Basically, Ang Lee’s “Life of Pi” is a brilliantly directed and incredibly beautiful film, with amazing special effects and just breathtaking visuals. It is also a tedious sermon wrapped up in an agnostic package that will leave viewers clinging to whatever they want to believe. When it comes to confronting the themes of faith and religion, “Life of Pi” seems bold in explaining that they’re all just basically good for the soul and rejuvenating, but in the end the film seems to stick to the notion that there is only one real God and that’s the Catholic/Christian one.
The protagonist Pi Patel makes it clear he’s a Catholic and believes in only his God, and spends most of the film clinging to his Catholic deity as a form of survival. In the end of the film when we find out what the true purpose of the story was, “Life of Pi” almost seems to be an endorsement for ignorance and fantasy. Truly, there’s no way Pi Patel’s story of his boat trip with a tiger, and other zoo animals could have possibly happened. Or maybe his God allowed it to happen. Or maybe Pi is lying. So if Pi is lying and did indeed commit the acts he partially confesses to, does that make him a sinner?
Are we supposed to believe Pi is some sort of wise mystic guru, because he lies and speaks circles around people and feeds them a story that may or may not have happened? What does that say about religion? “Life of Pi” feels like an agnostic’s epic, but in reality it really does appeal to the religious portion of the audiences, all of whom will enjoy the fantastic epic journey Pi is handed by fate and nature. When Pi realizes the people around him will not believe what he believes, he reduces his story to a grim, violent, and dumbed down account of survival.
In other words, he basically just feeds an atheistic story to the authorities too narrow minded to open themselves to the possibility that Pi was given a spiritual quest of his life, and survived with a better understanding of the world. Because atheists and agnostics are much too stupid to comprehend any of what he endures. And hey, we’re better off if we believe the fantastic, because ignorance is bliss. It’s best not to question anything and just believe what we’re told. “Life of Pi” is really just a condescending religious sermon that dismisses atheism, and endorses the notion of blind faith, and denial as a positive character trait.