Roman era movie "Agora"

I just now heard of this but heres the official trailer.

Official Agora Trailer English

Release Date: TBA
Studio: Not Available
Director: Alejandro Amenabar
Screenwriter: Mateo Gil, Alejandro Amenabar
Starring: Rachel Weisz, Max Minghella, Oscar Isaac, Ashraf Barhom, Michael Lonsdale, Rupert Evans, Homayoun Ershadi
Genre: Adventure, Drama, History, Romance
MPAA Rating: Not Available
Official Website: Agorathemovie.com
Review: Not Available
DVD Review: Not Available
DVD: Not Available
Movie Poster: Not Available
Production Stills: Not Available

Plot Summary: 4th century A.D. Egypt under the Roman Empire... Violent religious upheavel in the streets of Alexandria spills over into the city's famous Library. Trapped inside its walls, the brilliant astronomer Hypatia and her disciples fight to save the wisdom of the Ancient World... Among them, the two men competing for her heart: The witty, priviliged Orestes and Davus, Hypatia's young slave, who is torn between his secret love for her and the freedom he knows can be his if he chooses to join the unstoppable surge of the Christians.

Basically a Christian mob burns down Alexandria. Based on actual events.



Looks really good.

Interesting story, and I like Rachel Weisz, but I don't see her as having the qualities of Hypatia.

Interesting propaganda. About as ridiculous as V for Vendetta which, of all things, tried to scandalize the oncoming, inevitable Christian theocracy, of all things, as the most fearful thing in the world.

That is something that is only accurate for ideologically cocooned shills, and no one else.

I suppose we won't see historical Hypatia's mysticism in this movie, her love for astrology or of predicting the future. No: she really is a 21st century post-modern liberal woman trapped in a 4th century world rampaged by crazed theocratic Christian mobs. Only accurate for ideological lost shills, as I said.

Originally Posted by SigniferOne

Interesting propaganda. About as ridiculous as V for Vendetta which, of all things, tried to scandalize the oncoming, inevitable Christian theocracy, of all things, as the most fearful thing in the world.

That is something that is only accurate for ideologically cocooned shills, and no one else.

I suppose we won't see historical Hypatia's mysticism in this movie, her love for astrology or of predicting the future. No: she really is a 21st century post-modern liberal woman trapped in a 4th century world rampaged by crazed theocratic Christian mobs. Only accurate for ideological lost shills, as I said.

Indeed. Very close to what I saw about it. I do not see Hypatia as a Mother Theresa like figure. She was a person governed by a strict set of ideals in thought and action, disciplined in a stoic devotion to her work.

EDIT: Also she was not an empiricist, she was a member of the rational school of thought, which believed that true knowledge lied within.

Originally Posted by SigniferOne

Interesting propaganda. About as ridiculous as V for Vendetta which, of all things, tried to scandalize the oncoming, inevitable Christian theocracy, of all things, as the most fearful thing in the world.

You obviously never read the graphic novel.

I think it looks quite beautiful with a compelling storyline (if a bit inaccurate).

Originally Posted by Arch-hereticK

You obviously never read the graphic novel.

I think it looks quite beautiful with a compelling storyline (if a bit inaccurate).

I believe he was talking about the movie. Unfortunately I'm going to have to agree with him. I picture Hypatia in a very different light.

As far as appearance goes, I picture her more closer to this:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Originally Posted by SigniferOne

Interesting propaganda. About as ridiculous as V for Vendetta which, of all things, tried to scandalize the oncoming, inevitable Christian theocracy, of all things, as the most fearful thing in the world.

That is something that is only accurate for ideologically cocooned shills, and no one else.

I suppose we won't see historical Hypatia's mysticism in this movie, her love for astrology or of predicting the future. No: she really is a 21st century post-modern liberal woman trapped in a 4th century world rampaged by crazed theocratic Christian mobs. Only accurate for ideological lost shills, as I said.

oh no, god forbid they dont follow history verbatim.

Originally Posted by SigniferOne

Interesting propaganda. About as ridiculous as V for Vendetta which, of all things, tried to scandalize the oncoming, inevitable Christian theocracy, of all things, as the most fearful thing in the world.

That is something that is only accurate for ideologically cocooned shills, and no one else.

I suppose we won't see historical Hypatia's mysticism in this movie, her love for astrology or of predicting the future. No: she really is a 21st century post-modern liberal woman trapped in a 4th century world rampaged by crazed theocratic Christian mobs. Only accurate for ideological lost shills, as I said.

Cut Hollywood some slack; it is a lot harder to come up with an interesting and engaging plot, where things are the way they are for reasons, than to say 'ZOMG RELIGION!'

http://agorathemovie.com/

Still IIRC a Christian mob really did go bat in Alexandria and burn down pagan temples so the movie is not so much propaganda as you may think.

WhatIS this movie about?

Plot Summary: 4th century A.D. Egypt under the Roman Empire... Violent religious upheavel in the streets of Alexandria spills over into the city's famous Library. Trapped inside its walls, the brilliant astronomer Hypatia and her disciples fight to save the wisdom of the Ancient World... Among them, the two men competing for her heart: The witty, priviliged Orestes and Davus, Hypatia's young slave, who is torn between his secret love for her and the freedom he knows can be his if he chooses to join the unstoppable surge of the Christians.

Plot summary in the first post but if you want more info look here About Hypatia click here.
Part of Hypatia story is mixed in with the actual events from the first link.

Basically destruction of the Library of Alexandria by a Christian Mob.

In 391, Christian Emperor Theodosius I ordered the destruction of all "pagan" (non-Christian) temples, and the Christian Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria complied with this request.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Orestes was appointed Imperial Prefect of Alexandria shortly after a young Cyril succeeded to the Patriarchate of Alexandria after the death of Theophilus, Cyril’s own uncle. (Cyril eventually become recognised as a Doctor of the Catholic Church, and was also canonised into Sainthood.)
Orestes steadfastly resisted Cyril’s agenda of ecclesiastical encroachment onto secular prerogatives. Rebuffed by the Prefect, Patriarch Cyril felt threatened, and people from various groups connected with the Church decided to aid him.
In fact, at around 414 - 415 AD, monks assaulted and badly injured Orestes. The Prefect had the leader of this mob tortured to death. Cyril tried to make the executed man into a martyr, but local leaders and ultimately the Emperor did not condone the monks' attack on the imperial representative, and Cyril had to back off.
Prefect Orestes enjoyed the political backing of Hypatia, a female philosopher who had considerable moral authority in the city of Alexandria, and who had extensive influence. Indeed many students from wealthy and influential families came to Alexandria purposefully to study privately with Hypatia, and many of these later attained high posts in government and the Church.
In 415 AD, a Christian mob, possibly led by Nitrian monks, grabbed Hypatia out of her chariot and brutally murdered her, hacking her body apart and burning the pieces outside the city walls. This political assassination eliminated an important and powerful supporter of the Imperial Prefect, and led Orestes to give up his struggle against Patriarch Cyril and to leave Alexandria.

Originally Posted by MathiasOfAthens

Plot summary in the first post but if you want more info look here About Hypatia click here.
Part of Hypatia story is mixed in with the actual events from the first link.

Basically destruction of the Library of Alexandria by a Christian Mob.

Really, I did not know the Christians destroyed it! Now I have a reason to hate religion! Atheism for the win!

Originally Posted by Inarus

Really, I did not know the Christians destroyed it! Now I have a reason to hate religion! Atheism for the win!

However, this version of events is not confirmed in contemporary accounts of Caesar's visit. In fact, it has been reasonably established that segments of its collection were partially destroyed on several occasions before and after the first century BC. A modern myth (no older than the late eighteenth century) attributes the destruction to Coptic Christian Archbishop Theophilus of Alexandria in 391, who called for the destruction of the Serapeum; but in fact there was no connection between the library and the Serapeum, and no good historian of late antiquity takes the claim seriously. A more credible version of the story, not recorded till the thirteenth century, blames the Muslim sacking of Alexandria in 642.[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library...note-Buckley-0

Interesting movie. They may have been "Christians," but their behavior seems to have been very unbecoming for Christians.

Lol thats how they were back then, ignorant and stupid.

Looks pretty lame. I believe one of our TWC members has a blog or commentary in which he previewed it and didn't really like where it was heading, I don't quite remember who though.

Why can't people ever make a decent Late Roman movie?

Originally Posted by Stavroforos

Why can't people ever make a decent Late Roman movie?

QFT. Just look at the soldiers for example...

God, why on earth must every hollywood director insist on have early imperial area costumes in their movies regardless of the time period. Honestly, is it that hard to have slightly different tunics made up. The props look like they were taken from older movies I've seen, especially that annoyingly persistent small square metal shield I always see in roman movies. Where the hell did anyone come up with that.

Victorian imaginary romanticized phil-Hellenic portrait? Really?