DeConick A.D

293
THE PI OF POLITICS
The other part has to do with human nature. Max is like so many of
us. He is curious and he is hubristic. He wants the knowledge of God and
he doesn’t care what it will cost him. “I want to understand!” he shouts
at Sol.
When he later talks to a Hasidic rabbi, Max realizes that the revelation
of the 216-digit number means that he has seen God. The rabbi confirms
Sol’s warning, telling Max that this divine knowledge is killing Max. Absolute
truth cannot be safely contained by the human brain, especially by
a person not prepared to receive it in the first place.
But Max revels in the fact that the knowledge of everything has been
given to him and to him alone. He has been chosen. He recognizes that
God is inside of him now and that this presence is changing him. He is
proud of it.
But eventually the change becomes too much for Max to handle. He is
completely debilitated by migraines as his brain continues to be physically
altered by the divine knowledge he possesses. His suffering is palpable on
the screen.
At the end of the film, we are again confronted with the image of
Max standing in front of his bathroom mirror. But this time we do not
see Max lift scissors to his head. Instead, we see him lift a power drill and
Figure 9.3 Max Cohen (Sean Gullette) performs a lobotomy in π ( Pi ).