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"Pi" is out on VHS and DVD
D.Schmidt writes "The movie "Pi" came out on DVD and VHS several days ago. Its web site is pithemovie.com. Good luck finding it- my friends and I have not been able to find a video store that has it yet. "
Normally I wouldn't mention something like this, but Pi is just a bizarre
movie, definitely something any self respecting Geek should go
see. Keep an eye out for it.
check reel.com - VHS is only available at rental prices ($90), but DVD is available for $18.
I just have to say, Pi kicked total ass. And, before all you people butt in about how it didn't have real math, etc etc, let me say that Pi was not a movie about math. It was a movie about black and white. And it did that very well. I left the movie crazed, inspired... I had to build... something.
If your a big fan of Orbital, and Aphex Twin, you'll like the music too. Nothing new really, but I enjoyed the music, as well as the rest of the movie.
It's available at Blockbuster Video in Middletown, RI, maybe at other BV's
Anyone know how to put th unicode for pi (the symbol) in a web page?
It would be cool to be able to do this, along with other symbols and non-western scripts.....
Pi was one of the coolest movies I've ever seen in my life, I saw it three times in the theatre. It's a must see for any true geek.
I guess I am alone in thinking this movie is an over-hyper, under-written, and poorly plotted movie.
Just something about paranoid geeks that simply makes me cringe.
oh well...
...may I suggest Blair's "Wax, or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees". It probably won't make your head explode... but it should.
-p
I was checking out the DVD section at the local Suncoast yesterday, and they had several copies of it. The description of it sounded pretty cool, but I'd just found one of the two sets of DVD's that I was looking for so didn't want to spend the additional money. Guess I should have picked it up.
Topic says it all. Don't wanna spend too much
but want a good player (:P)...
The Hollywood Video store in my two-bit town has about six copies. Maybe because it played for a couple weeks and did really well at one of our theatres.
If this movie doesn't want to make you run for your power drill to trepan yourself I don't know what will.
If you really think you need to know what it's
about before you see it, you can listen to the
review at
Siskel
and Ebert shockwave review, or just wait
two weeks for the inevitable Video Pick of the
Week.
isn't deep or have any lofty meaning; the only premise in the movie is that people will go to terrifying/destructive lengths to pursue what they see as one all purposeful goal, well gee really?? thanks for the big tip. All the characters are extreme charactures, there isn't a single human being in the entire film. It's views on technology are naive and ill-informed. And finally there is one HUGE basic error that blows my mind:
The name/number is 216 Hebrew characters long. The Hebrew alphabet is made up of 56 characters, i.e. base 56. Whenever the number is shown it's in base 10 BUT IT'S STILL ONLY 216 CHARACTERS LONG! I realize I'm being picky but come on, this is the central figure of a movie that claims to be highly advanced mathematically.
Sigh...
PS: Go see Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, it's BEAUTIFULLY filmed, hilarious and a real thrill. It probably sucks on TV but in a good theatre it was amazing.
I mean, come on. Computers reach consciousness and before they do, spit out the true name of God? Somehow, PI contains the true name of God? Gee, all this time I thought computers are in base 2 not base HEBREW.
The movie was interesting, but hardly exceptional. Gack, make it a math movie, and by fiat it must be good. If I was more of a snob, I'm sure I'd rave about it.
You didn't see the movie, did you fucko?
Yes, fucko, I did see the movie.
The true name of God was also contained within PI, that's why the old mathematician died when he started working on the puzzle of PI, fucko, and why he quit working on pi, fucko, that's why the movie was CALLED "PI", fucko. At least when I watch the movie, fucko, I understand it, fucko, unlike you, fucko.
As I said, fucko, only a snob that didn't understand the movie would rave about it. Thanks for the online demonstration, fucko.
Actually, I am not sure that you understood the film. It had much more to do with obsession and the need to understand oneself than it did the name of god or some sorta computer, know thyself! mysticism. The fact that mystism and math (particurily that most famous of irrational numbers) play such a part of this film is allegorical, a metaphor for the attempt to figure out the dot in the universe that is your own mind. I really think that you ought to see the movie one or two more times before bashing it's bad math.
I am at work, and don't want ot discuss all the imagery and blurred realities in the movie that I think give this movie more meaning than you ascribe to it. But its in there.
Maybe to understand the movie, what needs to be done is to watch the swirls of cream in coffee while comtemplating weather patterns. I find that thoughts like that sometimes give me serious goosebumps. For a hard core atheist, that's the cloeset I come to mysticism.
BTW, whoever called you fucko for not liking the movie is a dork. I honestly don't care except that I think that you would like it much better on the second viewing. I loved it the first time. I loved it even more the second time.
I don't think I know the qabalah. However I did recently see a really crapy movie that discussed it :) (see my first post). Pi refers to the ancient Hebrew alphabet as containing 56 characters. They certainly said that the number was 216 characters long (it didn't have a value of 216), which even in our alphabet (base 26) would be quite a bit larger in base 10.
"Its not about math." -Anonymous Pi Math-Poser
*sigh*
The movie isn't about math. Its actually a "math-ploitation" (like sexploitation, but with math as the exploited subject) movie. Its about a bunch of pseudointellectual artistes yammering about "Yes, well, 'the golden mean' is obviously a reference to this work by Jean-Paul Sarte and not actually a math reference at all. Not to mention Pi is first mentioned in the collected works of Kafka, long before being referred to by mathmaticians. Yes, this is truly an art movie. And the symbolism of the Go scene! Oh, obviously a cross-reference of black and white, like Salinger and Kerouac! Did you catch the wiry computer in his apartment? This nihilstic/existensialist hybrid invoked the 'Waiting For Gidot' in us all... Great film, pass another clove cig over this way..."
*yawn*
It was a Math- and Nerd-sploitation film, plain and simple. Anyone who liked it who claims to be into math, physics, or computers is a total poser.
When are films gonna portray Nrrrds as the gods they are? Instead of always the delusional, deficient, idiot-savant style genius with brains-a-plenty but so many massive problems that their intellect can't HOPE to compensate? They end up burning their houses down, committing suicide, etc...
Sure there is a RL precedent for this. Check out the life of Kurt Godel, fr'instance.
But the sad thing is is that Nrrrds don't rise up and say, "Hey, how about a movie with the scientist/computergeek/mathmatician as a totally together guy, for once?" -- these films exist, but are few and far between.
Pi sucked. Nerdsploitation, the worst acting I've ever seen off of the USA network, and plot holes big enough to drive a truck through made this movie miserable. Everyone knows it. The people who defend this movie have a personal stake in not looking like an ass because they didn't catch how crappy it was, how incorrect it was the first time around. "No, I knew it was posermath all along, but that isn't the point. The point is black and white film."
Hey, if thats the point, give me Casablanca any day.
love,
the Riot-Nrrrd
The name/number is 216 Hebrew characters long. The Hebrew alphabet is made up of 56 characters, i.e. base 56. Whenever the number is shown it's in base 10 BUT IT'S STILL ONLY 216 CHARACTERS LONG!
How about when the brilliant and tortured mathematician asked the Rabbi if they had attempted to guess that "name of god" by randomly composing EVERY SINGLE POSSIBLE COMINATION of 216 characters? I almost broke out laughing at that spot.
idiot.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/078401213X/ ryansnodgrassautA/
Blockbuster and Video Update have it around me. That is if you are in the Twin Cities metro area, MN.
The movie was released on LaserDisc as well as VHS and DVD. People always seem to forget the optical movie format with a larger install base and substantially larger movie catalog.
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Just lurking, thanks!
this is definitely a must see.....
I bought a Panasonic A-110 because I read it is a popular balance between price and quality. I have been very satisfied with it.
You might want to check out rec.video.dvd and ask around there.
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mjt
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100% pure freak
See my http://www.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?AN =381686845 review of it.
Posted by Charles Bronson:
I have to say that I find it kind of strange that this was posted on Slashdot, despite the disclaimer. Regardless, Pi was a friggin' awesome movie. I used my movie theater-working friend to get me in to see it three times, and it kept getting better. Not a date movie, though.
I had no idea that Pi had a geek following, but thinking about it now, it seems logical.
Posted by antivert:
:(
They do it to screw Blockbuster and the other rental chains. That's also why DVDs are cheaper once a film has gone out of print. I wonder, if they start renting all DVDs, if they'll also be $90 when they first come out.
Posted by silvari:
Just saw it tonight at Knapps's Video, corner of Kirkland and Beacon, Somerville, MA., USA. They had 2 copies. I had never heard of it, didn't know what to think so I didn't bother. Apparently, that was a hasty decision...
-Silvari
Posted by Buckaroo Banzai:
Ok, I'm guessing that people who didn't like the movie didn't comment. So I want to balance it out a bit.
I didn't like the movie all that much - no, I didn't hate it, but I just don't think it was that good!
1) I didn't like a single character in the whole movie - partly from bad acting, partly from bad script. Sure, at an intellectual level I can see where the protaganist is coming from, but there's nothing too compelling about him, or any character (with the possible exception of the Rabbi)
2) The director must assume we are idiots - there is NO SUBTLETY at all in the film. If there are symbols, they are shoved in your face. I mean, the guy finds a brain in the subway, and this absurd scene plays out in which you can just imagine the director kicking and screaming for us to catch the message he's trying to convey. Please, we get it already!
Now, for some good points. The ideas ARE interesting, just not conveyed well. The music is excellent - actually I heard the music first (and the fact that it's about math) made me want to see it. Geeks should see it - but I found myself cringing in my seat on multiple occasions.
i've never heard of the movie and the website is a disaster of confusion. what's the movie about? why should i [or anybody] see it? thanks.
I liked it...but it was pretty dark. I appreciated it for it's math stuff, but in terms of imagery, it's not exactly a "date flick". I tend to be more sensitive to this kind of stuff, so maybe it affects me more...I don't know. YMMV.
<tim><
I must say i saw Pi in the theatre and i LOVED it. I absolutely adore the movie. I wish i could have seen it a couple more times but time constraints didn't allow it. im definatly buying it and would highly recommend it to anyone else!!!
Margaret
It came to mind when I saw that Pi was for sale. it was another interesting movie of 98.
-dave
www.bestbuy.com has "Pi" on DVD for $12.49 plus $2.49 for shipping ($14.98 total). Which is cheaper than amazon or any other place that I found it. Unfortunately, although I ordered my copy the first day it was available, I have yet to get it...yargh!
My Slashdot account is old enough to drink...
Just Wondering if anyone else noticed that Sean Gullette (writer and actor) also did the website for "Pi". Wow...talented feller.
My Slashdot account is old enough to drink...
I agree with the poster above who didn't like the movie. But I'm not sure if its for the same reason.
... it blew me away ... here was a movie ... artsy or otherwise that was going to try to portray a guy trying to understand complexity. This could be the most important subject in the history of the world, because its about unlocking the nature of the world itself ... or complexity could be the modern fountain of youth ... always just out of reach because of the nature of chaotic systems.
... and that's going to make the world a fundamentally different place.
... Issues that get to the heart of the nature of the universe ... but you know what ... the movie Pi missed that ... it wrapped itself up in artsy-fartsy (which can be okay) and never really got the big issue involved. That's what bugged me about the flick. It had possibilities, but just didn't get it.
... now, how the hell do I get down off this soapbox?
When I first heard about the film playing at the local CinemaStar (a promising investment for anyone interested - ticker LUXY)
I truly believe that we (as geeks) are best poised to pursue this complex issue. We have access to hardware that screams so fast trying to simulate reality vis-a-vis 3D games, but how many of these monster CPUs get applied trying to understand reality?
I think its about a 50/50 issue. The behavior of complex systems like the stock market may never be unraveled, or it may one day be a home Beowulf or even someone like distributed.net may do it
These are profound issues
Thank's for listening
David Clatfelter
Share data. Share code. Share ideas. Share the wealth.
http://stockfilter.org
I suppose the DVD is Zone 1 only... any idea when (if ever) a Zone 4 disc will come out?
Not that I have a DVD... there's about a dozen titles available in Australia, and most of them aren't worth seeing. Zoning sucks.
I saw it last night (Saturday) at a Blockbuster in (funky) Pasadena, MD. I wanted to rent it, but I got vetoed. :-(
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." --H.L. Mencken
When I saw this was out, I surfed over to Reel.com to check out pricing. Hmm, DVD is 17.99 with a saving of $7, but VHS is $90.99 with a saving of $16. So my question is: who's selling the VHS version for $107? And if VHS tapes are going up in price this much, I need to start looking around for a DVD player...
Yes, I know it's a typo, I've already sent a mail to them asking for the correct price. I just found it funny.
> I guess I am alone in thinking this movie is an over-hyper, under-written, and poorly plotted movie.
The plot and content aren't the point. They really don't stand up to much examination by themselves. What is remarkable is the direction and design of the movie - they are very much unusual. If you let yourself be drawn into the film they are very effectlve.
To me, it's more about taking you into a state of mind than anything else.
"definitely something any self respecting Geek should go see."
I'm not going to argue that I am not a geek, cause I don't care if I am or not. I would just like to comment on that train of thought. You know, the whole "I AM A SLASHDOT SUBSCRIBER" thing. It's kinda strange that people beging to think of themselves that way, assosiating themselves with a web page or being a geek. It's like, just live, do what you will, stop grouping everything.
JUST A THOUGHT FROM THE "CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG" DEPARTMENT.
Just a couple things I'd like to say, and, rather than reply to each particular message, it was much easier for me to post 'em all in one spot (sorry)...
;-)
1) People have been debating if we know the exact value of pi, and contending the claims of the movie on this issue...
I think the movie's point, is that pi is such a basic quantity, and we know exactly what it represents, that there sure as hell should be someway to express it simply... but there isn't, and that's what makes it interesting, and that's why looking for patterns in it might be a compelling pursuit.
2) People have been criticizing the acting in the film. As a theatre (well, and astrophysics) major, I've been taught that acting is highly subjective. Personally I thought the acting was well done in the movie, the individual styles appropriate to the surrealistic qualities of the film. And the fact that remains, is that the acting will seem different to each individual who views it, so the actor just does the best that he/she can, hoping to find a performance that the majority will find plausible, but, perhaps most importantly, will be satisfying to him/her-self.
3) In the end, I thought pi was a great, intense, film. And I think some people here are taking it a little too literally (harping on the math, etc.) and failing to see that the whole film is layered metaphors and, essentially, about the human psyche and fanatical pursuit of a goal. Just because something has deep underlying meaning, and is done in an unconventional style doesn't make it "artsy" or pretentious... IT just is finding different ways to speak more clearly to the human soul.
So there.
Wombat
Blockbuster has it. saw it yesterday...wow!
Film rental places adjacent to college campuses are also excellent places to find foreign/cult films. They're usually cheaper than Blockbuster, too...
It won the Director Award at Sundance in 1998. :) It's an outstanding movie, and they have made good use of the extra DVD space to put in commentaries, a music video, and "lost scenes," including a video test for a special camera (which would have been really cool if used, just because it adds to the effect of being inside Max's head).
Pi has only just come out (on the arthouse circuit) in the cinema in the UK.
Haven't seen it yet, but I definitely intend to!
mmmmOrbital. I think it's time for some orbital. Thanks for reminding me :)
Ya, geek factor was high in pi. Gotta love the grungy decorum. I found the movie confused...the mysticism was pretty sketchy. It was kind of like an X-files episode really. Know the saddest part? Him listening to his next door neighbour have sex. This is NOT something anyone should aspire to. :)
At First Run Video. Didn't know what it was when I saw it, but will probably invest the $2.99 to see it. Why not?
Northeast USA Computer Show Schedule
Well, the counterculture undercurrents in the movie are so poorly represented in mass-market movies that they alone make the movie worth seeing.
That is, of course, you can stand the clausterphobic setting. Most people (including me) found that the setting of the movie ( the apartment, the big computer, black and white ) was the best in ages.
Besides, if Raster liked it ( see his page of random cruft at http://www.labs.redhat.com/~raster), how could it be that bad?
Did he really drill his brain, or was that a dream sequence? At the end of the movie, when the little Asian girl asked him to race the calculator, was he dreaming, dead (and in the afterlife), or alive with a partially drilled brain? My girlfriend and I continue to debate this question. Any interpretations?
Complexity is easy. Simplicity is hard. You can deal with complexity by organizing it into simpler elements. That only takes time. But to find a useful simplification takes experience and a wisdom which only comes from repeatedly risking failure. Life is never just a simple matter of programming.
This, as I see it, is the message of the movie. It's a little scary to see people taking its protagonist as a role model...
-Ed
I'm not affiliated with them in any way, but thought I'd pass along a direct link to a dependable (my own personal experience, anyways) DVD shop on the web (unlike 800.com which has not shipped me discs order 6 weeks ago).
PI Link at DVD Express.
Roy
I work(ed) for Video Update. They have 800ish stores nationwide, and at the location I just quit (Redmond, WA) they had 12 copies for rent.
Excellent film.
-= PsychLo =- x86?? xor sp,sp inc sp push sp
I had the same feeling... that I had to build something.
It was kind of screwed up though once I started talking to people. Social interaction and intense, obsessive drive don't mix well.
The soundtrack is still one of my favorites when I am building something.
Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
The website is purposely confusing. The movie itself is confusing. Ostensibly the movie is about a brilliant mathematician's drive to solve a very hard, or even impossible problem. There are a lot of layers and twists though. I've been told that it's strongly reminiscent of a David Lynch movie.
Does anybody think there's a Godel string for the human mind? :-)
Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
You're right, but I think better acting and better writing would've detracted from the movie. Some movies just aren't about their plots.
Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
..so, what did you build?
alex..
-= This is a self-referential sig =-
Pi is a perfect date movie! If she doesn't go "Ewww, whats with all the math stuff, and get a load of the crappy music, theres not even any lyrics!", then she gets a second date. I couldn't think of a better barbie girl filter :-)
Yeah I saw the repeat of that, either 48 hours, 20/20, or Dateline, but I'm pretty sure it was 48 hours. They chronicled 3 different groups making movies for the festival and which one actually one the award. The guy was writing letter to everyone he knew and asked for $100 from each of them. He was in major debt, but I think most of the Avid stuff he was using was because he had a friend in the biz doing the graphics stuff on his own hours.
The music was done also at home by another friend in his apartment I think.
That bit about running around for hardware was for some of the scenes they shot with lots of old computer hardware all piled up.
Anyways, the movie either won sundance or won a major award there and they got a $1 million contract pretty much on the spot.
"A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep." --Saul Belloe
Argh!
The website couldn't be any vaguer if it tried...!
Nope, I've got the Toshiba 2008. Not a single artifact yet. I believe they're second-generation now. They don't have composite video output (but they do have SVHS output) and no DTS output, but who wants that? DTS is a stupid move, anyway, if you ask me.
It's a bare-bones player, but it plays the discs well, as far as I'm concerned.
-Augie, swears by his Toshiba 2008 and Creative Labs PC-DVD (which can be had for $200 if you're really on a budget and have room in your computer and are running Windows, too.)
what the hell is the movie ABOUT?? that site is nothing but a bunch of java stuff!
I couldn't agree with you more concerning the film. You final remark however...
So what's the sound of one hand clapping? Does a dog have a Buddha Nature? Who cares? I know why electrons have quantum states and how stellar distances are calculated beyond 100 light years. Go enough. I'd rather know than believe.
So, you can make a rigid distinction between knowing and believing? I assume you use the Hubble law to calculate the distances. And how do you know that this law is valid? Presumably because it seems to be in agreement with parallax methods for nearby stars. You have to make the assumption that it works the same way outside this range. That's what I would call believing ;)
Understanding of Buddha nature is more similar to this than you might think, you could even view it as the metaphysical counterpart to science -- you find models for thought instead of for the physical universe. Please don't confuse Zen with pyramidology, scientology, psychoanalysis and the likes. Zen won't ask of you to believe, it's the other way round.
It's a pity that there are so few good films about science. I'm looking forward to Kubricks next project, A.I. The plot sounds promising...
First time I hear about this movie but if it is as stupid as the content on the WebSite, count me out. Here's a shining example from the site:
...)
"The earliest known written record of the ratio comes from 1650 BCE Egypt, where a scribe calculated the value to be 3.16 (a mere 1% off the true value). Although now, we have methods to calculate the digits of pi (3.1415...) its exact value remains a mystery."
Wrong. The exact value of pi is known exactly. It's exactly 4 times the arctangent of 1. Or, in simpler words:
4*(1 + 1/3 - 1/5 + 1/7 - 1/9 + 1/11 - 1/13
It's just an infinite sequence, which makes it hard to write down. I guess that's too complicated for the showbusiness industry to comprehend.
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SlashDotLongHair
-- SlashDotLongHair
You can rent the movie at BlockBuster. I hate that store but sometimes it caries movies that are worth paying the $3.70 fee. I saw the movie at an indy theatre in Boston. I thought it was going to be more math like since I didn't know what it wass about at the time. It wasn't a 'must see' but I did like the music.
I dunno... my SO thought of "Sneakers", "Braveheart", and the like as date movies so I guess it depends on who your date is. :)
Microsoft does NOT have a Year 2000 problem. We HAVE it. ( using M$ products )
A couple of months ago, the NYT had a long story following up on some of those rocket science investment firms. According to the story, they're not being terribly profitable. And they were, I think, severely hammered by the unpredictable ups and downs of 1998.
Those are the big unpredictable activities, like devaluation, etc., of 1998, which are arguably not predictable in a chaos model based on the prior 2 years of data.
(I'm not sure if they were in this article, but the firm with the highest profile is probably The Prediction Company, in the Santa Fe area, run by Farmer and other chaos gurus from the Santa Fe Institute.)