound life into scenes that might not have had nearly the impact without technical masters such as Ang Lee and cinematographer Claudio Miranda (2008's " The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ") at the helm.The opening act, slow and sure and intoxicating, is crucial in the way that it develops Pi, the dynamics with his family, his distant relationship with the wild animals populating his father's zoo, and his growing affections for a classmate.
His family is never seen again, and the last we see of the ship is its lights disappearing into the deep — a haunting shot that reminds me of the sinking train in Bill Forsyth's " Housekeeping " (1987).
Advertisement
It merits comparison to Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” and James Cameron’s “Avatar” in the way it uses 3D technology to further theme and advance storytelling instead of as mere gimmick.
Pi builds on the innovations in stereoscopy triumphantly heralded by James Cameron’s Avatar, and the advances in motion-capture technology evident in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, to create a tactile, spectacular world of wonder.
It looks absolutely gorgeous -- like James Cameron did in Avatar , Lee uses 3-D to make the world of Life of Pi an immersive, almost tactile place, from the hummingbirds that flit toward your face to the enormous waves that bear down on you during the intense storm sequences.
Not since James Cameron 's breathtaking blue "Avatar" in 2009 has 3-D had such impact.
The film, which has been celebrated by many, might just be one of the best-looking 3D films ever made, but does it have what it takes to stretch beyond being just a visual spectacle, much like Fox’s previous box office success Avatar?
In Avatar, horizontal foreground underscored the exquisite flora and fauna of Pandora; Lees Pacific is given a vertical view up- and down-wards of sky/heaven above, surface in between, and transparent water below, and their inhabitants and intruders.
To both my surprise and relief, Lee’s 3-D version of Martel’s novel has moments so magical, they recall the splendid imagery of bygone classics such as The Thief of Bagdad.
Well, taking a tip from John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and its “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend,” it’s no contest.
Similar to Michael Winterbottom’s 24 Hour Party People (2002) – in a scene that playful paraphrases John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) – where the audience is directly told ‘When you have to choose between the truth and the legend, print the legend’, Life of Pi favours the legend.
David Cronenberg landed some blows with Naked Lunch (1991), Terry Gilliam severed limbs in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) and now Lee, using a much more classical style, has killed it for good.
Advertisement
“Life of Pi” tries to get you to that state of quasi-orgasmic, mind-blowing metaphysical whateverness found in the latter stages of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” but by way of a charming, somewhat insipid fairy tale rather than an ambiguous science-fiction masterpiece.
The biggest champions of Life of Pi describe a mountainous visual achievement that makes a profound statement on life, God, existence, etc., perhaps unfairly bringing to mind 2001: A Space Odyssey as a point of comparison.
Anna Karenina; The Kreutzer Sonata; best so far, ivans xtc, his Hollywood modernisation of The Death of Ivan Ilyich.