Agora [DVD]

I’m not at all surprised that this movie has been review-bombed by some of its viewers, nor that those reviews rank among its “most helpful.” The film depicts a moment in history the church would sooner have us all forget, but the only way one can reach the conclusions these reviews do about “Agora” is by frankly not paying very close attention to the film, instead seeking cause to take offense and dismiss what is understandably uncomfortable history as fast as possible.Let’s address two of the most common complaints about its historical accuracy:FIRST, the film directly acknowledges that the Great Library of Alexandria was gone by the time period depicted. The Serapeum was built in the 3rd century BC as a daughter library to the Great Library, and served as its public branch (it also doubled as a temple to the pagan god Serapis, which ultimately made it a target and led to its ordered destruction as depicted in the film). The Serapeum complex survived the fire which claimed its mother library, and by the 4th century, it was nearly 700 years old and effectively *was* the Library of Alexandria (there had been a second institution of learning in the city built by and for Christians known as the Catechetical School, but this school was destroyed a few years before the events of the film in Christian-on-Christian rioting resulting from the news that Constantinople, not Alexandria, would be recognized as the heart of Christendom in the Empire. The Catechetical School of Alexandria would not be rebuilt until the 19th century).SECONDLY, every riot depicted in the film happened historically. In the events recreated, Pagans, Jews, and Christians alike were both perpetrators and victims of violence in tit-for-tat massacres. “Agora” offers a condemnation of religious extremism in general (NOT of Christianity specifically) and of those who exploit religion and the great passions it stirs for temporal gain — a lesson we ought to take to heart even in modern times.To delve into the full and fascinating snarl of sectarian religious conflict in Alexandria at the time would have required expanding the film into a full miniseries (a la BBC’s “Rome”), and would have shifted focus away from Hypatia herself. As-is, “Agora” depicts Christians as being far more united than they were at the time, leaving out things such as the Christian-on-Christian riot over who would be Patriarch Theophilus’ successor (by summoning Nitrian monks from the desert to agitate on his behalf, Cyril ultimately defeated the older and more moderate archdeacon Timothy, and immediately began persecuting Christians of the Novatianist sect who had supported his opponent — none of which is shown in the film). A certain scene involving a Christian, a Pagan, and a bed of coals historically occurred between Christians of the Nicene and Novatianist sects, to give some idea of the intensity of the doctrinal divisions at the time; but depicting this event with the factions it truly involved would likely have provoked even more shrill cries of anti-Christian bias than the film already does.It should already be clear by this point that Christians in 4th/5th century Alexandria were NOT like Christians today. This was a time when people came to blows over the wording of the liturgy; when bishops with competing views vied for the backing of government with which to persecute rival sects out of existence (to great effect — there’s a reason why most people today have never heard of Arianism, or Novatianists, or Origenists; history, and the doctrine accepted to this day on things such as the nature of the Trinity, was written by the victors of this ugly process, with the losers branded heretics to be stamped out and forgotten). The Reformation from which the modern church hails would only occur eleven centuries later, with much of the intervening period colloquially known as the Dark Ages. The instances of religious violence seen in “Agora” may be jarring if one is accustomed to Pureflix films intended to reinforce already-deeply-held beliefs and pat one’s self on the head for holding them, but an honest reading of history will confirm the veracity of these events.“Agora” is ultimately a celebration of the life of a woman — a genius of her time — who lived in a very turbulent world. She was a philosopher, an astronomer, an educator who personally instructed men of multiple faiths who would rise to prominent positions throughout the late Roman Empire, and who is best remembered through their preserved writings. The nonpartisan environment she fostered in her classroom was an island of calm in a tempest, and in this film we get to see through her eyes as these events unfold. Tragically, a corrupt bishop sought to usurp power from the appointed governor, and in the course of undermining the governor’s support base, the bishop declared her to be a witch (an accusation which stuck because she was a non-Christian who, as a respected figure in the city, served the governor in an advisory role). Ultimately, she was beset by a Christian mob, dragged to a church, stripped naked, and brutally murdered as collateral damage in a fight for control of the city in which she lived.Don’t take my word for it, here’s contemporary church historian Socrates Scholasticus:“There was a woman at Alexandria named Hypatia, daughter of the philosopher Theon, who made such attainments in literature and science, as to far surpass all the philosophers of her own time. [...] Yet even she fell a victim to the political jealousy which at that time prevailed. For as she had frequent interviews with Orestes (n: Prefectus Augustalis, or governor, of the province of Egypt), it was calumniously reported among the Christian populace, that it was she who prevented Orestes from being reconciled to the bishop (n: Cyril). Some of them therefore, hurried away by a fierce and bigoted zeal, whose ringleader was a reader named Peter, waylaid her returning home, and dragging her from her carriage, they took her to the church called Caesareum, where they completely stripped her, and then murdered her with “ostraka” (n: alternately translated as pottery shards, oyster shells, or roofing tiles — it’s the difference between being stoned or being flayed). After tearing her body in pieces, they took her mangled limbs to a place called Cinaron, and there burnt them. This affair brought not the least opprobrium, not only upon Cyril, but also upon the whole Alexandrian church. And surely nothing can be farther from the spirit of Christianity than the allowance of massacres, fights, and transactions of that sort.”It’s ugly and painful history, but it happened. If you are a Christian, your outrage should be directed at the un-Christlike behavior of her murderers, not at this film for having the audacity to shine a light on the tumultuous events of her life, the impact of which continues to be felt to this day. If one instead wishes to hold onto an overly-saccharine, black-and-white, “us-versus-them” view of the world, stick to Pureflix, and don’t crack open too many history books.LONG STORY SHORT, you can safely ignore the foot-stamping, one-star, “but we’d never!” reviews polluting this thread; no matter how many “helpful” ratings they’ve received from those who don’t know the history and don’t want to believe anyone sharing a label they identify with could ever have behaved this way. You should be appalled, not because these things “didn’t happen!” but because they *did.*That being established, let us finally examine “Agora.”Constrained as it was by the runtime of a feature film, and in light of the complexity of its subject matter, “Agora” is faithful in its depiction of major events, and where gaps exist in the historical record (such as the findings of Hypatia’s astronomical studies), the directors restricted themselves to plausible extrapolations — which is noted in its epilogue text. For a historical drama, it does a better job than most of paying respect to its subject matter, depicting — in one way or another — just about every moment of her life which survives in writing (including her brutally direct method of dismissing a suitor). “Agora” has more in common with classic epics like “Ben Hur” and “Cleopatra” than more modern submissions like “Troy” or “Alexander,” with massive outdoor sets and casts of thousands of extras instead of mass employment of CGI. Hypatia’s research into an astronomical puzzle captures the joy of discovery, and the discussions she has with her students throughout avoid the trope of depicting ancient peoples as foolish. Massive set pieces and fantastic costuming capture the cosmopolitan nature of Alexandria, the only noticeable flub being 4th century Roman soldiers equipped in 1st century gear. Aerial shots capture a God’s-eye view of the horrors of mob violence, and pull-out shots of the entire Earth, the cries of her people a distant sigh, hearken back to Sagan’s “Pale Blue Dot” and serve as potent reminders of our place in the wider universe (how much blood have we spilled so that, in triumph and glory, we might become momentary masters of a fraction of a dot?). What do the skies see, indeed? It’s a time and a place we have rarely (if ever) seen portrayed in film, and Amenabar et al did a fantastic job with it.The DVD features an hour-long “making of” documentary which is itself worth the price of purchase, and several deleted scenes (including one which very neatly portrays the life and duties of a Parabolani which should have been left in). It’s a smart, beautiful film that left me on the verge of tears by the end. I thoroughly enjoyed it and was inspired to start learning the real history after having seen it, and what I have learned has only given me greater appreciation for the effort the film made to reflect it honestly. The only named characters in the film who were not based on real people were two slaves in Hypatia’s household; Aspasius, who acts as her research assistant throughout, and Davus, who joins the Parabolani and ultimately shows Hypatia the mercy that history did not. I only wish that there had been a more widespread theatrical release or a blu-ray release of this film in the US.(My only big complaint about it is the US cover art. It puts a secondary character front-and-center, daubed in blood, sword in hand. WHAT IS THIS AWFUL?! As much as this review focused on the violence recounted in this film, that violence IS NOT the main focus of the film, and regardless of victim or perpetrator, is consistently cast in a tragic light, not as anything righteous or to be celebrated. Not sure if someone thought that the promise of senseless violence would better appeal to an American audience than the more cerebral approach the film actually took. Strongly recommend you see it for yourself.)

This refreshingly counter-cultural movie is a dramatization of the Christian conquest of paganism, and the Christians' earliest attempts to convert the Jews by brute force and by law, in Alexandria, Egypt during the 4th-5th centuries AD in the reigns of Emperors Theodosius I and II. For historical context missing or unclear in the movie, in 380, Emperor Theodosius I decreed Nicene Christianity (Catholicism) to be the official state religion of the Roman Empire and outlawed all other religions (Cunctos populos; Edict of Thessalonica); Christian violence, destruction of temples, pogroms and civil war(s) ensued. Amazingly, Theodosius I (a.k.a. Theodosius the Great) is virtually unknown to most moderns and is barely mentioned, if at all, in historical accounts about that era. Alexandria is reported to have been the empire's most cosmopolitan and liberal city at that time, with people of various religions living there, and this did not sit well with the fanatically Christian Bishop, Cyril. Cyril and his gang of Christian monks, dressed in black and some with masks, are portrayed, probably accurately, as brutish, anti-intellectual authoritarian zealots prone to extreme violence, and this is shown in graphic, bloody detail (realistically severed heads and limbs, etc.). Their portrayals foretell the coming of medieval inquisitorial torturers, the Crusades, the forcible conversions and enslavement of the "heathen" Indians in the New World, the religious wars of reformation-era Europe, book-burnings, and 20th-21st century fascist terror (Catholicism was the only permitted religion in Mussolini's Italy; the fascist Independent State of Croatia; and non-Catholics were persecuted in fascist, Francoist Spain). According to their version of logic, holy “scripture” is the only legitimate authority and there is no alternative; therefore, the pagan gods and icons have no authority, so the pagans must either convert to Christianity or be put to death. Cyril commands the pagans to kneel at his feet, renounce paganism and convert to Christianity. In contrast to the raging Christian mob, mobilized by religious fervor, the doomed pagans (dressed in white) and Jews are portrayed as non-violent, rational and cultured; however, a group of disrespectful Jews are shown razzing Cyril with the taunt, “Jesus was a Jew” (around this time, Cyril expelled the Jews from the city and confiscated their property). It's important to understand that paganism, the religion of classical antiquity, is polytheistic and relatively liberal, but Christianity is monotheistic and militantly intolerant of beliefs in any god other than THE ONE Christian God, as indicated by the Biblical commandment “Thou shall have no other gods before me;” this is evident in the movie to viewers who already know about Christianity's primal enmity toward paganism. Paganism was the religion of all the historically prominent thinkers of classical antiquity, such as the famous philosophers Plato, Aristotle, Thales of Miletus, Archimedes, and Cicero, but this fact is rarely acknowledged in today's Christian-dominated world, although it is known to educated religious authorities. The movie's central character is Hypatia, head of the Platonist school of Alexandria; however, all that's known about Hypatia is that she was a Hellenistic pagan philosopher and mathematician who was hacked to death by a mob of Coptic (Christian) monks about 415 AD; however, in the movie, Cyril, the thuggish Christian leader of the rampaging monks (he was subsequently sainted by the church as St. Cyril of Alexandria), labels her a witch, thereby inciting the monks to strip her naked and stone her to death, all as punishment for her resistance to conversion, and the implication that she's a woman and a philosopher/scientist/ intellectual. Not enough facts are known about Hypatia to fill a two-hour movie, so it can be surmised that most of the story's details about her personal life, such as her suspiciously stoic responses to mens' sexual advances and single-minded devotion to scientific study, are fictionalized. Hypatia is a historical anomaly due to the fact that a woman's place in ancient societies was to produce children, not to spend her time intellectualizing, and there is no evidence that Hypatia conformed to that imperative. The tragedy of the movie's Hypatia character and the portrayal of the Christian vandalism of the Serapeum at Alexandria effectively symbolize the subjugation of culture, learning and science by the marauding Christians, leading western civilization into the Dark Ages (Christianity's golden age). Thus, Christianity grew powerful, not just by means of non-violent persuasion (proselytizing) that moderns are conditioned to believe, but from violent, often bloody suppression against “heretics” and infidels. Even though the movie is about one of the most significant eras in history, it doesn't appear to have done well at the box office. Needless to say, it presents early Christianity in a very unfavorable way, unlike the usual religious-themed Hollywood movies which almost invariably present Christianity in a positive light, as if Christianity is the state religion.To help understand the historical era and events that this movie is about, I recommend the following college-level history courses, which are available online for private study: “The Fall of the Pagans and the Origins of Medieval Christianity,” and “Late Antiquity: Crisis and Transformation.” Hypatia and this movie are mentioned in both of these courses, which is how I found out about the movie.

Ottimo prodotto e servizio

La femme au coeur des luttes du pouvoir. La tolérance et la liberté en proie aux violences et aux puissances obtues. Antique et atemporel

Without doubt a masterful recreation of the 4th Century City of Alexandria in Northern Egypt.This epic story of Science/Philosopher, Hypatia in a time of upheaval as the Roman Empire morphs into a new form of religious zeal, is undoubtably one of the great juxtaposition stories of all time.Beautiful and carefully crafted, this gives us a tainted look at the dawn of a state religion and the dusk of pagan beliefs, taking with it the philosophical surroundings of astronomical thought, calculation and discovery. Needless to say this pushed back scientific advancements by centuries.Non-the-less, the story centres on Hypatia's love of her art, her insatiable need to question everything, and it is this that puts her at odds with the emerging force of early Christianity.Sad and viciously intolerant to "others", this story applifies all and any doubt that may have existed about the gentle harmonic rapture portrayed by modern Christian story tellers of their days of old. The archived records of slaughter upon Jews, pagans and atheists rings true, even if not seen, in this rendering of ancient history (just after the Nicaen debacle of 325 CE and the forming of the Christianised Bible order of 367).The main and secondary stories are sympathetically told, showing us the order and beauty of Roman architecture, society, thought and beliefs - in opposition to the disruption, dismantling and distraction by the fanatical Christian cultist army who wrought their misguided wrath upon an unsuspecting but changing political landscape.The reviews on here that cry foul about the portrayal of raw corrupt ideology and methodoligy of the early church fathers need not look at this production's efforts to bring this biopic to life. But instead, look at the historic archives with cross-referencing to see just how utterly wretched, murderous and uneducated the usurpers were that took a number of religious ideas and twisted them into a sick cult.The world has never been the same since.

La película me encantó porque para mi gusto tiene muy buena trama: se centra en la caída del imperio romano desde la perspectiva de Hipatia de Alejandría.

Bought this hoping it would have an English sound track or, at least, English subtitles. Nup - none. Only Italian audio options and Italian subtitles. Consequently the disc went straight into the bin. Great picture though. So only buy this if you are fluent in Italian =/