Agora: The Great Atheist Film?

[Synnical]

http://www.moviecitynews.com/columnists/forrest/2010/100531.html

Alejandro Amenabar's excellent Agora opened this past week in limited release and I can't help but wonder why a film that resembles Gladiator (except smarter and more entertaining) is being dumped by its distributor at the end of May rather than given a wide-release on thousands of screens.

I thought the only reason this could be so is if the film was horrifyingly awful, but it's not. In fact, it's one of the best movies I've seen so far this year. So the only explanation for why a film that has an epic-scope but is being released as if it had an indie-focus is because of its about religion versus science.

The film is about astronomer/philosopher Hypatia (played perfectly by Rachel Weisz), a woman who was seen as an intellectual equal amongst the men in Alexandria in 391 A.D.

She teaches a class at the Library of Alexandria about her theories on whether or not the sun revolves around the Earth or vice versa. In her class is the young, charming Orestes (Oscar Isaac) who is after her heart. At home is her smart and loyal slave Davus (Max Minghella) who has loved her for a long time. Outside the walls of the library, however, there is a war shaping up between the pagans and the Christians. The pagans have been in power for a long time, but the Christians are growing in numbers and are growing more violent by the day.

I'll stop with the plot description now. The truth of the matter is that this is not a film about Christianity being inherently evil, per se. It's about the mob mentality that can erupt when there is a combination of 1) lack of education, 2) poverty and 3) an influx of any religion. The movie illustrates how easy it is for the weak-willed to fall prey to fundamentalism and extremism (starting to sound familiar?). It's not that religion is evil, it's that it can be used as a tool for intolerance. This is illustrated best by the scene in Agora when the Christians ransack the library, destroying books and information. For what purpose? Because it is of no use for them to read books when they have the only book that matters.

Balance at link.

Teaser Trailer here:

http://teaser-trailer.com/2009/08/agora-trailer.html

Plot:
“A historical drama set in Roman Egypt, concerning a slave who turns to the rising tide of Christianity in the hopes of pursuing freedom while also falling in love with his master, the famous female philosophy professor and atheist Hypatia of Alexandria.”

Agora looks like a gorgeous movie!

IMDB Entry:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1186830/
7.3 out of 10 stars

Release date in USA is June 4, 2010 in L.A.

And just for Onager, the factual errors noted at IMDB. :-)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1186830/goofs

Has anyone seen it? Looks pretty good to me!

-Cindy in Fort Lauderdale

[onager]

1. I saw it. And thanks for the shout-out!

:hi:

Other people around here have seen it, too. There was a thread not so long ago in the S&S group, IIRC.

Release date is June 4, 2010? I saw it MONTHS ago. Never mind how...

It's a gorgeous movie that makes a lot of good points about fanaticism. Somewhere on the web, I read an interview with Alejandro Amenabar where he said 9-11 was one of the things that motivated him to make the movie.

The whole cast is outstanding, especially Rachel Weisz and IMO Michael Lonsdale, playing her father Theon.

The very first scene is a religious debate between a pagan and an Xian. The pagan speculates on the sex life of his gods. His Xian opponent does a magic trick and inflames a mob - and also inflames the pagan, who is thrown into a fire and burned alive.

That pretty much sets the tone. Though Xians are also shown dispensing charity and medical aid to the poor, so it's not as one-sided as Xians will probably be complaining.

The movie is divided into two segments. The first one as Xianity is first getting established in Alexandria. The second takes place some years later, when Xianity has firmly wrapped its grubby paws around the throat of humanity, and all the movers-and-shakers are converting to gain political power. (The more things change, the more they... etc.)

The sets/locations are just outstanding. The "Alexandria Library" they show is not the first, Great Library. It's the "daughter library" built into the temple of Serapis, on one of the very few hills in Alexandria, Egypt.

I visited that place many times when I lived in Alexandria, to do Atheist Meditation. In the underground rooms, you can still see niches that held scrolls belonging to the ancient library and a massive stone conference table.

Based on my reading about ancient Alexandria, in the shots showing the city as viewed from the Mediterranean, the angles and such are exactly right. (Though the movie was actually shot in Spain, at the same location as "Gladiator.")

Biggest historical goof I saw, and one we are sure to hear complaints about - the Xians are shown cruelly exiling and exterminating the Jewish population of Alexandria.

AFAIK, that never happened. The Jewish Quarter of Alexandria was famous in the ancient world, and was still thriving when the Muslims conquered Alexandria in the Seventh Century CE. In fact, that population continued to thrive until the years 1956-1967, when Nasser expelled Egypt's Jews and resident foreigners after the Suez Crisis and Six-Day War.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

2. From what I read, her death is toned down -- she is "cleanly" killed by one single Christian.

Is that correct?

[onager]

3. That's pretty much correct.

I hate to do *SPOILERS.* But everyone probably knows that this story does not have a happy ending.

Hypatia's death is handled that way, but it is done to spare her from a more horrible end - the one most of us have read about. She's surrounded by a gang of screaming fanatics, but put out of her misery.

Along with the atheism in the flick, there are some good hits on Xian misogyny.

Usual Irrelevant Personal Etc. - when I lived in Alexandria, I heard/read several different versions of Hypatia's death.

They were all pretty consistent about some things:

1. She was dragged out of her chariot and killed at a spot you can still visit today. A highway ran along the beach in Alexandria (and still does). Hypatia was reportedly killed right in front of Cleopatra's famous temple, the Caesarion. Nowadays it is Zaghloul Park, named for an Egyptian nationalist leader. The park is right beside another Alexandria landmark, the Hotel Cecil, made famous in Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet.

2. Some accounts say she was stoned to death by Xian fanatics, others say stabbed. The worst says the fanatics slowly hacked her to death with sea-shells.

3. The fanatics were monks from Wadi Natrun, a monastery in the Western Desert. The Xian leaders of Alexandria frequently used those monks as roving goon squads, much like Hitler's Brownshirts a few centuries later.

Oh shit, now I've violated Godwin's Law, so I'll go sit in sackcloth and ashes for a while...

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

5. New Rule: It isn't a violation of Godwin's Law if the comparison is actually accurate. -nt

[golddigger]

6. Yes, it was toned down... 415 AD...

In the city of Alexandria, the Christian mob, urged by Bishop Cyril, attacks a few days before the Judeo-Christian Pascha (Easter) and cuts to pieces the famous and beautiful philosopher HYPATIA. The pieces of her body, carried around by the Christian mob through the streets of Alexandria, are finally burned together with her books in a placed called Cynaron.

[skepticscott]

4. Looks interesting

Thanks for the head-up, Cin! If it makes it out here to the land of the googleplex, Jill and I may have to make it our one movie of the year to see.

[Soylent Brice]

7. sounds awesome! thanks for the FYI. n/t

[Synnical]

8. From Pharngula

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/06/i_want_to_see_this_movie.php

Text Comments
#1

Posted by: Kirkinson Author Profile Page | June 8, 2010 6:48 AM

It actually does have a distributor: Newmarket Films, who also released Creation last year...and Passion of the Christ (!) in 2004.

Unfortunately it's very unlikely that such a small company will be able to afford a wider release unless the film does exceptionally well in its smaller run. That Mel Gibson torture porn movie is the only thing they've ever really put out wide, and that's only because Gibson funded most of that release himself (at least at the beginning).

I do hope it goes at least a little wider, though. It would be nice if it made it inside the country a bit...but I have a nagging fear it'll be confined to the coasts.

"Creation" is finally in my Netflix Que, releasing 06/29/2010

-Cindy in Fort Lauderdale

[Synnical]

9. I've put this film in my DVD twice

And pulled it out twice. I've thus far found it boring, too much "god" talk!

Just my thoughts so far.

-Cindy in Fort Lauderdale

[PassingFair]

10. I saw an early version many months ago, and thought the production values were terrible.

And I LOVE Rachel Weitz!

I couldn't make it to the end, it was so boring!

The best "atheist movie" I've seen so far in my life was:

"The Contender"
...partly because I wasn't expecting it.

[Synnical]

11. The Contender was a great movie

Really enjoyed it. Joan Allen and Sam Elliott were amazing!

[onager]

12. Try "The Rapture"

With Mimi Rogers and a pre-"X Files" David Anchovy...er, Duchovny.

Great movie, but the budget was so low they could only afford ONE Horseman of the Apocalypse.

I saw the final (I guess) version of "Agora" and thought the production values were great. So I'm sort of scratching my head over that comment. Yeah, the "Google Earth" zooming got a little old but I think I understood what the director was saying with it.

Also loved "The Contender" and its Republican atheists!