Not only was the cinematography and the soundtrack utterly mind-blowing, I have rarely seen a movie deliver such powerful messages of bravery, truth, faith, and letting go.
At one point in the movie, Pi, the main-character, ends up parting with the tiger named Richard Parker. After a terrible shipwreck, he spent his whole time with Richard Parker lost at sea -- this vicious, perhaps mindless animal -- whom he has learned to love despite a difference in species.
As Richard Parker looks into the jungles of Mexico (where they've made their final landing), he doesn't so much as look back at Pi before disappearing into the trees.
Pi is devastated at his indifference, after everything they'd been through.
Later in the movie, Pi tells a second story where the tiger is a representation of himself during that fateful journey in which the murderous side of him came out as he killed another shipwreck survivor in desperation.
Before I knew it, the movie was over and was left wondering which story was true and which one I liked better.
It might seem strange but I can connect with the second story better. To me, that tiger walking into the forest without looking back symbolized that evil part of Pi leaving him forever. Pi's devastation symbolized the difficulty of letting go, whether it be letting go of the past or of a certain reality you feel you have to live with.
(*End of Spoiler!)
To me, this was a movie of redemption, a movie about change and acceptance. A movie symbolizing that whatever we may regret or find hard to accept does not have to stop us from moving forward and becoming a new person.
This is not the only wise element to this movie. There are many, many more to analyze and learn from because of the deep truths contained in such a masterpiece.
I said it in a humorous way when I turned to those sitting next to me in the theaters and said, "I will spend the rest of my life processing that."
But that's the truth.
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