Through the kindess of an Answermug friend I just discovered that I completely missed the entire point of a movie I loved. Which makes me wonder what else have I not understood?

Don't be disheartened Rosie.  :)

While I wouldn't disagree with your friend's assessment of the movie, I would also say that it is not the only truth, even if the film makers had provided it as an explanation (and it's a good explanation by the way, one I like very much).

Let me explain a bit.  I've sat through more in-depth explanations of literature than I can count.  Dozens of novels, hundreds of poems, etc.  Many of these explanations are clever, fascinating, revealing and enjoyable.  But there's always more than one.  Actually, there's many more than one.  :)  Marxist, Postmodernist, New Historicism, Feminist, Functionalist, Aestheticism, Deconstructionism, Formalism, Post-Modernism, Post-Structuralism, and many more.  

All of them depend on viewing the art through a specific prism that dictates what is most important to the reader.  Important works will usually attract many such varying explanations.  This is inevitable, even if the artist has specifically disavowed any such intent.  

J R R Tolkien is on record as saying that he disliked allegory and did not use it, but it hasn't stopped others imposing allegory on their reading of Lord of the Rings.  Tolkien himself stated that there was nothing wrong with that and supported others doing so.  He knew what he wanted to write, wrote it and accepted that readers would see the work as it related to them or their interests.

So we all have our own slant on life and for art, no reading that can be justified will be worthless.  Life as we truly know it only happens to us, after all.  We can live hand in glove with others but never truly know what it is to be them.  So we only have our own eyes, our own experiences to go on and there's nothing wrong with that at all.  You now have a second interpretation of The Life of Pi (and it's a very good one), but will you forget or dismiss your original reading?  I hope not.  Words themselves can have alternate meanings or interpretations.  Why not films?   :)

I am very thankful that you know what the discussion was about. I reacted to the movie emotionally without a doubt. I don't know if my brain was ever really engaged. The entire saga was compelling and scary and uplifting and very sad....all at once. I LOVED my original interpretation of it. It was so simple.  Now I can see if I had been paying better attention AND  I were smarter I might have understood. Not all of it perhaps but enough to get a clearer picture of what I was seeing. And the worst part is this...what else have I missed through the years that I thought I understood? I can never know that MrWitch. If it weren't for an Answermugger being willing to invest the time in educating me I still wouldn't know that what I loved wasn't what was really there. It  has shaken me.  I used to think I'd know what I don't know but that is not true.  I appreciate your taking the time to help me gain a broader perspective. I do. I've told you that your answers usually always make me feel better. This time it is going to take some time. I always thought I knew my limitations/ strength/s weaknesses. I clearly don't. Happy Monday my friend!  :) ((hugs))

Rosie, I have often missed the point of a movie, yet I have liked it for other reasons, so there is no need to be disheartened. Why don't you try watching it all over again and maybe this time you will see it in a different light? Happy Monday, Rosie!:)

You are too harsh on yourself Rosie.  :)  You were paying attention to the film - otherwise you wouldn't have liked it so much.  

'Smarter' is not the same as 'more educated' and (although I try to appreciate different UK/US idioms) I am somewhat concerned you are criticising your intelligence.  I've lost thousands of hours invested in 'understanding' literature but used that knowledge fairly seldom, even in the teaching I've done.  So, what is the 'value' in that education?

You did understand the film Rosie, and your understanding of it was yours and no-one else's.  Far from being something to criticise it's something to treasure.  What you loved in the film was really there, because it elicited that response in you.  That there are other interpretations of the film does not invalidate what sounds like your instinctive response to it.  If one's reasoning they can be justified, that has value.

Don't beat yourself over the head with what you don't know.  For all of us, the stuff we don't know vastly outweighs the stuff we do.  I sometimes feel cursed when reading a book, that I can't simply read it without 'examining' it.  It would be nice to be able to do so with any book I picked up, so, in a way I'm jealous of the fresh approach you can take to things.  It's uncluttered and avoids the pitfalls of excessive analysis.

 OK. ((hugs)) I am now somewhat teary-eyed MrWitch. You have always been most understanding, patient and kind to me through the years of our friendship and this is no exception. I will work my way  through it. I  always do. I am very lucky that way.  Despite everything I now know my heart is still broken that the Bengal Tiger didn't look back at Pi. I would have liked the Tiger and Pi to meet again and have the Tiger recognize him. I know there is a story of such a thing happening. A tiger (I think it was a tiger) has a thorn in its paw and a kind stranger passing by removes the thorn. Many years later they encounter one another. I think maybe the kind stranger is in an arena with other tigers and Christians. His tiger recognizes him and remembers his kindness and protects him from harm. I may have conflated that story with others but that is what I wanted to have happen. It touched my heart and that won't ever go away. Thank you my friend. Thank you.

((hugs)) Thank you AndyB. That is an EXCELLENT idea my friend!. Thank you. I will seek it out and watch it again!  Thanks for noticing my reaction and reaching out to be helpful. I appreciate you! :)